The Responsa of Rabbi Joseph ibn Leb : a study in the religious, social and economic conditions of the Jewish communities within the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth - seventeenth centuries

• Main Author: Cooper, Hyman
• Published: University of London 1963
• Subjects: 953.303
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.388276

This Thesis combines a detailed study of the Responsa of Rabbi Joseph ibn Leb with researches into contemporary and later standard works dealing with the Ottoman Empire of the XVIth. - XVIIth. centuries. The analytical study of Responsa in the light of such works, particularly of recent scholarly investigations into the Mühimme Defterleri, the Defter-i Haaani and other official registers of the Turkish State archives has not hitherto been undertaken. An account of the diverse origins of Ottoman Jewry is followed by a biography of Rabbi Joseph ibn Leb. A study of communal organisation includes the subjects of communal leadership, lay and clerical, educational facilities, the Hascamah, ex-communication, inter-Congregational relationships, sources of communal revenue, and social welfare organisation. This leads to a consideration of Halachic practice and of social life, housing, dress, slave-ownership and health conditions. In external relationships I have dealt with disabilities consequent on the status of Jews as dhimmis, the Blood Libel and Ritual Murder accusation, djerime, taxation, the Kira, relations with the Ottoman judicature, and with the ruling authority. The chapter on economic conditions includes a list of Jewish occupations occurring in the Responsa, trading and business practice, and an account on Ottoman currency. On real estate the Hascamah I have called the "Three-Year Post- Occupational Hazakah" is considered, and the diverse types of Ottoman land-tenure such as Mulk, Wakf, such rights of occupation as LIoukütala, and the claim of Bar-Ni tzra. The subjects of marriage and divorce include material on customs, the status of the minor, agency, polygamy, and levirate marriage. Palestinian settlement is discussed, and appendices include the identification of place-names and Turkish terms in the Responsa, and the possible impact of Turkish institutions on Jewish life. Throughout this Thesis the systematic collation of Resnona material with the external sources above-mentioned and their mutual elucidation have been attempted.