276 Jacoby
factors also furthered the movement of merchants supplying ritually prepared
foodstuffs and wine, and promoted cultural transfers.
The preceding survey of Jewish presence in the Latin-ruled territories reveals
some basic trends of Jewish mobility within the Eastern Mediterranean and
the particular demographic evolution of the Jewish communities, different
from those of the population in the midst of which they lived. To be sure, until
the Fourth Crusade Constantinople was the main destination of Romaniote
and foreign Jews, the latter mostly originating from the Islamic East. Economic
opportunities in provincial cities such as Thebes also attracted immigrants.
Constantinople remained the goal of numerous Jewish immigrants after 1204,
yet additional patterns of migration emerged in that period. They were largely
promoted by the conjunction of several developments: the rise of new politi-
cal, administrative and economic centres, the consolidation of Venice’s and
Genoa’s presence in Constantinople and in the Aegean region, the intensive
trading of the two maritime nations, and the favourable legal status and privi-
leges enjoyed by their respective citizens and subjects. These factors furthered
Jewish migration to the territories and quarters ruled by the two powers, as
well as between their respective colonies and outposts. Cretan Jews settling
in the Venetian quarter of Constantinople in the 14th century appear to have
been more numerous than Jews moving from the empire’s capital to Candia.
Similarly, as noted earlier, Jews from Genoese Chios settled in the Genoese
quarter of Constantinople located in Pera.
The flow of Jews from the Islamic East into Byzantine and former Byzantine
territories substantially diminished from the 13th century onward, although
some of them settled in Candia in the late 14th century, as revealed by
immigrants from Damascus and the names Abbas and Yerushalmi (“from
Jerusalem”). On the other hand, there was a continuous growth in the num-
ber of immigrants hailing from central and western Mediterranean lands, as
well as from German-speaking territories and northern France. Jews fleeing
the late 13th-century persecutions of the Inquisition in the Kingdom of Naples
were followed by refugees from other regions. The flow of Catalan Jews sub-
stantially increased after the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 in Barcelona. Candia, a
major maritime intersection and economic centre with a fairly large Jewish
community, was a major destination of the immigrants. Some of them pursued
their voyage further east and settled in Constantinople or Chios. Surnames
such as Sepharadi, Spagnolo, Bonsinior and Astruc attest to their presence
in Candia and Constantinople. The encounter of Jews from different regions
and cultural milieus and the contacts between various communities substan-
tially contributed to the thriving cultural life of the local Candiote community,