In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4 Governmental Policy Toward the Jews The evenhanded policy pursued by the Ottoman regime did not carryover to all aspects of its treatment of non-Muslim minorities . In certain areas the Ottoman rulers, like their Mamluk predecessors , continued to be guided by the discriminatory laws grounded in Islamic doctrine.l In addition to its insistence on the strict enforcement of discriminatory legislation, not only did the Ottoman regime require that its non-Muslim subjects (ahl-al-dhimma) take cognizance of their inferior status, but also it anticipated that they would adjust their behavior accordingly.2 It seems, however, that in Eretz-Israel the early Ottoman regime was by no means either as harsh or as despotic as its Mamluk predecessors.3 This more lenient attitude toward "non-believers" is reflected, along with the prescribed conventions for dhimmi behavior, in a letter written in 1522 by Israel Ashkenazi-a leading Jerusalemite sage in the 1520s: Those who accept the yoke of exile and subservience, shall lift neither hand nor foot against the Ishmaelites, even if they cheat you. One should not speak arrogantly even to the very lowly. [Rather] one should act deaf and dumb, speak placatorily and offer a small bribe. Then all is well, for when the Ishmaelite sees humility and subservience, he is placated. Even if he seeks food, he is satisfied with a small amount ... and after humbling oneself, then one can trade everywhere, and have a store in the market like an Ishmaelite without anyone raising objections. One can go everywhere with a green turban, even travel if he likes, and be honored by all. The only thing is-he is obliged to pay a high customs tax. [David, "Letter of Israel Ashkenazi," 117-18] These remarks clearly prescribe acquiescence to the discriminatory reality. In Ashkenazi's view, dhimmi compliance with the discriminatory rules governing the social and economic spheres was potentially rewarding in terms of unrestricted mobility and choice of profession. A similar, more laconic description cited earlier noted the esteem in which "respectable Jews" were held and mentioned their high positions Governmental Policy 49 as administrators of customs and revenues, explicitly stating, "no injuries are perpetrated against them in all the empire."4 This optimistic statement notwithstanding, Jews and other nonMuslim minorities were subject to discrimination in two main areas: taxation and the social sphere, in addition to the already mentioned restrictions on landowning. A. TAXATION Jews, like other dhimmi, bore the burden of special taxes: the poll tax-jizya-and the toll or protection tax-khafar.5 In Safed and elsewhere , the tax collection apparatus was unable to cope efficiently with the dramatic rise in population engendered by the new prosperity, necessitating the enactment of special firmans by the Sublime Porte.6 There is some evidence to suggest that in its early years the Ottoman regime may have canceled additional taxes the Mamluk regime collected from the dhimmi, including the ubiquitous tax on wine/ however , the documentation for such a step dates from the late sixteenth century.s It is not unlikely that the Ottomans also canceled the ancient tax normally paid upon a new ruler's accession to the throne.9 The picture that emerges from the Jerusalem sharia court documents suggests that the Jewish community did not find the special taxes especially burdensome.lO Various Hebrew sources, dating mainly from the latter half of the sixteenth century, convey a very different impression of a community suffering from a heavy tax burden. In the late sixteenth century especially, regular tax collection was supplemented by additional legal and illegal levies. The exigencies of life in Jerusalem are reflected in a responsum penned by Meir Gavison at the turn of the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries: The holy flock ... their souls long for the courts of the house of the Lord ... on the Lord's holy mount in Jerusalem. As the residents there feel the yoke of the nations more strongly, and must constantly propitiate them with pieces of silver, in addition to what they need for their own households. (They must unfailingly pay the judges their daily reckoning.) They honor its judges and officials with regular and special sacrifices. It is well known publicly that is how it is in Jerusalem (living in Jerusalem, may it be speedily rebuilt and reestablished, entails suffering). [Meir Gavison, Responsa, no. 43, p. I64pl Gavison's contemporary, Samuel de Uceda of Safed, confirmed the particularly heavy burden of taxation the Jews of Eretz-Israel bore: "We 50 Governmental...

Share