Assimilation of Sephardic Jews Into European and Ottoman Cultures - Research Paper Example

Assimilation of Sephardic Jews Into European and Ottoman Cultures Introduction The focus of this paper is to determine whether or not the Sephardim Jews, those people expelled from Spain in 1492 for their non-Christian beliefs, were received into the Ottoman Empire by Muslims, and whether or not there is evidence to suggest that other European countries rejected the Sephardim Jews because they were Jews. Numerous undertakings have been attempted by social scholars, historians and clerics alike to document and understand the movement and final whereabouts of the Sephardic Jewish population following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Taking the various works as a body of information, pertinent facts and information do emerge which when studied together do yield some understanding and a historical picture begins to develops as to where Sephardic Jews immigrated to. However, the question here is whether or not they were better received, more welcomed, and assimilated into the Ottoman Empire as immigrants as a welcomed people while being turned away from other European nations because of their non-Christian beliefs and their refusal to convert to Christianity. The books and journal articles relied upon in this paper helps piece together the information needed to begin to answer the questions posed. Those works are by Avigdor Levy, The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire (1992),1 Bernard Lews’ The Jews of Islam (1984),2 Henry Kamen’s journal article titled The Mediterranean and the Expulsion of Spanish Jews in 1492, appearing in the Oxford University Press publication Past and Present (1988),3 Benjamin Ravid, in his article titled The Legal Studies of the Jewish Merchants of Venice, 1541-1638, appearing in the Economic History Association’s publication The Journal of Economic History (1975),4 Diane Owen Hughes, whose research on the subject can be found in the collection titled Medieval Renaissance Texts and Studies: Persons in Groups, Social Behavior as Identity Formation in Medieval and Renaissance Euro;5 there emerges much in support of the notion that while a significant number of Jews whose lives were interrupted by expulsion from Spain in 1492, successfully resettled into other European states , they were not welcomed into those European states as readily and openly as they were received into the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512)6 Reliable information derived from studies that can be considered valid in support of the locales into which the displaced Jews were received and resettled, derives from records stemming from the practice of Jewish traditions like Passover,7 the need for and preparation of Kosher foods,8 and written works that suffice to make the connection between the descendants of the immigrants within the societies to which they immigrated.9 In each of these cases, there is sufficient evidence to suggest the existence of a Jewish community, and to suggest that to some extent members of those Jewish communities were received from the communities from which the expelled Sephardic Jewish came from. An immediate problem on the discussion of assimilation becomes one of number. There is a problem determining a reliable number of Jews expelled from Spain, which Kamen cautions must on its face be questioned, verified and authenticated on almost a number by number basis – and, still, the researcher will come away with frustrations in the number of Jews who actually left Spain depending on the source of the study 10 Kamen cites a fluctuating gap in the discussions on expelled population that is historically not acceptable and, therefore, warrants more intense study; as being from 70,000 to 800,000, to 400,000 displaced expelled Jews .11 The numbers, of course, become significant to any discussion on assimilation because assimilation would assume that some of the immigrants were absorbed into the existing culture, lost to the Jewish tradition, therefore making such a discussion on assimilation a discussion of social, cultural and academic significance and importance. If, however, the number of immigrants is low, even insignificant, then the body of evidence would suggest that the traditions and culture of the immigrants survived a process of immigration, by which nothing was lost, especially the identity of the immigrant community, making the discussion irrelevant really beyond the fact that a generous Turkish Sultan welcomed a number of grateful immigrants into Turkey. The Literature and Evidence A major piece of evidence suggesting that the Sultan Bavezid II received a large number of Sephardim immigrants into his Empire stems from a poem praising the Sultan Abdullhamid II for his benevolence towards the existing Jewish community, presumably descendants of the immigrants received by that Sultan’s ancestral predecessor, Sultan Bavezid II. The poem specifically references “galleons,” as would suggest more than one of the historically recognized sailing ships, and the referencing to the galleons being “heavy with a sad load,” suggesting that these large ships, which were used by European nations, including Spain, between sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, was carrying a lot of passengers; expelled Spanish Jews.12 The poem was originally written by a French journalist, from Salonica, and for that reason one might attach some objectivity on the part of the poem’s author. That is, however, just the first piece of evidence that Levy provides in his book on the assimilation of the Sephardic Jews into the Ottoman Empire. Levy provides further evidence, the body of 16th century works that originated in Christian countries that spoke to the European concern over the Ottoman annexation of Christian lands into its fold.13 There was, Levy points out, no less than 3,500 books written to address that concern alone.14 There is, of course, an immediate leap from the concern of the Ottoman Empire’s annexation of land, to what must arise in the literature as a peripheral concern on the part of the Europeans about that Empire’s benevolence towards the expelled Spanish Jews, was in part explanation for the annexation of Christian land. Even if not directly, somehow indirectly, that would focus on that act of humanity to demonstrate the Ottoman Empire’s lack of ability to communicate with or be understood by the European states. Of course, that was the case, as Levy points out, since the Turks were, through the European writings of the day, largely criticized by the Europeans as a people “barbaric” in nature.15 This barbaric nature was, as Levy notes, even suggested by Sir Paul Rycault as the attraction for the expelled Spanish Jews to that land; as if though it were by design and served a greater Jewish plot against the Europeans.16 At the time that the Ottomans were annexing Christian lands, the two main Jewish communities within the Empire were located at Ioannina and Arta (Makovetsky. The Jews would be well received into the Ottoman Empire at the time of their forced exodus from Spain not because they were able to achieve a level of influence over the Turks, but because it was in keeping with the goals of the Ottoman Empire to amass land and, thusly, cultures into its fold. The consistency of the cultures being amassed was probably less significant – until later – than initially since it was assumed there would be cross-cultural assimilation by way annexation. There is also supporting evidence in the literature that demonstrates that not only were the Sephardic Jews turned away from other European nations, but other nations would follow Spain in expelling the Jews, and in the case of Italy and Sicily, of massacre of their populations.17 Those Jews, it is believed and in some instances documented, gravitated towards the Ottoman Empire, which represented for them both a safe haven by way of the Empire’s acceptance of the population into that Muslim empire; and where already existed established and long standing Jewish communities at Ioannina and Arta.18 The Jews would not be free to move about or received back into the European communities until Pope Paul III issued a “safe conduct” edict for persons of all nationalities and religions, including “infidels.”19 Life in the Ottoman Empire According to Levy, the Jews of the Ottoman Empire would have enjoyed certain freedoms, including religious freedom and practice of Jewish traditions, under the Empire’s “millet system,” which applied to non-Muslims.20 The millet system afforded the Ottoman Jews the opportunity to engage in enterprise, and to move about their community virtually unrestricted.21 This would have been the ideal situation for the displaced Jewish communities from Spain; and that both Ioannina and Arta became strong Jewish communities with records emanating from the Jews of those communities upon which to rely, is indication that while the number from the records of Spain itself might be completely reliable, that certainly later records coming out of the Ottoman Empire might be more reliable and at least substantiate that a significant number of Jews did in fact arrive at and were accepted into the Empire. Given the expanse of the Empire itself, the ongoing activities surrounding annexation, and the Empire’s focus on its own internal infrastructures, it would be an application in error to give the Empire the time or the resources, or the inclination, to the overly concerned with the activities of their Jewish immigrants.22 Even though in terms of the data that show that as far as regards the numbers, that the Jewish communities of Ioannina and Arta are significant to that discussion; those numbers did not in fact constitute a threat to the Empire with which it should be concerned; nor did they pose any physical threat to the Empire by virtue of their activity and even the pursuit of the religious traditions; thus, the Muslims would have had very little reason to attempt to exert an authority over the immigrants, or to overly focus on them on as a group when the government and leadership would have had much more to contend with and be concerned about with the European nations that had in fact expelled the Jews. To that extent, Jewish leaders in the Ottoman Empire would have enjoyed as much, perhaps even more control and power than they had in the European states that had ejected them and where they had become the microscopic object of scrutiny, and dislike for the successful lives they built for themselves as a community (p. 43)23. In return, the Jews maintained a support of, and loyalty to the Empire (p. 45).24 As the Ottoman Empire evolved, there would ultimately be paid greater attention to the Jewish communities within the Empire. It was the goal of Mehmed the Conquer to create a center of culture, commerce, and sophistication in Istanbul (p. 45).25 To that end, Mehmed saw the Jewish community as an opportunity to contribute to the success of his goals (p. 45).26 To that end, “Mehmed transferred to Istanbul large numbers of Jews. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that the orderly administration of the Jewish community was a matter of some importance to the Ottoman government (p. 45),27” at least by that time in the Empire’s history. Out of those goals, for purposes of the goals of the Empire, by this time it began to become more important to the Empire to establish a “central authority” for the Jewish communities (p. 45).28 A question arising that must be raised is one of how many Jews actually converted, rather than face the uncertainty of expulsion from Spain. E. N. Rothman, writing for the Mediterranean Historical Review (2006),29 wisely suggests that “conversion,” be considered in terms of “a set of historically –shifting social practices rather than as individual choices.30” Certainly the conversion, the choice to convert, would have been one that the Jews of Spain would “suffered” as a means to an end, that end being the ability to remain in Spain and continue their lives. That they might convert to Catholicism in name, did not necessarily mean they would convert in spirit, and the presumption to be made would be that many of the converted Jews would continue their traditions in secret, while outwardly going through the motions of Catholicism. There is, too, that segment of the Jewish society for who we must consider that conversion would perhaps mean nothing exercise required of them by the state; that in fact they held no preference or leaning towards Judaism or Catholicism. It would be these groups that would have remained in Spain, and, there tend to be better records to support the numbers when speaking about conversion since that process was “lengthy and well documented by the Church.31 In considering the positions taken by different researchers and scholars, the number of converted Spanish Jews is significant, especially, again, as it relates to the Ottoman Empire. To suggest that the Ottoman Empire was “more receptive” of the Spanish Jews, is to suggest, again, that there was a significant number of refugees whose population size and impact on the Empire would have been one of noticeable impact. There is, in the material reviewed, no real suggestion as to the number of Jews who settled in the Empire and elsewhere. There is sufficient information to suggest that there was a large number of refugees accepted by the Ottoman Empire, and that the Empire would not turn its attention to those refugees until much later in history. The number of Jews who converted to Christianity, rather than be turned away from their homelands, is by number a significant one; and when we consider the lack of information as to the total number of Jews impacted by the Spanish convert or be expelled imposition, there, again, are numbers that simply cannot be relied upon for an accurate historical picture at this time – other than some nations rejected the Spanish Jews while the Ottoman Empire received them. As previously mentioned, and especially because “converted” Jews continued to be perceived by non-Jews with skepticism and racism, as cited by E. N. Rothman, anthropologists have much more work to do in the area of conversion, which is important to the whereabouts and the identity of the post-`1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain.32 It would be a mistake to presume that their conversion was motivated by religious beliefs. However, it cannot be ignored either that a number of that population, having remained indifferent, continued to remain so indifferent as to embrace conversion for the monetary or property holdings to remain in their control and ownership. To the extent that there was a legitimate conversion of faith, as Rothman points out, there would have been problems with “how to transform difference into sameness, and with what consequences for different kinds of converts and their social relations.”33 Already, there would have been anticipated concerns about social integration, and what would both cause integration – conversion notwithstanding, cause those differences to stand out. Such differences would not serve to put to rest biases, or racism, and in that regard the problems that had culminated with demands for conversion versus expulsion would have persisted in the social and cultural spheres within which the different groups moved. Nor would those spheres, because of conversion, be altered. It would be strongly suspected that Jews, converted or not, would continue to move within the communities to which they were oriented and accepted. Another point that Rothman so succinctly raises is that converted Jews would continue to maintain ties with their unconverted family members, regardless of whereabouts.34 “Such continuity was often taken for granted in Ottoman Muslim notions of religious conversion as well,” Rothman notes.35 Still, as the Jews posed no military or subversive threat to any culture where they lived, it could be expected that the act of conversion was, at the religious level, an act of contrition and served to resolve the Church’s dilemma that had caused it become in the social schisms of the Christian-Jew controversies. To the extent that nation states and prominent citizens suspected the Jews of possessing a mental ability or acumen towards manipulating matters of finance to fortunes that would lead to the subversion of non-Jewish wealth would be left to the political leaders of the nation states to contend with, since conversion would have, again, resolved the Church’s need for further intervention in the matter. The conversion process itself was a complex and costly one. “Indeed, if part of the Pia Casa’s mission was to integrate converts and governors into the pre-existing, local networks of patronage, in fundamental ways the House was also an imperial institution linking, linking the Venetian metropole with its colonies and frontier regions. Frequently, House governors bore personal ties to the Levant through years of service as Venetian colonial officials or as merchants in the Ottoman Empire. High ranking Venetian clergymen serving in the colonies were also part of the House’s extended patronage network, and were encouraged to join the board of governors while in Venice. They sent donations to the House, facilitated the transfer of potential catechumens to the metropole, and occasionally hired neophytes shortly after their baptism to serve in their households.”36 Conclusion What has been revealed through the various undertakings cited and discussed here is the need for much more detailed and cohesive study on the subject Jewish migration following their expulsion from Spain. The individual studies and scholarly studies all provide invaluable insight and information, but fail to bring together the information that is needed to rely upon the various conclusions yielded by those results of those studies in a historically reliable way as regards the numbers needed to finally determine how Jews were actually expelled from Spain in 1492. To that end, there is a substantial body of evidence which does support the reemergence of Spanish Jews into other parts of Europe, including Italy and the Ottoman Empire; but that the Ottoman Empire, because of its own goals of expansion, annexation and the desire to establish Istanbul as a world center for trade, commerce and culture; would have in fact have been more readily available and agreeable to accepting the immigrant Jews into the Empire than were the European nations.. There is still much work to be done in order to bring out a clearer and more accurate historical picture of the life of the Jewish immigrant post expulsion from Spain. While the evidence suggests a large number of Jews having immigrated to the Ottoman Empire, that number – although still unknown – does not appear to account for the large number of Jews who are recorded as having been expelled from Spain. There must be a concern for and a concentrated effort to continue to study the literature and to especially focus on either compiling a more accurate accounting of the number of Jews expelled from Spain, and to better establish the whereabouts of those people. Clearly, from the literature in comparison to the numbers presented herein; the Ottoman Empire did not absorb that number of people into its Empire. Had it done so, there would have been much more attention paid that community than the Empire initially paid to the community. There is a good reason and a large supporting body of evidence – as contrary as that might be the preferences of contemporary researchers and scholars; to suggest that there might have been a larger number of converts than what has been identified. There is every reason to contend that rather than be cast adrift upon the seas of uncertainty, and to lose everything for which the Spanish Jews had worked, that a large number did indeed convert. “In early modern Venice, what counted as being fully converted to Catholicism clearly depended on one’s long-term ability to appear as a moral person. Counting as moral strongly depended on a being productive, settled member of Venetian metropolitan society, the terms of which, in turn, depended on gender, place of origin, and social status prior to conversion.”37 In other words, as Rothman suggests, certain social boundaries were transformed in a post conversion environment to allow successful assimilation and participation of converts in a fashion that came under imperial scrutiny rather than Church scrutiny, and would be determined by the level at which the convert participated – no doubt the amount of taxes and other financial incentives paid to the crown would have served to a great extent in determining the status of one’s being a productive and moral citizen participating in the activities of metropolitan living.38 Bibliography Carroll, William C. "Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 41.2 (2001): 417. Questia. 1 Dec. 2006 . Kamen, Henry. ‘The Mediterranean and the Expulsion of Spanish Jews in 1492,’ Past and Present. Oxford University Press. no. 119: (1988), pp. 30-55. Levy, Avigdor. The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1992. Questia. 1 Dec. 2006 . Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984. Questia. 1 Dec. 2006 . Rothman, E. Natalie ‘Becoming Venetian: Conversion and Transformation in the Seventeenth Century Mediterranean,’ Mediterranean Historical Review . no 1 (2006): pp. 39-75. Ravid, Benjamin. ‘The Legal Status of the Jewish Merchants of Venice, 1541-1638, no. 35 (1935), pp. Ravid, Benjamin. ‘A Tale of Three Cities and their Raison d’ Etat: Acona, Venice, Livorno, and the Competition for Jewish Merchants in the Sixteenth Century,’ Mediterranean Historical Review, Vol 6. No 2. December 1991 pp113-137 Segre, Renata. ‘Sephardic Settlements in the Sixteenth Century Italy: A Historical and Geographical Survey, no 2. December (1991), pp113-137. Trexler, Richard (ed), Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. Vol 36, (1985), pp. 154-177. Read More