Karataş, Konak

In Ottoman times, the poorest were usually either concentrated in Mezarlıkbaşı quarter or around Havra Sokağı (Synagogue Street), both of which are located in or around Kemeraltı bazaar zone, or were scattered across the city.

It is indeed interesting to note that, while the records do indicate small settlements by Sephardim Jewish migrants in such inland cities as Manisa, Akhisar, Turgutlu and Tire, the current day metropolis of İzmir goes unmentioned in the 16th century context.

But the core Jewish population of the city grew rapidly and soon, to reach at an estimated 7,000 in 1631 and to 15,000 in 1675, around the time Sabbatai Zevi proclaimed himself as messiah and thus sowed the seeds of a deep and lasting crisis and scission within the community.

The same report, which has much to say also to the disadvantage of the Turks (on those of İzmir particularly, whereas it is full of elogies on the entirely Turkish region of Aydın), placed the unmolested Jewish community, afflicted neither with the wounded pride of Greeks, with whom everything became a national question, nor with the Armenians' constantly shifting definition of self-interest, on a footing that was apart from the other two.

Although a rarity in Ottoman lands, repeatedly denounced by the sultans starting with Süleyman the Magnificent, the most serious of blood libel related troubles took place during the three months between April and June 1872, as reported by Henri Nahum.