1660 destruction of Safed
The 1660 destruction of Safed by the Druze occurred at the time of the rule of Ottoman Empire sultan Mehmed IV.[1][2][3][4] The towns of Safed and nearby Tiberias, with majority Jewish populations, were destroyed in the turmoil, following the 1658 death of Mulhim Ma'n,[5] with only Safed being repopulated shortly after the destruction.[6][7] Some sources place the destruction of Safed in 1662.[8]
Safed: historical context
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Safed's central role in Jewish life in Galilee declined after the late 16th century, when it was a major city with a population of 15,000 Jews.[9] By the second half of the seventeenth century Safed was still a majority Jewish community with some 4,000 to 5,000 Jewish residents, while about 100 of 300 "houses" (multiple family units) 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 new 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.[5] Mulhim's son Ahmad Maʿn emerged victorious among the Druze, but the Maʿnīs lost control of the area[5][11] and retreated to the Shuf mountains and Kisrawan.[12] In the second half of the seventeenth century Safed became the capital of the Ottoman sanjak of the same name.
The events: differing viewpoints
According to the General Council (Vaad leumi) of the Jewish Community of Palestine, the Druze of Lebanon raided and destroyed both Safed and Tiberias in 1662, "and the inhabitants fled to the adjacent villages, to Sidon or to Jerusalem"[13] The 1912 Jewish Encyclopedia places the destruction in 1660.[1] Jacob de Haas, in his History of Palestine, asserts the near-total destruction of the Safed Jewish community.[2] Gershom Scholem places the attack in 1662, and 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 d'Arvieux who visited Safed in 1660" an understanding of "the religious factor which enabled the community to survive," a belief in "'that the Messiah who will be born in Galilee, will make Safed the capital of his new kingdom on earth'"[8] According to Prof. Jacob Barnai: "In the second half of the seventeenth 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
References
- ^ a b Isidore Singer and Cyrus Adler (1912). The Jewish encyclopedia.
In 1660, under Mohammed IV (1649-1687) [sic], Safed was destroyed by the Arabs ...
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b 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.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ 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..."
- ^ Moïse Franco (1897). Essai sur l'histoire des Israélites de l'Empire ottoman: depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours. Librairie A. Durlacher. p. 88. Retrieved 22 April 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.
- ^ a b c 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 9781860648564.
- ^ a b 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 9780817305727 p. 14
- ^ 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..."
- ^ a b Gershom Gerhard Scholem (1976-01-01). Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676. Princeton University Press. p. 368. ISBN 9780691018096.
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.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ 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."
- ^ "… 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."Keneset Yiśraʼel be-Erets-Yiśraʼel. Ṿaʻad ha-leʼumi (1947). Historical memoranda. General Council (Vaad leumi) of the Jewish Community of Palestine. p. 62.
- ^ a b "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 9789004094376.
- ^ Salibi, Kamal S. (2005). A house of many mansions: the history of Lebanon reconsidered. I.B.Tauris. p. 66. ISBN 9781860649127.
- ^ 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.