Abstract:

We present here four Sephardic texts of the 16th century originating in the Ottoman Empire. Although their authors have an unequal level of instruction, belong to different social layers, reside in different cities of the Ottoman Empire and possibly have distinct ethnic origins, common to the four texts is the Castilian language, which shows the undoubted preponderance of this language among the Jews of the Sephardic communities as early as the middle of the 16th century. Nevertheless, all the texts are characterized by the influence of other languages, especially Portuguese and Turkish, alongside the characteristic Hebrew and Aramaic elements found in every Jewish text written in the vernacular languages.
The first three testimonies appear in the collection of responsa of the prominent dayyan of Salonika (Salonika 1595) Rabbi Shemu’el de Medina (1506–1589), in the section Hoshen Mishpat. As we can see here, many communities throughout the Ottoman Empire and beyond consulted Medina on halakhic matters. The last text is a letter found in the Cairo Genizah.