Ottoman Rule and Jewish Resettlement

TIMELINE 4F

Ottoman Rule and Jewish Resettlement

1517 to 1799

The Ottomans take the land in 1516 and 1517. Safed becomes the center of Jewish mysticism and law, and Sephardi and later Hasidic Jews settle in the holy cities.

TURNING POINTS

1517 The Ottomans conquer the land. Selim I takes Jerusalem from the Mamluks.

1538 Suleiman rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem. The walls still stand around the Old City.

1565 Joseph Karo publishes the Shulchan Aruch. The code of Jewish law is written in Safed.

1570 Isaac Luria arrives in Safed. His teaching makes Safed the center of Kabbalah.

1660 Safed and Tiberias are destroyed. Fighting among local rulers ruins both Jewish towns.

1665 Shabbetai Zevi is proclaimed Messiah in Gaza. The movement sweeps the Jewish world and collapses when he converts to Islam.

1700 Judah the Pious leads a group to Jerusalem. He dies days after they arrive. In 1720 creditors burn their synagogue, later rebuilt as the Hurva.

1740 Tiberias is rebuilt. Zahir al-Umar invites Rabbi Haim Abulafia to restore the Jewish community.

1799 Napoleon fails at Acre. Jazzar Pasha holds the city and the French retreat to Egypt.

ALSO IN THIS PERIOD

1540 Exiles from Spain strengthen the Jewish community of Hebron.

1561 Joseph Nasi wins a grant of Tiberias from the sultan and plans a Jewish refuge.

1577 The first printing press in the land opens in Safed.

1621 Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz comes to Jerusalem from Prague.

1648 News of the Chmielnicki massacres in Eastern Europe sends Jews to the land.

1742 Rabbi Haim ibn Attar, the Or ha-Haim, founds an academy in Jerusalem.

1759 An earthquake damages Safed, Tiberias and Acre.

1775 Jazzar Pasha begins his rule from Acre.

1777 Hasidic Jews settle in Tiberias and Safed.