ABSTRACT
Once the Ottoman Turks became a world power, many Ashkenazi Jews settled in Ottoman lands. During the first century these communities were supplemented by large numbers of Jewish marranos who fled from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. This Jewish population was further increased when Spanish Jewry was expelled in 1492. In the Balkans, Greece, Cairo, Damascus and Constantinople Jewish communities prospered into the sixteenth century. Some individuals such as Dona Gracia (1510–69) became part of the royal court. Her nephew Joseph Nasi (1524–79) also became an important figure in court circles and sponsored the foundation of a Jewish settlement in Tiberias. This project was inspired by messianic longing and paved the way for later spiritual activity in the Holy Land. As a result of this influx of Jews into the Ottoman empire, Jewish religious life underwent a major transformation, and rabbinic academies were established in Cairo, Constantinople and Salonica.
