Mamluk Rule and the Spanish Expulsion

TIMELINE 9

Timeline 9 of 26

Mamluk Rule and the Spanish Expulsion

1260 to 1517

The Mamluk sultans of Egypt drive out the last Crusaders and rule the land as a province. In Europe Jews face expulsions, and Spain expels its Jews in 1492.

JEWISH LIFE IN THE LAND

1260 Rabbi Yehiel of Paris settles in Acre with his students.

1267 Nachmanides arrives in Jerusalem. The great scholar re-establishes the Jewish community and opens a synagogue.

1286 Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg is seized while setting out for the land of Israel.

1322 Ishtori Haparchi completes Kaftor va-Ferach, the first Hebrew geography of the land.

c. 1400 The Ramban Synagogue moves to its site in the Jewish Quarter.

1428 Jews and Franciscans clash over David’s Tomb on Mount Zion.

1474 The Ramban Synagogue is destroyed. Jews of Jerusalem rebuild it the next year.

1481 Meshullam of Volterra travels through the land and writes an account.

1488 Rabbi Ovadiah of Bertinoro arrives in Jerusalem. He revives its community.

1492 Spain expels its Jews. Many settle in Ottoman lands, among them Safed and Jerusalem.

1497 Portugal forces its Jews to convert.

RULERS OF THE LAND

1260 The Mamluks defeat the Mongols at Ain Jalut. The Mamluks of Egypt take over the land.

1265 Baybars takes Caesarea and Arsuf from the Crusaders.

1266 Sultan Baybars takes Safed from the Templars.

1291 The Mamluks raze the coast. Acre and the other ports are torn down so that the Crusaders cannot return.

c. 1300 Safed becomes the capital of a Mamluk province in the Galilee.

c. 1336 The Cotton Merchants’ Market is built in Jerusalem.

1348 The Black Death. The plague kills much of the population of the land.

1400 Timur sacks Damascus.

1482 Sultan Qaitbay builds his fountain on the Temple Mount.

1495 Mujir al-Din writes his history of Jerusalem and Hebron.

1516 The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks at Marj Dabiq.