George (Ioannis) Zarifi^{[1, 2]}

1807 - 1884  (76 years)

• Name	George (Ioannis) Zarifi
  Birth	06 Sep 1807	Mega Revma, Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey
  Gender	Male
  Death	06 Apr 1884	Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey
  Burial	Sislí Greek Orthodox Cemetery, Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey
  Notes	Occupation: merchant; founder of Zafiropoulo & Zarifi They had five children but only those who are spouses to bloodline Agelastos are included on this website. Greek citizenship 1830; left Greece 1843; directed Ottoman finances and Greek-Turk affairs. [3] Georgios Zarifi sought refuge in Odessa with his parents in the time of the Greek War of Independence and that he attended the Lycee Richelieu. He returned to Greece in 1830 and settled permanently in Constantinople in 1843. [4] The late Georges Zariphi, merchant, Constantinople, was a donating member, Association for the Encouragement of Greek Studies, Paris, France [5] George Zarifis is listed among the 11 greeks who were bankers in Constantinople from the 1840s. [6] G. Zarifi, Constantinople, is listed among the diaspora Greeks donating 3000 [Ottoman pounds] to a fund for the Thebes earthquake in 1853. [7] His brother-in-law was Étienne Zafiropoulo, a leader of the second generation of Greek merchants in Marseille. [8] Christopher Long notes: Occupation -- Founder in Constantinople the vast bank and trading house of Zafiropoulo & Zarifi (Z&Z) with his father-in-law Dimitrios Zafiropoulo and brother-in-law Stephanos, with branches in London, Marseille, Danube and Odessa. Education -- Tsar Alexander l gave him free entry to the Lycée Richelieu (Lyceum Richelowski), Odessa. Returned to Constantinople in 1831 despairing of the chaos in Greece. Entered Dimitrios Zafiropoulo’s cereal trading house, married his daughter and took over as partner. Great benefactor of Greek Communities in Constantinople and Philippoupolis. He and Stephanos Zafiropoulo founded Turkey’s most important banking and commercial company which, as Z&Z, extended to Marseilles, London, Odessa and Romania. Looked after the Constantinople headquarters for 40 years while Stepanos Zafiropoulo developed the Marseilles branch and Zarifi brothers developed other branches. Banker to his friend Prince Abdul Hamid who unexpectedly became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when his brother went mad. Established the Ottoman Debt Company to relieve himself of the Sultan’s financial demands. The Sultan gave him 150,000 acres on the Mesopotamian River in Baghdad and as collateral for loans granted him the customs duties in many Turkish ports. George refused membership of parliament as he would have had to renounce his Greek nationality. He was a patron and benefactor on a colossal scale of innumerable Greeks and Greek institutions throughout the Ottoman Empire - his reputation was world-wide and rehearsed in The Globe (16-04-1881) and in his obituary in The New York Herald (1884). Georges Zarifi is among the 15 bankers who signed an agreement with the Ottoman government in Nov 1879 to ensure sufficient capital, A. Du Velay, Essai sur l'histoire financière de la Turquie : depuis le règne du sultan Mahmoud II jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, 1903, p. 400.
  Person ID	I408	Negroponte-Agelasto
  Last Modified	19 Jan 2018

  
  

  Family	Eleni (Dimitrios) Zafiropoulo,   b. 07 Jul 1817, Tzoubali, Phanar, Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey d. 18 May 1910, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey (Age 92 years)
  Children	+ 1. Pericles (George) Zarifi,   b. 27 Mar 1844, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey d. 05 Jul 1927, allées Léon Gambetta, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,France (Age 83 years) + 2. Sophia (George) Zarifi,   b. 24 Mar 1848, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey d. 07 Jun 1923, rue de la Faisanderie 106, Paris 16ème, Île-de-France, France (Age 75 years)
  Family ID	F170	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	4 Nov 2007

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 06 Sep 1807 - Mega Revma, Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey Death - 06 Apr 1884 - Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey Burial - - Sislí Greek Orthodox Cemetery, Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Georgios Zarifis (1806 - 1884) From the website: Greek and linked European Families
  		George Zarifi portrait hangs in the Argenti collection, Korais Library, Chios, Greece; photo from Πέρα: Το σταυροδρόμι της Ρωμιοσύνης, p. 223.
  		George Zarifi
  		George Zarifi © Christopher Long: ChristopherLong.co.uk.

  
  

  Headstones

  George Zarifi tomb Sisli, Istanbul, Turkey; photo from Πέρα: Το σταυροδρόμι της Ρωμιοσύνης, p. 222.

  
  

• Sources

  [S83] Erato Paris, Quand les Grecs voyaient plus loin que la Méditerranée : les familles Zarifi-Zafiropoulo, (Recherches Regionales, Alpes-Maritimes et Contrées limitrophes, n 163, Jul-Sep 2002, pp 55-68.). [S110] Erato Paris, Les Grecs de Marseille, (Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales). [S17] Sturdza, Mihail-Dimitri, Sturdza, Dictionnaire Historique Genealogique ... Grece, (self, Paris, 1983), 153. includes biographical sketch [S46] Vassilis Kardasis, Diaspora Merchants in the Black Sea: the Greeks in Southern Russia, 1775-1861, (Lexington Books, 2001), 179. [S62] Association for the Encouragement of Greek Studies, Revue des études grecques Vol 7 (1892), (Paris), XLIII. [S65] Ioanna Pepelasis Minoglou, Ethnic Minority Groups in International Banking, (AthensUniversity of Economics n.d. retrieved 2010). [S74] Greece, Government’s Gazette of the Kingdom of Greece, January 1854, 131. [S59] Michel Calapodis, LA COMMUNAUTÉ GRECQUE À MARSEILLE, (Paris:L'Harmattan (link)), 32.