52 · Ömer Turan
of Anatolia were sometimes compelled and at other times encouraged
to settle in the Balkans. Many of the Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain
were also settled in the Ottoman Balkans.^1 Thessaloniki and Edirne were
the most important cities in the Balkans where the Jews were settled.^2
The Ottoman Turks brought Islam into the Balkans. The Jewish pres-
ence on the peninsula had a long past. In spite of difficulties, Greek-
speaking Jews called Romaniots had been living on the peninsula for a
long time. Because of the Christian persecutions, the Jews of Byzantium
supported the Ottoman conquests in Anatolia and the Balkans. There-
fore, the Ottoman leaders rewarded the Jews. They trusted the Jews and
saved them from the Christians.^3 Under Ottoman rule, Jews’ lives, dig-
nity, and faith were all protected from the attacks of Catholics or Ortho-
dox Christians. For the first time in this part of the world, Jews were
considered equal with Christians, under the Ottoman millet system. Like
the Muslims, Greeks, and Armenians, the Jews constituted a separate
millet. Their organizations were based on their origin, language, location,
professions, aims, etcetera. In the millet system, the Ottoman Jews main-
tained Halakhah, their religious law, in their rabbinical courts with their
own judges. Jews and Muslims thus lived together in the Empire and
the Balkans under the protection of the Ottoman sultan in the sixteenth
century. While Jews mostly engaged in trade in the urban centers, the
Muslims dealt mainly with administrative, military, and agrarian affairs.
Under the prosperity of the empire, Jewish cultural life flourished.^4
The Ottoman lands were a safe place for the Jews. Therefore, leaders of
Jewish communities in the Balkans wrote letters to those who were still
persecuted and invited them to migrate. The letter of Isaac Tsarfati, the
leading rabbi of the Edirne community, is well known. He came to the Ot-
toman lands and noted the prosperity and freedom of the Ottoman Jews;
consequently, he wrote a letter to his coreligionists, described the situa-
tion in the Ottoman Empire, and invited them in the 1430s.^5 As a result
of this practice, the Jewish populations in Balkan cities, such as Thessa-
loniki, Monastir (Bitola), Edirne, and Nikopol, generally increased. Thes-
saloniki was the biggest Jewish city in southeastern Europe.^6
Anti-Semitism among the Christian Nations of the Ottoman Empire
As a result of the capitulations (privileges given to Europeans in the
Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century), European traders began to