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NASI, JOSEPH (16th century)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 247 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NASI, See also:JOSEPH (16th See also:century) , Jewish statesman and financier, was See also:born in See also:Portugal of a Jewish (See also:Marano) See also:family. Emigrating from his native See also:land, he founded a banking See also:house in See also:Antwerp. Despite his See also:financial and social prosperity there, he See also:felt it irk-some to be compelled to See also:wear the See also:guise of Catholicism, and determined to See also:settle in a Mahomrnedan land. After two troubled years in See also:Venice, Nasi betook himself to See also:Constantinople. Here he proclaimed his Judaism, and married his beautiful See also:cousin Reyna. He rapidly See also:rose to favour, the sultans See also:Suleiman and See also:Selim promoting him to high See also:office. He founded a Jewish See also:colony at See also:Tiberias which was to be an See also:asylum for the See also:Jews of the See also:Roman Campagna. In 1566 when Selim ascended the See also:throne, Nasi was made See also:duke of See also:Naxos. He had deserved well of See also:Turkey, for he had conquered See also:Cyprus for the See also:sultan. Nasi's See also:influence was so See also:great that See also:foreign See also:powers often negotiated through him for concessions which they sought from the sultan. Thus the See also:emperor of See also:Germany, See also:Maximilian II., entered into See also:direct See also:correspondence with Nasi; See also:William of See also:Orange, See also:Sigismund See also:August II., See also:king of See also:Poland, also conferred with him on See also:political questions of moment. On the See also:death of Selim in 1574, Nasi receded from his political position, but retained his See also:wealth and offices, and passed the five years of See also:life remaining to him in honoured tranquillity at See also:Belvedere (Constantinople).

He died in 1579. His career was not productive of direct results, but it was of great moral importance. It was one of the tokens of the new era that was to See also:

dawn for the Jews as trusted public officials and as members of the See also:state. See See also:Graetz, See also:History of the Jews (Eng. trans.), vol. iv. chs. xvi.-xvii.; Jewish Encyclopedia, ix. 172. (I.

End of Article: NASI, JOSEPH (16th century)

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