JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

egypt
non-Muslim communities. The first Mamluks declared total
war against the Crusaders. They found it necessary to encourage
religious fervor in order to succeed in their efforts. Thus,
the Mamluk rule was accompanied by a series of decrees and
persecutions against the Christians and Jews, which continued
until the Mamluks were deposed by the Ottomans. The
ancient discriminatory laws were brought back into prominence
and new ones were also instituted. These activities
were primarily directed against the Copts, the most powerful
non-Muslim community in the Mamluk kingdom, but even
so the Jews suffered considerably. On the other hand, Jewish
communal organization in Egypt was not abolished and its
autonomy was mostly maintained. The decrees against non-
Muslims were introduced during the first generation of the
Mamluk rule. In 1290 Sultan Qalāwūn issued an order which
prohibited the employment of Jews and Christians in government
and ministerial departments. This order was reissued
during the reign of his son and successor, al-Malik al-Ashraf
Khalīl (1290–1293).
In 1301 there was a large-scale persecution. The Christians
were compelled to cover their turbans with a blue cloth,
the Jews with a yellow one, and the Samaritans with a red one.
The authorities renewed the prohibition of riding horses and
also forbade the building of houses higher than those of the
Muslims. On this occasion the Jewish and Christian houses of
prayer in *Cairo were closed down. In 1354 there was an even
graver persecution. The cause for it was again attributed by
Arab historians to the haughtiness of the Christian officials.
There were attacks on non-Muslims in the streets of Cairo and
the government instituted a severe control over the habits of
Muslim converts. At that time the economic situation of the
Jews took a turn for the worse; under the Mamluks the system
of monopolies was consolidated. Private industry was generally
ruined and the commerce of spices, the most important
part of Egypt’s external trade, was taken over by the monopolized
“Kārimī” merchant company in which only a few members
were Jews. During this period the Jewish population was
led by negidim of Maimonides’ family. Maimonides’ grandson,
R. *David b. Abraham, was nagid from 1238 to 1300. In various
documents the negidim are referred to as heads of academies
but the exact nature of the academy is in question. During the
second half of the 13th century, the literary activities of Egyptian
Jewry continued to flourish, as in the Fatimid and Ayyubid
periods. *Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi, the well-known Bible
commentator, and his son *Joseph, a competent Hebrew poet,
lived in Egypt at this time.
At the end of the 14th century, a second dynasty of the
Mamluks, the Cherkess, came to power. The Mamluk rule then
increased in violence and the anti-Jewish and anti-Christian
decrees grew in frequency. The oppression and extortions of
the sultans were severer than in former times. There often were
internal conflicts within this Mamluk faction, and as a result
the soldiers, unrestrained, rioted in the streets and attacked
the citizens. In order to appease the embittered people, the
sultans issued a multitude of decrees against the non-Mus-
lims. While the first sultan of the Cherkess Mamluks, Barqūq
(1382–1399), as well as his son and successor Faraj (1399–1412),
acted leniently toward the non-Muslims, the third sultan, al-
Muʾayyad Sheikh, oppressed the non-Muslims by various
means. The discriminatory decrees were renewed, and there
were searches for wine in the non-Muslim quarters. During
the reign of the Cherkess Mamluks the autonomous organization
of the communities in Egypt remained unharmed and
as previously, they were led as before by the negidim. The last
of Maimonides’ descendants to act as nagid was R. *David b.
Joshua. For reasons that are not known R. David was compelled
to leave Egypt in the 1370s. He was replaced by a man
named *Amram. At the end of the Mamluk period, Egyptian
Jewry was led by the negidim R. Nathan *Sholal and his relative
R. Isaac *Sholal, who emigrated to Palestine after the conquest
of Egypt by the Ottomans.
The travelers Meshullam of Volterra, who arrived in
Egypt in 1481, and R. Obadiah of *Bertinoro, who came there
seven years later, provided information about the size of the
communities in the descriptions of their travels. The numbers
which are found in their writings emphasize the decrease in
the Jewish population, which was concomitant with the general
depopulation and was partly a result of the oppression
under Mamluk rule. According to Meshullam there were 650
families, as well as 150 Karaite and 50 Samaritan families, in
Cairo, 50 families in Alexandria, 50 in Bilbeis, and 20 in al-
Khānqā. Obadiah mentions 500 families in Cairo, besides 150
Karaite and 50 Samaritan families, 25 families in Alexandria,
and 30 in Bilbeis. From this it can be deduced that there was
probably a total of 5,000 persons in all the communities visited
by the two travelers. By then the immigration of Spanish
Jewry to the oriental countries had begun. Even before
the expulsion, groups of forced converts arrived in Egypt.
Immediately after the expulsion, the Jews who had not converted
arrived and the Jewish population in Egypt increased.
In those centers where an important number of newcomers
settled separate communities were established. The arrival of
the Spanish immigrants had a beneficial effect on the cultural
life of Egyptian Jewry. Their numbers included scholars of
renown who engaged in educational activities and who were
appointed as dayyanim. Among the scholars who arrived in
Egypt during the first generation after the Spanish expulsion
were R. *Samuel ibn Sid, who was a member of the bet din of
the nagid in 1509, R. Jacob *Berab, who is mentioned in a document
of 1513 as a dayyan of this same bet din, and R. Samuel
ha-Levi *Ḥakim, who was a prominent halakhic authority and
acted as dayyan at the beginning of the 16th century in Cairo.
The negidim welcomed the Spanish refugees.
THE OTTOMAN TURKS. When Egypt was conquered by the
Ottomans in 1517, there was a decisive turn in the history of the
country and the Jews living there. A wide choice of commercial
possibilities was offered to the Jewish merchants, as well
as an introduction to a variety of other trades. At the height
of their power, the Ottomans were very tolerant and the Jews
232 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6