George (Ioannis) Zarifi & Eleni (Dimitrios) Zafiropoulo

Family Group Sheet

NameGeorge (Ioannis) Zarifi, Grandson

Birth6 Sep 1807, Megalo Rheuma, Constantinople, Turkey/Byzantium

MemoOther sources say born 1806 or 1810.

Death27 Mar 1884, Pera, Constantinople, Turkey/Byzantium

MemoSturdza says 6 Apr 1884 at Constantinople.

BurialSisli Greek Orthodox Cemetery, Constantinople

ResidencePera and Therapia, Constantinople/Istanbul

OccupationFounder 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.

EducationTsar Alexander l gave him free entry to the Lycée Richelieu (Lyceum Richelowski), Odessa.

Note 1Returned to Constantinople in 1831 despairing of the chaos in Greece. Entered Dimitrios Zafiropoulo’s cereal trading house, married Z’s daughter and took over as partner. Great benefactor of Greek Communities in Constantinople and Philippoupolis.

Note 2He and Stephanos Zafiropoulo founded Turkey’s most important banking and commercial company which, as Z&Z, extended to Marseilles, London, Odessa and Romania.

Note 3Looked after the Constantinople headquarters for 40 years while Stepanos Zafiropoulo developed the Marseilles branch and Zarifi brothers developed other branches.

Note 4Banker 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.

Note 4The 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.

Note 4He 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).

Note 5In 1955 his grave was vandalised by a mob during the anti-Greek Istanbul Pogrom.

Flags***, Kaplanoglou, Zarifi

FatherTselebis Ioannis ‘Ianko’ (Zarifis) Zarifi (1780-ca1850)

MotherKokona Tarsitsa ‘Tarsi’ (Iordanaki) Kaplanoglou (~1780-1850)

Marriage1839, Tzoubali, Phanar, Constantinople, Turkey/Byzantium

Married Memo1839 is the date suggested by George L Zarifi

SpouseEleni (Dimitrios) Zafiropoulo

Birth7 Jul 1817, Tzoubali, Phanar, Constantinople, Turkey/Byzantium

MemoA Zarifi record says 1813. The French obituary published in Simeonoglou says she was born 1813. George L Zarifi repeatedly implies she was born in 1817. Sturdza says 1820.

Death18 May 1910, Constantinople, Turkey/Byzantium

MemoObituary published on 20 May 1910.

BurialSisli Greek Orthodox Cemetery, Constantinople

ResidencePera and Therapia, Constantinople/Istanbul

Note 1She appears in a 1905 photograph with her daughters and daughter-in-law (Akylas Millas ‘E Prinkipos’ Athens 1988). She was astonished to find herself pregnant around the age of 50.

Note 2The Ottoman Sultan gave her a silver bidet and jug with matching bathroom accessories which all fitted into a mahogany case. Eleni never travelled without it and in 1994 it remains in the family!

Note 3Named ‘Mother of the Orphans’ by the Sultan because of the numerous homes she provided for them: e.g. The National Orphanage for Boys, Prinkipos and the Central Girls’ School, Pera.

Note 4“Most of my photos show her old but upright amidst her progeny with a Victorian bonnet on her head... plain of face, tall, slim, impeccably attired, imposing and relaxed. Her husband George remained devoted to her all his life...”

Note 5Her marriage to George Zarifi created a banking dynasty which was completed in the next generation when members of the Vlasto family married Zarifi and or Zafiropoulo descendants.

FlagsZafiropoulo

FatherDimitrios ZAFIROPOULO (~1770-1864)

MotherRalou ‘Rallouka’ (Constantine) Fenerlis ? (~1790-1880)

Children