When Sephardic Jews were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition, the comparatively tolerant Ottoman rulers allowed them to enter the empire of the sultans, where they would then live as dhimmis or people legally protected by the state. In the following decades, Jewish figures, including rabbis, members of the community, travelers, merchants, businesspeople, and medical professionals shaped the religious, economic, and social life from Syria to Egypt to the Ottoman Balkans. In this volume, interdisciplinary individual studies reaching across country borders explore the diversity of Jewish living environments in various intercultural communication spaces and in the context of acceptance and rejection, cultural transfer and economic relationships, as well as with regards to wars, conflicts, pogroms, and nation-building processes.

Autorentext

Martina Bitunjac, Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, Potsdam, Germany.