Sepharad in Ottoman Constantinople: Elijah Mizraḥi’s (c. 1450–1526) Encounter with Iberian Immigrant Scholars and Communities

With the Iberian expulsions of 1492–1498, thousands of Jews were dispersed across the Mediterranean. Having often narrowly escaped with their lives on an odyssey across land and sea, many Spanish and Portuguese Jews eventually found refuge in different parts of the Ottoman Empire. The Jewish population of the newly conquered capital Constantinople more than doubled within a few decades. According to the common historiographical narrative, the immigrant Sephardi Jews quickly adjusted themselves to their new environs. Due to their economic success as well as their sheer numbers, they eventually came to dominate the local Greek-speaking Jewish communities, the Romaniot.

Although there is historical evidence to support the claim of a gradual Sephardic dominance in the region, such a narrative can simplify and ignore the complex nuances of the historical period. In my paper, I will concentrate on one particular figure from the time, the Constantinopolitan Romaniot Rabbi Elijah Mizraḥi (Reʾem; c. 1450–1526). From around the turn of the century, Mizraḥi was considered the leading authority among the Greek Jews in the capital. Through an analysis of various legal opinions of the period, I will reconstruct Mizraḥi’s strategies when he saw himself challenged by immigrant Sephardi scholars and communities. I ask: What problems did the Romaniot rabbi encounter? What solutions did he suggest? What were the possibilities and limits of his political agenda? I argue that Mizraḥi negotiated between different groups, traditions, and interests in particular constellations with overall success, consolidating his own rabbinic authority. Contrary to the prevailing historiographical narrative, which proclaims Sephardic triumph and Romaniot assimilation, this talk provides new insights into the on-going debates around 1500, while illuminating contemporary encounters between immigrant and local Jewish communities.