- Hakham Bashi
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Hakham Bashi (Ottoman Turkish: حاخامباشی, Turkish: Hahambaşı) is the Turkish name for the Chief Rabbi of the nation's Jewish community.
Contents
History
The institution of the Hakham Bashi was established by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, as part of the millet system for governing exceedingly diverse subjects according to their own laws and authorities wherever possible. Religion was considered a primordial aspect of a community's 'national' identity, so the term Ethnarch has been applied to such religious leaders, especially the (Greek Orthodox) Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (i.e. in the Sultan's imperial capital, renamed Istanbul in 1930 but replaced by Ankara as republican capital in 1923). As Islam was the official religion of both court and state, the Chief Mufti in Istanbul had a much higher status, even of cabinet rank.
Because of the size and nature of the Ottoman state, containing a far greater part of the diaspora then any other, the position of Hakham Bashi has been compared to that of the Jewish Exilarch.
In the Ottoman Empire, and as such, the Hakham Bashi was the closest thing to an overall Exilarchal authority among Jewry everywhere in the Middle East in early modern times. They held broad powers to legislate, judge and enforce the laws among the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and often sat on the Sultan's divan.
The office also maintained considerable influence outside the Ottoman Empire, especially after the forced migration of numerous Jewish communities and individuals out of Spain (after the fall of Granada in 1492) and Italy.
The Chief Rabbi of the modern, secular Republic of Turkey is still known as Hahambaşı.
List of individuals holding the titles of Chief Rabbi in the Ottoman Empire, Palestine and the Turkish Republic
Chief Rabbis of the Ottoman Empire (Hahambaşı)
Eli Capsali 1452–1454 Moses Capsali 1454–1495 Elijah Mizrachi 1497–1526 Mordechai Komitano 1526–1542 Tam ibn Yahya 1542–1543 Eliyyah Benjamin ha-Levi 1543 Eliyyah ben Ḥayyim 1543–1602 Yeḥiel Bassan 1602–1625 Joseph Miṭrani 1625–1639 Yomṭov Ben Yaʿesh 1639–1642 Yomṭov ben Ḥananiah Ben Yaqar 1642–1677 Ḥayyim Qamḥi 1677–1715 Judah Ben Rey 1715–1717 Samuel Levi 1717–1720 Abraham ben Ḥayyim Rosanes 1720–1745 Solomon Ḥayyim Alfandari 1745–1762 Meir Ishaki 1762–1780 Elijah Palombo 1780–1800 Ḥayyim Jacob Benyakar 1800–1835 Abraham ha-Levi 1835–1836 Samuel ben Moses Ḥayyim 1836–1837 Moses Fresco 1839–1841 Jacob Behar David 1841–1854 Ḥayyim ha-Kohen 1854–1860 Jacob (or Yakup) Avigdor 1860–1863 Yakir Geron 1863–1872 Moses Levi 1872–1908 Haim Nahum Effendi 1908–1920 Shabbetai Levi 1918–1919 Ishak Ariel 1919–1920 Chief Rabbis of Palestine
Makhlouf Eldaoudi 1889–1909 Chief Rabbis of the Turkish Republic (Hahambaşı)
Haim Moşe Becerano 1920–1931 Haim Ishak Saki 1931–1940 Rafael David Saban 1940–1960 David Asseo 1961–2002 Ishak Haleva 2002– See also
References
- Haim Ze'ew Hirschberg, 'Hakham Bashi', Encyclopaedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0), edited by Cecil Roth (Keter Publishing House, 1997). ISBN 965-07-0665-8
- Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). ISBN 0-691-00807-8
- Stanford J Shaw, 'Appendix 1: Grand Rabbis of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire, and Chief Rabbis of republican Turkey', in The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (New York City: New York University Press, 1991), 272-273.
Categories:- Chief rabbis of the Ottoman Empire
- Chief rabbis of Turkey
- Orthodox rabbinic roles and titles
- Turkish words and phrases
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