1660 destruction of Tiberias
{{Short description|Destruction of a Jewish community by Lebanese Druze}}
{{Yishuv haYashan}}
The 1660 destruction of Tiberias{{cite book |last= Schwarz |first= Joseph |author-link= Joseph Schwarz (geographer) |title= A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine |publisher=Carey & Hart |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |year= 1850 |page= 409 |translator= Isaac Leeser |quote= Sultan Seliman surrounded it with a wall in 5300 (1540), and it commenced to revive a little, and to be inhabited by the most distinguished Jewish literati; but it was destroyed again in 5420 (1660). |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-CUAAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA409 |access-date= 5 April 2025}} Also at {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720195032/http://www.jewish-history.com/palestine/tiberias.html |date= 2018-07-20}} occurred during the Druze power struggle in the Galilee, in the same year as the destruction of Safed. The destruction of Tiberias by the Druze resulted in abandonment of the city by its Jewish community,{{cite book |last= Rappel |first= Joel |author-link= Joel Rappel |title= History of Eretz Israel from Prehistory up to 1882 |lang= he |volume= 2 |year= 1980 |page= 531 |publisher= Israel Ministry of Defense Publishing House |location= Tel Aviv |quote= In 1662 Sabbathai Sevi arrived to Jerusalem. It was the time when the Jewish settlements of Galilee were destroyed by the Druze: Tiberias was completely desolate and only a few of former Safed residents had returned... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qHUBAAAAMAAJ}}{{cite book |last= Barnai |first= Jacob |title= The Jews in Palestine in the eighteenth century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine |year= 1992 |page= 149 |publisher= University of Alabama Press |series= Judaic studies |isbn= 0817305726 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GdEDefYc4u0C&pg=PA149 |access-date= 5 April 2025}} until it was rebuilt by Zahir al-Umar in early 18th century. Altshuler however attributes the destruction of Tiberias in 1660 to an earthquake.{{cite book |last= Altshuler |first= Mor |author-link= Mor Altshuler |title= The Messianic secret of Hasidism |publisher= BRILL |series= Brill's Series in Jewish Studies, Vol. 39 |year= 2006 |page= 162 |chapter= Redemption begins in the Galilee (part 1, ch. 8) |isbn= 9047410831 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vghZEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |access-date= 5 April 2025}} Online Hebrew text of original 2002 U. of Haifa/Zmora-Bitan Press edition, Ch. 8, available & {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314043554/http://www.jewish-studies.info/10.htm |date=2018-03-14}}. The destruction could have also been a combination of both events.
Background
As the Ottoman Empire expanded along the southern Mediterranean coast under sultan Selim I, the Catholic Monarchs began establishing Inquisition commissions. Many Conversos, (Marranos and Moriscos) and Sephardic Jews fled to the Ottoman provinces, settling at first in Constantinople, Salonika, Sarajevo, Sofia and in Anatolia. The sultan encouraged them to settle in Palestine.{{cite book |last= Green |first= Toby |author-link= Toby Green |title= Inquisition: The Reign of Fear |publisher= Macmillan Press |year= 2007 |pages= xv–xix |isbn= 978-1-4050-8873-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICsgW-2EX8AC}}Alfassá, Shelomo (27 August 2007). Sephardic Contributions to the Development of the State of Israel {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071012042245/http://www.alfassa.com/contributions.pdf Alfassa.com]}}
In 1558, a Portuguese-born marrano, Doña Gracia, was granted tax collecting rights in Tiberias and its surrounding villages by Suleiman the Magnificent. She envisaged the town becoming a refuge for Jews and obtained a permit to establish Jewish autonomy there.Schaick, Tzvi. [http://www.donagracia.com/DonaGracia/DonaHouse/english/donagratzia.htm "Who is Dona Gracia?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510235707/http://www.donagracia.com/DonaGracia/donahouse/english/donagratzia.htm |date=2011-05-10 }}, The House of Dona Gracia Museum. In 1561 her nephew Joseph Nasi, the sultan-appointed lord of Tiberias,
{{cite book |last= Pasachoff |first= Naomi E. |last2= Littman |first2= Robert J. |title= A Concise History of the Jewish People |year= 2005 |page= 163 |publisher= Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham |isbn= 0742543668 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpjtAAAAMAAJ }} encouraged Jews to settle in Tiberias.{{cite book |last= Gordon |first= Benjamin Lee |title= New Judea: Jewish Life in Modern Palestine and Egypt |year= 1977 |orig-year= 1919 |page= 209 |publisher= Ayer Publishing |location= Manchester, New Hampshire}} Securing a firman from the sultan, he and Joseph ben Ardut or ibn Adret (converso name: Pomar), whom he sent to Tiberias, rebuilt the city walls and laid the groundwork for a textile (silk) industry, planting mulberry trees and urging craftsmen to move there.{{Cite encyclopedia |author= Executive Committee of the Editorial Board; Ochser, Schulim |title= Tiberias |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |year= 1901–1906 |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14386-tiberias |access-date= 5 April 2025}}{{Cite encyclopedia |last= Singer |first= Isidore |author-link= Isidore Singer |last2= Schloessinger |first2= Max |author-link2= Max Schloessinger |title= Nasi, Joseph, Duke of Naxos |encyclopedia= Jewish Encyclopedia |year= 1901–1906 |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11333-nasi-joseph-duke-of-naxos |access-date= 5 April 2025}}{{Cite encyclopedia |last= Macalister |first= R. A. Stewart |author-link= R. A. Stewart Macalister |title= Tiberias |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |year= 1911 |url=https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tiberias |access-date= 5 April 2025}} In 1624, when the sultan recognized Fakhr-al-Din II as lord of Arabistan (a specially created realm stretchimg from Aleppo to the borders of Egypt),{{Cite web |title= The Druze of the Levant |website= angelfire.org |url=http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/mgcdruze.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141551/http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/mgcdruze.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= March 9, 2012}} the Druze leader made Tiberias his capital.
Destruction
The destruction of Tiberias by the Druze resulted in the Jewish community fleeing entirely. Unlike Tiberias, which became desolate for many years, the nearby city of Safed recovered from its destruction by Druze in 1660 relatively quickly,
{{cite book |last= Mendelssohn |first= Sidney |title= The Jews of Asia: especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth century |year= 1920 |page= 241 |quote= Long before the culmination of Sabbathai's mad career, Safed had been destroyed by the Arabs and the Jews had suffered severely, while in the same year (1660) there was a great fire in Constantinople in which they endured heavy losses...}} not becoming entirely abandoned,{{cite book |last= Scholem |first= Gershom |author-link= Gershom Scholem |title= Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676 |year= 2016 |orig-year= 1957 |page= 368 |publisher=Princeton University Press |quote= In Safed, too, the [Sabbatai] movement gathered strength during the autumn of 1665. The reports about the utter destruction, in 1662 [sic], of the Jewish settlement there seem greatly exaggerated, and the conclusions based on them are false. ... Rosanes' account of the destruction of the Safed community is based on a misunderstanding of his sources; the community declined in numbers but continued to exist. |isbn= 978-0-691-17209-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9QnJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA368 |access-date= 5 April 2025}} remaining an important Jewish center in the Galilee.
Aftermath
In the 1720s, Zahir al-Umar, a Bedouin ruler of Ottoman Galilee, fortified Tiberias and signed an agreement with the neighboring Bedouin tribes to prevent looting. Richard Pococke, who visited Tiberias in 1738, witnessed the building of a fort to the north of the city, and the strengthening of the old walls, attributing it to a dispute with the pasha (ruler) of Damascus.
{{cite book |last= Pococke |first= Richard |author-link= Richard Pococke |chapter= A Description of the East and Some other Countries |title= A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World: Many of which are Now First Translated Into English; Digested on a New Plan |year= 1811 |editor=John Pinkerton |volume= 10 |page= 460 |publisher= Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wY4qAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA460 |access-date= 5 April 2025}} Based on the travelogue published by Pococke in 1743-45. Under Zahir's patronage, Jewish families were encouraged to settle in Tiberias.
{{cite book |last= Muammar |first= Tawfiq |title= Zahir al-Omar |year= 1990 |orig-year= 1979 |page= 70 |publisher= Al Hakim Printing Press |location= Nazareth}} He invited Chaim Abulafia of Smyrna to rebuild the Jewish community.