Spanish Expulsion Aftermath

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Official state tax and population registers, called a defter in Arabic, compiled by the Ottomans, are very specific in their figures and provide quantifiable, state-recorded evidence that the Jewish population grew significantly in the Land of Israel in the decades after the Spanish expulsion.

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Jewish Centers and distribution of the Jewish Population in Israel early 16th Century

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Example of an Ottoman tahrir/defter (tax census) register of Damascus, 1569.

Source: Internet Archive

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Overview

Official state tax and population registers, called defters, compiled by the Ottomans after the Ottoman conquest of the region (1517), are highly specific in their numbers and provide quantifiable, state-recorded evidence that the Jewish population grew significantly in the Land of Israel in the decades after the Spanish expulsion.

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