History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire lasted from the early 12th century until the end of World War I and covered parts of Southeastern Europe, Anatolia, and much of the Middle East.

By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had the largest Jewish population in the world, with 150,000 compared to Poland's and non-Ottoman Ukraine's combined figure of 75,000.

At the time of the Battle of Yarmuk, on 15–20 August 636, when the Levant passed into Muslim rule, thirty Jewish communities existed in Haifa, Sh’chem, Hebron, Ramleh, Gaza, Jerusalem, as well as many other cities.

In the framework of the millet, Jews had a considerable amount of administrative autonomy and were represented by the Hakham Bashi, the Turkish term for the Chief Rabbi.

[6] Like all non-Muslims, Jews had to pay the haraç ("head tax") and faced other restrictions in clothing, horse riding, army service, slave ownership, etc.

[9] Some Jews who reached high positions in the Ottoman court and administration include Mehmed II's minister of Finance ("Defterdar") Hekim Yakup Pasha, his Portuguese physician Moses Hamon, Murad II's physician Is'hak Pasha, and Abraham de Castro, who was the master of the mint in Egypt.

In the 16th century especially, the Jews rose to prominence under the millets, the apogee of Jewish influence could arguable be the appointment of Joseph Nasi to Sanjak-bey (governor, a rank usually only bestowed upon Muslims) of the island of Naxos.

[11] Also in the first half of the 17th century the Jews were distinct in winning tax farms, Haim Gerber describes it as: "My impression is that no pressure existed, that it was merely performαnce that counted.

They had come to the Ottoman Empire from many lands, bringing with them their own customs and opinions, to which they clung tenaciously, and had founded separate congregations.

He became the Chief Rabbi of Edirne and wrote a letter inviting the European Jewry to settle in the Ottoman Empire, in which he stated "Turkey is a land wherein nothing is lacking" and asked "Is it not better for you to live under Muslims than under Christians?

The expulsion came about as a result of the Alhambra Decree in 1492, declared by the Spanish King and Queen Ferdinand II and Isabelle I as part of a larger trend of antisemitism resurging throughout Europe that the Ottomans would exploit.

[citation needed] Gradually, the chief centre of the Sephardic Jews became Salonica, where they soon outnumbered the pre-existing Romaniote Jewish community.

The Muslim population of the Empire was largely uninterested in business enterprises and accordingly left commercial occupations to members of minority religions.

[citation needed] Additionally, since the Ottoman Empire was engaged in a military conflict with the Christian nations at the time, Jews were trusted and regarded "as potential allies, diplomats, and spies".

[24] There were also Jews that possessed special skills in a wide range of fields that the Ottomans took advantage of, including David and Samuel ibn Nahmias, who established a printing press in 1493.

[25] Although the Ottomans did not treat Jews differently from other minorities in the country, the policies seemed to align well with Jewish traditions, which allowed communities to flourish.

The Safed attack may have been initiated by retreating Mamluk soldiers who accused the Jews of treacherously aiding the Turkish invaders,[30] with Arabs from the surrounding villages joining the melee.

[28] An account of the event, recorded by Japheth ben Manasseh in 1518, mentions how the onslaught was initiated by Turkish troops led by Murad Bey, the deputy of the Sultan from Jerusalem.

[39][40][41] The history of Jews in the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is principally a chronicle of decline in influence and power.

[44] In 1881, in response to rising antisemitism in mainland Europe, as well as a number of proposals made by various parties regarding the potential settlement of Jews within the empire, the Council of Ministers declared that "[Jewish] immigrants [would] be able to settle as scattered groups throughout Turkey, excluding Palestine.

In 1869, 18 Jews were killed in Tunis, and an Arab mob looted Jewish homes and stores, and burned synagogues, on Jerba Island.

Morris quotes a 19th-century traveler: I have seen a little fellow of six years old, with a troop of fat toddlers of only three and four, teaching [them] to throw stones at a Jew, and one little urchin would, with the greatest coolness, waddle up to the man and literally spit upon his Jewish gaberdine.

As the empire lost control over its European provinces in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these Jewish communities found themselves under Christian rule.

[24] The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire had political and cultural influence because they "were perceived as Westerners who had extensive contacts with Europe, who knew European languages, and brought new knowledge and technologies".

[24] Additionally, some Sephardic Jews "were...prominent merchants with European markets" who were even regarded as "potential allies, diplomats, and spies" during times of war against Christians.

There is no doubt among historians that "Spanish Jews contributed significantly to the development of the capital in the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century".

[59] Although many Sephardic Jews had large amounts of political and cultural capital, the Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire was decentralized for most of the region's history.

Jewish people maintained a strong presence in Salonica until the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust, when "there were around 56,000 Jews living in" the city.

In Salonica, Jews lived in communities around synagogues in which "Jewish organizations provided all the religious, legal, educational and social services".

[23] Sephardic Jews did not envision Palestine as the seat of Jewish governance and autonomy in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Sa'adi Levy, who lived in Salonica, owned a printing press in Amsterdam that published newspapers in Ladino and French covering the rival ideological claims and intellectual controversies of the day: Ottoman nationalism, Zionism and socialism.