Iberian Jewry between West and East: Jewish Settlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean

Jonathan Ray If ever there was a group that fit the latter-day Sephardicpoet's and itwas theSpanishJewsof thelatefifteenth as "tempest-tossed," description in 1 492 stands as of the from Jews The sixteenth Spain century. expulsion early one of the mosttragicand decisive turningpointsin Jewishhistory,and is commonlyrecognizedas the effectiveterminusof Jewishlife in medieval of a return of itproducedalso represents something Europe.The massmigration in to the Muslim was whose cultural thiscommunity, al-Andalus, identity forged theexpulsionof 1492 andthesubsequentsettlement Islamicworld.Accordingly, of so manyof the exiles in the Muslimlands of the OttomanEmpirepresent fromthemedievalto theearlymodern of thetransition themselves as hallmarks and Islam. thedifferences ofWestto East,Christendom worldthathighlight The foundationof the Jewishcommunityin the OttomanEmpire is a cherishedtale formanywho championits legacy of interfaith symbiosis,the basic outlineof whichis as follows.The Jewishpresencein mostof medieval Europe ended with a long period of decline crowned by mass forced conversions,and eventuallyexpulsion of the region's last great Jewish in 1492. Butjust as thelonghistoryof Jewishlifein themedieval community Westwas comingto a close,a newempireand a newerawererisingin theEast. The rapidexpansionof the OttomanEmpireover the course of the fifteenth centuryprovideda ready-madehaven for the Jewishrefugeesof Europe, exiled fromSpain in 1492. Thus,as the medieval especiallythosesummarily periodgave way to theearlymodernperiod,thebalanceof worldJewryshifted fromWest to East, and OttomantolerancebecamejuxtaposedwithChristian These Jewshelpedto enrichtheirnew hostsocietyas merchants, persecution. and artisans. civilservants in the OttomanEmpirehas been This portraitof Sephardicsettlement closely bound up with the collectivememoryof Middle EasternJews,and continuesto functionas a referencepoint for a varietyof groups seeking coexistence.However, the broad lines of this evidence of inter-religious remainmisleading.Hispano-Jewishmigration narrative duringthisperioddoes 44 Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 Iberian Jewrybetween West and East: JewishSettlement in the SixteenthCentury Mediterranean JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 45 The Ottoman Empireas a Haven for the Sephardim The commonperceptionof the Golden Age of Sephardiclife in the Ottoman and Empirehas been greatlyshaped by a tendencyto collapse the fifteenth sixteenth centuriesintoa singleunit,a practicethatservesto underscorethe relativebenevolenceof theSublimePorteduringthisera as well as evidenceof theeconomicand culturaldeclinethatbeganto setin as earlyas theseventeenth of SpanishJewswas neitherimmediatenor However,the migration century.1 direct.The expulsionof the JewsfromSpain in 1492 was perhapsthe most famousexile of thatera,butit was actuallyonlyone of a seriesof cataclysmic events that drove large numbersof Jewishrefugeeseastwardacross the Mediterranean. The slow migrationof EuropeanJews to Muslim lands had in in theclosingdecade of thefourteenth earnest begun century. Followingthe mass riots and forcedconversionsof Iberian Jews that swept across the Peninsulain 1391,surviving Jewsand newlybaptizedConversosalikebeganto seek refugein NorthAfrica.This earlygroupof émigréscontainedmanyJews fromMallorca and the portcities of the Crownof Aragon.They were soon 'MarkCohen,UnderCrescentand Cross: TheJewsin theMiddleAges (Princeton, 1994),202-3, n. 12. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 a neattransition fromWestto East and fromEuropeanto Ottoman, notrepresent in thewake of 1492 led to the Jewishsettlement Muslimlands.On thecontrary, formation of new,regionalsocietiesin the westernand easternMediterranean thattranscended religiousand politicalboundaries.The sustainedand intense contactbetweenJewsand Conversosin NorthAfricaand Iberia,as well as that of new betweenthe OttomanEmpireand Italy, suggeststhe establishment and economicactivitythatchallenges regionalspheresof Jewishsettlement and Islam. traditional associationsWestand EastwithChristendom This new regionalismalso raises questionsaboutthe natureand meaning in Ottomanlands,generallyconsideredto be theresultof Sephardicsettlement tolerantreligiouspolicies,and to signalthe commencement of a GoldenAge. such the Jews and Conversos who left Iberiainthelate Notwithstanding policies, were fifteenth andearlysixteenth new economic century opportunities guidedby as much as by the promiseof religiousfreedom.Consequently,the Jewish experiencein the OttomanEmpire was more varied,and theirinterestin settlement less permanent, thanis oftenassumed.The followingdiscussionis an to to draw attention someofthesekeythemesrelatedto there-settlement attempt of SpanishJewryfollowingthe expulsionof 1492, and by extension,to offer worldof Jewishsocietyin theMediterranean somenew ways of understanding thesixteenth century. 46 Jonathan Ray No Place of Rest: JewishLiterature,Expulsionand the Memoryof Medieval 2Susan Einbinder, A Historyof theJewsin NorthAfrica,2 France (Philadelphia, 2009), 61-83; and H. Z. Hirschberg, vols. (Leiden,1974), 1:13-14. 3JosephHacker,"Links BetweenSpanishJewryand Palestine,"Visionand Conflictin the Holy Land, 1391-1492, ed. RichardI. Cohen (New York, 1985), 111-39. A popularuprisingagainst MoroccanJewsin 1465 also led manyto fleetheregion.JaneGerber,JewishSocietyin Fez: 1450Conversosin OttomanValona priorto 1492 see 1700 (Leiden, 1980),24. For thearrivalof former Gilles Veinstein,"Une communautéottomane:Les Juifsd'Avlonya (Valona) dans la deuxième moitiédu XVIe siècle," Gli ebrei e Venezia:secoli XIV-XVIII,ed. GaetanoCozzi (Milan, 1987), 781-828. See also thecase ofVenice,discussedbelow. 4AbrahamDavid, "Safed,foyerde retourau judaïsmede 'Conversos'au XVIe siècle,"Revuedes EtudesJuives1-2 (1987), 63-83. 1wouldliketo emphasizethatthiswas priorto 1492,notafter.The expansionand increasedeconomicvitalityof the OttomanEmpireduringmuchof the sixteenth to Judaismto moveto largertradingcenterssuchas Istanbul, returnees led manylatter-day century Salónica,andVenice. 5DavidAbulafia,"The AragoneseKingofNaples and theJews,"JewsofItaly:Memoryand Identity, ed. BernardD. Coopermanand BarbaraGarvin(Bethesda,2000), 82-106; AbrahamDavid, "The theEyes of theHistorianGedalyahibn through SpanishExpulsionand thePortuguesePersecution the numberof Jewsexpelledin Yahya," Sefarad56 (1996): 45-59. Althoughstatisticsregarding 1492 have variedwidely,a reasonableestimateis a totalof about 100,000.The subjectis discussed and the Expulsionof the SpanishJewsin 1492,"Past and in HenryKamen,"The Mediterranean Present119 (1988), 30-55. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 followedby Frenchand ProvençalJewswho were expelledin 1394.2Most of theseearlierwaves of refugeesestablishedtheirown diasporacongregations in thecitiesoftheMaghrebwheretheyremainedin close contactwiththeirformer in Spain and southernFrance.Over the course of the fifteenth communities however,manybegan to fanout acrossthe Mediterranean, century, settlingin southernItaly,Egypt,and the Levant,and in the latterhalf of the sixteenth An century, amongthetradingcentersthathad come underOttomancontrol.3 ItalianJew who visitedJerusalemduringthe 1480s notedthatmanyof the to Sephardimin thatregionwere in factformerConversoswho had returned Judaism.4 Even duringthelargerand moredecisiveexpulsionof 1492,themajority of Jewishexilesdidnotgo directly to theOttomanEmpire,butreacheditthrough a and circuitous route marked a series of successive from long by migrations of theexilessought Iberia,NorthAfrica,and SouthernItaly.5The vastmajority refugein lands nearestto Spain, includingnearbycities of NorthAfrica, Portugaland the small Pyreneankingdomof Navarre.Most of thosewho left Spain did so withlittleor no funds,a key elementin theirdecisionto remain close to Spain. Many refugeeshopedto use thesenearbysettlements as bases fromwhichtheycould still liquidateassets in Spain and recoveroutstanding debtsowed to them.For thetrulydestitute, thehighcost and dangersof longdistancetravelkepttheOttomanlands of theEast farbeyondtheirreach.The of such practicalconcernscontinuedto outweighthe promiseof centrality JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-CenturyMediterranean 47 6See thesectionon "Returnand Conversion"in HaimBeinart,TheExpulsionoftheJewsfromSpain (Portland, 2002), 319^12. 7Daniel Swetschinski, ReluctantCosmopolitans:The PortugueseJews of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam (London,2000), 55. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 religiousfreedomlong afterthe 1492. Indeed,manytook advantageof the in thefirstfewyearsfollowingtheexpulsionthatallowed decreespromulgated therefugeesto return to Spain and reclaimtheirformer landsand possessionsif were to The of those who had originally undergobaptism.6 willingness they shunnedconversionto ultimately it as a means of survival and return to accept fromWest to theirhomelandpointsto anotherfallacyof Sephardicmigration East. Whatever theirlevelofpietyor fearofpersecution, theprocessofsettlement forthe firstgenerationof Spanishexiles was primarily dictatedby logistical concerns.Poverty,warfareand unscrupuloussea captainsall conspiredto as did impede the progressof the Sephardimacross the Mediterranean, restrictive Jewish settlement in North Africa and policies againstlarge-scale without or a deal of wealth,politicalconnections, Italy.Many refugees great luck acceptedconversionand returned to Spain. Otherswere forcedto wait, citiesof NorthAfrica,or to clingingto themarginsof lifein theplague-ridden themarginsof Judaismin Portugal.Thoughsomeof thedispossessedwereable to successfully traversethe Mediterranean, the Turkishrealmsremainedquite distantformanySephardimin thefirstyearsfollowingtheexpulsion.Even for thosewho wereable to reachOttomanlands,thegenerallywelcomingpolicies of theEmpiredid notguaranteegainfulemployment, and manyJewishartisans and pettytraderssoon found themselveswanderingbetween Muslim and Christiancitiesin a perpetualcircuitthatone historianhas termed"aimless."7 Such obstaclespreventedthe large-scaletransference of IberianJewryfrom Westto East foryears,and as a resulttheOttomanEmpirebecamemoreof a havenforthesecondandthirdgeneration oftheSpanishexilesthanthefirst. These latergenerations of immigrants are oftenconsideredto be exiles in thesame sense as thoseexpelledin 1492,butthedifferences in theirsituation weresignificant, as was theirmotivation forresettlement. As theycontinuedto move eastwardacrosstheMediterranean, theJewsbornin NorthAfrica,Italy, and Portugalsoughtto takeadvantageof social and economicopportunities as muchas theydid thestableand protected in whichtheycould live environment openlyas Jews.One of the leadingfactorsin the decisionof manySephardic Anatoliaand theBalkanswas thevacuumcreated refugeesto settlethroughout in most cities of these regionsby the forcedresettlement of theirJewish communities to Istanbulin the 1450s. The policiesof MehmedII transformed Istanbulintoa large Jewishcenterthatcontainedthe majorityof the Greek- 48 Jonathan Ray in Istanbul:The FormativeYears,1453-1566 8MinnaRozen,A Historyof theJewishCommunity (Leiden,2002), 1-6. "The Ashkenazimin the OttomanEmpirein the Sixteenthand 9Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky, Seventeenth (in Hebrew)East and Maghreb1 (1974), 81-104. Century," der polnischen 10AdamTeller, "Der Blick nach Osten: RechtlicherStatus und Rechtssystem vom 16. biz zum 18. Jahrhundert," Judenheit Zeitschrift fiir HistorischeForschung.Beiheft39 (2007), 395-413. A FaithfulSea, ed. nK. E. Fleming,"Two RabbinicViews of OttomanMediterranean Ascendancy," AdnanHusseinand K. E. Fleming(Oxford,2007), 99-120. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 speakingRomaniotJews.8Buttherelocationof so manyRomaniotcommunities unable to resistthe cultural to the imperialcapital leftsmallercommunities dominanceof the Sephardimwho soon began arrivingin largenumbers.The factorin relativesparsenessof theseolderJewishcenterswas thusan important the subsequentdominanceof Hispano-Jewishculturein many parts of the Empire. To this end, it should be noted that the Ottomancities also became forlargenumbersof AshkenaziJewsfromcentralEuropewho had destinations been eitherdrivenout or who had leftof theirown accord.9The concurrent of a newAshkenazicenterin EasternEuropeis a keyfactorin the establishment smaller relativelack of attentionpaid to the significant, yet comparatively of movement the lands. Jews to Ottoman of Ashkenazi Furthermore, migration medieval the late Jewsfromcentralto EasternEuropethatcontinued throughout and earlymodernperiodalso servesas an important parallelto thephenomenon In thecase ofthenorthern acrosstheMediterranean.10 of Sephardicresettlement the divisionbetweenWest and East does not carry routeof Jewishmigration, withit the same religiousjuxtapositionassociatedwiththemovementof Jews Iberiato OttomanMuslimlands. fromChristian fromSpain to theOttoman The tendencyto view the Sephardictransition in ofthe had its termsactually genesis theJewishchronicles Empireintriumphal and was so momentous of this narrative The arc centuries. fifteenth and sixteenth was and of exclusion West and of itsneat,binaryframework East, acceptance, so appealingthatitbecamea talethatwas carefully shapedalmostfromthevery worksto promotethe image of the beginning.One of the most influential Ottomanreceptionof theSephardicrefugeeswas thechroniclecomposedbythe JewishnotableElijah Capsali (1483-1555). For Capsali,theriseof theOttoman fortheJewsjust as they dynastyand thecreationof a new area of settlement werebeingexpelledfromEuropewas evidenceof God's continuedcompassion forHis chosenpeople.11 The idyllicwelcome of Jewishsettlerssuggestedby Capsali glosses the createda somewhatcontrolled atmosphere degreeto whichOttomanauthorities and social mobilitythatprevailedfromthe conquestof of Jewishsettlement in the 1450s untilwell after1492. Indeed,againstCapsali's Constantinople JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 49 Hacker,"The 'SürgünSystem'and JewishSociety in the OttomanEmpireduringthe 12Joseph Fifteenth to the Seventeenth and Leadership, Centuries,"Ottomanand Turkish Jewry:Community ed. AronRodrigue(Bloomington, 1992), 19-20. Hackerhas alreadynotedthatthefirstyearsof JewishlifeunderOttomanrulewereoften 13Joseph much harsherthan is generallyrecognized.JosephHacker,"The 'SürgünSystem,'" 1-65; and Hacker,"OttomanPolicy Toward the Jews,"Christiansand Jews in the OttomanEmpire: The Functioning of a Plural Societyv. 1, ed. BenjaminBraudeand BernardLewis (New York, 1982), 117-26. 14IsaacAbravanel,Commentary on the Book of Joshua,43:6. It is perhapsnoteworthy thatthe Abravanelsthemselvessettledin Italy, not Jerusalem.On Abravanel,see Eric Lawee, Isaac Abarbanel'sStanceTowardTradition:Defense,Dissent,and Dialogue (Albany,2001); and Benzion Don Isaac Abravanel:Statesmanand Philosopher(Philadelphia,1968). Netanyahu, 15 AbrahamGross,IberianJewryFrom Twilightto Dawn: The Worldof AbrahamSaba (Leiden, 1995), 111-13; and in David Raphael,ed., TheExpulsion1492 Chronicles(NorthHollywood,1992), 126-7. For anotherexampleof Jewsidentifying the Conversoswithambitionand impietysee the chronicleof theCavalleriafamilyin JosephHacker,"New Chronicleson theExpulsionof theJews fromSpain: ItsCauses and Consequences,"(in Hebrew)Yitzhak F. Baer MemorialVolume.Zion 44 (1979), 201-28. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 depictionwe havethelamentof a Jewfromthe 1450swho viewedtheOttoman Likewise, even conquest of Constantinopleas an attack by barbarians.12 obscure some of the darker enthusiasm cannot own completely Capsali's momentsof Ottomanrule.In one passage,he applaudsSultanSelim (r. 15121520) forissuinga decreethatreversedtheforcedconversionof Jewsunderhis predecessor, Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512). Capsali does notcommenton the fact thattherehad indeedbeen forced(or at leastcoerced)conversionof someJews underBayezid.13 of the OttomanEmpireas a safe haven for the Influential descriptions were bound up with the author'sown inextricably beleagueredSephardim worldviews. Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508), perhaps the leading religious of the noted that Iberian Jewsand Conversosalike left intellectual exile, figure of theirpietyand dedicationto IberiafortheLand of Israelas a demonstration oftherefugeesalso Abravanel' s emphasison thereligiousmotivation Judaism.14 servedas proofof the Jewishnessof the Conversoswho, he argued,wanted to theirlives as pious Jews. nothingmorethanto escape fromIberiato return of The Jewishchronicler AbrahamSaba (1440-1508) echoedthesedeclarations caveat. He the essentialpietyof the Conversos,thoughwith an important betweenthe unfortunate convertswho, like himself,soughtto distinguished themselves escape Iberiawhenpossible,andthosewho willinglyaccommodated thatthosewho remainedin to theirnew situation. his observation Nonetheless, Spain and Portugalwere primarilythe upper classes whose decision was motivatedby theirlust for wealthand honorreinforces the idea thatthose leftIberiadid so forreligiousreasons.15 Conversoswhoeventually To be sure,otherJewstooknoteof themoreworldlyaspectsof Ottoman Isaac Zarfati,an AshkenaziJewwho had settledin Turkey,wroteto protection. 50 Jonathan Ray Here you are allowed to wear the most precious garments.In on thecontrary, Christendom, ye darenoteven ventureto clotheyour childrenin red or in blue, accordingto yourtaste,withoutexposing themto insultof beingbeatenblackand blue,or kickedredand green, areye condemnedto go aboutmeanlyclad in sad-colored andtherefore raiment.16 forthe In this regardZarfati'saccounttouchesupon the principalattraction Ottomanlandsfornearlyall earlymodernJewishsettlers. over Judaism'ssacred formercantileentrepôts Indeed,Jewishpreference citiescontinuedevenaftertheOttomanconquestof theLevantin 1516-17. Yet, Jewishauthorsstilllaudedthepietyand virtueof thoseJewswho did settlein the case forConversoswhose dedicationto the region.This was particularly in doubt for Judaismremained manyJews.Modernscholarswho takerabbinic of of theConversosto be representative the Jewishness about pronouncements for such the true the miss view on thegeneralJewishpointof impetus subject It is preciselythis suspicion over Converso religiositythat statements.17 promptedJewishwritersto associatetheirdecisionto settlein Ottomanlands withtheirreligiousdevotion.Anotherof these apologistswas the kabbalist Rabbi Solomon Alkabetz.Upon his arrivalin OttomanJerusalemin 1536, Jewswho had settledin theregionhad: "left AlkabetznotedthatthePortuguese and theirpleasanthomes,theydid notvalue silveror delightin all theirproperty gold [in theirdesire]to come to the [Holy] Land."18Here,Alkabetzdescribes theConversos'willingnessto theirdecisionas one of selflessness, emphasizing in one of therichestand mostpowerfulkingdomsin exchangelives of comfort life in the Holy Land. He does not Europe for a more spirituallyfulfilling theAgesv. 1 (London,1953),283-5. A similarlettersent 16Franz Kobler,LettersoftheJewsthrough to Provencein the mid sixteenthcenturynotedthat,in Salónica Jews"are not smittenby the and exile." JosephHacker,"JewishAutonomyin theOttomanEmpire:Its of enslavement hardships Centuries,"TheJewsof the Scope and Limits.JewishCourtsfromthe Sixteenthto theEighteenth forJewsin OttomanEmpire,ed. AvigdorLevy (Princeton,1994), 157-8. On clothingrestrictions Signs: Ear-Rings,Jewsand FranciscanRhetoricin Italy,see Diane Owen Hughes,"Distinguishing theItalianRenaissanceCity,"Past and Present112 (1986), 3-59. Revuedes JewishThought," towardthe'Conversos'in 15th-16th-Century 17ShaulRegev,"Attitudes EtudesJuives156 (1997), 117-34; and Moisés OrfaliLevi,Los Conversosespañolesen la literatura rabínica,problemasjurídicosy opinioneslegalesdurantelos siglosXII-XVI(Salamanca,1982). 18 Eretzin Sixteenth-Century and Settlement AbrahamDavid, To Come to theLand: Immigration Israel (Tuscaloosa,1999), 104-5. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 friendsin Europe of the comparatively easy life that could be enjoyed in available Ottomanlands.Zarfati'semphasiswas on theeconomicopportunities to Jewsin theEast. Morethanjust a refugeforJewishexiles,or an Empirethat Zarfatinotesthat: allowedJewsto settleamongtheirholyshrines, JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 51 ReconsideringWest and East The expulsionof 1492didcreatea generalresettlement of IberianJewry, butthis historical shift from Christian to Muslim lands is not important wholly withthe classic divisionof the earlymodernworldbetweenthe synonymous EuropeanWest and the OttomanEast. First,the shelterand stabilitythatthe foundundertheOttomanswas notreplicatedthroughout Sephardimeventually the rest of the Muslim world. Indeed, any treatmentof Hispano-Jewish resettlement after1492 musttake intoconsideration theirexperiencein North which was different fromthatin the OttomanEmpire. Africa, substantively RabbiAbrahamSaba who,unlikeCapsali,experienced theexpulsionfirsthand, wrotebitterly aboutthetreatment he and his fellowrefugeesreceivedin North Africa.He comparedthe Christianattackson Judaismand the pressureto convertwiththephysicalattacksoftheMuslims,writing: "In theirwisdom,[the evil to the Jews,but theydo not kill and beat [the Christians]did everything Jews]thewaytheMuslimsdo."20The politicalsituationin theMaghrebwas far less stablethanthatin the OttomanEast, and the absence of a strongcentral led to riotsthatoftenengulfed thelocal Jewishpopulation. government thecentralaim of mostcontemporary Jewishaccountsof the Furthermore, to providea messageof expulsionwas nottojuxtaposeWestand East,butrather consolationforthe refugees,and hintat a broaderredemption for all Jews a seriesofmessianicreferences. in enunciating through Theywerenotinterested theterrestrial benefits ofone regionoroverlordagainstanother.EvenJosephhaKohen,who wrotebotha chronicleof his own experiencesas a Spanishrefugee as well as a historyof the "Franks"(European Christians)and the Turks, focusedon the eschatologicalimpactof conflictbetweenEast and primarily West.For Ha-Kohenand mostof theothercontemporary Sephardicchroniclers who had experiencedthetragediesof Iberianexpulsionand forcedconversion firsthand,theimportance oftheOttomanEmpireas a siteofJewishresettlement paled in comparisonto thegreaterrole it playedin thecosmicdramaof divine justiceand retribution. Theyemphasizedtheroleof Ottomanlandsas a divinely 19We to theirrenunciation of materialgaincomesat theend mayalso notethatAlkabetz'reference of a listof wishful-thinking of Conversomotives,includingthattheirdeathsin autointerpretations da-fésweresacrifices to God,andthattheirdecisionto emigrate to theLand of Israelwas in orderto "delightinthestonesandto rebuildthedustof itsruins." 20Citedin H. H. Ben Sasson,"The Generation oftheExpulsionConsidersitsFate,"(in Hebrew)Zion 26 (1961), 23-64. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 mention thatmanyoftherecentarrivalshad leftbecause,withtheestablishment of thePortugueseInquisitionthatsame year,manyConversosfearedthattheir lifein Portugalwas aboutto becomeconsiderably less idyllic.19 52 Jonathan Ray 21 of theSephardicJewsto theLand of Israel,1391JosephHacker,"The Relationand Immigration "Clio andtheJews:Reflections 1492,"(in Hebrew)Cathedra36 (1985), 3-35; Yosef H. Yerushalmi, in the SixteenthCentury," on JewishHistoriography Proceedings-AmericanAcademyfor Jewish The impactof the Research46-7 (1978-9), 607-38; Moshe Idei, "Religion,Thoughtand Attitudes: expulsionon theJews,"in Spain and theJews: TheSephardiExperience,1492 and After,ed. Elie Messianismin XVth "Jewishand Christian Kedourie(London,1992), 123-39; and EleazarGutwirth, CenturySpain" in The Expulsionof theJewsand theirEmigrationto theSouthernLow Countries (15th-16thC), ed. Luc Dequekerand WernerVerbeke(Leuven,1998), 1-22. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 createdsafe haventhatwas destinedto acceptthe new Jewishexodus. These historicaleventswere read as evidenceof divinewill and, withregardto the Ottomanreceptionof theJews,as divinerewardforJewand Turkalike.Jewish eventsoftheday- thegreatexpulsionofthe thecataclysmic authorsunderstood armies JewsfromSpainandtheclashoftheOttomanTurkswiththeChristian as harbingersof the Messianic Age. Consequently,fromthe very onset of in Ottomanlands became etchedin Jewishsettlement Sephardicemigration, Jewishmemory as a signpostofmessianicredemption.21 The migration patternsof the Sephardimin general,and the Portuguese at playin the thecomplexmixof motivations Conversosin particular, highlight Jews. Even for the Portuguese"nation" (naçao), lives sixteenth-century summarilyconvertedby royal fiat in 1497 and then subjectedto a newly after1536,religiousfreedomremainedonly establishedofficeof theInquisition one among a set of concernsgoverningtheirdecisionsabout migrationand afterthe to Judaismwell overa century resettlement. Some continuedto return conversionsof 1497, while othersoptedto live as secretJews.Such behavior of Jewishheritageforat leasta smallportion indicatesthecontinuedimportance thepull of thevariousforces even as it underscores of IberianNew Christians, thatcompelledthemto remainin theshadowof theInquisitionforgenerations. The questionof the religiousoutlookof the Conversosoccupiesan extensive and need not concernus here. With regardto the question of literature, it will in the easternMediterranean, fromIberia and resettlement emigration to who those Conversos sufficeto notethatmanyof onlybegan head Portuguese did not towardOttomanlands in the mid sixteenthcentury stay long before to Christian of thosereturning Europe.By theclose of the joiningin movement century,increasinglylarge numbersof the naçao began to forgothe move and set out forChristiantradingcenterssuch as Antwerp, eastwardaltogether, and Livorno. Amsterdam eastwardbeganto reverseitselfnot of Sephardicmigration Thatthepattern and runs JewishGoldenAge is significant, longaftertheonsetof theOttomanadvent of the the counterto thedramatictales of escape fromPortugalduring in second the Those who leftPortugalbeginning quarter Portuguese Inquisition. of the sixteenth centurywere forcedto followa patheastwardthatwas even morecircuitousthanthattraversed by theinitialwave of exiles.Manyof these Jewish Settlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 53 22CecilRoth,TheHouse ofNasi: Doña Gracia (Philadelphia,1948); and AndréeAelionBrooks,The WomanWhoDefiedKings: TheLifeand TimesofDoña Gracia Nasi, A JewishLeader Duringthe Renaissance(St. Paul,2002). On theAnconaboycottsee MarcSaperstein, Merchants and "Martyrs, Rabbis:JewishCommunalConflictas reflected in theResponsaon theBoycottof Ancona,"Jewish Social Studies 43 (1981), 215-28; and BernardDov Cooperman,"Portuguese'Conversos' in Ancona:JewishPoliticalActivityin EarlyModernItaly,"In Iberia and Beyond,ed. BernardDov Cooperman(Newark,1998),297-352. 23J.N. Hillgarth'sobservationthat"The rise of Sephardicculturein the OttomanEmpireis symbolizedby thefigureof JosephNasi (d. 1579),an exile fromPortugaland a 'CourtJew' on an scale" is characteristic of theway in whichtheatypicallivesof thesegrandeescontinues impressive to be seenas typicaland symbolicofthebroaderprocessof Sephardicmigration. J.N. Hillgarth, The Mirror of Spain, 1500-1 700: The Formation of a Myth(Ann Arbor,2000), 171. 24MeirBenayahu,RelationsbetweenGreekand ItalianJewry(in Hebrew)(Tel Aviv,1980), 173-85. 25VivianaBonazzoli has noted that the presenceof PortugueseConverso bankersin Ancona coincidedwiththe heydayof the Flandersmarketin preciousmetals.Viviana Bonazzoli,"Ebrei levantinisulla piazza commercialedi Anconaintornoalla metaCinquecento," italiani,portoghesi, Gli ebrei in Venezia,secoli XIV-XVIII, ed. Gaetano Cozzi (Milan, 1987), 732. See also the connectionbetweenVenetianand DutchSephardimwithregardto thedotarsociety,an institution Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 migrantsarrived in the Muslim cities of the eastern Mediterraneanvia the long and dangerous routethatran fromLisbon to Antwerpand Amsterdamthenon to Italian cities such as Ferrara and Venice- driven by a combined longing for religious freedomand mercantileopportunity.Perhaps the most famous of this second wave of Sephardic refugeeswere wealthy membersof the Nasi-Mendes clan including Doña Gracia Nasi and her nephew, Joseph Mendes, who were instrumentalin aiding the escape of fellow men and women of "the Portuguese Nation" along this route. For years, the stirringaccount of these larger-than-life figuresincludingtheirservice to the Ottoman sultans and theirbattles with the Inquisition have served as the prototypicalstory of Sephardic migrationfrom West to East- the perfectcoda to the grim tale of European expulsion and exclusion.22However, the lives of these Sephardic grandees were more striking than they were typical.23The triumphalpassage of these high profile figures fromWest to East has served to mask a less prominentthoughultimatelymore typical migrationof Jews in the other direction. Within a few decades of the arrival of Doña Gracia in Istanbul and her subsequent battle against the papal attack on her fellow Conversos in Ancona, there had already begun a small movementof Jews fromOttoman cities back westwardtoward the Netherlands. In 1590, long after Salónica had emerged as one of the most important commercial and intellectualcenters in the Jewish world, the rabbinic scholar JosephPardo leftthatcity in search of work in ChristianEurope. Pardo lived in Venice for a time before settlingin Amsterdam.24Those Converso merchants who did not continue on to the new Sephardic settlementsof NorthernEurope nonethelessremained in contact with them; and for a period of time in the mid sixteenthcenturythe Portuguesenaçao helped to linkthe older and newer halves of the Sephardic Diaspora.25 54 Jonathan Ray Miriam century. developedforthecare of poor Sephardicwomenand orphans,in the seventeenth inEarlyModernAmsterdam Bodian,HebrewsofthePortugueseNation:Conversosand Community 1997), 125-34. (Bloomington, and Coexistencein theEarlyModern 26EricDursteler,Venetiansin Constantinople: Nation,Identity Mediterranean 2006), 108. (Baltimore, 27Gérard Nahon,"FromNew Christiansto the PortugueseJewishNationin France,"in Moreshet 1992),336-64. Sepharad:TheSephardiLegacyv. 2, ed. HaimBeinart(Jerusalem, "EmissariesfromSafedto Mantuain the Greekand ItalianJewry;ShlomoSimonsohn, 28Benayahu, 17thand 18thCenturies," (in Hebrew)Sefunot6 (1962), 629-54; AbrahamDavid, "Two SixteenthEmissaries'LettersfromJerusalem," (in Hebrew)Shalem3 (1981), 325-32. Century Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 Jewishsettlement and mobility Despitepapal policies aimed at restricting the new raison d'état led to throughout Italy, manycitygovernments grantJews extensiveprivileges.Sourcesshowthatseveral"nations"of Christian merchants similar to those to various Jewish but soughtprivileges granted groups, werenot able to obtainthem.26 the mid sixteenth France had also extendedan By century, officialwelcometo Portuguesemerchants to settle there,and studiously seeking their rumors of Here,as ignored religiouspracticesdespitepopular Judaizing.27 well as in Italyand theNetherlands, a steadyinfluxof former Conversoswho had returned to Judaismhelpedto swell the ranksof the so-called"Western Sephardim."They establishedvibrant,long distancetradingnetworkswhose wealth and influenceeclipsed that of the smaller, Mediterranean-based merchants of the OttomanEmpire.Initially,the two halves of the Sephardic world maintainedlinks with one another;and as the Jewishmerchantsof Amsterdam, Venice, and Livornogrew in strength, theybegan to receive a in searchof financial of emissaries from the Ottoman communities steadystring the last of the the economic support.28 By quarter century, promisethathad in theeasternMediterranean had heretofore led manyJewsto favorsettlement the of to wane. From this begun pointonward, immigration Portugueseand the last remnants of the SpanishConversos, expulsionof 1492, was directed in NorthernEurope and othersites of the towardnew areas of settlement emergingWestern Sephardic Diaspora. It is perhaps too simplisticto characterize thisshiftsimplyas a resultof the long Ottomandecline.Ottoman Jewrycontinuedto show signs of economicwellbeingand culturalvitality theearlymodernperiod.Buteconomiccrisisdid appearfromtimeto throughout time, constrainingthe Jews' privilegedcircumstances,and leading those Conversoswho soughtto leave Iberiaand returnto Judaismto considerother optionsto achievethisobjective. JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-CenturyMediterranean 55 The reassessment of the Jewishpassage betweenthe EuropeanWest and the OttomanEast in the sixteenth centuryshouldalso promptus to reconsiderthe attendant of the Jewishexperiencein Christianand Muslim juxtaposition The Muslim world did, indeed,offerIberianJews who had been settings. an to forcibly baptized opportunity revertopenlyto theirancestralreligion,an of which many availed themselves.In the wake of Ottoman opportunity cities suchas Safed,Salónica,and Constantinople becameimportant expansion, forformer destinations Conversos.However,Conversosalso returned to Judaism in Italy,a phenomenon thatchallengestheneatdividebetweenthetworeligious OtherPortugueseConvesos lived as Christiansforyears in Italy contexts.29 beforemovingon to the OttomanEmpire.30The formerConverso,Samuel Usque, portrayedthe OttomanEmpire as a land of religiousfreedomthat beckonedthe Conversosto returnto Judaismthroughits gates. However,his magnumopus, a work of JewishapologeticsentitledConsolationfor the Tribulations of Israel, was not publishedunderOttomanaegis but in Ferrara, with a hostofotherimportant Jewishworks.The factthatUsque not Italy,along felt the need to console his fellow New butto convincethemof Christians, only thetruthof Judaismand theurgetheirreturn to theirancestralfaith,is itselfa statement ofthecompeting interests andpriorities ofthiscommunity.31 profound Ratherthanconfirming olderconceptsofthedivisionbetweenChristendom and Islamduringtheearlymodernperiod,theJewishexperiencein thesixteenth areas century appearsto supportrecenttheoriesof regionalcohesionin different of the Mediterranean.32 In a processthatechoed the fusionof Andalusiand Franco-German Jewishculturesin Christian IberiaduringthelaterMiddleAges, theJewishworldof thesixteenth establishedculturalunitin theeastern century Mediterranean that transcendedpolitical boundariesbetween Christianand Muslimstates.One ofthemostfascinating in consequencesofJewishsettlement Ottomanlands was theway in whichtheirstatusas Ottomansubjectsaltered theirrelationshipto ChristianEurope. This was particularly true for those Jewswho had arrivedin theEast as Christians, and therereverted to Portuguese 29EleazarGutwirth, "SephardiCultureof the 'Cairo Genizah People' (Fifteenthto Eighteenth Michael 14 (1997), 14. Centuries)," ibnLev,She'elotu-Teshuvot, 30Joseph {Responso)(Bene Brak,1988),part3, no. 75. 3'Samuel Usque, Consolationfor the Tribulationsof Israel, ed. and trans.MartinA. Cohen (Philadelphia,1965). of Europeanstatesinto that,priorto thelarge-scaleintervention 32MollyGreenemakestheargument the easternMediterranean in the seventeenthcentury,Christianpolities such as Venice had succeededin establishing a balancedrelationship withtheOttomansthatwas able to function despite religiousdifferences. MollyGreene,A Shared World:Christiansand Muslimsin theEarlyModern Mediterranean Venetians in Constantinople. (Princeton, 2000). See also Dursteler, Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 Between Christendomand Islam 56 Jonathan Ray has recognizedtheflowof ideas betweentheSephardimin Italyand thosein 33Modern scholarship theseideas.JosephHacker, Muslimlandsmorereadilythanithas theflowofpeoplewhotransported modern the of Ottoman scholar the Period,has depicted early during Jewry leading perhaps as unidirectional. JosephHacker,"The Sephardimof theOttoman Sephardicand Italianimmigration Empire,"in MoreshetSepharad,The SephardiLegacy v. 2, ed. Haim Beinart(Jerusalem,1992), 109-33. in Handbookof EuropeanHistory, 34Robert Bonfil,"Aliens Within:the Jewsand Anti-Judaism," Obermanand JamesD. Tracy(Leiden, 1994), 1400-1600,ed. ThomasA. Brady,Heiko Augustinus Storiad'Italia 11 isolamento," 262-302; RenataSegre,"La Controriforma: espulsioni,conversioni, (1996), 707-78. 35Heath of theOttomanTaxLowry,"Whendid theSephardimArrivein Salónica?The Testimony 1994),203Registers,1478-1613,"TheJewsoftheOttomanEmpire,ed. AvigdorLevy(Princeton, 313. to the Chartersof the JewishMerchantsof Venice," The 36BenjaminRavid, "An Introduction and theJews: Society,Cultureand Economyin Early ModernTimes,ed. Elliott Mediterranean in a Strange Horowitzand Moisés Orfali(RamatGan,2002), 203^7; and MinnaRozen,"Strangers Statusof Jewsin Italyand the OttomanEmpirein the Sixteenthto the Land: The Extraterritorial and Leadership,ed. AronRodrigue Ottomanand Turkish Centuries," Jewry:Community Eighteenth 1992), 152. (Bloomington, Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 Judaism.Ottomanapathy toward the religious orientationof Portuguese - was a key - whether to Judaism or reverted Conversos theyremainedChristian As therestrictive factorin theeconomicrevivalof thatcommunity.33 policiesof the curtail to the Catholic Counter-Reformation ability of severely began Conversos and formerConversos to live and work in ChristianEurope, in Ottomanlands allowed themto re-inventthemselvesas Jews. settlement measuresthatrangedfromtheproliferation of anti-Jewish the Despite institution of Ghettosto the burningof Conversosat the stake,Jewsand Conversosstill opted to settlein Italy and continuedto formpart of a single, if highly societywiththoselivingunderTurkishrule.34 peripatetic, in two citiesthatbecame major A briefcomparisonof Jewishsettlement Venice of Hispano-Jewishmigration destinations century, duringthe sixteenth and Salónica, challengesthe receivedtraditionof Jewishpreferencefor a Muslim ratherthan a Christianmilieu. Though Salónica eventuallybecame hometo one of theworld's largestpopulationsof Jewsof Iberianheritage,its emergenceas a majorJewishcenterwas relativelylate. Ottomantax records show that therewere no Jews living thereas late as 1478.35Venice, in even priorto 1492. comparison,was a destinationfor Sephardicsettlement of a the fifteenth century, steadyimmigration Jewsbeganto swell Throughout medieval thecity'ssmall Many of thesenew arrivalshad passed population.36 from their lands on Iberia,establishinga patternthat way throughOttoman the would continuethroughout followingcentury.In Venice, use of the term "Levantine"to describeJewsunderOttomanprotection appearsas earlyas 1476. or on common themore Here,thenametranscends emphasis religiousaffiliation to of ethno-cultural emphasize political origin categoriesbased on place JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 57 Trade:The Emergenceof theLevantinesand Ponentines," Arbel,"Jewsin International 37Benjamin TheJewsofEarlyModernVenice,ed. RobertC. Davis and BenjaminRavid(Baltimore, 2001), 75-6. 38Onthelegalstatusof theSephardimas theymovedbetweenItalianand Ottomancities,see Minna in a StrangeLand;" BrianPulían,"A ShipwithTwo Rudders,'RighettoMarrano' Rozen,"Strangers and the Inquisitionin Venice,"HistoricalJournal(1977), 25-58; and Arbel,"Emergenceof the Levantinesand Ponentines," 73-96. 39Arbel, "EmergenceoftheLevantinesand Ponentines." 40Hirschberg, Historyof the Jews in NorthAfrica;MercedesGarcía Arenal and Gerald Albert Wiegers,A Man of ThreeWorlds:Samuel Pallache, A MoroccanJew in Catholicand Protestant Europe (Baltimore,2003); Yosef H. Yerushalmi,"ProfessingJews in Post-ExpulsionSpain and Salo Wittmayer BaronJubileeVolume,ed. Saul Lieberman(Jerusalem, Portugal," 1974), 1023-58; JoséAlbertoRodriguesda Silva Tavim,Os Judeusna expansäoportuguesaem Marrocosduranteo séculoXVI: Origense actividadesdumaComunidade(Lisbon 1997); and JeanFrédéricSchaub,Les Juifsdu Roi d'Espagne(Paris,1999). Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 identitiesand the benefitsthatwentwiththem.In this instancethe Venetian in distinguishing senatewas primarily interested betweenOttomanand Venetian in the and the relative limits of theirrightsas merchants.37 subjectsresiding city to freedom were but Rights religious important, so were rightsthatoffered and economic politicalprotection mobility. The conceptof theLevantinesand Ponentines, theformerevolvingintoa reference to theearlierwave of SephardicJewswho had arrivedin Italyvia the OttomanEmpireandthelattera euphemism forthelaterwave ofConversoswho arriveddirectlyfrom Portugal,remainedimportantcategoriesof identity of these employedin Italyformuchof theearlymodernperiod.The persistence another of at the role of the of categoriessuggests way looking development Mediterranean Jewishhistoryduringthisperiod.RatherthanviewingOttoman cities merelyas a terminusfor Jews fleeinginquisitorialEurope we might considerthemas thepointof transition thatallowed forthere-entry of Iberian Jews into Christian While (and other) Europe. many Sephardimsettled in Ottoman others used them as a means of establishing lands, permanently that enabled them to and even resettlein the politicalprotection reengage Christian citiesofItaly,theNetherlands, andbeyond.38 The development of thenew conceptualcategoriesof the"Levantines"and the"Ponentines" is, perhaps,thegreatestexampleof Jewishabilityto transcend thedividesbetweenChristianand Muslimterritories, and theabilityof certain Christian authorities to accommodate themin thisregard.39 The use ofthesenew ethno-national to dissemble, categoriesspeaksvolumesaboutJewishwillingness and Christianwillingnessto ignore religiousinequitiesall as long as all interested partiesbenefited economically. The regionalJewishsocietythat formedacross the political divisions betweentheOttomanEmpireand Italy'smercantile centersalso had itsparallel in theWesternMediterranean.40 The economicopportunities waxed and waned over the course of the sixteenthcentury,but many Jewishmerchantsand 58 Jonathan Ray 41HaimBeinart,"Fez as a Centerof Returnto Judaismin the SixteenthCentury,"(in Hebrew) "Un documentosobreel comerciorealizadopor Sefunot8 (1964), 319-34; and Rica Amrán-Tedghi, judíos en la ciudadde Ceuta,"Estudiosde HistoriaMedievalen Homenajea Luis SuárezFernández (Valladolid,1991),25-8. Jews." ArenalandWiegers,A Man ofThreeWorlds,39-52; andYerushalmi, 42García "Professing 43ElijahCapsali,Seder EliyahuZuta, citedin David Raphael,The Expulsion1492 Chronicles,43; and Nicholasde Nicolay,citedin DonatellaCalabi, "The Jewsand theCityin theMediterranean UrbanCulture,1400-1700,ed. AlexanderCowan,(Exeter,2000), 59. Area,"Mediterranean 44Damiäode Gois, Cronicado felicissimoRei. D. Manuel,4 vols.,ed. JoaquimMartinsTeixerade Carvalhoand David Lopes (Coimbra,1926),v. 3, 46. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 withthe courtiers faredquitewell as a resultofthecontactsthattheymaintained Iberianpolities.The Sephardicexperiencein NorthAfricaduringthesixteenth that theambiguousattitude once againhighlights centuries and earlyseventeenth of PortugueseConversoshad towardJudaism. thesecondand thirdgeneration Here, as in Italy,manyPortugueseNew Christiansmoved withrelativeease andJudaism.41 betweenIberiaand Morocco,and betweenChristianity Sephardic of their drew knowledge Spanish,Portugueseand Arabic to upon diplomats create a privilegedposition for themselves,and some even convertedto theircareers.42 in orderto operatemorefreelyin Iberiaand further Christianity with attendant the whereandwhento resettle Decisionsregarding political along and personal.Modern and culturalallegianceswereoftenhighlycontextualized conceptsof tolerance,religiousfreedom,and culturalpridefail to capturethe calculationthatgovernedthelivesoftheseJewsas theyweighed nearlyconstant Jewishchroniclersand Christiantravelers restrictions against opportunities. ofSephardicartisanswith fromtheimmigration notedthattheOttomansprofited in thisregard,and also benefited But in expertise weapons-making.43 Portugal lent their not Jews of the knowledgeof weaponry, only baptized recently many Old Christians the so-called also againstNorthAfrican they foughtalongside Muslims.44 It is essentialto bear in mindthatthe Jewishand Conversospherethat the developedbetweenPortugalandtheMaghrebin thewakeof 1492prefigured in seventeenth the Western SephardicDiaspora emergenceof the so-called century.This later set of Sephardicnetworksdeveloped by formerNew ChristiansfromPortugalwho settledin Amsterdamand the Americas is traditionally juxtaposedwiththe so-calledEasternSephardimof the Ottoman world,with whom theywere only loosely linked.The distinctoriginsand of thesetwo wingsof the SephardicDiaspora as theydevelopedin trajectories centurieshave overshadowedthe substantially and eighteenth the seventeenth different regionalgroupingsof the sixteenthcentury.For this earlierperiod, culturalor religious different divisionsbetweenWestand East did notrepresent spheres of European Christendomand Middle Eastern Islam. Rather,the Fez and economicneedsofthekingdomsof Spain,Portugal, politicalaspirations JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 59 The Question of the Golden Age: The notionofan OttomanJewishGoldenAge remaineda dominant themeinthe collectivememoryof earlymodernJewry.47 As withthe authorsof the first of the SephardiDiaspora,thosewritingin the seventeenth generation century continuedto fosteran imageof the OttomanJewishGoldenAge. And as had been the case with theirpredecessors,these seventeenth-century depictions servedto promotea particular toutedtheidea of agenda.This latergeneration the OttomanEmpireas a haven forJewishmerchants, ratherthanreligious in Jewish authors cities such as Venice and Amsterdamwrote refugees. about the wealth and freedom attained Jews under Turkishrule passionately by as a meansto enticeEuropeanauthorities to grantsimilarbenefits to Jewsliving undertheircontrol.They emphasizedthe connectionbetweenEuropeanJews and theirbrethren in theEast, arguingthatJewsbettertreatment of theformer would help to enrichthe treasuriesof Europeanrulersmuchas the Jewshad done forthe SublimePorte.Over the course of the earlymodernperiodthe popularimageof theJewamongmanyEuropeansbegan to shiftfromthatof pettyusurersto membersof a potentand menacingcommercialnetwork.The 45Fortheroleofreligiousandpoliticalboundariesinthisregionsee therecenttreatment ofthelifeof Leo Africanusby Natalie Zemon Davis, TricksterTravels:A Sixteenth-Century Muslimbetween Worlds(New York,2006). These communities eventuallygot foldedinto the dynamictradingnetworksof the emerging WesternSephardicDiasporacentered on Amsterdam. 47Asit does withinmodernhistoriography, thatoffersa more despitea steadilygrowingliterature complex portraitof this subject. See Halil Inalcik, "The Foundationsof Ottoman-Jewish ed. AvigdorLevy(Syracuse,2002), 3-14; HenryMéchoulan, Jews,Turks,Ottomans, Cooperation," "La expansióngeográficadel mundosefardídespuésde la expulsiónde 1492,"Actesdel Simposi Internacional sobreCulturaSefardita, ed. JosepRibera(Barcelona,1993),9-28; AvigdorLevy,The Sephardimin theOttomanEmpire(Princeton, 1992), 13- 41; AnnetteB. Fromm,"HispanicCulture in Exile: SephardicLife in the OttomanBalkans,"Sephardicand MizrahiJewry,ed. Zion Zohar to (New York, 2005), 159; and Mark Kligman,"Diversityand Uniqueness:An Introduction SephardicLiturgicalMusic,"Sephardicand MizrahiJewry,259. The lureof theGoldenAge as a of thissubject.Mark Epstein conceptualmodel is evidentin even the finestscholarlytreatments thathis goal is ultimately "to beginshis finestudyof JewishlifeunderOttomanrulebyannouncing understand themannerinwhichJewscontributed to theprosperity and successoftheOttomanTurks and theirstate."MarkAlan Epstein,OttomanJewishCommunities and theirRole in theFifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Freiberg,1980), 1. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 and a host of smallersemi-independent Barbarystates generallysurpassed in concerns much as did the EasternMediterranean.45 This religious they situationallowed for the establishment of an earlierversionof a western Jewsthatlastedfor SephardicDiasporamade up of Conversosand professing severalgenerations.46 60 Jonathan Ray - The 48BenjaminBraude, "The Mythof the SephardiEconomic Superman,"TradingCultures Adelman and ed. Worldsof Western Merchants:Essays on Authority, Objectivity Evidence, Jeremy and StephenAron(Turnhout, 2001), 163. Ravid, "'How Profitablethe Nationof the JewesAre': The 'Humble Addresses'of 49Benjamin and Politicians, Menassehben Israeland the'Discorso' of SimoneLuzzatto,"Mystics, Philosophers, ed. JehudaReinharzand Daniel Swetschinski (Durham,1982), 159-80. and the Worldof Maritime a Diaspora: Jews,Crypto-Jews I. Israel,Diasporas Within Jonathan Empires(1540-1740) (Boston,2002), 55-6. 51JudahAsaheldel Bene,SeferKis 'otle-VeitDavid (Verona,1646),parteight,sections48-9. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 influential assertionthatJewscontrolled a greatdeal of worldtrade increasingly oftenas a resultof Frenchand foundits locus withthe Sephardimerchants, to attacktheirSpanishand Ottomanrivals.48The conceptof Englishattempts Sephardiceconomicpower was thenpicked up and promotedin a positive mannerby figuressuch as Menasseh ben Israel who used it to buttresshis oftheJewsto England.49 campaignfortheformalreadmission To be sure,theJewswho settledin Ottomanlandscreateda tradingnetwork fromthe Mediterranean to India and beyond,specializingin the thatstretched of a and manufacturing transshipment dizzyingarrayof products.However,the tradewas subjectto the same challenges,and success of Jewishlong-distance suffered the same setbacks,as generalOttomantrade.These challengescame mostnotablyVenice,and therapidlyexpandingcolonial fromItaliancity-states, of theSpanishand Portuguese.Alreadyby thelate sixteenth networks century, at theIberiankingdomshad checkedOttomandominancein theMediterranean the battleof Lepanto,and successfullycurtailedOttomanmercantileactivity throughoverseas expansion and more efficientmodes of production.50 Moreover,therevivalof Jewishtradein theOttomanBalkansand Anatoliafor centuries was notdue to and earlyseventeenth shortperiodsduringthesixteenth that allowed Jews to flourish. On the any particulargovernmental policy mercantile contacts were due to Jewish such economic resurgences contrary, withVenice,Ferraraand Livorno,foritwas theeconomicsuccessofthesecities thatallowed thatwas thetrueengineforgrowthin theregion.The protections of Italian did not economic forthe continued Jewry go unnoticed. importance Judah del went so faras to Jewishpreacher, The seventeenth-century Bene, in with the "shame and juxtapose the justice of Christianlordship Ferrara byJewsat thehandsofMuslimrulers.51 disgrace"suffered One of the mostremarkablefeaturesof thisregionalJewishsocietythat was its intellectualproduction.In developed in the easternMediterranean additionto theirmercantilesuccess, these Jewishcommunities producedan to legal abundanceof rabbinicliterature rangingfromnew formsof mysticism and exegeticalworks.To a certainextent,Hispano-Jewish actually immigration This theMediterranean. lifethroughout actedas a catalystforJewishintellectual the shock of to the fact that was not, as previouslythought,primarilydue JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 61 52Gershom Scholem,Major TrendsinJewishMysticism (Jerusalem, 1941),248-50. See also Rachel Elior,"Breakingthe Boundariesof Time and Space in KabbalisticApocalypticism," Apocalyptic Time,ed. AlbertI. Baumgarten (Leiden,2000), 187-97. 53Abraham Lifeat theTurn-of-the-Sixteenth-Century David,"JewishIntellectual KingdomofNaples accordingto HebrewSources,"MateriaGiudaica 11 (2006): 143-51. Moshe Idei, "EncountersbetweenItalian and Spanish Kabbalistsin the Generationafterthe in the SephardicWorld,ed. BenjaminR. Gampel (New York, Expulsion,"Crisis and Creativity 1997), 189-222. 55Abraham Ya'ari, HebrewPrintingin Constantinople (in Hebrew)(Jerusalem, 1967). The Nahmias contributions to the printing and Jewish family,originallyfromSpain, made significant industry intellectualculturein both Salónica and Venice. See Benjamin Ravid, "Contra Judaeos in Seventeenth-Century Italy: Two Responses to the Discorso of Simone Luzzatto by Melchiore Palonrotti andGiulioMorosini,"AJSReview7/8(1983), 301-51. 56Seeforexamplearguments betweenRabbi Meir of Padua and Moses Alashkarof Egyptover eventstakingplace in Candia,Crete.Moses Alashkar,She'elot u-Teshuvot {Responso)(Jerusalem, 1988 [Sabbioneta,1554]),nos.99 and 114. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 and expulsion forced Jewish authors into a new mode of introspection lamentation.52 Rather,theIberianrefugeescontinuedtheiralreadydynamicand from prolificcareersin spiteof thetraumaof expulsion.ItalianJewrybenefited of leadingscholarlyfiguresfromIberiabothbefore1492 and theimmigration intellectual ties withJewsof Ottoman after,and the regionsharedimportant Ifwe areto singleout and seventeenth centuries.53 landsthroughout thesixteenth areas in whichexiles fromtheirnativeland helped to shape and encourage Jewishintellectual production, theyarenotto be foundin therealmof emotional to the of responses tragedy expulsion,but ratherin thatof logistics.First,the forcedmigrationof Jews across the Mediterranean broughtJews into close contactwithone anotherin new and important Talmudists, ways.Philosophers, Kabbalistsand poets who had inhabiteddistinctintellectualcircleswhile in Iberia now encounteredone anotherin exile, along with the nativeJewish authorstheymetin thesenew areas of settlement.54 Second,the arrivalof the in exiles them into to the burgeoning Spanish Italybrought greaterproximity in there. their residence the of cities printindustry During sixteenth-century Jewishauthors Italy,sojournsthatwereoftenshort,butnonetheless productive, converted scoresofold andnewtreatisesintoprinted volumesthatwouldhavea massiveimpacton thedevelopment of Jewishintellectual lifeforcenturies. As writers and movedeastward,theybroughtwiththemthis Jewish entrepreneurs inprinting interest to theirnewhomesintheOttomanEmpire.55 Italianand Ottomanrabbisalso formedimportant tieswithone another, and the disputesthatragedbetweenthemtranscendpoliticalboundaries.56 In this regard,theworldof theeasternSephardimcontrasts notablywiththatof their in the westernMediterranean. Several Spanish kabbalistswho counterparts settledin NorthAfrica in the years immediatelyfollowingthe expulsion 62 Jonathan Ray 57MosheIdei,"SpanishKabbalahaftertheExpulsion,"MoreshetSepharad:TheSephardiLegacy,v. 2, ed. HaimBeinart(Jerusalem, 1992), 175. 58Thesituationwas verysimilarin earlymodernMorocco whereJewishnotablescompetedfor Garcia patronageat courtthe subsequentinfluencethisgave themwithinthe Jewishcommunity. Arenaland Wiegers,A Man ofThreeWorlds,35-8. courtier. of theJewishcommunalleadersin Istanbulto ban an influential 59Seethe failedattempt in Istanbul,74-9; and YaronBen Naeh,Jewsin theRealmoftheSultans: Rozen,JewishCommunity Ottoman JewishSocietyin theSeventeenth (Tübingen,2008), 203-5. Century Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 in Egyptand theLevant.57 establishedtiesto theJewishcommunities However, theseconnections wereshort-lived, and bythemidsixteenth the century Jewries in were far more involved the of OttomanJewish of Christian Italy development trendsthanthoseofMorocco. intellectual Withregardto Jewishstatusand liberty, Ottomantreatment oftheJewswas of Muslim toleration of minorities based on thelongstanding protected practice were to a Turkish, zimini).Thoughthey (Arabic,dhimmi, subjected specialtax, andcertainotherrestrictions, all Jewsin theEmpireweregenerally grantedgreat religiousand socio-politicalfreedom.Yet, while Jewishculturalachievements it shouldalso be notedthateven and generalautonomy are,indeed,noteworthy, their thosepointsof government also had downside.As had been the support theMiddleAges, Jewishtiesto centralauthority oftencame at case throughout Thishad withtheirMuslimand Christian theexpenseofrelationships neighbors. been thecase underByzantineand Arabrule,and it was all themoreso under the Turkswho were viewedby Arabs and Greeksalike as foreigninterlopers. And suchjealousiesdid notonlybreakalongthelinesof religiouscommunities. and theabilityto achievegreat Jewishsocietywas rifewithinternalconflicts, wealthand powerthroughgovernment supportonlyservedto exacerbatethese resultsof Ottomantoleranceand largesswas tendencies.One of theunforeseen increased and often bittercompetitionamong Jews vying for lucrative jobs.58Those who did attainpositionsof favorwithinthe upper government wereoftenviewedwithtrepidation echelonsofOttomanbureaucracy bytherest ofJewishsociety.59 Jewsalso availedthemselvesof theMuslimcourtsystemas theyhad done railedat the willingnessof the Middle Ages. Rabbinicauthorities throughout - thatis, cases that Muslimjudges to ruleon cases outsideof theirjurisdiction shouldhavebeengovernedbyJewishlaw butcoulddo littleto preventit.The acceptanceof Jewishlitigantsin Muslim courtsalso aggravatedthe age-old and slandererswho would threatento denounce problemof Jewishinformers theirfellowJews(usuallyfalsely)to Ottomanofficialsif theydid notgettheir fromsuchblackmailand from to protectJewishcommunities way. In an effort the very real repercussionsmeted out for such made-up crimes, rabbis sometimesexaggeratedtheharshnatureof Muslimjustice.Embellishedor not, stand in starkcontrastto the rosy pictureof such rabbinicpronouncements JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 63 and the Sixteenth Shmuelevitz,The Jews of the OttomanEmpirein the Late Fifteenth 60Aryeh toDawn,94-5; and AmnonCohen,A Centuries(Leiden,1984),70-1. See also Gross,FromTwilight WorldWithin:JewishLife as Reflectedin MuslimCourtDocumentsfromthe Sijil of Jerusalem (XVIthCentury) (Philadelphia,1994). 61TheMuslimswho leftSpainafterthefallof Granadain 1492werelaterjoined byHispano-Muslim convertsto Catholicism(Moriscos),who fledto NorthAfricaduringthe failedAlpujarrasrevolts (1568-72), andwerefinallyexpelledbetween1609and 1614.L. P. Harvey,Muslimsin Spain,15001614 (Chicago,2005), 291-331; andGarcíaArenaland Wiegers,A Man ofThreeWorlds,50. 62Theexperienceof Middle EasternJewswho have come to settlein Israel have takenon a new identityas "Mizrahim"thatfurther emphasizesthe split betweenWesternand EasternJewish Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 Ottomanacceptanceof Jewishsettlerspaintedby Capsali and Zarfati,and oftenconflicting, remindus thatthereexisteda varietyof different, ways in in Ottomansociety.60 theirstatusand security whichJewsportrayed beneficialto theimageof theOttomanEmpireas intrinsically Nonetheless, Jewishreligiousexpressionand economicwellbeingcontinuedto blur these detailsof Jewishlife. By 1700, the descendantsof the Spanishrefugeeshad in manyofthecities thenativeJewishcommunities succeededin overwhelming in whichtheyhad come to settle,and theirlanguage,religiouscustoms,and muchof the culturesoon became standardthroughout popularand intellectual OttomanEmpire.The eventualdominanceof Sephardicidentityhelped to elementsof the narrative or theirexpulsionand the moretriumphal reinforce resettlement. This that and story emphasizedthecontinuity subsequent migration Jewishheritageinthefaceofgreatadversity ofHispanodependedon a modelof Jewish migrationthat juxtaposed Christian intolerancewith Ottoman benevolence. This basic narrativeendured among Sephardic communitieseven as Europeanpowersbecame a dominantpoliticaland economicpresencein the and nineteenth centuriesthreedistinct,if Middle East. Duringthe eighteenth in medieval Iberiaemergedwithinthe of the Jewish past overlapping, images in SephardicDiaspora.The Sephardim NorthAfrica,theOttomanEmpire,and WesternEuropeall continuedto promotetheirIberianheritagewithpride,but each groupadjustedthe meaningof this culturallegacy to fittheirpresent In NorthAfrica,Jewishlongingfortheirlosthomelandfocusedon the situation. pre-Christian periodof Jewishlife in al-Andalus,a processthatwas greatly influencedby the arrivalof IberianMuslimswho also migratedout of the For these and seventeenth centuries.61 Peninsulaoverthecourseof thesixteenth Jews,theirexpulsionfromSpain became a sharedbond withthe surrounding Muslimsociety,and a meansby whichtheycould lay claim to the respected traditions of al-Andalus.In the Europeanand Ottomancontexts,the HispanoJewishcultureofthelaterMiddleAges predominated. However,theJewsofthe WesternSephardicDiaspora began to distancethemselvesfromthose in the of theJews,the of Voltaire'snegativecharacterization East.62In his admonition 64 Jonathan Ray Conclusion The transitionof Hispano-Jewishlife between the Westernand Eastern was a gradualprocessthatbegan long beforethe expulsionof Mediterranean identities. See Ella Shohat,"The Invention oftheMizrahim," JournalofPalestineStudies29 (1999), 5-20. andJehuda ed. Paul Mendes-Flohr 63Citedin TheJewin theModernWorld:A Documentary History, Reinharz(New York,1995),305-08. Jews: TheAllianceIsraélite 64OntheAlliancein Turkey,see AronRodrigue,FrenchJews,Turkish Universelle and thePoliticsofJewishSchoolingin Turkey, 1860-1925(Bloomington, 1990). Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 eighteenth-century Sephardic philosopherand economist Isaac de Pinto comparedthe WesternSephardimfavorablyto the Ashkenazim,much as MenassehbenIsraelhad donethecentury before.Unlikeben Israel,however,he did notlinktheSpanishand PortugueseJewsof Hollandand Franceto thosein Muslimlands.63 The events of the final decades of Ottomanrule and the subsequent or destruction of mostlocal Jewishcommunities bothpreservedand departure, the narrative of Ottoman-Jewish Much like the Spanish challenged history. the dissolution of the Ottoman fostered immediate itself, expulsion Empire of its final of Jews. feelings nostalgia among generation During the late nineteenth a new of Jewish academics had begunto century, crop European that the ideal for Jewish cultural efflorescence was the sortof argue paradigm in that had existed medieval Iberia. When multi-ethnic, heterogeneous society thisnotionarrivedin the OttomanEmpirethroughthe associationof FrenchJewishschools directedby the Alliance IsraéliteUniverselleit was easily to includemodernOttomansociety.64 As thefinalchapterofOttomanamplified Jewishlifecame to a close, theconceptof a lostworld,of an age of symbiosis thatbenefited Turkand Jewalike,was extendedto includethewholeof Jewish in the Ottoman history Empire. This tendencyto generalizeaboutOttomanJewryand to lean heavilyupon theimageof a lostGoldenAge remainswithus today.Considering thetensions betweenJewsand Muslimsin thepost OttomanMiddle East, the interest and emotionalinvestment in thisportrait of a halcyonperiodis understandable. It is also notwithouta measureof validity.Thatthe Jewslivingin Ottomanlands is enjoyed a great deal of generalprosperityand culturalaccomplishment undeniable.Andthemanyefforts oftheirdescendants to preservethememory of to one of the most illustrious this proudhistorystandas a livingtestament chaptersin the historyof the Jewishpeople. Yet, the exact natureof Jewish civilizationin theMuslimworldand therelationship betweentheJewsand the Ottomanstateresistsneatcharacterizations andgeneralities. JewishSettlement in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean 65 65Thestatisticalinformation in thisregard,while lackingin detail,is nonethelessconvincing.See AmnonCohen and BernardLewis, Populationand Revenuein the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Arrivein Salónica?" (Princeton, 1978); and Lowry,"WhendidtheSephardim Century Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/mediterranean-studies/article-pdf/18/1/44/1338125/mediterraneanstu_18_2009_44.pdf by guest on 06 February 2022 and seventeenth 1492, and developedslowlyover the courseof the sixteenth centuries.The settlement of the exiles and their descendants were patterns determined a of concerns of which the desire for freedom by variety religious was onlyone. EventhoseJewswhohad beenbaptizedin Portugalandwerethus and persecution mostin dangerof scrutiny continuedto settle by theInquisition in the mercantilecities of ChristianItaly as much as theydid those of the in theOttoman Muslimworld.Even duringtheheightof Sephardicsettlement a with a host of anti-Jewish lands, periodcontemporaneous policiesenforcedby theCounter-Reform and the the Christian papacy Inquisition, tradingentersof remained attractive destinations for Jews and Conversos alike. Italy The gradual natureof Sephardic migrationacross the early modern Mediterranean also calls attention to thefactthatthesubstantial and protection that most these Jews would come to under Ottoman rule was prosperity enjoy not immediate.The continuedfocus on Muslim attitudestowardreligious factorsin preventing minoritiesoverlooksthe role played by circumstantial the first wave of Jewish exiles from manyamong HispanoreachingOttoman of a relatively smallnumberof lands.The arrivalin theeasternMediterranean thefactthat who had lived the has masked scholars through expulsion prominent fromWestto mostof theexilesdid notlive longenoughto makethistransition and settlement wereextremely East. Initially, theprospectsforJewishmigration in limited,and as a resultthecenterof Sephardicliferemained IberiaandNorth thatthebulk Africa.It was notuntiltheseconddecade of thesixteenth century the of Sephardicpopulationshifted to theeasternMediterranean.65 Furthermore, wealth,protectionand intellectualdevelopmentenjoyed by the Sephardic who settledin Ottomanlandsdid notset themapartfromthosein immigrants formeda stable Italy.The Jewsthatcame to settlein theeasternMediterranean thatpassed easilybetweenMuslimand Christian yethighlymobilecommunity lands to live and trade.Despite the severe measuressufferedby Jews and Conversosalike,Sephardicmerchants and intellectuals continuedto thrivein a withtheirbrethren numberof Italiancities,in largepartdue to theirconnections in Muslimlands.Similarly, theSephardimwho settledin NorthAfricabeyond the limitsof Ottomansovereignty remainedculturallyand economicallyto Christian Iberiaformostof thesixteenth It was onlyat theclose of the century. thatthesebondsbecamesupersededbylinksto thenew Sephardiccenter century inAmsterdam.