While 1492 is commonly known for being the year that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World by virtue of the Spanish Crown it also marks the official start of the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews from the lands of the Spanish sovereignty. While a migration of European settlers began flooding the New World, hundreds of thousands of Iberian Jews who had their lives uprooted by marginalization and persecution underwent a simultaneous diaspora eastward. To escape violence, the Sephardim (Shapard  “The Jews of Spain”) traveled to areas where they would benefit from heightened status and opportunity. Subsequently, the primary destination for these migrants was the Ottoman Empire.

 

There are many angles to examine when studying an ‘event’ that lasted almost four hundred years. This project investigates the Jewish migration that occurred as a result of their expulsion for Iberia. Through compiling first hand accounts of different sections of this diaspora, I intend to tell the stories of the migration. As they form a broader narrative the difference between the Jewish experience living under the rule of Christians versus under the authority of Islam comes to light. Whereas Jews experienced a long history of persecution in not only Iberia, but also other regions of Christian Europe prior to the Spanish Inquisition, they occupied a respected and relatively comfortable place in the Ottoman Empire at this same time. The primary accounts in this investigation shed light on various aspects and angles that, when compiled, create the narrative of tolerance in each setting. Legal status, economic production and ethnic/religious bias materialize through these case studies. Not only will my project track the Sephardic Diaspora from Iberia but it will also thoroughly compare the tolerance afforded to Jews in Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire by way of these factors.

 

The central substance of this investigation is a mapping that not only illustrates the Sephardic migration, but also tells the story of tolerance. Each mark on the map is accompanied by a primary source account that describes the events or circumstances of that specific location. Through tracking the these marks linearly by date, the difference between Judeo-Christian and Judeo-Islamic tradition materializes.