The dominant form of Islam in the Ottoman Empire at this time, the Hanafi
brand of Sunni Islam, emphasized and encouraged the use of reason and prag-
matism in determining policy and adjudicating law. This allowed Ottoman
sultans and officials to govern non-Muslims on the basis of demographic, polit-
ical, and economic considerations rather than theological dicta. By the end of
the fifteenth century, as the Ottoman Turks extended their empire from the
Levant into the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans, the Turks had
become an ethnic minority in their own empire. Ottoman expansion from the
fifteenth through the seventeenth century brought under Ottoman rule vast
areas where the Ottoman government needed to settle loyal subjects to counter
disloyal or contentious elements within the local population. Thus, Ottoman
policy placed a premium on the support and loyalty of ethnic and religious
minorities, Jews in particular. As a result, Jews encountered in the Ottoman
Empire a favorable interpretation and application of the legal category of the
dhimmi, expanding their residential options to include major cities such as
Istanbul, Salonika, Izmir (Smyrna), and Edirne (Adrianople).
Ottoman demographic strategies often worked to the advantage of Jewish
settlers. Desperate to populate the recently conquered Istanbul (formerly
Constantinople) at the end of the fifteenth century, the sultan invited Jews
and others to settle there by allowing them to live virtually anywhere in the
city; to practice Judaism and organize communal life with little or no intru-
sion, and to trade without any impediment; and to engage in a variety of
occupations, including international commerce and such other lucrative
endeavors as the feather trade, artisanal crafts, and medicine. This attracted
Jews from all over the Jewish world.
Following the Turkish conquest of Istanbul by Sultan Mehmet II, much of
the city’s population was massacred, but the Jews were left alone. The sultan
repopulated the capital quickly by transferring Muslims, Christians, and Jews
from all over the empire, especially from Anatolia and the Balkans. Among
these were Jews from Salonika, Bulgaria, and Macedonia. Jews in Istanbul
were defined as a “millet,” as were other religious communities, and divided
by origin, including Romaniot, Ashkenazic, Italian, and Sephardic congrega-
tions. In a fashion reminiscent of Jewish success in earlier periods under
Islamic rule, Jews in Istanbul rose in the ranks of Ottoman society to levels
they had never reached under Christendom. Moses Hamon, the leading mem-
ber of a prominent Sephardic family, served as royal physician to Sultan
Suleiman I the Magnificent. This recalls the accomplishments of Samuel ibn
Nagrela in Muslim Spain.
Equally diverse was the Jewish community of Salonika. Following the
Turkish conquest of Salonika, an influx of Ashkenazic Jews from Bavaria
began in 1470, followed by an influx of Sephardic Jews after 1492 from
Spain, Portugal, North Africa, and southern Italy. Along with the indige-
nous Romaniot Jews, each of these Jewish communities created a separate
World Jewry in flux, 1492–1750 105