Tiberias Mameluke Early Ottoman Period
After the Mamelukes captured Israel from the Crusaders they expelled the Latin Christians, allowing the Byzantine Christians to remain alongside the Jews. Under the Mamelukes the Land of Israel was ruled from Damascus. Most of the towns in Israel were in ruins and the small Jewish community was poverty-stricken. Tiberias was desolate but began to grow again when the Ottoman Turks conquered the area in the early 16th century.
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[edit] Jews of Mameluke Israel
The Mameluke rule in Israel marked a difficult period for the Jews of the country. The Mamelukes destroyed the ports of Acco and Jaffa to prevent the Crusaders from returning, but in the process they destroyed the country’s trade and economic base.
During the Mameluke rule Tiberias was almost abandoned (though Mameluke buildings have been identified) and records do not list any type of population in the town. The Jewish population of Israel during the Mameluke period decreased to little more than 30,000 people who were centered in Jerusalem, Beit Shean, Safed, Gush Halav, Lydda, Hebron, Ramle and Gaza. There were also some rural communities in the Galilee and scattered communities in Transjordan. The first Ottoman census of 1525/6, eight years after the fall of the Mamluk rule does not mention a Jewish community in Tiberias.
[edit] Ottoman Rule
The Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suliman the Magnificent captured Israel in 1517 after decades of tribal infighting, Bedouin raids, neglect and economic decline. This period coincided with the expulsion of the Jews of Spain and Portugal and Tiberias played a significant role in absorbing new immigrants who fled the Inquisition.
[edit] Dona Gracia and Don Yosef Nasi
Dona Gracia Mendes was a wealthy widow in Portugal who had converted to Christianity with her family while they continued to practice Judaism secretly. She managed her deceased husband’s company which traded precious objects and spices and developed a banking business which lent money to the royal houses of Europe. She used her wealth to help Jews flee the Inquisition.
Dona Gracia's nephew, Don Yosef Nasi, was named Lord of Tiberias by the Sultan Sulaiman II. Don Joseph began to rebuild Tiberias as a place where Jews could settle and announced that all Jews who wished to live openly as Jews could come to Tiberias. Yossef Iben Ardeit, Don Yosef’s representative in Tiberias, introduced the breeding of silkworms and the manufacture of wool to the city to provide an economic base for the new immigrants. Don Joseph completed the reconstruction of the wall of Tiberias in 1565 with the help of the Pasha of Damascus. In addition to his monetary assistance to Tiberias and its residents, Don Joseph sent, at his own expense, ships which would bring Jews who were fleeing the Inquisition to Israel. He provided assistance to help them if they wished to settle in Tiberias.
[edit] Destruction
Following the 1658 death of Sultan Mulhim Ma’n in his successor, Mehmed IV was unable to maintain security in the north. The Bedouin tribe Tararba engaged in skirmishes with the Ma’aniye tribe from Lebanon and in 1660 the Ma'aniye tribe launched an attack on both Tiberias and Safed which destroyed both cities. The Jews of both Safed and Tiberias abandoned their cities but whereas Safed Jews began to return by 1665, Tiberias remained uninhabited for several decades.