Strategies to Gain Rabbinic Authority: Situating a Responsum of Elijah Mizraḥi (c. 1450–1526) in Ottoman Constantinople

In this essay, I seek to illustrate the workings of rabbinic authority by means of a concrete historical example, a decision taken by Rabbi Elijah Mizraḥi (c. 1450–1526) in a particular constellation in Ottoman Constantinople around 1500. The insights of a historian of Jewish history may also be of interest to scholars of Ottoman Studies, at best stimulating interdisciplinary collaborations as well as comparative studies. After a brief introduction to the genre of responsa literature and its value as a source for political history, a specific conflict is presented, which was sparked by the question of whether Rabbanite Jews were allowed to teach Karaite Jews in religious and secular subjects. An appraisal of Mizraḥi’s reasoning reveals that the scholar who permitted the teaching espoused a rather liberal position. It was supported by halakhic tradition, but did not automatically follow from it. If Mizraḥi’s arguments are then placed in their historical context, the decision’s likely effects become visible, allowing a reconstruction of the rabbi’s strategies: an overall conciliatory approach appears to have enabled him to gain recognition of his authority among various groups of the city’s generally heterogeneous Jewish population. The example at hand thus offers an illuminating vantage for examining Jewish politics under the impress of continued migrations in the Ottoman lands and the Mediterranean region of the following 16th century.