Jews in Ottoman empire

[enginterzi]

www.jerusalemites.org/jerusalem/ottoman/24.htm

"Regarding Jews, they enjoyed some religious freedom during the Ottoman period

unprecedented in any European country. No discrimination against them was reported

which led to establish strong relationships with the other Jewish colonies in the Ottoman

Empire. It had witnessed a remarkable increase in population resulting from the arrival of

many Jews who were dispersed and ousted from Spain and Portugal in (1492). Since the

Ottoman authorities permitted them to live in Palestine.."

[enginterzi]

www.jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=165

"When the Jews were exiled from Spain in 1492, many of them escaped to Turkey. They brought with them Spanish culture, administrative and trade experience, and technical knowledge which included the use of cannon and gunpowder. The sultan of the Ottoman Turks encouraged their immigration. In 1516 the Turks won a great victory at Aleppo and took over control of the Land of Israel."

"The walls of Jerusalem had been built by the first Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, in 1537. They surrounded the entire city and had seven well- defended gates which were locked each night. The city was divided into a Christian quarter, a Jewish quarter, a Muslim quarter, and an Armenian quarter. Until Sir Moses Montifiore, all Jerusalem residents lived inside the city where, as the centuries passed, they became more cramped for space"

[enginterzi]

A Salute to Turkish Jewry
Rabbi George Driesen

"The Romaniot and Ashkenazi Jews accommodated to the new regime just in time because in 1492 and 1497 the Jews of Spain and Portungal were put to the choice of conversion, flight, or death. They fled eastward, and many of them, at the invitation of the Sultan, the leader of the Ottoman Empire, settled in Istanbul and other communities in what is now Turkey. I believe they numbered about 100,000 and were thus more numerous than the original Jewish inhabitants."

"Except for these highly cosmopolitan upper class Jews, however, most, even the goldsmiths, silversmiths, and other craftsmen were quite poor and very few had much contact with the Turks or even spoke Turkish. The Jews lived in geographically separate, self-governing communities grouped according to the lands from which they had come. This system, called the millet system, was characteristic of the Turkish Empire. Each community had its own schools, (including some very prominent yeshivot), its own courts, its own synagogues and its own tax system. All paid a special per capita tax to the Ottoman ruler. They even had their own printing presses. For a time the only Hebrew printing press in the world was in Salonika, and was owned by the Soncino family of which I am sure many of you have heared."

[enginterzi]

But the Turkish Jews were not entirely isolated from the Turkish society in which they lived. Many were fine musicians, and their music often paralleled Islamic poetic and epic forms, and they told each other many of the same folk tales as their Turkish neighbors. Even their synagogue liturgy borrowed music and poetic forms from their neighbors. The foods Jews ate were prepared much as was the food the Turks ate, perhaps with just a soupcon of Jewish cuisine added. Those who came from Sepharad, Spain and Portugal, preserved some of the literature and music they brought with them, and created their own in the new land, and they were joined by Jews escaping from Italy who added another layer of culture. In time, Ladino, a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish became the lingua franca of the Turkish Jews.

By and large, the Ottoman Turks treated the Jews quite well, especially in comparison with the Byzantine Christians who preceded them. The Ottoman rulers left the Jews pretty much alone, happy to have their taxes and the goods (including guns and gunpowder) their merchants supplied, the ministrations of their doctors, and the fine jewelry and other luxury items the Jews manufactured. The rulers continued to deal with the Jewish community largely through the leaders of the Jewish millets, as they dealt with other minority communities.