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Evidence from the Ottoman Empire
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  • 1454 Edirne (Then Capital of the Ottoman Empire): Isaac Zafati:  “. … I proclaim to you that Turkey is a land wherein nothing is lacking, and where if you will, all shall yet be well with you. The way to the Holy Land lies open to you through Turkey. Is it not better for you to live under Muslims that under Christians? Here every man may dwell at peace under his own vine and fig tree. Here you are allowed to wear the most precious garments. In Christendom, on the contrary, you dare not even venture to clothe your children in red or blue, according to our taste, without exposing them to the insult of beaten black or blue, or kicked green and red, and therefore are ye condemned to go about meanly clad in sad colored raiment … and now, seeing all these things, … Arise! And leave this accursed land forever!” (Jews of Islam, 135-136)

  • 1477 Istanbul: Census reveals Jews as third largest population in the city (Inalcik, Halil, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600 (New York: Praeger Publishers Inc. 1973) 141.)

  • c. 1493 Candia, Crete, Eliyahu Capsali: “those communities that lived near the sea boarded boats from Biscay, Catalonia and Castile, some large and some small, for when news of the decree was announced, these boats came from far away as Genoa and Venice. Some set sail for the Muslim lands, such as Oran, Alcasar, and Bougie, which are far from the coast of Cartagena. Thousands and tens of thousands of people came to the port of Oran. The inhabitants of the country, on seeing the number of ships, complained and … shot at the ships with cannon and other instruments and destroyed part of the Jews. But in the end, when they heard of the expulsion, the king received them kindly… Once the Jews finally landed on dry land, they sought for themselves places to settle, but the city was too small to absorb them. The king then built them wooden housing outside the city walls.” (The Jews of Spain, Gerber, 147)

  • 1498, Istanbul (Constantinople) Elijah Mizrahi: Spanish Jews pass Byzantine Jews by population in Istanbul. (Bernard Lewis)

  • (Published in 1523) (Probably Istanbul (Constantinople) Elijah Kapsali: “The Jews gathered together from all the cities of Turkey, both far and near, each person coming from his own place, and the community gathered in Constantinople in its thousands and its tens of thousands. The heavens helped them too, and the king provided them perfect estates and houses filled with all kinds of goodness. The Jews resided there with their families and their clans, they were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied, and the land was full of them. From that day on, whenever the kind conquered a place where there were Jews, he would immediately shake them up and drive the them from there - and dispatch them to Constantinople, the seat of his kingdom, and he would pick them up and cuddle them for ever…”  (Hacker, The Sugun System, 6-7)

  • 1551 (Most likely Istanbul (Constantinople) Nicholas de Nicolay: “not long since banished and driven from Spain and Portugal, who, to the great detriment and damage of Christendom, have taught the Turk several inventions, artifices and machines of war, such as how to make artillery, arquebuses, gunpowder, cannonballs, and other weapons.” (Jews of Islam, 134-135)

  • 1553-1555 Constantinople Hans Dernschwam: “You will find in every town innumerable Jews of all countries and languages. And every Jewish group sticks together in accordance with its language. And wherever Jews have been expelled in any land they all come together in Turkey as thick as vermin… In Constantinople, the Jews are as thick as ants. The Jews themselves are very numerous. However in the tax list of the past year of 1533 there are supposed to have been 15,035 Jews not counting women and children, and 6,785 Christians...” (Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World , 412)

  • 1553-1555 Salonica Hans Dernschwam: “Not far from Adrianople is a city on the Aegean called Salonica. It is believed that more Jews live there than in Constantinople; they say about 20,000. Many are cloth-weavers whose products are sold throughout Turkey…” (Jacob Marcus, The Jews in the Medieval World, 413)

  • 1556: Istanbul (Constantinople) Vicente Roca: “Here at Constantinople are many Jews, descendants of those whom the Catholic King Don Ferdinand ordered to be driven forth of Spain, and would that it had pleased God that they be drowned in the sea coming hither!” (Jews of Islam, 135)

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