Hakham Bashi

[5] The institution of the Hakham Bashi was established by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, as part of his policy of governing his exceedingly diverse subjects according to their own laws and authorities wherever possible.

In the Ottoman Empire, and as such, the Hakham Bashi was the closest thing to an overall Exilarchal authority among Jewry everywhere in the Middle East in early modern times.

They held broad powers to legislate, judge and enforce the laws among the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and often sat on the Sultan's divan.

The office also maintained considerable influence outside the Ottoman Empire, especially after the forced migration of numerous Jewish communities and individuals out of Spain (after the fall of Granada in 1492) and Italy.

The term Hakham Bashi was also used for the official Government-appointed Chief Rabbi of other important cities in the Ottoman Empire, such as Damascus and Baghdad.

Hakham Bashi of Salonika (now Thessaloniki ) to the left of a Monastir town dweller and a Salonika hodja (Islamic teacher), from Les costumes populaires de la Turquie en 1873 , published under the patronage of the Ottoman Imperial Commission for the 1873 Vienna World's Fair
Chief Rabbi Jacob Saul Dwek, Hakham Bashi of Aleppo , Ottoman Syria , 1908