ABOUT RESPECT BETWEEN MUSLIM AND JEWISH MERCHANTS IN BOSNIA IN THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

Author: Samuel Pinto, PhD

“And while Jews in other parts of “civilized” Europe experienced hard days of humiliation and persecution, Jews under Turkish rule lived freely, without fear, in peace and concord with their fellow citizens, naturally according to given conditions. Over the whole period of several centuries no case of mass persecution of Jews by their Muslim fellow citizens was recorded. There is no case of denigration for sake of ritual killing or a case of forceful conversion. On the contrary, there are many examples of close mutual social and economic ties, which are described even today. It used to happen that some Muslims, in their relations with Jews, learned and spoke Spanish. Trade correspondence between Jewish and Muslim merchants regularly proceeded in Spanish. In the legacies of well-known Sarajevo wholesalers Hašimaga Glođo and Muhamed Kumašin I found such trade correspondence in Spanish. Muslims had great trust in Jewish merchants.”

(…)

About rights of Jews in public service in Bosnia in the Ottoman period

“In Bosnia, like in the whole Turkish Empire, Jews had their religious-education autonomy. From notes in the Jewish Community register and from community statutes, which communities’ management issued completely independently, without any approval by state authorities, and recorded in the register, it can be established that the scope of religious-education autonomy was not small. The Community determined and collected the community surtax by itself: religious school Talmud-tora was fully independent and was not supervised by state authorities: curriculum for Talmud-tora was made by the Community without interventions by state authorities. The Community also had jurisdiction over its members. Within the Community, Jewish court “Bet-din” was constituted, which tried members of the Community pursuant to Moses laws in all civil actions, and sometimes also in criminal cases. Turkish authorities did not interfere in the affairs of Jewish Community or the members’ attitude toward the Community. Moreover, when a Jew attempted to bring his case with another Jew before a qadi, the latter would decline it and refer hi to the Jewish “Bet- din”. “However, the Community itself, i.e. rabbis, strove to instill the authority of Moses civil laws in Jews, and would rebuke Jewish parties who addressed a qadi publicly in the temple, and sometimes even exclude them from the temple for a certain time.”

Judgments of “Bet-din” became valid without the need to be finally certified pursuant to higher Turkish forum. If the Community was not able to execute a valid judgment, the Community addressed state authorities, which would the execute the judgment upon the payment of tax. It most often happened in the case of criminal convictions, which passed corporal punishments (falakas) — which is proven by many recorded amounts in the register which were paid to Turkish authorities as taxes for “falakas to a Jew".

The civil-law status of Jews and people of other religions was not regulated by law but was rather established according to tradition and old customs. Until the reforms of sultan Abdul Medžid in 1839 and 1856 people of other religions were only tolerated as a religious community (religio tolerata). However, the royal berat (decree) of 1840 on the appointment and certification of Moša Perero as Sarajevo hahambasha (senior rabbi) confirmed civil rights to Jews, while they had only been tolerated before. Among other things, the decree allow Jews “to build their houses of worship in any place in Bosnia; to open schools; Jews are allowed to freely teach religious instruction and other subjects to children; it is forbidden for anybody to prevent Jews to enjoy their ritual meals and drinks (,”kašer“).

This decree is also important because it confirmed some civil right of Jews before issuing Tanzimat-Hayriye, a large reform document of Abdul Majid from 1856, which generally provided for equal rights of Muslims and people of other religions.

Until the reform by sultan Abdul Majid, people of other religions could not be public servants. It was only after issuing of the ,”Hathi-Humaja” law in 1856 that people of other religions were explicitly granted the right of access to military and civil service. However, there were cases that Jews had held office position in state administration even before, mostly in financial departments. From one tefter (tax roll) of revenues and expenses of tax treasury of Banja Luka mutesarifluk (district) from 1851/1852 we can see that sanduk-emin (treasury trustee) was a Jew, who even kept the treasury records in Spanish. This tefter was written in Jewish cursive script, in Spanish. Only the digits of some items were written in Turkish numbers, as can be seen from the facsimile of a page of official tefter. At two places in the tefter there is a signature of the controller in Turkish, and a stamp which certifies accuracy of the accounting. According to claims by Moric Levi, PhD, there were several Jewish treasurers and đumrukčijas (customs officers) in Turkish public service who could not write Turkish and who also made notes for themselves in Spanish.

All this clearly reveals that Turkish authorities trusted their Jewish servants! It may be one of the reasons why Turkish authorities gladly accepted Jews in their offices, since their number in public service was proportionately large.”

 Reference:

• Samuel Pinto, PhD, „Položaj bosanskih Jevreja pod turskom vladavinom“, Jevrejski almanah, Belgrade, 1954