page_title: Rhodes blood libel
section_title: Blood libel against the Jews in the Ottoman Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Rhodes blood libel / Background / Blood libel against the Jews in the Ottoman Empire
caption_attribution_description: Delle tre versioni del ritratto di Solimano, ricordate dalle fonti come «di mano di Tiziano», ne sono giunte fino a noi solo due, iconograficamente diverse tra loro, ma entrambe riferibili alla bottega di Tiziano, piuttosto che alla sua mano. Ciò che per altro non vorrebbe dir nulla, perché molte opere di bottega venivano licenziate come autografe. Il primo ritratto di Solimano di stile tizianesco proviene dalla collezione dell’arciduca Ferdinando II d’Austria ed è registrato nell’inventario del castello di Ruhelust, nel 1596. Il quadro è stato esposto alla Mostra di Vienna nel 2007 come copia da Tiziano (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Inv.-Nr. 24291).
context_page_description: The Rhodes blood libel was an 1840 event of blood libel against Jews, in which the Greek Orthodox community accused Jews on the island of Rhodes of the ritual murder of a Christian boy who disappeared in February of that year.
  Initially the libel garnered support from the consuls of several European countries, including the United Kingdom, France, the Austrian Empire, Sweden, and Greece, although later several supported the Jewish community. The Ottoman governor of Rhodes broke with the long tradition of the Ottoman governments and supported the ritual murder charge. The government arrested several Jewish subjects, some of whom were tortured and confessed. It blockaded the entire Jewish quarter for twelve days.
  The Jewish community of Rhodes appealed for help from the Jewish community in Constantinople, who forwarded the appeal to European governments. In the United Kingdom and Austria, Jewish communities gained support from their governments. They sent official dispatches to the ambassadors in Constantinople unequivocally condemning the blood libel. A consensus developed that the charge was false.
context_section_description: The blood libel against Jews originated in England in 1144 with the case of William of Norwich.  The accusation that Jews used the blood of Christian children to prepare matzos for the Passover became a staple of Christian antisemitism of the Middle Ages, with the total number of recorded ritual murder accusations reaching 150.  With the strengthening of standards of evidence in legal cases, the number of charges began to decline, and few blood libel cases reached European courts after 1772.  Nevertheless, some instances of ritual murder accusation arose as late as the 19th century.
  In the Middle East, the blood libel was deeply ingrained in the consciousness of some local Christian communities by the early 20th century while the blood libel likely came there in the early 19th century .  Accusations of blood libel were entirely unknown in the Byzantine Empire unlike in Western Europe where they were more common. After the Ottomans conquered the Byzantine lands, Greek communities were usually the source of ritual murder charges against Jews, often at times of social and economic tensions.  The first appearance of the blood libel under Ottoman rule took place in the reign of Mehmet II. Subsequently, accusations of ritual murder were only sporadic and Ottoman authorities usually condemned them.  In the 16th century, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent issued a firman, formally denouncing blood libel charges against the Jews.
  With the increase of Christian influence in the Ottoman Empire, the standing of the Jews declined.  The sultan's Hatt-i Sharif of Gulhane, proclaimed in 1839, ushered in an era of liberal reforms known as Tanzimat.  This period further enhanced the status of the Christians and eroded the power of authorities to protect the Jews.  Before 1840, cases of blood libel occurred in Aleppo in 1810 and in Antioch in 1826.
  In 1840, contemporaneous with the affair in Rhodes, a more famous case of blood libel, known as the Damascus affair, was developing in Damascus, while the city was under the short-lived control of Muhammad Ali of Egypt. On February 5, Capuchin friar Thomas and his servant Ibrahim Amara went missing, and the Jews of Damascus were accused of murdering them to collect their blood for Passover matzos.  The local Christian community, the governor, and the French consul, who received full support from Paris, actively pursued the ritual murder charge. The accused Jews were tortured, and some of them confessed to having killed Father Thomas and his servant. Their testimonies were used by the accusers as the irrefutable proof of guilt. The case drew international attention, arousing active protests from the European Jewish diaspora.
caption: Suleiman the Magnificent had denounced the blood libel in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, but it became more common as Christian influence increased in the 1800s.
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