An Overview of Historical Background of Unknown Eastern Jews of Turkey

Abstract

Since ancient times Mesopotamia and Anatolia were a home for the Jews. During the Roman and Byzantine period there were small Jewish communities known as Karaite and Romaniot in Anatolia. After the foundation of the Ottoman Empire they continued to survive. Afterwards Ashkenazim Jewish communities from central and Eastern Europe began to immigrate to the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century. With the deportation of Jews from Spain, Anatolia became new home of Sephardim. As a result of flow of these immigrations, Sephardim became the dominant Jewish community among other Jewish groups. Thus, Jews were scattered in different parts of the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the Jews in the Empire were concentrated in the western regions, especially in Istanbul, Izmir, and Bursa and Edirne provinces. They made important contributions to the development of the Empire’s trade and industry.There were also considerable Jewish communities who lived in the eastern part of the country in provinces such as Gaziantep, Urfa, Siverek, Diyarbakir, Çermik, Mardin, Nusaybin, Cizre, Başkale and Van. As it is seen by meaning eastern Jews it is referred to Eastern part of first Ottoman later Turkey. This study aims to explore the history of Jews, who once lived in the eastern part of Ottoman Empire and later Turkey. The scarcity of sources indicates that Jews from these regions were received little scholarly attention. Through this study it is expected to make them more visible and to open new research areas for researchers. In addition to written sources it is also benefited from data collected through ethnographic interviews from an anthropological fieldwork conducted by the author in Israel in 2011. Currently, no Jews live or inhabit in the east and southeast of Turkey; therefore, one of the goals of this research is to reveal the existence of a community once had a way of life, beliefs, cultured in a multicultural and multireligious environment of the east.

Keywords

• doğu
• yaahudiler
• tarih
• east
• jews
• history