Pugliesi, Sephardim, and Portuguese – Jewish Exiles in Ottoman Valona (1492-1550)

Abstract

The essay reconstructs the stages of Jewish settlement in the Ottoman city of Valona (present-day Vlorë, Albania) between 1492 and the mid-sixteenth century, examining the various groups of exiles who converged there: the Apulians — who according to rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon constituted the majority — and the Sephardim divided into the Catalan, Portuguese, and Castilian congregations. Drawing on heterogeneous sources — rabbinic responsa, rabbi David's Kevod Ḥakhamim, Aragonese chronicles, and archival documents — the authors document the migrations following the expulsions of 1492, 1497, and 1511, the presence of Apulian conversos fleeing the Inquisition, the internal conflicts among the congregations, and the role of rabbinic authority exercised by rabbi David. Considerable space is devoted to the responsum of rabbi Yitzḥak ben Shemuel Adarbi (with Hebrew text and English translation), which attests to the presence in Valona of exiles from Lecce as early as 1512.