The Jewish Community of Late Byzantine Thessalonica: the Problem of Determining Its Status

In this article, the author turns to an examination of the status of the Jewish community in Thessalonica in the late Byzantine period. The author concludes that both in the Byzantine era and during the Venetian rule in Thessalonica, the Jewish community of the city was subjected to numerous restrictions and prohibitions on the part of the official authorities. The reason for this was the initial isolation of the community, as well as the fact that the Jews, in contrast to the rest of the townspeople, owned vast financial resources and rented trading floors, ousting local entrepreneurs from there. The Jewish community in Thessalonica, quite numerous by the standards of contemporaries, in the XIV and XV centuries was in a state of permanent conflict with the church authorities of the city and, probably, had some influence on the communities of Judaizing Christians.

Keywords

Late Byzantium, Thessalonica, Ottoman State, Jews, Jewish community, Venice

Acknowledgment

The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation within the framework of the scientific project № 20-78-00138 “Ethno-religious minorities in Late Byzantium: the problem of integration and isolation”.

Received

18.05.2021

Publication date

16.08.2021

Number of characters

24225

Cite

GOST	Zhigalova N. The Jewish Community of Late Byzantine Thessalonica: the Problem of Determining Its Status // ISTORIYA – 2021. – V. 12. – Issue 7 (105) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840015801-0-1 (circulation date: 03.07.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840015801-0
MLA	Zhigalova, Natalia "The Jewish Community of Late Byzantine Thessalonica: the Problem of Determining Its Status." ISTORIYA 12.7 (105) (2021) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840015801-0
APA	Zhigalova N. (2021). The Jewish Community of Late Byzantine Thessalonica: the Problem of Determining Its Status. ISTORIYA 12(7 (105)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840015801-0

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