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Bidding Information
Lot #    21124
Auction End Date    8/12/2008 10:11:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Letter by R. Aboulafia, Hakham Bashi
Title (Hebrew)    כתב מה'ר ח. י. אבואלעפייא, חכם באשי טבריא
Author    [Ms. - Community]
City    Tiberius
Publication Date    1918
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    [2] ff., 292:232 mm., usual light age staining, frayed on edges touching text in places, ink on stationary, neat Rashi script, signed and dated.
          
Detailed
Description		    Letter to Meir Dizengoff complaining in sharp language about the distributors of monies to the Sephardic community by R. Hayyim I. Aboulafia, Hakham bashi from 1911-18. Hakham bashi, the title of chief rabbi in the Ottoman Empire , composed of the Hebrew work hakham ("sage," "wise man") and the Turkish word bashi ("head," or "chief"). At the end of 1836 or the beginning of 1837 the Ottoman authorities confirmed the first hakham bashi, Rabbi Abraham Levi, in Constantinople. According to a report in the official gazette of the empire this gesture was made at the request of those members of the community in the capital who were subjects of the sultan. They had no Christian-European powers behind them and were jealous of the honor of official confirmation that the government accorded to the Greek and Armenian patriarchs. Current research attributes the Ottoman authorities with imposing the hakham bashi on the Jewish community. The motivation for such a change in their policy regarding the Jews was the recent Greek war of independence that resulted in the establishment of a Greek state in 1832. As a result, the Ottoman Empire began a series of reforms that changed their relationship with various minority communities. Another factor was the improved relations with Great Britain, which was expressing increased interest in "Jewish Emancipation."
          
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Listing Classification
Period
20th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Israel:    Checked
  
Subject
  
Characteristic
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
Letters:    Checked
  
Kind of Judaica