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Strongilah
Strongilah (died 1548) was a Jewish Ottoman businesswoman. She was the influential favorite and ''Kira'' of Hafsa Sultan, and possibly of Hürrem Sultan.Minna Rozen: A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul, The Formative Years, 1453 – 1566 (2002). Biography Strongilah was the daughter of the Karaite Jew Eliyah Gibor from Crimea. She is the first kira in the Imperial Harem of which there is any information. She would have become a kira by presenting the goods of her merchant husband to the harem women. She acted as a go-between and provided luxury items, medicine and letters. Because of her services, Strongilah became the favoured kira of Hafsa Sultan. She was possibly the same kira who cured an eye illness of an unidentified sultan's mother and was greatly awarded for this. Abraham Danon, “The Karaites in European Turkey,”The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series 15, no. 3(1925): 323-324 When Hafsa Sultan became mother of the sultan in 1520, she successfully asked her ...
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Esther Handali
Esther Handali (died 18 or 19 December 1588Pedani, Maria Pia. “Safiye's Household and Venetian Diplomacy”. Turcica 32 (2000). ) was a Jewish Ottoman businesswoman. She was the influential favorite and ''Kira'' (business agent) of Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan, and possibly of Hürrem Sultan. Life Early life Esther Handali was reportedly a Sephardic Jew from Jerez de la Frontera in Spain.Lucienne Thys-Senocak: Ottoman Women Builders: The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan' She was married to the Jewish merchant Eliya Handali, who traded in luxuries such as jewellery, expensive clothing and cosmetics to the women of the Imperial Harem. Due to the seclusion from the opposite sex and the outside world imposed upon the women of the harem, male merchants were not allowed in to the harem, and a custom developed with merchant wives entering the harem to act as intermediary agents, displaying the goods to the prospective clients of the harem. These women were often Je ...
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1548 Deaths
__NOTOC__ Year 1548 ( MDXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * February 14 – Battle of Uedahara: Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo. * April 1 – Sigismund II Augustus succeeds his father, Sigismund I the Old, as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. * May 11 – The great fire in Brielle begins. * June ** Ming Chinese naval forces commanded by Zhu Wan destroy the pirate haven of Shuangyu, frequented by Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese smugglers. ** John Dee starts to study at the Old University of Leuven. July–December * July 7 – A marriage treaty is signed between Scotland and France, whereby five-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, is betrothed to the future King Francis II of France. * August 7 – Mary, Queen of Scots, leaves for France. * October 20 &ndash ...
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Hafsa Sultan
Hafsa Sultan ( ota, حفصه سلطان, "''Young lioness''"; or before – 19 March 1534), also called Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, was a concubine of Selim I and the first Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire as the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the period between her son's enthronement in 1520 and her death in 1534, she was one of the most influential persons in the Ottoman Empire. Origins The traditional view holding that Hafsa Sultan was the daughter of Meñli I Giray (1445–1515), the khan of the Crimean Tatars for much of the period between 1466 and 1515, resting on seventeenth century western authors accounts, has been challenged in favor of a Christian slave origin based on Ottoman documentary evidence. Only few historians still follow the traditional view, including Brian Glyn Williams. Reşat Kasaba mentions the marriage between Selim I and Hafsa Sultan as the "last marriage between an Ottoman sultan and a member of a neighboring Muslim royal family". Esin Atıl, ho ...
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Hürrem Sultan
Hurrem Sultan (, ota, خُرّم سلطان, translit=Ḫurrem Sulṭān, tr, Hürrem Sultan, label=Modern Turkish; 1500 – 15 April 1558), also known as Roxelana ( uk, Роксолана}; ), was the chief consort and legal wife of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. She became one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history as well as a prominent and controversial figure during the era known as the Sultanate of Women. Born in Ruthenia (then an eastern region of the Kingdom of Poland, now Rohatyn, Ukraine) to a Ruthenian Orthodox priest, Hurrem was captured by Crimean Tatars during a slave raid and eventually taken to Istanbul, the Ottoman capital. She entered the Imperial Harem, rose through the ranks and became the favourite of Sultan Suleiman. Breaking Ottoman tradition, he married Hurrem, making her his legal wife. Sultans had previously married only foreign free noble ladies. She was the first imperial consort to receive the title Haseki Sultan ...
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Kira (title)
, , or (all are Greek for "lady"), was a common title for the women (usually Jewish women, but also Christians), who acted as agents for the women of the Ottoman sultan's Imperial Harem. History Context and background The method of using non-Muslim women as intermediaries between men and Muslim businesswomen was a common phenomenon in all classes in the Ottoman Empire. Muslim women were provided formal control of their own money, and thus theoretically allowed to participate in business. However, in practice their participation in business was hampered by the fact that it was not seen as respectable for women to come in contact with men outside of the family. The gender segregation of Muslim women provided a valuable business opportunity for both Jewish and Christian women, who are known to have functioned as intermediaries and go-between for Muslim women, selling the handiwork of Muslim women on the market place and to (male) merchants. The French traveler Pierre Belon noted thi ...
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Jews In The Ottoman Empire
By the time the Ottoman Empire rose to power in the 14th and 15th centuries, there had been Jewish communities established throughout the region. The Ottoman Empire lasted from the early 14th century until the end of World War I and covered parts of Southeastern Europe, Anatolia, and much of the Middle East. The experience of Jews in the Ottoman Empire is particularly significant because the region "provided a principal place of refuge for Jews driven out of western Europe by massacres and persecution". At the time of the Ottoman conquests, Anatolia had already been home to communities of Byzantine Jews. The Ottoman Empire became a safe haven for Iberian Jews fleeing persecution. The First and Second Aliyah brought an increased Jewish presence to Ottoman Palestine. The Ottoman successor state of modern Turkey continues to be home to a small Jewish population today. Overview At the time of the Battle of Yarmuk when the Levant passed under Muslim Rule, thirty Jewish commu ...
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Karaite Jews
Karaite Judaism () or Karaism (, sometimes spelt Karaitism (; ''Yahadut Qara'it''); also spelt Qaraite Judaism, Qaraism or Qaraitism) is a Jewish religious movement characterized by the recognition of the written Torah alone as its supreme authority in ''halakha'' (Jewish religious law) and theology. Karaites believe that all of the divine commandments which were handed down to Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah without any additional Oral Law or explanation. Unlike mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the Oral Torah, codified in the Talmud and subsequent works, to be authoritative interpretations of the Torah, Karaite Jews do not believe that the written collections of the oral tradition in the Midrash or the Talmud are binding. When they read the Torah, Karaites strive to adhere to the plain or most obvious meaning (''peshat'') of the text; this is not necessarily the literal meaning of the text, instead, it is the meaning of the text that would have be ...
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Ottoman Imperial Harem
The Imperial Harem ( ota, حرم همايون, ) of the Ottoman Empire was the Ottoman sultan's harem – composed of the wives, servants (both female slaves and eunuchs), female relatives and the sultan's concubines – occupying a secluded portion (seraglio) of the Ottoman imperial household. This institution played an important social function within the Ottoman court, and wielded considerable political authority in Ottoman affairs, especially during the long period known as the Sultanate of Women (approximately 1533 to 1656). Multiple historians claim that the sultan was frequently lobbied by harem members of different ethnic or religious backgrounds to influence the geography of the Ottoman wars of conquest. The utmost authority in the Imperial Harem, the valide sultan, ruled over the other women in the household; the consorts of the sultan were normally of slave origin, and thus were also his mother, the valide sultan. The Kizlar Agha (, also known as the "Chief Black ...
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Turkish Jews
The history of the Jews in Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Yahudileri or ; he, יהודים טורקים, Yehudim Turkim; lad, Djudios Turkos) covers the 2400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in Anatolia since at least the fifth century BCE and many Spanish and Portuguese Jews expelled from Spain by the Alhambra Decree were welcomed into the Ottoman Empire in the late 15th century, including regions now part of Turkey, centuries later, forming the bulk of the Ottoman Jews. Today, the vast majority of Turkish Jews live in Israel, though Turkey itself still has a modest Jewish population. History Roman & Byzantine rule According to the Hebrew Bible, Noah's Ark landed on the top of Mount Ararat, a mountain in eastern Anatolia, in Northern Kurdistan, near the present-day borders of Turkey, Armenia, and Iran. Josephus, Jewish historian of the first century, notes Jewish origins for many of the cities in Anatolia, though much of his ...
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Converts To Islam From Judaism
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliating with another. This might be from one to another denomination within the same religion, for example, from Baptist to Catholic Christianity or from Sunni Islam to Shi’a Islam. In some cases, religious conversion "marks a transformation of religious identity and is symbolized by special rituals". People convert to a different religion for various reasons, including active conversion by free choice due to a change in beliefs, secondary conversion, deathbed conversion, conversion for convenience, marital conversion, and forced conversion. Proselytism is the act of attempting to convert by persuasion another individual from a different religion or belief system. Apostasy, Apostate is a term used by members of a religion or denomination to r ...
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16th-century Sephardi Jews
The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 ( MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 ( MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582). The 16th century is regarded by historians as the century which saw the rise of Western civilization and the Islamic gunpowder empires. The Renaissance in Italy and Europe saw the emergence of important artists, authors and scientists, and led to the foundation of important subjects which include accounting and political science. Copernicus proposed the heliocentric universe, which was met with strong resistance, and Tycho Brahe refuted the theory of celestial spheres through observational measurement of the 1572 appearance of a Milky Way supernova. These events directly challenged the long-held notion of an immutable universe supported by Ptolemy and Aristotle, and led to major revolutions in astronomy and science. Galileo Galilei became a champion ...
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16th-century Businesswomen
The 16th century begins with the Julian calendar, Julian year 1501 (Roman numerals, MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, Gregorian year 1600 (Roman numerals, MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582). The 16th century is regarded by historians as the century which saw the rise of Western culture, Western civilization and the Gunpowder empires, Islamic gunpowder empires. The Renaissance in Italy and Europe saw the emergence of important artists, authors and scientists, and led to the foundation of important subjects which include accounting and political science. Copernicus proposed the Copernican heliocentrism, heliocentric universe, which was met with strong resistance, and Tycho Brahe refuted the theory of celestial spheres through observational measurement of the SN 1572, 1572 appearance of a Milky Way supernova. These events directly challenged the long-held notion of an immutable uni ...
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