1660 destruction of Safed

Last updated

The 1660 destruction of Safed occurred during the Druze power struggle in Mount Lebanon, at the time of the rule of Ottoman sultan Mehmed IV. [1] [2] [3] [4] The towns of Safed and nearby Tiberias, with substantial Jewish communities, were destroyed in the turmoil. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Only a few of the former residents of Safed returned to the town after the destruction. [6] [7] Gershom Scholem considers the 1662 reports about the destruction of Safed as "exaggerated". [8] The community, however, recovered within several years, whereas Tiberias lay in waste for decades.

Contents

Background

Safed's central role in Jewish life in Galilee declined after the late 16th century, when it had been a major city with a population of 15,000 Jews. [9] By the second half of the 17th century Safed still had a majority Jewish community with 200 "houses" (multiple family units) and some 4,000 to 5,000 Jewish residents, while about 100 "houses" in the town were Muslim. [10] The district was under control of Druze emirs from the Maan family until 1660, when the Ottomans sought to regain local control by reorganizing the sanjaks of Safed and Sidon-Beirut into the province of Sidon. [11] From the 1658 death of Emir Mulhim Ma'n to 1667, a struggle for power between his sons and other Ottoman-backed Druze rulers took place in the region. [12] Mulhim's son Ahmad Maʿn emerged victorious among the Druze, but the Maʿnīs lost control of the area [11] [12] and retreated to the Shuf mountains and Kisrawan. [13] In the 2nd half of the 17th century, Safed became the capital of the Ottoman sanjak of the same name.

Massacre

Adler, Franco and Mendelssohn claim that the destruction of Safed took place in 1660, Mendelssohn writing that the Jews of Safed "had suffered severely" when the city had been destroyed by the Arabs. [1] [3] [4] Gershom Scholem places the attack in 1662, [8] and Rappel writes that by 1662 both Safed and Tiberias were destroyed, with only a few of former Safed's Jewish residents to return to the town. [7] A publication by the General Council of the Jewish Community of Eretz Yisrael states that the Druze raided and destroyed both Safed and Tiberias in 1662, "and the inhabitants fled to the adjacent villages, to Sidon or to Jerusalem". [14]

Rosanes brings an account of Safed's Jewish community "utter destruction" in his book "History of the Jews in Turkish realm".[ citation needed ] However, Scholem writes that the reports of the "utter destruction" of the Jewish community in Safed in this time period "seem greatly exaggerated, and the conclusions based on them are false." He points out that Sabbatai Sevi's mystical movement was active in Safed in 1665. Scholem also attributes to the French trader Laurent d'Arvieux who visited Safed in 1660 an understanding of "the religious factor which enabled the community to survive," a belief "'that the Messiah who will be born in Galilee, will make Safed the capital of his new kingdom on earth'" [8] Scholem writes that there was definitely a Jewish community in Safed in 1664–1667. [15]

Aftermath

Only a few of the former residents of Safed had returned to the town after the destruction. [7] Altogether, the town's Jewish community kept existing despite the events, with Barnai saying that "in the second half of the 17th century the Jewish presence in Palestine dwindled, and the Jewish presence in the Galilee also shrank. Only in Safed was there a small community." [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galilee</span> Large region mainly located in northern Israel

Galilee is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiberias</span> City in northern Israel

Tiberias is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed. In 2022, it had a population of 48,472.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabbateans</span> Followers of Sabbatai Zevi

The Sabbateans were a variety of Jewish followers, disciples, and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), an Ottoman Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1666 by Nathan of Gaza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabbatai Zevi</span> Jewish mystic and self-proclaimed Messiah (1626–1676)

Sabbatai Zevi was an Ottoman Jewish mystic, and ordained rabbi from Smyrna. His family origins may have been Ashkenazi or Spanish. Active throughout the Ottoman Empire, Zevi claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah and founded the Sabbatean movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safed</span> City in northern Israel

Safed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to 937 m (3,074 ft), Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel.

Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani, alternatively spelled Dhaher el-Omar or Dahir al-Umar, was an Arab ruler of northern Palestine in the mid-18th century, while the region was part of the Ottoman Empire. For much of his reign, starting in the 1730s, his domain mainly consisted of the Galilee, with successive headquarters in Tiberias, Deir Hanna and finally Acre, in 1750. He fortified Acre, and the city became the center of the cotton trade between Palestine and Europe. In the mid-1760s, he reestablished the port town of Haifa nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peki'in</span> Local council in Israel

Peki'in or Buqei'a, is a Druze–Arab town with local council status in Israel's Northern District. It is located eight kilometres east of Ma'alot-Tarshiha in the Upper Galilee. In 2022 it had a population of 6,104. The majority of residents are Druze (78%), with a large Christian (20.8%) and Muslim (1.2%) minorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan of Gaza</span> Jewish theologian and author

Nathan of Gaza, also Nathan Benjamin ben Elisha Hayyim haLevi Ashkenazi or Ghazzati, was a theologian and author born in Jerusalem. After his marriage in 1663 he moved to Gaza, where he became famous as a prophet for the Jewish messiah claimant Sabbatai Zevi.

The history of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel begins in the 2nd millennium BCE, when Israelites emerged as an outgrowth of southern Canaanites. During biblical times, a postulated United Kingdom of Israel existed but then split into two Israelite kingdoms occupying the highland zone: the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Judah by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Initially exiled to Babylon, upon the defeat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great, many of the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem, building the Second Temple.

The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the new Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the new Yishuv, characterized by secular and Zionist ideologies promoting labor and self-sufficiency, the Old Yishuv primarily consisted of religious Jews who relied on external donations (halukka) for support.

Following are timelines of the history of Ottoman Syria, taken as the parts of Ottoman Syria provinces under Ottoman rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1834 looting of Safed</span> Anti-Jewish violence in Palestine

The 1834 looting of Safed was a month-long attack on the Jewish community of Safed in the Sidon Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire during the Peasants' revolt in Palestine. It began on Sunday, June 15, the day after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and lasted for 33 days. It has been described as a spontaneous attack on a defenseless population during the armed uprising against the rule of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, the Ottoman governor. The event took place during a power vacuum while Ibrahim Pasha was fighting to quell the wider revolt in Jerusalem.

The 1838 Druze attack on Safed began on July 5, 1838, during the Druze revolt against the rule of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt. Tensions had mounted as the Druze captured an Egyptian garrison outside of Safed. The local Safed militia of several hundred was heavily outnumbered by the Druze, and the city was gripped in despair as the militia eventually abandoned the city and the Druze rebels entered the city on July 5. The Druze rebels and a Muslim mob descended on the Jewish quarter of Safed and, in scenes reminiscent of the Safed plunder four years earlier, spent three days attacking Jews, plundering their homes and desecrating their synagogues. Besides religious and sectarian tensions, the Jewish community in Safed was seen as being favorable toward Ibrahim Pasha and the Egyptian Eyalet. Some Jews ended up leaving the town, moving south to Jerusalem and Acre. Among them was Yisrael Bak, whose printing press had been destroyed a second time.

The 1660 destruction of Tiberias occurred during the Druze power struggle in the Galilee, in the same year as the destruction of Safed. The destruction of Tiberias by the Druze resulted in abandonment of the city by its Jewish community, until it was rebuilt by Zahir al-Umar in early 18th century. Altshuler however attributes the destruction of Tiberias in 1660 to an earthquake. The destruction could have also been a combination of both events.

The timeline of the Palestine region is a timeline of major events in the history of Palestine. For more details on the history of Palestine see History of Palestine. In cases where the year or month is uncertain, it is marked with a slash, for example 636/7 and January/February.

Meir bar Hiyya Rofe was a Hebron rabbi, known among other things for his tours of Europe as an emissary from the Holy Land on behalf of the Jewish community of Hebron. His father, Hiyya Rofe, was a very learned rabbi from Safed. Orphaned at a young age, Meir studied in Hebron, leaving about 1648 as an emissary to Italy, Holland, and Germany. On his return journey, he stayed for two years in Italy to publish Ma'aseh Ḥiyya, his father's talmudic novellae and responsa. In Amsterdam he had influenced the wealthy Abraham Pereyra to found a yeshiva in Hebron to be called Hesed le-Avraham, of which Meir himself became the head scholar.

Gabriel Esperanssa, also spelled Esperanza or Esperança, was a 17th-century rabbi at Safed. He was originally from Salonika, where he was a disciple of Daniel Estrumsa. He apparently assumed the name of a woman called Esperanssa, who adopted and educated him as an orphan.

The Druze power struggle of 1658–1667 was a violent tribal dispute during Ottoman rule in the Levant. The conflict erupted between rebel and pro-Ottoman Druze factions over succession of the Maani rule.

Al-Zayadina were an Arab clan based in the Galilee. They were best known after one of their sheikhs Zahir al-Umar, who, through his tax farms, economic monopolies, popular support, and military strength ruled a semi-autonomous sheikhdom in northern Palestine and adjacent regions in the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safed Sanjak</span> Subdivision of the Ottoman Empire (1517–1660)

Safed Sanjak was a sanjak (district) of Damascus Eyalet in 1517–1660, after which it became part of the Sidon Eyalet. The sanjak was centered in Safed and spanned the Galilee, Jabal Amil and the coastal cities of Acre and Tyre. The city of Safed was made up of Muslim and Jewish townspeople. At the same time the rest of the sanjak was populated by Sunni Muslims, Jewish peasants, Bedouin tribesmen, Shia Muslims/Mitwali, and Druze peasants.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Isidore Singer; Cyrus Adler (1912). The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Funk and Wagnalls. p. 283. In 1660, under Mohammed IV. (1649-87), Safed was destroyed by the Arabs.
  2. 1 2 Jacob De Haas (1934). History of Palestine. p. 345. Safed, hotbed of mystics, is not mentioned in the Zebi adventure. Its community had been massacred in 1660, when the town was destroyed by Arabs, and only one Jew escaped.
  3. 1 2 3 Sidney Mendelssohn. The Jews of Asia: especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. (1920) p.241. "Long before the culmination of Sabbathai's mad career, Safed had been destroyed by the Arabs and the Jews had suffered severely, while in the same year (1660) there was a great fire in Constantinople in which they endured heavy losses..."
  4. 1 2 3 Franco, Moïse (1897). Essai sur l'histoire des Israélites de l'Empire ottoman: depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours. Librairie A. Durlacher. p.  88 . Retrieved 13 July 2011. Moins de douze ans après, en 1660, sous Mohammed IV, la ville de Safed, si importante autrefois dans les annales juives parce qu'elle était habitée exclusivement par les Israélites, fut détruite par les Arabes, au point qu'il n' y resta, dit une chroniquer une seule ame juive.
  5. ↑ A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine. P.409. "Sultan Seliman surrounded it with a wall in 5300 (1540), and it commenced to revive a little, and to be inhabited by the most distinguished Jewish literati; but it was destroyed again in 5420 (1660)."
  6. 1 2 3 Barnai, Jacob. The Jews in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine (University of Alabama Press 1992) ISBN   978-0-8173-0572-7; p. 14
  7. 1 2 3 4 Joel Rappel. History of Eretz Israel from Prehistory up to 1882 (1980), Vol.2, p.531. "In 1662 Sabbathai Sevi arrived to Jerusalem. It was the time when the Jewish settlements of Galilee were destroyed by the Druze: Tiberias was completely desolate and only a few of former Safed residents had returned..."
  8. 1 2 3 Gershom Gerhard Scholem (1976-01-01). Sabbatai Sevi: the Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676. Princeton University Press. p. 368. ISBN   978-0-691-01809-6. In Safed, too, the [Sabbatai] movement gathered strength during the autumn of 1665. The reports about the utter destruction, in 1662 [sic], of the Jewish settlement there seem greatly exaggerated, and the conclusions based on them are false. ... Rosanes' account of the destruction of the Safed community is based on a misunderstanding of his sources; the community declined in numbers but continued to exist ... A very lively account of the Jewish community is given by French trader d'Arvieux who visited Safed in 1660.
  9. ↑ Dr. Altshuler, Mor. The Messianic Secret. (Hebrew). Ch.8. "The Golden Age of the Kabbalah in Safed and its economic blossom continued through the sixteenth century. At its peak more than 15,000 Jews populated the city."
  10. ↑ Keneset Yiśraʼel be-Erets-Yiśraʼel. Ṿaʻad ha-leʼumi (1947). Historical memoranda. General Council (Vaad leumi) of the Jewish Community of Palestine. p. 62. "… thirty to forty years later, the French traveller Roger mentions 200 Jewish and 100 Moslem houses, elsewhere in his book putting the number of Jews at 4,000 persons. According to the Turkish traveller Evlia Chelebi there were about 1,300 Jewish houses, although he probably meant families. It seems, therefore, that at about the middle of the XVIIth century there were some 4,000 to 5,000 Jews in Safed."
  11. 1 2 "the sanjaq of Ṣafad, which was part of this province, remained under the suzerainty of Druze amīrs until 1660, when the Ottomans reorganized the province. The Maʿnīs, however were unable to preserve their control of the sanjaq, and the Druze villages in the area lost their protection." Firro, Kais (1992). A history of the Druzes. BRILL. p. 45. ISBN   978-90-04-09437-6.
  12. 1 2 Abu-Husayn, Abdul-Rahim (2004). The view from Istanbul: Lebanon and the Druze Emirate in the Ottoman chancery documents, 1546-1711 . I.B.Tauris. pp.  22–23. ISBN   978-1-86064-856-4.
  13. ↑ Salibi, Kamal S. (2005). A house of many mansions: the history of Lebanon reconsidered. I.B.Tauris. p. 66. ISBN   978-1-86064-912-7.
  14. ↑ "In 1662, Safed and Tiberias were destroyed in a raid by Druzes from the Lebanon, and the inhabitants fled to the adjacent villages, to Sidon or to Jerusalem" Keneset Yiśraʼel be-Erets-Yiśraʼel. Ṿaʻad ha-leʼumi (1947). Historical memoranda. General Council (Vaad leumi) of the Jewish Community of Palestine. p. 62.
  15. ↑ Scholem, loc. cit., p187
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.