A History Predating 1492
The history of the Jews in Anatolia began many centuries before the migration of Sephardic Jews. Remnants of Jewish settlement from the 4th century BC have been uncovered along the Aegean coast. The historian Josephus Flavius records that Aristotle encountered Jewish scholars during a journey through Asia Minor.
Ancient synagogue ruins have been found in Sardis, near Ïzmir, dating from 220 BC, and traces of other Jewish settlements along the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts. A bronze column found in Ankara confirms the rights Emperor Augustus accorded to the Jews of Asia Minor.
Jewish communities in Anatolia flourished through the Turkish conquest. When the Ottomans captured Bursa and made it their capital, they found a Jewish community oppressed under Byzantine rule. Sultan Orhan gave them permission to build the Etz ha-Hayyim (Tree of Life) synagogue, which remained in service for centuries.
In the early 14th century, Jews from Europe — including Karaites — migrated to the new Ottoman capital at Edirne. Jews expelled from Hungary in 1376, from France by Charles VI in September 1394, and from Bavarian territories in 1470 all found refuge in the Ottoman Empire.
A letter sent by Rabbi Yitzhak Sarfati from Edirne to Jewish communities in Europe, written around 1454, invited his fellow Jews to “leave the torments they were enduring in Christendom and to seek safety and prosperity in Türkiye.” It is one of history’s earliest recorded invitations for Jewish migration to Muslim lands.
“Here every man dwells at peace under his vine and his fig tree. Here you are allowed to wear the most precious garments.”— Rabbi Yitzhak Sarfati, letter from Edirne to the Jews of Europe, c. 1454
When Mehmet II “the Conqueror” took Constantinople in 1453, he encountered an oppressed Romaniot (Byzantine) Jewish community which welcomed him with enthusiasm. Sultan Mehmet II issued a proclamation inviting all Jews to dwell in his new capital “beneath his vine and his fig tree” — a deliberate echo of Micah 4:4, signalling welcome in the language of Jewish scripture. The Hahambaşı (Chief Rabbi) position was established at this moment and continues to the present day.
Next: Sultan Bayazid II’s historic welcome of the Sephardic Jews in 1492.
A Haven for Sephardic Jews →Sources cited
Mark Alan Epstein, “The Ottoman Jewish Communities and their Role in the 15th and 16th Centuries.”
Joseph Nehama, Histoire des Israélites de Salonique.
Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 135–136.
Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 16, p. 1532.
Avram Galante, Histoire des Juifs d’Istanbul, Volume 2.