Until the mid-nineteenth century, two aspects of traditional Jewish life
in the Ottoman Empire remained largely unchanged. Culturally, the Jews
in the Ottoman Empire, and in the Islamic world generally, had never been
as isolated from the outside world as their counterparts under Christendom.
Traditional Jewish life in the Islamic world was much like that in the
Christian world: the same laws, the same yearning for Zion, the same
notion of the Messiah, and the experience with Shabbetai Zvi. On the other
hand, there was less rabbinic backlash to Sabbateanism in the Islamic world
than in the Ashkenazic world. To repeat, Jews in the Islamic world were
never as isolated from the outside world as Jews in Christendom, and
Jewish scholars never as alienated from the rest of the Jewish community.
There was no internal Haskalah or reform movement, and thus no anti-
reform Orthodox backlash. Such innovations would arrive eventually, but
largely as a result of the growing presence of European Jewry in the
Ottoman Empire.
In general, Jews in the Ottoman Empire had a non-confrontational atti-
tude toward social, political, and technological changes. Even those rabbis
who were disturbed by the potential consequences of western cultural influ-
ences did not reject modern civilization per se. In this sense, the prevailing
mentality was akin to non-German Reform: innovations were seen as a logical
continuation of the halachic process and a naturally evolving Jewish law.
This mentality prevailed in virtually all facets of Jewish life. For example,
traditional Jews studied foreign languages largely for material gain through
access to European commerce, rather than as part of a program of enlighten-
ment. Rabbis in the Ottoman Empire tended to be less stringent regarding
contacts between Jews and non-Jews. For example, Rabbi Joseph Hayyim ben
Elijah of Baghdad (Ben Ish Hay) allowed Jews to go to Gentile coffeehouses,
even on the Sabbath, as long as they consumed only that which was prepared
prior to their arrival, in accordance with Jewish law. He also allowed Jewish
pharmacists to remove their talit katan(a prayer shawl with fringes) before
going to work, for reasons of hygiene. The Hakham abd allah Somekh, a
supreme Iraqi rabbinic authority, allowed Jews to ride trains on the Sabbath,
although not to travel between cities. The positive attitude of rabbis toward
changes was in contrast to the negative response of Muslim leaders. The
upshot is that a movement like Haskalah was largely unnecessary because
Ottoman Jews did not need one; dual education and minimal social isolation
were the rule.
The Jewish courtier class in the Ottoman world remained perched atop
Jewish communal life well into the nineteenth century. The courtiers had the
most extensive contacts with the European world through international busi-
ness ventures; like the court Jews, they were the most worldly, providing their
children with the highest-quality education and the most strongly secular
education. They were also the most politically and socially conservative, and
the most resistant to the new ideas emanating from the West. Until 1839,
170 The age of enlightenment and emancipation, 1750–1880