Humanism, Transculturalism and Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Jews

Abstract

This article explores the evidence for Transculturalism and Humanism, in the early modern sense of the concepts, amongst Jews of the Ottoman Empire. In the first part of the article, attention is paid to the growing numbers of humanist European travelers to the Ottoman Empire and their relations with Istanbul Jews. The second section of the article is concerned with Ragusa, part of the Ottoman orbit since the fifteenth century. Here, attention is paid to Didacus Pyrrhus, member of an Ottoman Jewish family and the only great Jewish Neo-Latin poet of his age. The third section focuses on Ottoman Cairo and the discoveries and identifications of fragments of works for the theatre in Spanish in Hebrew characters. They attest to an interest in humanist texts. Finally, by way of conclusion, the article examines a specific case of cultural transfer and common ground between Christian humanists and Jewish traders.