To Come to the Land: Immigration and Settlement in 16th-Century Eretz-Israel

6. The Communities

JERUSALEM 5 The Jewish Quarter The section on Jewish Jerusalem, one of the two major centers of Jewish life in sixteenth-century Eretz-Israel, sets out first to establish the Jewish quarter's physical location and salient demographic features . It then explores the variegated human mosaic of its social composition , bearing witness to the Sefardi element's rapid rise to dominance. The internal communal structure and patterns of leadership form the next topic, which is followed by an examination of the city's educational settings and their curricula. By no means have I tried to present a picture of daily life; the focus here is on the institutional and educational settings and on the roles played by leading personalities within the communal structure. A. LOCATION Jerusalem's Jews resided in the area contiguous with the presentday "Jewish Quarter" during the period under consideration. In an earlier period, they lived on Mt. Zion; their relocation dates from the turn of the fourteenth to the fifteenth centuries.l Hebrew sources refer to the Jewish neighborhood as "~ion," while Arabic ones use "$ahyun.,,2 Two possible conjectures for this choice of name are the neighborhood's proximity to Mt. Zion or a retrospective reference to the former Jewish quarter on Mt. Zion. The Arabic term 1;arat al-yahud, that is, the Jewish neighborhood, was also in use. Hebrew sources provide but a sketchy picture of the Jewish quarter 's location.3 Moses Basola, for example, reported its location in general terms only: "The nagid, may God protect and preserve him, told me that in Jerusalem the Jewish neighborhood extends from Mt. Zion to near the Temple.,,4 Arabic and Turkish sources from the late Mamluk /early Ottoman periods enable us to fix its boundaries more precisely .s According to these sources, the Jewish presence in Jerusalem was distributed over three contiguous Muslim neighborhoods-the alSharaf , the al-Risha, and the al-Maslakh quarters. The al-Sharaf neighborhood , where the Tarik al-Maslakh or Jews' Street was located, lay west of Mt. Zion in close proximity to the ~wram and was bounded by David Street in the north. The al-Risha quarter lay to the west of Jews' 58 Jerusalem JERUSALEM (SHOWING APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF QUARTERS NAMED IN THE REGISTERS) N 1 SAS NASi DAOD (Based on V. Guerin. Plan de Jerusalem. 1889) Map 3. Jerusalem's Quarters in the Early Ottoman Period Street and was situated between this street and the Jacobite (Armenian) quarter, while the al-Maslakh quarter lay between the Zion Gate's southern corner and the Armenian Quarter, toward Dung Gate.6 Jews resided outside the city limits as well, in Nabi Samuil, situated north of Jerusalem. As its name indicates, this was believed to be the burial site of the prophet Samuel, a tradition embraced in both Muslim and Jewish lore.? Jews exercised control over this site, albeit not continuously, from the late twelfth until the early eighteenth century, and Nabi Samuil was a popular destination for Jewish pilgrims. Mass gatherings were held here, on the 28th of lyyar in particular, the traditional date of Samuel's death. These gatherings were the venue for a variety of rituals: special prayers in the prophet's memory and bequests The Jewish Quarter 59 of charity in his honor, among others.8Various sources dating from the late fifteenth century on indicate that a synagogue and a bet midrash (yeshivah) operated here.9 In the early Ottoman period, ownership of this site was a contested issue, with claims set forth by both Rabbanite and Karaite Jews. Through the intervention of the Sublime Porte, hegemony over Nabi Samuil was awarded to the Rabbanites.lO Over the years, Muslims made unceasing efforts to obstruct Jewish activity at the site, which was also holy in their eyes, and even to wrest control of it from the Jews.ll Sixteenth-century sources indicate that the Jews succeeded in maintaining their hold and that both a yeshivah and a synagogue continued to function there.l2 Between 1565 and 1573, however, it appears that the Muslims did succeed in temporarily evicting the Jews, as documented in a responsum by David ibn Abi Zimra: /lHe who made a vow to cut his child's hair at Samuel's tomb and came and found that it was in the hands of the idol-worshippers; due to our sins Jews cannot gain entry./l13 Nonetheless, some thirty years later, in 1600, the Jews regained permission to return to this site.14...