1660 destruction of Tiberias

The 1660 destruction of Tiberias occurred during the Druze power struggle in the Galilee, in the same year as the destruction of Safed. The destruction of Tiberias by the Druze resulted in abandonment of the city by its Jewish community,Joel Rappel, History of Eretz Israel from Prehistory up to 1882 (1980), Vol.2, p.531. 'In 1662 Sabbathai Sevi arrived to Jerusalem. It was the time when the Jewish settlements of Galilee were destroyed by the Druze: Tiberias was completely desolate and only a few of former Safed residents had returned..."Barnay, Y. The Jews in Palestine in the eighteenth century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine (University of Alabama Press 1992) p. 149 until it was rebuilt by Zahir al-Umar in early eighteenth century. Altshuler however attributes the destruction of Tiberias in 1660 to an earthquake. The destruction could have also been a combination of both events.

Tiberias in the sixteenth century

As the Ottoman Empire expanded along the southern Mediterranean coast under sultan Selim I, the Catholic Monarchs began establishing Inquisition commissions. Many ''Conversos'', ( ''Marranos'' and ''Moriscos'') and Sephardi Jews fled to the Ottoman provinces, settling at first in Constantinople, Salonika, Sarajevo, Sofia and Anatolia. The Sultan encouraged them to settle in Palestine.Alfassa.com
Sephardic Contributions to the Development of the State of Israel, Shelomo Alfassá In 1558, a Portuguese-born marrano, Doña Gracia, was granted tax collecting rights in Tiberias and its surrounding villages by Suleiman the Magnificent. She envisaged the town becoming a refuge for Jews and obtained a permit to establish Jewish autonomy there. In 1561 her nephew Joseph Nasi, the Sultan-appointed Lord of Tiberias, encouraged Jews to settle in Tiberias.Benjamin Lee Gordon, ''New Judea: Jewish Life in Modern Palestine and Egypt'', Manchester, New Hampshire, Ayer Publishing, 1977, p.209 Securing a ''firman'' from the Sultan, he and Joseph ben Adruth rebuilt the city walls and laid the groundwork for a textile (silk) industry, planting mulberry trees and urging craftsmen to move there. In 1624, when the Sultan recognized Fakhr-al-Din II as Lord of Arabistan (from Aleppo to the borders of Egypt), the Druze leader made Tiberias his capital.

The 1660 destruction

The destruction of Tiberias by the Druze resulted in the Jewish community fleeing entirely. Unlike Tiberias, which became desolate for many years, the nearby city of Safed recovered from its destruction by Arabs in 1660 relatively quickly, not becoming entirely abandoned, remaining an important Jewish center in the Galilee.

Aftermath

In the 1720s, Zahir al-Umar a Bedouin ruler of Ottoman Galilee, fortified the town of Tiberias and signed an agreement with the neighboring Bedouin tribes to prevent looting. Richard Pococke, who visited Tiberias in 1738, witnessed the building of a fort to the north of the city, and the strengthening of the old walls, attributing it to a dispute with the pasha (ruler) of Damascus. Under Zahir's patronage, Jewish families were encouraged to settle in Tiberias.Moammar, Tawfiq (1990), ''Zahir Al Omar'', Al Hakim Printing Press, Nazareth, page 70 He invited Chaim Abulafia of Smyrna to rebuild the Jewish community.Joseph Schwarz
Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine
, 1850

See also

*1660 destruction of Safed
*History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel

References

{{Reflist, 2

Antisemitism in the Ottoman Empire
Jews and Judaism in Ottoman Galilee
1660 in Ottoman Syria
Tiberias
Druze in the Ottoman Empire