From: KELLY@SUVM.BITNET
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: The Jews of Rhodes rejoiced in the Turkish victory
Date: 18 Aug 92 04:59:41 GMT


  Mr. Romanos writes:

>Subject: Shaw and HBM-KELLY INC. must be very "selective"
>
>
>Contents here: < 1. Prologue               >
>               < 2. Historical Background  >
>               < 3. Rhodes, The Island     >
>               < 4. Rhodes, Before 1522    >
>                 5. Traces of Jewish Life
>                 6. The War of 148O and its Aftermath
>                 7. Legal Status of Jews under Islamic Rule
>
>From the book "THE JEWS OF RHODES" by Marc D.Angel and forwarded by the
>Haham Rev.Dr.Solomon Gaon (New York 1978).
>

 Indeed, Mr. Romanos. Very selective, indeed.

 Since you seem to like and recommend this book, let's take a few
 additional excerpts from it.

 page 17:

   <<  EXPULSION FROM RHODES

  During the first few years of the 16th century, the wave of Christian
  intolerance as seen in Spain and Portugal spread to Rhodes. The Grand
  Master, Pierre d'Aubusson, called for the expulsion of the Jews from
  the domains of the Knights of St. John. This decree probably surprised
  the Jews of Rhodes, as they had been treated fairly well by the Knights
  heretofore. The Grand Master now lodged a host of charges against the
  Jews of the city. He argued that they led scandalous lives and that
  their bad example had led others to sin. He told the Council of Rhodes
  that the Jews might cause many evils among the faithful Christians.
  The Council unanimously agreed that the Jews were to be expelled from
  the island and all territories of the Order within 50 days. They were
  given 40 days to sell their property. Furthermore, they were forbidden
  to settle in Turkey lest they serve as spies against the Knights.

  However, the edict stipulated that all Jews who accepted baptism could
  remain in Rhodes. It also stated that all Jewish children would be
  forcibly baptized, regardless of their parents' decisions. The Grand
  Master then proceeded to have Jewish children baptized and brought up
  at the public charge. Some Rhodian Jews converted under these pressures.
  Others who could leave Rhodes were put on a ship to Nice, France.
  A number were tortured and killed.>>

  page 18:

  <<In June 1522, Sultan Suleyman mobilized once again Ottoman forces
  against the Knights of Rhodes. According to the 16th-century Sephardic
  historian, Joseph Hacohen, the Turks had 400 ships and 200,000 soldiers
  as well as an enormous quantity of weapons. Exaggerated as these figures
  may be, the Turkish attack was undouptedly a massive one.>>


  page 19:

 <<Elijah Capsali of Candia believed that the Turkish conquest of Rhodes
 was part of the messianic drama leading to redemption. To him, the Sultan
 seemed a messianic figure. In a poem written in honor of the Turkish
 victory, Capsali described the event as a marriage between Rhodes, the
 bride, and Suleyman, the groom. Of Suleyman he wrote: ''Your descendants
 shall inherit the cities of their enemies with joy and happiness. And your
 name in Israel will be known as Groom and Bride.''

 The Jews of Rhodes rejoiced in the Turkish victory and the Order's
 departure. They rushed to the synagogue and prayed there openly for the
 first time since d'Aubusson had decreed conversion or expulsion from
 the island. Capsali described the liberation as follows:


   On that day all the Turkish slaves in Rhodes were liberated, for the
   Sultan had so stipulated with the Rhodians that they not be killed.
   Also, many Jews were in Rhodes as slaves, and they escaped with God's
   mercy. Moreover, all the Jews who had been converted at the time of the
   expulsion from Rhodes---whether by force or from free will---all returned
   to their original faith. They opened the synagogue which the gentiles
   had closed...>>
                 ------------------------------------

  What is the moral here? I will finish with the conclusions reached
  by Professor Shaw (and many other scholars/historians some of which
  I will quote later if I have time):

  <<For the most part, then, Jews and Christians lived as prosperous
  minorities in the classical Islamic empires of the Umayyads of Damascus
  and Spain and the Abbasids of Baghdad, preserving their religions and
  freedoms within their own religiously-based communities and paying
  a special poll tax called harac or cizye in return for the protection
  of the Muslim rulers and exemption from military service while living
  with great confort and prosperity. There were limitations, there were
  some marks of discrimination, so that one could say that Jews and
  Christians were not as equal as Muslims, but compared to the active
  persecution to which Jews were subjected in the Christian lands of
  Europe, the world of Islam was paradise for them [31].>>

[31] On the Jews in Islamic Spain in particular see Eliyahu Ashtor,
     The Jews of Moslem Spain (Philadelphia, 1973).


The above quote is from Prof. Shaw's paper 'Christian Anti-Semitism...'.

Nejat
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