Nasi
Name: Joseph Nasi
Nickname/Alias: born: Joao Mendes; Duke of Naxos
Achievements: Major financial figure in the Ottoman Empire.
Born: 1524, at Lisbon, Portugal
Died: 1579, in Istanbul, Turkey. Aged 55
Banker and diplomat
Field & Discipline: Banking
Language: Portuguese and Spanish
Father: Agostinho (Samuel) Miquez (Mendes) (d. 1525)
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: Unknown
Spouse: Reyna Mendes Nasi (m. 1554)
Children: Several
Education: University of Louvain (1541-44)
Life & Times:
In 1537 the Mendes family was exiled from Portugal by the Inquisition, and Nasi emigrated with his aunt Gracia Mendes to Antwerp in Flanders, where they joined her brother-in-law, a partner in the family banking firm.
In 1541 Nasi entered the University of Louvain. While he studied, Gracia Mendes began helping secret Jews escape from the Portuguese Inquisition, but in 1543, on the death of her brother-in-law, she left Flanders and travelled to Venice.
In 1545, she settled in Ferrara, where she openly declared herself a Jew, and took on the name Gracia Nasi. She also continued to help a large number of secret Jews, and became an important patron of Jewish scholars, until her departure for Istanbul in1553.
In 1544 Nasi entered the Mendes bank, in whose service he became closely associated with [associated with] Charles V* . After several years in Venice, in early 1554 Nasi joined his aunt in Istanbul and assumed the name Joseph Nasi.
When Gracia and Joseph Nasi arrived in Istanbul, it had a thriving Jewish community, many of whom were closely associated with the Islamic government. In the mid-15th century, [in Turkey thanks to] [Mehmed II]* had turned to the Jews to help revive trade, industry and commerce in his new capital, and in return he promised complete freedom, and issued an invitation to all Jews across Europe to come and settle in Istanbul. Thousands began to arrive in the Ottoman Empire, and the numbers increased with the formal expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
After her arrival in Istanbul in 1553, Gracia Nasi managed to transfer much of the Mendes wealth there from Venice, and she quickly established a position of economic power through a consortium of Jews and Muslims trading wheat, pepper, and raw wool for European goods.
In 1558 Gracia and Joseph arranged with Sultan [had deal with] Suleyman* to buy the city of Tiberias in Palestine with the intention of making it an independent Jewish city-state. In 1561 Nasi obtained ruling authority in Tiberias and then spent large sums of money housing and feeding newly-arrived refugees in Turkey, and developing major new centres of Jewish settlement and learning at both Tiberias and Safed in the Holy Land, making silk culture, fishing and agriculture the bases of their economy.
During the early 1560s Mendes and Nasi gained even greater influence by financing the rise to power of Selim, who became Sultan Selim II in 1566. In gratitude Selim II appointed Nasi as Duke of Naxos. In the 1560s Nasi was made also Count of Andros. Gracia Mendes retired from the business, and Nasi became the sole inheritor of a huge fortune and much political and economic influence throughout Europe, as well as in the Ottoman Empire.
Like Moshe Hamon a century earlier, he became diplomatic agent for the Sultan, acting for all practical purposes as his Foreign Minister in negotiations with the major monarchs of Europe. In 1560 he was involved in the Ottoman efforts to rescue Jews being persecuted in Venice, and in 1562 he became the principle negotiator of the peace between the Ottoman Empire and Poland. In 1569 he used Ottoman influence to encourage the Dutch revolt against [encouraged revolt against] Philip II of Spain*
During the late 1560s, Nasi also encouraged the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus from the Venetians, intending to become king of Cyprus and make it a place of refuge for Jews arriving from Europe. However, Selim's Grand Vizier, Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, was opposed to the scheme, who apparently wished to obtain Cyprus by negotiation and instead come to the military aid of the Moors of Granada, who were in revolt against Spain.
Neverthless, the faction composed of Nasi, Lala Mustafa Pasha (Selim's former tutor), Hoca Sinan and Piyale Pasha (third vizier and kapudan pasha) won the day, and early in
1570, despite Sokollu's vigorous opposition, Selim sent an envoy to Venice with a long list of grievances against the Republic and a demand that either they be redressed at once, or Cyprus should be ceded to Turkey in compensation.
Since Turkey was then at peace with Venice, and most of the alleged grievances were dubious, the Venetian senate refused either to apologize or to hand over the island. In March 1570, having given command of the Turkish army to Mustafa and that of the Turkish fleet to Piali (the same commanders who orchestrated the failed attack on [involved in siege of] Malta* in 1565 under Suleyman I), Selim overruled the objections of his Grand Vizier and ordered a Turkish attack on Cyprus.
Although Nicosia fell to the Turks on 9 September 1570, a major war with Venice followed, and on 25 May 1571 the foundation of the Holy League was proclaimed in St. Peter's, Rome. A few months later, on 7 October 1571, the Turks were defeated at the Battle of Lepanto, an event which marked the first step in the break up of the Ottoman
empire.
The Ottoman defeat meant that Cyprus and the Cyclades were conquered by the Venetians, and Nasi lost his dominions. Although he was soon reinstated, his fortunes were now in decline, and his plans for Tiberias and for a Jewish settlement in the Middle East were abandoned.
Assessment: An influential figure in Ottoman Turkey.
Oneliner: Joseph Nasi, financial adviser to Sultan of Turkey
Bibliography:
- Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Roth, Cecil, The House of Nasi: the Dukes of Naxos, Philadelphia: Jewish Publishing Society of America, 1948.