Hakham Bashi is the Turkish name for the Chief Rabbi of the nation's Jewish community. In the time of the Ottoman Empire it was also used for the chief rabbi of a particular region of the empire, such
Hakham Bashi of Salonika (now Thessaloniki) to the left of a Monastir town dweller and a Salonika hodja (Islamic teacher), from Les costumes populaires de la Turquie en 1873, published under the patronage of the Ottoman Imperial Commission for the 1873 Vienna World's Fair
Chief Rabbi Jacob Saul Dwek, Hakham Bashi of Aleppo, Ottoman Syria, 1908
By the time the Ottoman Empire rose to power in the 14th and 15th centuries, Jewish communities had been established throughout the region. The Ottoman Empire lasted from the early 12th century until
Bet Yaakov Synagogue was built in 1878 at the Kuzguncuk district of Istanbul
Jewish leader Abraham Salomon Camondo's silver Torah case, Constantinople, 1860 – Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
Illustration of Sabbatai Tzvi from 1906 (Joods Historisch Museum)
Sultan Bayezid II sent Kemal Reis to save the Sephardic Jews of Spain from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and granted them permission to settle in the Ottoman Empire.