Building social capital in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: the emergence of the Sephardic elites in the Ottoman Empire

In the expulsions of 1492 and 1497, many Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal immigrated to the Ottoman Empire. Many of these Sephardic Jews were highly educated members of the social elite with a variety of professions. They were thus considered useful and their migration was encouraged by the Ottoman authorities. This research project aspires to provide the first systematic study of the nine selected Sephardic elites-Joseph and Moses Hamon, Dona Gracia Nasi, Don Joseph Nasi, Salamon Aben Yaes, David Passi, David and Samuel Ibn Nahmias and Esther Handali- in the Ottoman Empire in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By taking Pierre Bourdieu’s theories into account, it asks three main questions: 1) How did these Sephardic elites’ networks affect the Ottoman Empire’s social capital? 2) What were the role of families and individuals in the emergence of these Sephardic elites in the Ottoman Empire? 3)In which fields did these Sephardic Jews become elites and what were the opportunities they had and challenges that they faced? These questions will be answered through a prosopography. The project will demonstrate that the religious differences were not a source of conflict between the Sephardic Jews and the Muslim Ottoman authorities, so the Sephardic Jews could build their own elites who significantly contributed to the social capital of the Ottoman Empire.