1517 Hebron attacks

1517 Hebron attacks occurred in the final phases of the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17), when Turkish Ottomans had ousted the Mamluks and taken Ottoman Syria. The attacks targeted the Jewish population of the city.

Events

An account of the event, recorded by Japheth ben Manasseh in 1518, mentions how the onslaught was initiated by Turkish troops led by Murad Bey, the deputy of the Sultan from Jerusalem.{{cite book|author1=Fred Skolnik|author2=Michael Berenbaum|title=Encyclopaedia Judaica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fEEOAQAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA in association with the Keter Pub. House|isbn=978-0-02-865936-7|page=746}}{{cite book|author=Jerold S. Auerbach|title=Hebron Jews: memory and conflict in the land of Israel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooUqc8snyZUC&pg=PA40|date=30 July 2009|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-6615-6|page=40}} Jews were attacked, beaten and raped, and many were killed as their homes and businesses were looted and pillaged.{{cite book|title=The Solomon Goldman lectures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FZERAQAAIAAJ|year=1999|publisher=Spertus College of Judaica Press|isbn=978-0-935982-57-2|page=56|quote=The Turks' conquest of the city in 1517, was marked by a violent pogrom of murder, rape, and plunder of Jewish homes. The surviving Jews fled to the "land of Beirut", not to return until 1533.}} It has been suggested that the stable financial position of the Hebronite Jews at the time was what attracted the Turkish soldiers to engage in the mass plunder. Others suggest the attack could have in fact taken place in the midst of a localised conflict, an uprising by the Mamluks against the new Ottoman rulers.{{cite book|author=Alan David Crown|title=The Samaritans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pzo6KAH3FmUC&pg=PA114|year=1989|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3-16-145237-6|page=114}} Those who survived the calamity fled to Beirut and Jews only returned to Hebron 16 years later in 1533.