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Hakham Bashi
Found in: Turkish words and phrases Chief rabbis of Turkey
Hakham Bashi is the Turkish name for the Chief Rabbi of the nation.
History
The institution of the Hakham Bashi was established by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, as part of his policy of governing his exceedingly diverse subjects according to their own laws and authorities wherever possible. Religion was considered as primordial aspect of a communities 'national' identity, so the term Ethnarch has been applied to such religious leaders, especially the (Greek Orthodox) Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople . As Islam was the official religion of both court and state, the Chief Mufti in Istanbul had a much higher status, even of cabinet rank.
Because of the size and nature of the Ottoman state, containing a far greater part of the diaspora then any other, the position of Hakham Bashi has been compared to that of the Jewish Exilarch.
In the Ottoman Empire, and as such, the Hakham Bashi was the closest thing to an overall Exilarchal authority among Jewry everywhere in the Middle East in early modern times. They held broad powers to legislate, judge and enforce the laws among the Jews of Ottoman Turkey and often sat on the Sultan's divan.
The office also maintained considerable influence outside the Ottoman Empire, especially after the forced migration of numerous Jewish communities and individuals out of Spain (after the fall of Granada in 1492) and Italy.
The Chief Rabbi of the modern, secular Republic of Turkey is still known as Hakham Bashi.
List of individuals holding the title Hakham Bashi
See also
History of the Jews in Turkey
References
Hirschberg, Haim Ze'ew (1997). "Hakham Bashi". Encyclopedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. Cecil Roth. Keter Publishing House. ISBN 965-07-0665-8
Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00807-8
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Hakham Bashi