WHEN, IN 1492, KING FERDINAND and Queen Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra decree expelling the country’s Jews, the news was greeted with incredulity in Istanbul, especially by Sultan Bayezid II.
If the Spaniards no longer wanted their Jews, he would take them, all of them. “Do they call this Ferdinand a wise prince who impoverishes his kingdom and thereby enriches mine?” he supposedly asked his courtiers.
The Sublime Porte was flung open; Spain’s Jews poured in and put down new roots in the Ottoman empire. Yes, there
