Solomon Abenaes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Solomon Abenaes , also Abenaish, Abenyaex, Aben Ayesh, Ibn (Eben) Yaish (* around 1520 in Tavira as Alvaro Mendes ; † 1603 in the Ottoman Empire ) was a Marran businessman and diplomat.

Life

Solomon Abenaes was born as Alvaro Mendes into a Converso family in Tavira, southern Portugal , around 1520 . After training as a goldsmith, his parents sent him to India around 1545 , where he exploited diamond mines in the kingdom of Narsinga ( Madras ). After his return to Portugal he was accepted as a knight in the Santiagoorden in 1555 by João III .

He began a career as a merchant and diplomat that took him to Madrid , Florence , Paris and London . He stayed in Paris for 16 years and had good contact with the royal regent Caterina de 'Medici . When Portugal entered the personal union with Spain in 1580 , he took the side of the pretender Don António of Crato and became his devoted supporter.

In 1585 he left Paris and moved to Saloniki , where he took the name Solomon Abenaes and returned to Judaism with the whole family . Thanks to his wealth, his experience and his extensive network, he enjoyed a similarly high reputation at the Turkish court as Joseph Nasi (1524–1579) had previously . He moved to Istanbul and soon won the trust of Sultan Murad III. who gave him the title of Duke of Mytilene ( Lesbos ). Like Nasi, he was appointed Lord of Tiberias ( Palestine ).

Abenaes was able to keep his position at the Ottoman court despite various intrigues until his death. Like Nasi before, he maintained a wide network of informants across Europe and was therefore of great use to the Turkish government. He is considered to be the driving force behind the establishment of the Anglo-Turkish alliance against Philip II . For this purpose he maintained contacts with the doctor of the English Queen Roderigo Lopes and other Marranos of London. Abenaes was the first to bring the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) at the Turkish court.

After the defeat of Philip II against the English, Abenaes tried again to help Don Antonio to the Portuguese throne. The plan to conquer Portugal over the Indian Dominions failed; Don Antonio broke with Abenaes, accused him of treason and publicly attacked him.

Neither the intrigues of Don Antonio nor the execution of his brother-in-law Roderigo Lopes could seriously endanger his relations with the English royal family. Again and again he sent envoys to London who spoke for him and the Ottoman Empire at court. In this way he achieved that England behaved neutrally in the Turkish-Hungarian disputes ( Long Turkish War 1593-1606).

Solomon Abenaes died in 1603. His son Jacob Abenaes (born Francisco Mendes ), who had returned to the Jewish faith with his father, settled in Tiberias. There, contrary to his father's wishes, he paid little attention to administration and politics, but was mainly concerned with ( Kabbalistic ) studies.

literature

  • Lucien Wolf: Jews in Elizabethan England. In: Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England (TJHSE). 11, 1928, ZDB ID 5273-5 . Pp. 1-91.
  • Abraham Galanté: Don Salomon Aben-Yaèche, Duc de Mételin. Société Anonyme de Papeterie et d'Imprimerie (Fratelli Haim), Istanbul 1936.
  • Cecil Roth : The House of Nasi. The Duke of Naxos. Greenwood Press, New York NY 1948.
  • Heymann, Fritz: The Chevalier von Geldern. A chronicle of the adventures of the Jews . Foreword by Hermann Kesten . Joseph Melzer , Cologne 1963
  • Cecil Roth:  ABENAES, SOLOMON. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Detroit / New York a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865929-9 , pp. 249-250 (English).
  • Elli Kohen: History of the Turkish Jews and Sephardim. Memories of a past golden age. University Press of America, Lanham MD et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-76-183600-1 .