Jews in the Realm of the Sultans: Ottoman Jewish Society in the Seventeenth Century (Book Review‪)‬

Jews in the Realm of the Sultans: Ottoman Jewish Society in the Seventeenth Century. By YARON BENNAEH, translated by Yohail Goell. Texts and Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Judaism, 22. Tubingen: MOHR SIEBECK, 2008. Pp. xiv + 503. [euro]109. Jews in the Realm of the Sultans is the English translation of the author's 1999 Hebrew-language dissertation. Based on impressive research utilizing Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Ottoman Turkish, as well as European sources, the author describes in thorough detail the Jewish communities of Salonica, Istanbul, and Izmir--which together accounted for half of Ottoman Jewry--and to a lesser extent analyzes the changes they underwent during the seventeenth century. The author argues that the seventeenth century serves as a formative period in Ottoman Jewish history. The author's own evidence, however, points to the sixteenth century being the formative century, and the seventeenth century the transformative one. Surprisingly, the main cause of that transformation, Shabbatai Tzevi's messianic movement, is barely mentioned, despite being the single most important event in seventeenth-century Ottoman Jewish history, if not all of Ottoman Jewish history. The author "preferred to refrain from discussing a certain community or particular events so as not to detract from the overall picture" (p. vii). Provided thus with only hints of the significance of the messianic rabbi, the reader is given an incomplete account of seventeenth-century Ottoman Jewry which focuses mainly on demographics and relations with Muslims and Christians, communal organization, institutions, and functionaries, and the Jews' role in the economy.