Origin of the Statement of Sultan Bayezit II on the Jews
(This Original Essay is Copyrighted by Shelomo Alfassa - All Rights Reserved)
When
the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, a majority went to
the Ottoman Empire where they settled. There has been a traditional
story that the Ottoman sultan, Bayezit II (1447-1512), made
a statement which spoke about the king of Spain being a fool
for expelling his own people, a people which then went to the
Ottoman Empire where they would enrich their new homeland. There
are many variations of this story, but no one seems to know
who originally stated it, or if it was true at all. This paper
summarizes my findings on the origin of the traditional legend.
This paper examines the origin of this statement. (LINK TO PDF)
Hi Shelomo,
This is a very interesting paper. With your permission I would like to post it on a yahoo groups that I am sure you know about from David.
Best,
Vitali