Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/510

460 Bajazet

II.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bakhmut

school for boys and girls (four classes) with 12 teachers and 428 pupils. more thorough instruction in religion is provided in the Talmud-Torah school recently erected, in which the more advanced scholars are introduced to the study of Scripture. Many who have achieved distinction in various departments of activity have received their education

A

here.

The philanthropic

institutions include a

Hebrah

Kaddishah, a Jewish Women's Society, and a Young Women's Society, which supports a kitchen for poor school-children.

460

ransom the Jewish victims of the persecutions then prevalent. Thus several thousands of emigrants established themselves in Turkey and in less than a generation they possessed themselves of the administration of the Jewish communities and exercised a preponderant influence upon them, creating, as it were, a species of Oriental Spain. to



Bibliography: A. Danon,

In the journal Yosef Da'at, No. 4, 1888 ; M. Franco, Histnire des Juifs dans V Empire Ottoman, pp. 35 et seq.

A. D.

0.

BAE A family of

Bibliography



S.

Kohn,

rajz, Budapest, 1898



Kolm Schwerin G6tz, Elct-es KorMamj a Bajai Zsido HitkOzseg

Polldli

Iskoldinak Tortenete, Baja, 1898.

E. N.

D.

BAJAZET II. Turkish sultan born 1447 succeeded in 1481 died 1512. During his reign the Jews enjoyed a period of complete and uninterrupted







peace, which was reflected in the flourishing condition of Jewish culture and letters. Under Bajazet II. there were learned Sephardic Jews who occupied

themselves not only with the Talmud, but also with

Among such scholars were Mordecai Comtino (1460-90), an astronomer and mathematician, whose Jewish and Karaite disciples included Elijah Bashyatzi, Caleb Afendopolo, and Joseph Ravizi; Solomon ben Elijah Sharbit haZahab of Salonicaand Ephesus (1470-1500), preacher, poet, and grammarian; Shabbethai ben Malkiel Cohen, who had gone to Turkey from Greece and Menahem Tamar, a liturgical poet (1446-1500). As early as 1483 there was a Jewish printing establishthe secular sciences.



ment in Constantinople. The moral condition of the native Jews was, however, not entirely satisfactory, as is proved by incidents in their communal history, such as the quarrel between Rabbi Joseph Colon of Mantua and Moses Capsali, chief rabbi of Turkey, about a collection for the poor of Jerusalem. But the situation improved with the arrival of exiles from Spain (1492), who were received most kindly by the sultan. Bajazet showed himself at this critical moment not only more compassionate toward them, but also more prudent and politic than the Christian princes. He recognized that these refugees from Spain, Portugal, and others later from Naples were of value to his empire by reason of their intellectual capacity. In 1492 Bajazet ridiculed the foolish conduct of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in expelling a class "You venof people so useful to their subjects. ture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler," he said to his

try

—

"he who has impoverished and enriched mine "

courtiers

his

own

coun-

!

Bajazet addressed a firman to all the governors of his European provinces, ordering them not only to refrain from repelling the Spanish refugees, but to give them a friendly and welcome reception. He threatened with death all those who treated the Jews harshly or refused them admission into the empire. Moses Capsali, referred to above, who probably helped to arouse the sultan's friendship for the Jews, was most energetic in his assistance to the exiles. He made a tour of the communities, and was instrumental in imposing a tax upon the rich,

Hebrew

who exercised their The name is said to be an Prague,

printers in Italy

craft for

two

and

centuries.

abbreviation of "Bene Kedoshim " (Children of the Holy), an assumption, however, which is somewhat improbable. The principal members of the family were the following 1 Gerson Bak Progenitor of the family flour:

.

ished during the

first



quarter of the sixteenth cen-

tury in Italy. 2. Israel ben Joseph Bak: Son of Joseph. Pressman from 1686 to 1691 with the firm of Judah Bak's Sons, and in 1695 with that of Judah Bak's Grandsons. The last-mentioned establishment, also called "Bakische (or Pakische) Buchdruckerei, flourished after 1697, and was conducted by Israel and Moses Bak (No. 9). Afterward the business was carried on by the sons of Judah Bak (No. 8) and of

Yom-Tob Lipman Bak (No. 11). 3. Jacob ben Gerson Bak (also called Wal or Wohl) Son of Gerson. Printer died in 1618. In



1595 he published at Verona the Midi-ash Tanhuma, with an elaborately embellished title-page. After 1605 he was engaged in printing at Prague. His first work published there (1605) was the "SabbatYozerot, " based upon the Polish ritual and written in the Judseo-German dialect. Until 1615 he was occasionally associated with Jacob Stabnitz. Jacob left two sons, Joseph (No. 5) and Judah (No. 7). 4. Jacob ben Judah Bak Son of Joseph. Pressman at Lublin about 1648 died in 1685. In 1680 he completed, at Weckelsdorf, the "Mahzor," based on the German ritual, which had been begun at Prague the only Hebrew work ever in the previous year published at the former place. 5. Joseph ben Jacob Bak: Brother and partner of Judah (No. 7). Together, under the firmname of " The late Jacob Bak's Sons, " they conducted the business from 1620 to 1660. Son of Judah. 6. Joseph ben Judah Bak: Printer of the seventeenth century. In 1679 and 1684 he was in the printing business by himself and in 1686 in association with his nephew Moses (No. 9). 7. Judah ben Jacob Bak From 1661 to 1689 sole proprietor of the printing business formerly carried on by himself and his brother Joseph (No. 5). He died in 1671 and left the establishment to his sons Jacob (No. 4) and Joseph (No. 6) who, under the



—



firm-name of Judah Bak's Sons, conducted

it

from

1673 to 1696. 8. Judah ben Moses Bak: Compositor of the He was first engaged in the eighteenth century. printing-house of his father, from 1705 to 1720, but carried on an independent establishment from 1736 to 1756,

when he became

associated with his brother,