The claims implicating the ottomans for the establishment of a Jewish community in Jerusalem

Abstract EN

Since the time of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, the relationship between the Ottomans and the Jewish communities within the Muslim world has been described as generally positive.

However, a number of Arab academics cast claims over the Ottoman role in the Jewish presence in Jerusalem, starting from Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (Kanuni Sultan Süleyman), who, according to these claims, was the “first Muslim Sultan to allow Jews to reside in Jerusalem”.

Other authors claim, contradictory to what many historical sources suggest, that Sultan Abdülhamid II played a role in assisting the Jewish Zionist migration to Palestine by the end of the 19th century.

However, historical analyses show that these claims are very much doubtable as there is strong evidence on the presence of a Jewish community in Jerusalem before the Ottoman rule of the city, despite what some academics describe as a ban over Jews from residing in Jerusalem by Caliph Umar Ibn al-Khattab.

This paper studies the Jewish presence in Jerusalem before the Ottoman rule and the relationship between the Ottoman authorities and the Jewish community in Jerusalem under the reigns of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and Sultan Abdulhamid II.

The paper argues for the Ottoman tolerant approach towards diverse faiths in that holy city.