AN ACT OF BANDITRY AGAINST THE JASUNJA MONASTERY IN 1782
The Ottoman archival material kept in the practically inaccessible Archive of the Jerusalem Patriarchate includes a very important document which testifies to an act of banditry against the "Jasunja monastery" in 1782. The outcome was one lethally wounded monk. The most reasonable explanation for the document ending up in the Archive of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem is that it was found among the effects of monk Gavril who had obviously set out on a pilgrimage, but then died in Jerusalem. The analysis of the document is instructive of the legal procedure followed by the Ottoman authorities and their conduct towards the monasteries in the case of robberies. The document also substantiates the view that the Ottoman Empire's impoverished European provinces saw an increasing crime rate in the second half of the 18 th century.