Joseph Nasi

Background

Joseph Nasi was born in Portugal around 1524, although Britannica dates his birth to 1520. He grew up in a Marrano family, descendants of Iberian Jews who had been forced to accept Christianity and who kept Jewish practice in secret. In Portugal he was known by the Christian name João Micas, and he later adopted the family name Nasi.

His father, Agostinho Micas, was a physician and professor who taught medicine at the University of Lisbon and died in 1525. His aunt, Gracia Mendes Nasi, was born Beatriz de Luna Miques in Lisbon in 1510 and became a leading figure in the family's banking business. After her husband's death in 1535, she joined her brother-in-law Diogo in Antwerp with her daughter Ana, and she later took over the Mendes banking and trading enterprise, which operated throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.

Joseph was a friend of Maximilian, a nephew of the Habsburg king Charles I of Spain. When Charles decided to confiscate the Mendes fortune, Joseph escaped to Portugal. After the Holy Inquisition began operating against Portuguese Marranos in 1546, he moved with his aunt to Antwerp, a commercial center of the Habsburg Netherlands.

He later moved to France and then to Venice, before leaving for the Ottoman realm in 1554.

Education

Nasi studied at the University of Louvain before fleeing the Inquisition in 1547. The institution, known today as the Old University of Leuven, was founded in 1425 and was a Catholic university in the Habsburg Netherlands. Its location in the Low Countries placed it within a region where Iberian converts and their families faced Inquisition pressure, the circumstances that led Nasi to leave his studies.

Career

Nasi's business training came from his family's banking network. As a young man he acquired a detailed knowledge of commerce and finance while serving the Mendes bankers of Antwerp, whose firm operated across Europe and the Mediterranean. The experience gave him the financial and commercial background that later shaped his service in Constantinople.

He settled in Constantinople in 1554 and soon gained the favor of Sultan Suleiman, who granted him the town of Tiberias and seven adjoining villages in Palestine. He supported the future sultan Selim II against his rival Bayezid, and after Selim's victory he was favored at the Seraglio. He eventually became a high-ranking diplomat and minister.

Because of his trading connections in Europe, Nasi was able to exercise considerable influence over Ottoman foreign policy. He negotiated peace with Poland and influenced the election of the Polish king. He received the monopoly of the beeswax trade with Poland and of the wine trade with Moldavia, and he worked in Moldavia to keep princes favorable to his policies in power. In 1561 he backed Ioan Iacob Heraclid to rule as despot, supported Alexandru Lăpuşneanu's return to the throne in place of Ştefan Tomşa in 1564, and ultimately endorsed Ion Vodă cel Cumplit in 1572. In 1571 he was considered a suitable choice for hospodar of either Moldavia or Wallachia, but Selim II rejected the proposal.

During the war between the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice, Nasi's negotiations with the Jewish community in Venetian-ruled Cyprus were uncovered. As a result, the Jewish population of Famagusta, except for Jews who were natives of the city, was expelled in June 1568. It is believed that he intended parts of Cyprus to become a Jewish colony and encouraged the Ottoman annexation of the island; Selim granted him a coat of arms indicating that he would receive viceregal rank in that colony. His relative Abraham Benveniste, known as Righetto Marrano, was arrested in 1570 on charges of setting fire to the Venetian Arsenal at Nasi's instigation.

Nasi also encouraged the Netherlands to revolt against Spain, maintaining contacts with William the Silent. The rebellion was ultimately carried out by the Union of Utrecht, which marked the start of the Eighty Years' War.

In 1566 Selim II made Nasi Duke of Naxos, and he later became Count of Andros. The Duchy of the Archipelago, a Latin duchy founded in 1207 with its center on Naxos, was governed in his name through a local representative, Francesco Coronello. Nasi himself ruled mainly from his palace of Belvedere near Galata in Constantinople, where he maintained his own Hebrew printing press.

After Selim II's death in 1574, Nasi was largely excluded from public affairs and spent the last years of his life in retirement at Belvedere. He died in Constantinople on August 2, 1579. Shortly afterward, Sultan Murad seized his property on the advice of the grand vizier Sokolli.

Achievements

• Nasi is best known for his attempt to resettle Jews in Tiberias and Safed in 1561. Historians often describe it as the first practical effort to settle Jews in these towns of what was then Southern Syria, rather than waiting for the Messiah. Safed was then a major center of Jewish religious study, and the Kabbalists working there shaped Jewish religious life across the Mediterranean.

• Nasi obtained a grant of ruling authority from the sultan and, with the assistance of Joseph ben Adruth, rebuilt the walls and the town of Tiberias. He planted mulberry trees and encouraged craftsmen to move there, aiming to make the town a silk and textile center. The plan to bring Jews from the Papal States was abandoned when the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice went to war.

• Nasi patronized Jewish scholarship in the Ottoman Empire. He supported scholars such as Moses Almosnino, who wrote his Treatise on Dreams at Nasi's request, and the physician Amatus Lusitanus, who dedicated his fifth Centuria to him. He also aided Isaac Akrish after the Constantinople fire of 1569.

Religion

Nasi was Jewish, and his public life was closely bound to his Jewish identity. Born into a Marrano family in Portugal, where Jewish practice had to be kept secret, he later adopted the family name Nasi and the Jewish name Joseph. His family were described as open Jews after their settlement in the Ottoman Empire, where Jewish communities could practice their faith publicly.

Judaism, one of the oldest monotheistic religions, centers on the Torah, the covenant between God and Israel, and a tradition of law and interpretation that developed through the Talmud. Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors had lived in Iberia, carried these traditions into the Ottoman lands after the expulsions and forced conversions of the late fifteenth century. Nasi supported Jewish learning in this setting, sponsoring a yeshivah in Constantinople, which had been founded by Joseph ibn Leb at the instance of his aunt Gracia Mendes Nasi, and maintaining a yeshivah and synagogue at his Belvedere residence.

Politics

Nasi did not belong to any political party, because parties did not form part of the Ottoman political system of the sixteenth century. His political role came through appointments and personal favor at the sultan's court: he advanced under Suleiman I, gained influence through his support for the future Selim II, and received office, grants, and titles from Selim.

His documented political stances concerned Ottoman foreign policy. He is recorded as favoring the war party that pushed for conflict with Venice over Cyprus in 1569, and he is said to have hoped that parts of Cyprus would become a Jewish colony under Ottoman rule. He also encouraged the Netherlands to revolt against Spain, a major adversary of the Ottoman Empire, through his contacts with William the Silent. These positions reflected an Ottoman policy of rivalry with the Habsburgs and Venice, rather than the programs of any party.

Connections

Nasi was a nephew of Gracia Mendes Nasi, the widow who ran the Mendes banking enterprise and was a business partner of her nephew. Their family and commercial ties were closely connected, and the Mendes network formed the background to his early career.

In 1554 he married Ana (Reyna) Mendes, Gracia's daughter and his cousin. After Nasi's death she kept the Hebrew printing press at Belvedere, and sources describe her as duchess of Naxos. The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia reports that Nasi died childless.

Wife:

Ana (Reyna) Mendes

Daughter of Gracia Mendes Nasi and his cousin, whom he married in 1554. She was described as duchess of Naxos after Nasi's death.

References

• Nasi, Joseph, Duke of Naxos An entry in The Jewish Encyclopedia covering Nasi's Marrano origins, his rise at the Ottoman court, his Tiberias project, his dukedom of Naxos, and his death in Constantinople.
  1901
• Nasi, Joseph An Encyclopaedia Judaica article describing Nasi as a statesman, his grant of Tiberias, his patronage of Jewish scholarship, and his role in the Cyprus war.
• Joseph Nasi A Britannica biography presenting Nasi as a Jewish statesman and financier who rose under Suleiman and Selim II, received Tiberias and the dukedom of Naxos, and spent his final years in retirement near Constantinople.