Jews, along with other non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire, were defined as
a millet (recognized minority), as mentioned earlier in the book, and were
largely autonomous as long as they paid their taxes. On the whole, Jews tended
to be more open to westernization of the Ottoman Empire than Muslims.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the Jewish population of the Ottoman
Empire was estimated at around 150,000. Developments after mid-century
would cause it to rise to 250,000 by 1912. Two changes transformed the Jews
of the Ottoman Empire and, more generally, much of the Islamic world. First,
from the end of the eighteenth century on, European powers established con-
sulates in the empire, initially out of a desire to protect their co-religionists
and citizens living under Ottoman rule. This led to increasing intrusion into
internal Ottoman affairs and an expanding influence of European culture in
the Ottoman Empire.
At the same time, in an effort to shore up government administration and
the economy, in 1839 the sultan, motivated by a desire to join and compete
with the European community, issued the Tanzimat, a program of social
and political reforms. More than anything else, this was an attempt to central-
ize the empire by trying to eliminate or curtail corporate entities – not unlike
initiatives by European enlightened absolutists a century earlier. The Tanzimat
granted equal rights to non-Muslims, eliminated the jizyaand other humiliat-
ing taxes, subjected non-Muslims to military service (although it allowed
them to buy out of it), put non-Muslim millets on an equal footing with
Muslim millets, while eroding the communal autonomy of the millet. In actu-
ality, these reforms did not eliminate the millet system, but merely added to
it. By the mid-nineteenth century, there were four competing legal and judi-
cial systems: secular courts, Islamic courts, millet courts, and consular courts.
The impact of the Tanzimat was limited to countries ruled directly by the
Ottoman Empire. It had little impact in Morocco, Yemen, Algeria, and
Egypt. Nonetheless, the situation of Jews in those parts of the Islamic world
would also be a function of local administration and European influence.
Following the French conquest of Algeria in 1830, for example, the Colonial
Office invited Jews and other non-Muslims to be treated as French subjects,
indigènes. This would be the first step toward the full emancipation of non-
Muslims in Algeria in 1870.
Yet perhaps the most telling indicator of the change of Jewish life in the
Ottoman Empire was the series of events that took place in Egypt in
1839–40, particularly the events surrounding a Damascus blood libel that
occurred at the time. This event unfolded amid a campaign by Muhammad
‘Ali, an Egyptian leader, to break away from the sultan; and English and
French intrigues to reap the benefits of this conflict.
In February 1840, a Capuchin monk in Damascus, which was part of the
Ottoman province of Egypt, disappeared around Passover time. An ensuing
investigation led to the arrest and torture of several Jews. The French con-
sulate in Damascus, eager to win ‘Ali as an ally, supported this investigation.
The age of enlightenment and emancipation, 1750–1880 171