Author: Uriel HeydPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
The Jewish Communities of Istanbul in the Seventeenth Century
Author: Uriel HeydJews in the Realm of the Sultans
Author: Yaron Ben-NaehPublisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161495236
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 534
Book Description
Jewish society in the Ottoman Empire has not been the subject of systematic research. The seventeenth century is the main object of this study, since it was a formative era. For Ottoman Jews, the 'Ottoman century' constituted an era of gradual acculturation to changing reality, parallel to the changing character of the Ottoman state. Continuous changes and developments shaped anew the character of this Jewry, the core of what would later become known as 'Sephardi Jewry'.Yaron Ben-Naeh draws from primary and secondary Hebrew, Ottoman, and European sources, the image of Jewish society in the Ottoman Empire. In the chapters he leads the reader from the overall urban framework to individual aspects. Beginning with the physical environment, he moves on to discuss their relationships with the majority society, followed by a description and analysis of the congregation, its organization and structure, and from there to the character of Ottoman Jewish society and its nuclear cell - the family. Special emphasis is placed throughout the work on the interaction with Muslim society and the resulting acculturation that affected all aspects and all levels of Jewish life in the Empire. In this, the author challenges the widespread view that sees this community as being stagnant and self-segregated, as well as the accepted concept of a traditional Jewish society under Islam.
The Jewish Communities of Istanbul in the XVII-th Century
Author: Uriel HeydJews from Konstantiniyye to Islambol
Author: Okan CakirPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Istanbul (Turkey)
Languages : en
Pages : 102
Book Description
In this study, I analyze the Jewish community of Istanbul in the 17th Century as reflected in the works of two çelebis, or bureaucrats, namely, Evliya Çelebi and Eremya Çelebi. The former was an Ottoman statesman and a traveler in the Ottoman world who is very well-known among students of Ottoman history. The latter was a preeminent Armenian scholar within the Armenian community of Istanbul who wrote a number of important works in the 17th century, although he is not very well-known by Ottomanists except for some of his works; this is in part because a number of his works are still waiting to be translated into Western languages. I will concentrate on Istanbul Jewry instead of all Jewish communities under the Ottomans, although I will provide the reader with information on other minorities and on other Jewish communities of the empire when necessary. In addition, to some extent, I will include other opinions on Istanbul Jewry: opinions of Jews themselves as reflected in responsa literature and of European travelers and visitors to the Ottoman Empire during this period. In this study, I reconsider the so-called millet system and question the insistence on the term "millet system" by some scholars, even those who acknowledge the incorrect application of this term to the pre-nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. Then, I suggest a clarification of this issue with reference to works by experts on Ottoman minorities. In addition, I argue that the Seyahatname is a mirror of rising religious conservatism and restoration attempts within the empire, and therefore its timing and contents are also significant as can be seen from the evidences suggested in this work. Furthermore, I also seek answers for the omission of the Sabbatai Sevi episode in the Seyahatname and other Ottoman sources. I also suggest that Eremya Çelebi's works help us to have a better understanding of the Islamization process in Istanbul -especially in the 1660s- and the social and economic rivalry between the Jews and the Greeks around this time. Eremya's works also give us invaluable ideas concerning the Sabbatai Sevi episode and how one minority was seen from another minority's perspective
The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 2, The Hellenistic Age
Author: William David DaviesPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521219297
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 766
Book Description
Vol. 4 covers the late Roman period to the rise of Islam. Focuses especially on the growth and development of rabbinic Judaism and of the major classical rabbinic sources such as the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, Babylonian Talmud and various Midrashic collections.
Rescue the Surviving Souls
Author: Adam TellerPublisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691161747
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 406
Book Description
"The mid-seventeenth century witnessed an enormous wave of Jewish refugees and forced migrants from the wars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who spread across the Jewish communities of Europe and Asia. A series of wars that hit the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth-the Khmelnytsky uprising of 1648; the Muscovite invasion that begin in 1654; and the Swedish incursion from 1655 to 1660-all together forced many Jews out of their homes. Though not the direct targets of the combatants, within a short time many were deeply involved in the conflicts, some becoming victims of violence and some becoming arms-bearing participants. But most became refugees and forced migrants. These refugees posed a huge social, economic and ethical challenge to the Jewish world. In an unprecedented manner, the Jewish centers around Europe answered this challenge and, both individually and jointly, organized relief for the Polish-Lithuanian Jews in all the different places they now found themselves. The need for concerted action on behalf of the Polish Jewish refugees strengthened ties between communities across Europe, and significantly increased the range of communal co-operation. The book moves through the three different environments the refugees found themselves in. The first part looks at the refugees who remained within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, probing the local and regional policies of relief that would eventually prove so successful in helping them overcome the traumas of their past. The second examines the Jews who were brought to the slave markets of Constantinople, and then redeemed there by newly developed philanthropic systems that had raised the money to do so. The third examines the fate of the Jews who fled to Central and Western Europe, examining tensions that developed within the local Jewish populations between the need to help the refugees and a basic antipathy born of cultural difference. In each case, a web of inter-communal connections was created to help support the refugees-bringing different parts of the Jewish world into an extraordinary level of purposeful contact, and paving the way for similar organization in the future. As a result, the seventeenth century communities set in motion processes of change that would eventually be refashioned into the globalized Jewish world we know today"--
Crossing Borders
Author: Haim GerberPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jews
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Introduction Chapter 1: The Legal Status of the Jews Chapter 2: The Jews in Seventeenth Century Bursa Chapter 3: The Jews in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Edirne Chapter 4: The Jews in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century Istanbul Chapter 5: Jews and Tax Farming Chapter 6: Jews and Money Lending Chapter 7: Jews and the Vakıf Institution Chapter 8: Jews in the Trade Network of the Ottoman Empire Conclusion.
The Jews in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century
Author: Y. BarnayPublisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 9780817305727
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Research reveals a clear connection between the legal and social status of the Jews in Palestine in the 18th century and their ties with the Diaspora. The Jews who had immigrated to Palestine in that period were mostly poor and elderly. The country was economically backward and politically unstable, which made it impossible for the immigrants to support themselves through productive work. Therefore they lived off the contributions of their brethren overseas. Taxes and fees imposed by the Ottoman rulers increased the financial desperation of the Jews in Palestine. Prohibitions against young unmarried immigrant men and women made for an unstable population largely of old men, many of whom died shortly after immigrating. Families succumbed to disease, earthquakes, and famine, but in the face of these problems, the Jewish communities in Palestine persevered. When financial support ceased at the beginning of the 18th century, it caused a sever crisis in the Yishuv (the Jewish settlement in Palestine). The Jews were unable to repay their debts to the Moslems, and many left the country. In 1726, a central organization was established in Istanbul to coordinate the Diaspora financial support of the Jews in Palestine. This Istanbul Committee of Officials oversaw the collection of support money for the Yishuv, managed the Palestine community's budget, established regulations for governing the communities, and settled disputes between the Jews and the gentiles. The importance of the Yishuv in the spiritual life of the Diaspora alone could not ensure the continuation of the Istanbul Officials was crucial. Fortunately, a registry containing copies of 500 letters written by the Istanbul Committee in the mid-18th century was preserved in the archives of the Jewish Theological Seminary. These letters reveal the extensive activity involving the Istanbul Committee and the Ottoman authorities, the Jews of Palestine, and the Diaspora. In this English translation of the original 1982 volume published in Hebrew, Barnai has updated his research to take into account recent scholarship. He concludes that during the period under review, the number of Jews in the Yishuv was actually very small, but they were completely dependent upon the charitable financial support of their brethren overseas, as well as the goodwill of the country's rulers.
A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul
Author: Minna RozenPublisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004215727
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
This volume presents the transformation of the Greek-speaking Jewish community of Byzantine Constantinople into an Ottoman, ethnically diversified immigrant community. As the Ottomans influenced its cultural and social values, the community strived to preserve its boundaries with the surrounding society.
The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire
Author: Avigdor LevyPublisher: Darwin Press, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description