Its Turkish name, Sakız, derived from the island's most distinctive product, gum mastic.

[1] A possession of the Genoese Maona company since 1346, Chios (and its attendant islets of Psara and Oinousses) was conquered without resistance by the Ottoman Empire in 1566, as a recompense for the failure to capture Malta the previous year, and annexed as a sanjak of the Eyalet of the Archipelago.

[1] During this time, its role as a major commercial hub and the main point of export for Anatolian goods (a role it held until eclipsed by the mainland port city of Smyrna in the 17th century), as well as its unique production of the gum mastic (which was much prized by the ladies of the Sultan's harem), secured it great prosperity.

[1] The island's population was mostly Greek Orthodox, with a few Genoese-descended Catholics, whose power was much diminished after the Venetian occupation; the Turkish presence was limited to the governor and his administrators, as well as a garrison of ca.

[1] Nevertheless, the island recovered a modicum of its former prosperity and retained extensive autonomy after the Greek War of Independence ended, until the Ottoman administrative reforms of 1866 transformed it into a more regular province within the Vilayet of the Archipelago.