![]() Socially, they were less integrated than their local co-religionists, although earlier those too had been expelled from their homes and had undergone forced transfers.ĦAs in most European countries, in the Ottoman Empire capital was created by commerce, handicrafts, and agriculture. They merely exchanged one Muslim power for another.ĥHowever, for the Jews, newly arriving from different parts of Europe, the change in lifestyle was monumental. In the Arabic speaking lands, the Ottoman conquest did not much change the daily life of the population. While the former soon changed, many important posts remained filled by Balkan Slavs who had converted to Islam. Originally the leadership was non-Muslim, and not Ottoman. Each social class and all sources of wealth were regarded as obliged to preserve and promote the ruler hence all types of economic activities were regulated by the state alone. ( (.)ģMost important, in the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was one of the most advanced and best-administered states in the world, and modern in meritocracy and tolerance. 3 199 Halil Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: Conquest, Organization and Economy (London, 1978), p.Spanish and Portuguese Jews could revive a consciousness lost because of the Expulsion, and the social fabric of a vanished Iberian life was reconstituted under relatively felicitous circumstances. 2ĢYet the Ottoman Empire did not differ principally from other countries because, as everywhere, the Jewish presence was tolerated as an act of magnanimity by the ruler however, in the Ottoman Empire, Jews were accorded a special status. Usque’s claim expresses the consensus of the Jews and conversos who have chosen the Ottoman Empire as their new home. He emphasizes the toll it takes on their conscience. ![]() In that section of his work, Usque refers to the “double life” the conversos have to lead in Christian Europe. Here, the Jew can return to his ancient practices, abandoning the religion that has been forced upon him by those among whom he has wandered. 1 Life there is said to restore the human character. ![]() 2 In the sixteenth century, Iberian Jews thought of the Ottoman Empire as East European Jews thought (.)ġIn a section of his Consolaçam, Samuel Usque describes the Ottoman Empire * as the great consolation of the Jews because there the gates of free-dom are open and Judaism can be freely practiced.1 As a trained humanist, Usque used his native language elegantly.* Since I write about the Ottoman Empire from the European stance, I refer to its capital as Constan (.). ![]()
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