The Spanish Inquisition was economic control, and Ottomans sheltered its Jewish refugees
Evidence
Christian empires were no less brutal toward their own populations. This ranged from the persecution faced by non-Orthodox Christians in the Byzantine Empire to the Vatican’s intolerance toward non-Catholic Christians and Jews. Still to come was the Inquisition, a series of movements orchestrated by the Catholic Church and Christian orthodoxy to reassert the Church’s economic control over Europe. The Spanish Inquisition is remembered for its utter brutality, mass torture, and the burning of men and women at the stake. Many Jews either fled to other parts of Europe to escape the Inquisition or sought a new home under the Muslim Ottoman Empire (1299–1922). Although it was not devoid of persecution, Ottoman society was on the whole more tolerant; Jews and Christians lived peacefully there, and some attained high positions in the bureaucracy (sometimes even without converting to Islam). — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 353
Categorization
- XREF: Pays off ch8’s claim ‘The Ottoman Empire offered Jews refuge from European Christian persecution’ and ch9’s claim that the Inquisition was political-economic domination in religious guise. — connects to: The Spanish Inquisition was mainly political and economic domination in religious guise. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 117; The Ottoman Empire sheltered religious refugees persecuted in Europe — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 79; The Ottoman Empire offered Jews refuge from European Christian persecution. (+6 more)
- ADDENDUM: Complements the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article’s interest in the Inquisition-era moral-panic dynamics.
Broader Connections
- The Ottoman Empire sheltered religious refugees persecuted in Europe
#corroborates(0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 79 - The Ottoman Empire offered Jews refuge from European Christian persecution.
#corroborates(0.95) - Geopolitical leverage, not religion, drove Spain’s differential treatment of Jews and Muslims
#corroborates(0.90) - The Spanish Inquisition served political unification rather than religious zeal
#expands(0.85) - Ottoman society was relatively tolerant toward Jews and Christians
#exemplifies(0.85) - Genoese merchant-bankers filled economic roles expelled Jews had occupied in Spain
#expands(0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1837 - Catholics and conservatives aided Jewish refugees more than Protestants and liberals did
#qualifies(0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 672 - Spanish Muslims’ liminal status tracked the feared power of the Ottoman Empire.
#expands(0.70)