Refuge & hierarchy · Turkey · 1492–Ottoman centuries
Ottoman refuge offered Jewish life a future without abolishing religious inequality.
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1492–Ottoman centuries
Refuge & hierarchy · The expelled find a place to rebuild
Ottoman refuge offered Jewish life a future without abolishing religious inequality.
After the Iberian expulsions
Sephardic Jews settled in Ottoman cities after the expulsions from Spain and Portugal. They brought languages, skills and religious traditions and established new communities. Ottoman reception mattered because other states had made continued Jewish residence impossible.
A different kind of protection
Non-Muslim communities maintained religious institutions within an unequal imperial order. Protection could enable long residence and communal autonomy while leaving status dependent on the ruler. It should not be confused with modern citizenship, nor dismissed as if meaningful refuge had not existed.
A Turkish Jewish world takes shape
Over generations, Sephardic traditions became part of local Ottoman and later Turkish life. Judeo-Spanish remained a language in many households. The history challenges later claims of inherent foreignness: ancestors who had arrived as refugees became neighbours with longstanding roots of their own.