Kodjabashis

The kodjabashis were local Christian notables in parts of the Ottoman Balkans, most often referring to Ottoman Greece and especially the Peloponnese. They were also known in Greek as proestoi or prokritoi or demogerontes. In some places they were elected, but, especially in the Peloponnese, they soon became a hereditary oligarchy, who exercised considerable influence and held posts in the Ottoman administration.
The title was also present in Ottoman Serbia and Bosnia, where it was known as starešina instead of the official Turkish name. The terms chorbaji and knez were also used for this type of primates, in Bulgaria and Serbia respectively.
The equivalent of the kodjabashis in Orthodox villages was the mukhtar in Muslim villages, while mixed villages had both.
In the Morea Eyalet, the title of, is attested, though not in Turkish sources; it was applied to the most senior rank of the local notables of the Peloponnese, who were members of the provincial council advising the pasha of the Morea at Tripolitsa. Their number is variously given as 24 or 30.
During the Greek War of Independence, the antagonism between the Peloponnesian kodjabashis, who sought to retain their previous preponderance and power, and the military leaders drawn from the klephts, was one of the main driving forces behind the outbreak of the Greek civil wars of 1824–1825, in which the "aristocratic" faction comprising the kodjabashis, the wealthy shipowners of Hydra and the Phanariotes, prevailed.