User:Allevey/sandbox

Article Selection
As I begin reviewing and improving the "History of Jews in the Ottoman Empire" I have started to develop a list of sources to rely on as I conduct my research on this topic. Below, I have created a bibliography of sources that I have used to begin my research into the History of Jews in the Ottoman Empire. Throughout this week, I will be making edits and improvements to the article using some of the information I have collated from these sources. As I continue my research, I may have to add more sources to improve the article. Please find the list of sources I have found thus far:

Early Modern Jewish History: Overview (The Ottoman Empire): http://jewishhistory.research.wesleyan.edu/i-jewish-population/5-ottoman-empire/

Jews of the Ottoman Empire in Light of New Documents: Olson, Robert W. “Jews in the Ottoman Empire in Light of New Documents.” Jewish Social Studies, vol. 41, no. 1, 1979, pp. 75–88. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4467038.

Fashioning the "Mother of Israel": The Ottoman Jewish Historical Narrative and the Image of Jewish Salonica - NAAR, DEVIN E. “Fashioning the ‘Mother of Israel’: The Ottoman Jewish Historical Narrative and the Image of Jewish Salonica.” Jewish History, vol. 28, no. 3/4, 2014, pp. 337–372., www.jstor.org/stable/24709820.

Towards a New History of Christians and Jews in Ottoman Society 3–5 July 2017, University of Oxford - John-Paul A. Ghobrial. “Towards a New History of Christians and Jews in Ottoman Society 3–5 July 2017, University of Oxford.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, vol. 4, no. 2, 2017, pp. 419–423. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jottturstuass.4.2.15.

Rethinking the Jewish Communal Apartment in the Ottoman Communal Building - Ịsmaịl Aydingün, and Esra Dardağan. “Rethinking the Jewish Communal Apartment in the Ottoman Communal Building.” Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 42, no. 2, 2006, pp. 319–334. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4284449.

The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic - https://books.google.com/books?id=Kcy-DAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA1&ots=Z4v8E1-_Ia&dq=history%20of%20jews%20in%20the%20ottoman%20empire&lr&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20jews%20in%20the%20ottoman%20empire&f=false

The Jews of the Ottoman Empire in the Late Fifteenth and the Sixteenth Centuries - https://books.google.com/books?id=ScsUAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PR11&ots=yG3GXG1IA9&dq=history%20of%20jews%20in%20the%20ottoman%20empire&lr&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20jews%20in%20the%20ottoman%20empire&f=false

Notes and Drafting Contributions
As I have been doing research on the History of Jews in the Ottoman Empire, I have started to make notes and draft some contributions that I would like to add to this article. As part of my project to improve this Wikipedia page, I will also begin to verify and add citations where they are missing throughout the article. I have several sources that I will pull from to discuss the Jewish History in the Ottoman Empire and improve this article. I have started to draft and make an outline for my contributions below:

Introduction/Overview
During this section, I will start by giving a very brief overview of the Ottoman Empire to introduce the subject. This overview will answer a few questions for readers:

1. What territories did the Ottoman Empire Control? 2. During what years did the Ottoman Empire have control over these territories?

3. Who was the dominating religious group in the Ottoman Empire and who ruled them?

Additionally, I will include a map of the Ottoman Empire for readers to view:

As I have conducted research regarding the History of Jews in the Ottoman Empire, I have discovered that there is relatively less documented evidence about Jews in the Ottoman Empire. An article I found claimed that this lack of documented evidence about the Jews in the Ottoman Empire could be due to a lack of massacres and persecution of Jews during this time.

Jewish Life in the Ottoman Empire
In the Ottoman Empire, Jews and Christians were considered dhimmi by the majority Arab population. Dhimmi translates to "people of the pact", which refers to "those to whom the Scriptures were given and who believe not in God nor in the Last Day". Muslims in the Ottoman Empire used this Qur'anic concept of dhimmi to place certain restrictions on Jews living in the region. For example, some of the restrictions placed on Jews in the Ottoman Empire were included, but not limited to, a special tax, a requirement to wear special clothing, and a ban on carrying guns, riding horses, building or repairing places of worship, and having public processions or worships.

Even though Jews were placed under special restrictions in the Ottoman Empire, there was still a vibrant Jewish culture in certain regions of the Empire. This was especially true for the Sephardic Jews (Jewish people who's ancestral roots can be traced back to Spain or Portugal), who had large amounts of political and cultural influence in the Ottoman Empire. The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire had political and cultural influence because they "were perceived as westerners who had extensive contacts with Europe, who knew European languages, and brought new knowledge and technologies". Additionally, some Sephardic Jews "were...prominent merchants with European markets" who were even regarded as "potential allies, diplomats, and spies" during times of war against Christians. Throughout the 16th Century, the Ottoman Empire saw an increased Jewish influence on the economy and commerce. There is no doubt among historians that "Spanish Jews contributed significantly to the development of capital in the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century".

Although many Sephardic Jews had large amounts of political and cultural capital, the Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire was decentralized for most of the region's history. This changed, however, when the Sultan appointed a Hakham-bashi or a Chief Rabbi to exercise jurisdiction in the community regarding issues of "marriage, divorce, engagement, and inheritance" in addition to delivering "his community's share of the taxes and keeping order" in the community.

Jewish Life In Salonica
As I have continued my research, I have discovered that the center of Jewish culture in the Ottoman Empire was located in the city of Salonica. Because of this, I would like to dedicate some of my research to the experience of Jews in this city.

An article I plan to use as evidence for this section is "Fashoining the 'Mother of Israel': The Ottoman Jewish Historical Narrative and the Image of Jewish Salonica. This article discusses the cultural significance of Salonica for Jews.

I also found an article about Salonica from the Jewish Virtual Library. I will also be using this source as evidence about the culture of Jews in this city.

The Treatment of Jews vs. the treatment of Christians
Since Christians were at war with the Ottoman Empire during 15th and 16th centuries, the Jewish people were seen as less of a threat to the Empire. Because of this, the Ottomans were much more tolerant of the Jewish people, allowing the well-being of the Jewish community to increase. (I plan to elaborate on this concept as I develop my research further)

In this section, I am planning to discuss how Jews and Christians were treated differently in the Ottoman Empire. I will focus my research on the fact that Christians were often seen as an enemy of the Ottoman Empire, due to the military conflict that the two religions were engaged in for quite some time. So far, I have discovered that Jewish well-being increased because of this, but I would like to find more information to back up these initial findings.

The Downfall of the Ottoman Empire
Through my initial research, I found that the treatment of Jews worsened as the Ottoman Empire approached its downfall in the early 20th century. Hopefully I will find some more substantive information about this particular time period to understand the experience of the Jewish community during this time period. Please find some more notes regarding the Downfall of the Ottoman Empire below:

As the Ottoman Empire began to decline, so did the status of the Jewish people in the Empire. Beginning in the mid-16th century,

Revised Article Contributions
After receiving my peer review and workshopping some of my drafted contributions to my wikipedia article, I found that there are substantial changes that must be made to my article in order to improve it. Previously, I have been drafting original material to add to my article in addition to what's already been placed by previous editors. I have realized, however, that a lot of my work should be aimed towards adding citations to support some of the claims made by previous editors of this wikipedia site. For example, instead of adding a new Introduction Section to the article, I will make some edits to the current "Overview Section" to give a better introduction of the topic. I will also be deleting my sections titled "The Treatment of Jews vs. the treatment of Christians" and "The Downfall of the Ottoman Empire"; although I believe these would be a valuable sections to add, it would be better to find citations to support the unsubstantiated claims already made by previous editors. Also, I have started to fact check some of the claims being made throughout the article to see if I can make the article seem as unbiased as possible. Lastly, I have attempted to change my references from MLA style to Chicago style. Since I have ran into some trouble making this change, I have emailed one of our class's Wikipedia experts for some help and am currently awaiting his response. Please find some of the revisions I have been working on below in this section:

Overview
By the time the Ottoman Empire rose to power in the 14th and 15th centuries, there had been Jewish communities established throughout the region. The Ottoman Empire lasted from the early 14th century until the beginning of World War I and covered Southeastern Europe, Turkey, and the Middle East. The experience of Jews in the Ottoman Empire is particularly significant because the region "provided a principle place of refuge for Jews driven out of western Europe by massacres and persecution". (begin incorporating existing overview here).


 * I am planning to incorporate the existing overview into my article contributions to make a cohesive introduction that let's readers know what the page will be about. However, I am still in the process of checking to make sure everything already in the article is unbiased and supported by reliable sources.
 * I will conclude the Overview section by discussing why there is a lack of documented history about the Jews in the Ottoman Empire.
 * According to many historians, there's a lack of documentation regarding the history of Jews in the Ottoman Empire because there was a lack of "massacres and persecution" of Jews living in the region. With less persecution against Jews in the Ottoman Empire, compared with many European countries, there was not as much urgency to record "Jewish history in Ottoman lands." Additionally, some historians feel that the lack of documented history about Jews in the Ottoman Empire has caused "great damage" to the reputation of the Ottoman Jews and suggests that they played a much smaller role in Jewish history than they actually did.

Jewish Life
In the Ottoman Empire, Jews and Christians were considered dhimmi by the majority Arab population, which translates to "people of the pact". Dhimmi refers to "those to whom the Scriptures were given and who believe not in God nor in the Last Day". Muslims in the Ottoman Empire used this Qur'anic concept of dhimmi to place certain restrictions on Jews living in the region. For example, some of the restrictions placed on Jews in the Ottoman Empire were included, but not limited to, a special tax, a requirement to wear special clothing, and a ban on carrying guns, riding horses, building or repairing places of worship, and having public processions or worships.

Even though Jews were placed under special restrictions in the Ottoman Empire, there was still a vibrant Jewish culture in certain regions of the Empire. This was especially true for the Sephardic Jews (Jewish people who's ancestral roots can be traced back to Spain or Portugal), who had large amounts of political and cultural influence in the Ottoman Empire. The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire had political and cultural influence because they "were perceived as westerners who had extensive contacts with Europe, who knew European languages, and brought new knowledge and technologies". Additionally, some Sephardic Jews "were...prominent merchants with European markets" who were even regarded as "potential allies, diplomats, and spies" during times of war against Christians. Throughout the 16th Century, the Ottoman Empire saw an increased Jewish influence on the economy and commerce. There is no doubt among historians that "Spanish Jews contributed significantly to the development of capital in the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century".

Although many Sephardic Jews had large amounts of political and cultural capital, the Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire was decentralized for most of the region's history. This changed, however, when the Sultan appointed a Hakham-bashi or a Chief Rabbi to exercise jurisdiction in the community regarding issues of "marriage, divorce, engagement, and inheritance" in addition to delivering "his community's share of the taxes and keeping order" in the community.

Life in Salonica
This section is going to be a sub-section of "Jewish Life". Since the center of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire was in Salonica, I feel it is important to include a sub-section about this city.

Although Jews were spread throughout the Ottoman Empire, there were two cities that had Jewish communities of about 20,000 Jewish people. These two cities were those of Constantinople and Salonica. Even though both of these cities had communities of about 20,000 Jews, Salonica was considered one of the main centers of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire. The city of Salonica was not depicted as a Bulgarian or Turkish city, but was considered to be a Jewish city. Salonica became considered the Jewish center of the Ottoman Empire after 1492, when the Spanish Inquisition began and Jews were forced to leave Spain and Portugal. At this time, Sephardic Jews immigrated to Salonica and began to make up a majority of the city's population.

By some historians, Salonica was seen as the "New Jerusalem' where the Jewish Sabbath 'was most vigorously observed". Additionally, before the creation of Israel, many international organizations thought about creating a new Jewish state in Salonica instead of Palestine.

I plan to finish this sub-section by using three sources as evidence. The first source is a JSTOR article titled "Fashoining the 'Mother of Israel': The Ottoman Jewish Historical Narrative and the Image of Jewish Salonica. This article discusses the cultural significance of Salonica for Jews. . Additionally, I will be using a book titled Jewish Salonica and two Jewish Virtual Library articles about Salonica and Sephardic Exodus to Salonica.

Other Changes
Instead of creating a section about "The Downfall of the Ottoman Empire", I am going to add to the sub-section titled "Anti-Semitism". Through my research, I found that anti-semitism increased as the Ottoman Empire began to fall, due to a worsening economy and political environment in the country. I plan to detail some of the causes for this increased anti-Semitism for my final contributions.

Additionally, the previous editor of the article goes back and forth between the term "Sephardic" and "Sephardi". For the sake of uniformity, I will be using the term "sephardic". For my final article, I will change the word "Sephardi" to "Sephardic".

Similarly, the original article uses two different names to identify the city of Salonica. The previous editor uses the Greek name for the city "Thessaloniki" in the introduction of the topic, while they call the city Salonica throughout the rest of the article. This can be confusing for readers, so I have started to change the term "Thessaloniki" to "Salonica throughout the article.

Finally, my other notable changes to this article will take the form of adding citations to some of the unsupported claims made by previous authors.


 * In section titled "Resettlement of the Romaniotes"
 * "Despite this interpretation however, the Romaniotes would be the most influential community in the Empire for several decades, until that position would be lost to a wave of new Jewish arrivals.[citation needed]"
 * I will link this citation to my Virtual Jewish Library Article titled "The Sephardic Exodus to the Ottoman Empire"
 * In Section titled "Influx of Sephardi Jews from Iberia"
 * "Gradually, the chief center of the Sephardic Jews became Salonica, where the Spanish Jews soon outnumbered the pre-existing Jewish community.[citation needed]"
 * I'm going to link this article to the book "Jewish Salonica" to support the claims made by the previous editor.
 * "They also distrusted the Christian subjects whose countries had only recently been conquered by the Ottomans and therefore it was natural to prefer Jewish subjects[clarification needed]"
 * In Wesleyan article titled Early Modern Jewish History..., the author mentions that Jews were trusted more by the Ottomans, since the Ottoman Empire was engaged with a military conflict with Christians. For my final article, I will replace this sentence with the following:
 * "Since the 'Ottoman Empire was engaged in military conflict' against Christians, Jews in the Ottoman Empire were trusted more than Christians. This explains why Jews were seen as 'potential allies, diplomats and spies' for the Ottomans."