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114-434: The most common use of the term is in reference to "Maran Beth Yosef", Yosef Karo . In fact, when used without further qualification, Maran typically refers to Karo. Amongst contemporary rabbis, Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and Ovadia Yosef are most closely associated with the honorific. In contemporary parlance Maran is often attributed to Rabbis who serve as founding heads of a particular ideological/cultural movement. This use

228-535: A "heavy burden on the Arab war effort". Among them was the family of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas . The city was fully under the control of Jewish paramilitary forces by May 11, 1948. Early in June, Jewish dignitaries from Safed journeyed to Tel Aviv to ask the government to block the return of Arabs to the city, threatening to abandon it if the latter were allowed back. They reasoned that since most of

342-480: A "round tower and called it Kullah ..." after leveling the old fortress. The tower was built in three stories, and provided with provisions, halls, and magazines . Under the structure, a cistern collected enough rainwater to regularly supply the garrison. The governor of Safed, Emir Baktamur al-Jukandar (the Polomaster; r.  1309–1311 ), built a mosque later called after him in the northeastern section of

456-414: A brief move to Morocco, to Nikopolis , then a city under Ottoman rule. In Nikopol, he received his first instruction from his father, who was himself an eminent Talmudist . He was married twice, firstly to Isaac Saba's daughter, and, then after her death, to the daughter of Hayyim Albalag, both of these men being well-known Talmudists. Between 1520 and 1522 Karo settled at Adrianople . He later settled in

570-464: A decline in the population in Safed from 1348 onward. There is little available information about the city and its dependencies during the last century of Mamluk rule ( c.  1418  – c.  1516 ), though travelers' accounts describe a general decline precipitated by famine, plagues, natural disasters and political instability. The Ottomans conquered Mamluk Syria following their victory at

684-486: A dramatic testimonial, Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz testified that in Salonica, Karo had become one of the rare individuals who merited to be instructed by a maggid —a private angelic teacher who revealed to him many kabbalistic teachings. The maggid exhorted Karo to sanctify and purify himself, and he revealed to him events that would take place in the future. In Shaarei Kedusha , Rabbi Chaim Vital explains that visitation by

798-575: A failed attempt to capture the Crusaders' coastal stronghold of Acre. Unlike the Crusader fortresses along the coastline, which were demolished upon their capture by the Mamluks, Baybars spared the fortress of Safed. He likely preserved it because of the strategic value stemming from its location on a high mountain and its isolation from other Crusader fortresses. Moreover, Baybars determined that in

912-547: A fractional proportion of the population, and the statement was generally perceived to be directed at the 1,300 Arab students enrolled at Zefat Academic College . In 2008, the population of Safed was 32,000. According to CBS figures in 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was 99.2% Jewish and non-Arab, with no significant Arab population. 43.2% of the residents were 19 years of age or younger, 13.5% between 20 and 29, 17.1% between 30 and 44, 12.5% from 45 to 59, 3.1% from 60 to 64, and 10.5% 65 years of age or older. The city

1026-652: A large Haredi community and remains a center for Jewish religious studies. Safed today hosts the Ziv Hospital as well as the Zefat Academic College . Safed is a major subject in Israeli art, it hosts an Artists' Quarter . Several prominent art movements played a role in the city, most notably the École de Paris . However the Artists' quarter has declined since its golden age in the second half of

1140-528: A maggid is a form of Divine Inspiration ( ruach hakodesh ). The teachings of the maggid are recorded in his published work titled Maggid Meisharim , although Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai notes that only about one fiftieth of the manuscript was ever published, (see Works). However, in numerous places in Maggid Meisharim it is stated that, "I am the Mishna that speaks in your mouth," indicating that

1254-518: A major town and the capital of a new province spanning the Galilee. After a century of general decline, the stability brought by the Ottoman conquest in 1517 ushered in nearly a century of growth and prosperity in Safed, during which time Jewish immigrants from across Europe developed the city into a center for wool and textile production and the mystical Kabbalah movement. It became known as one of

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1368-399: A martyr's death sanctifying God's Name like Rabbi Shlomo Molcho had merited, did not transpire for an unspecified reason. His reputation during the last thirty years of his life was greater than that of almost any other rabbi since Maimonides . The Italian Azariah dei Rossi , though his views differed widely from Karo's, collected money among the rich Italian Jews for the purpose of having

1482-593: A month-long siege , following the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Saladin ultimately allowed its residents to relocate to Tyre . He granted Safed and Tiberias as an iqta (akin to a fief) to Sa'd al-Din Mas'ud ibn Mubarak (d. 1211), the son of his niece, after which it was bequeathed to Sa'd al-Din's son Ahmad. Samuel ben Samson , who visited the town in 1210, mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there. He also noted that two Muslims guarded and maintained

1596-529: A population of 8,761 inhabitants, consisting of 5,431 Muslims, 2,986 Jews, 343 Christians and others. Safed remained a mixed city during the British Mandate for Palestine and ethnic tensions between Jews and Arabs rose during the 1920s. During the 1929 Palestine riots , Safed and Hebron became major clash points. In the Safed massacre 20 Jewish residents were killed by local Arabs. Safed was included in

1710-533: A result of the Tanzimat reforms included the Asadi , whose presence in Safed dated to the 16th century, Hajj Sa'id, Hijazi, Bisht, Hadid, Khouri, a Christian family whose progenitor moved to the city from Mount Lebanon during the 1860 civil war , and Sabbagh, a long-established Christian family in the city related to Zahir al-Umar's fiscal adviser Ibrahim al-Sabbagh; many members of these families became officials in

1824-603: A series of natural disasters further contributed to Safed's decline during the 17th–mid-19th centuries. An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the Near East earthquakes of 1759 left the city in ruins, killing 200 residents. An influx of Russian Jews in 1776 and 1781, and of Lithuanian Jews of the Perushim movement in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the Jewish community. In 1812, another plague killed 80% of

1938-628: A truce. The secretary-general of the Arab League Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam stated that the goal of Plan Dalet was to drive out the inhabitants of Arab villages along the Syrian and Lebanese frontiers, particularly places on the roads by which Arab regular forces could enter the country. He noted that Acre and Safed were in particular danger. However, the appeals for help were ignored, and the British, now less than

2052-473: A week away from the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, also did not intervene against the second and final Haganah attack, which began on the evening of 9 May, with a mortar barrage on key sites in Safed. Following the barrage, Palmach infantry, in bitter fighting, took the citadel, Beit Shalva and the police fort, Safed's three dominant buildings. Through 10 May, Haganah mortars continued to pound

2166-433: A work of Karo's printed; and Moses Isserles compelled the recognition of one of Karo's decisions at Kraków , although he had questions on the ruling. When some members of the community of Carpentras , France , believed themselves to have been unjustly treated by the majority in a matter relating to taxes, they appealed to Karo, whose letter was sufficient to restore to them their rights (Rev. Etudes Juives 18:133–136). In

2280-725: Is a city in the Northern District of Israel . Located at an elevation of up to 937 m (3,074 ft), Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with Sepph (Σέπφ), a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus . The Jerusalem Talmud mentions Safed as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce

2394-711: Is a mystical diary in which Karo during a period of fifty years recorded the nocturnal visits of an angelic being, his heavenly mentor, the personified Mishna (the authoritative collection of Jewish Oral Law). His visitor spurred him to acts of righteousness and even asceticism, exhorted him to study the Kabbala, and reproved him for moral laxities. He is buried in Old Cemetery of Safed . Other notable rabbis also buried in Old Cemetery of Safed: Safed Safed (also known as Tzfat ; Hebrew : צְפַת , Ṣəfaṯ )

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2508-487: Is no ambiguity. When used with a name, it will almost always be followed by the (technically redundant) "Rabbi", as in the above example. It is never preceded by "the" in correct usage, though some journalists will make that mistake. This Judaism -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Yosef Karo Joseph ben Ephraim Karo , also spelled Yosef Caro , or Qaro ( Hebrew : יוסף קארו ; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M. ),

2622-420: Is usually limited to communication within that particular movement. For example, within their respective communities Elazar Shach ( Maran HaRav Shach ) and Joel Teitelbaum often receive the title. As with most honorifics , this title precedes the name: for example, one might say "Maran Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ". Similarly to honorifics like doctor , it can also be used for direct addressing by itself when there

2736-455: The Battle of Marj Dabiq in northern Syria in 1516. Safed's inhabitants sent the keys of the town citadel to Sultan Selim I after he captured Damascus. No fighting was recorded around Safed, which was bypassed by Selim's army on the way to Mamluk Egypt. The sultan had placed the district of Safed under the jurisdiction of the Mamluk governor of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali , who defected to

2850-642: The Four Holy Cities of Judaism. As the capital of the Safad Sanjak , it was the main population center of the Galilee, with large Muslim and Jewish communities. Besides during the fortunate governorship of Fakhr al-Din II in the early 17th century, the city underwent a general decline and by the mid-18th century was eclipsed by Acre . Its Jewish residents were targeted in Druze and local Muslim raids in

2964-544: The Jordan Valley , and people from the villages around Safed. Many Damascenes had been settled in the city by Baybars when he conquered Safed in 1266. Until the late 19th century the Muslims of Safed maintained strong social and cultural connections with Damascus. The government settled Algerian and Circassian exiles in the countryside of Safed in the 1860s and 1878, respectively, possibly in an effort to strengthen

3078-585: The Ma'n dynasty , was appointed the sanjak-bey (district governor) of Safed, in addition to his governorship of neighbouring Sidon-Beirut Sanjak to the north. In the preceding years, the Safed Sanjak had entered a state of ruin and desolation and was often the scene of conflict between the local Druze and Shia Muslim peasants and the Ottoman authorities. By 1605, Fakhr al-Din had established peace and security in

3192-777: The New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period . There is scarce information about Safed before the Crusader conquest. A document from the Cairo Geniza , composed in 1034, mentions a transaction made in Tiberias in 1023 by a certain Jew, Musa ben Hiba ben Salmun with the nisba (Arabic descriptive suffix) "al-Safati" (of Safed), indicating the presence of a Jewish community living alongside Muslims in Safed in

3306-561: The New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period . Safed attained local prominence under the Crusaders , who built a large fortress there in 1168. It was conquered by Saladin 20 years later, and demolished by his grandnephew al-Mu'azzam Isa in 1219. After reverting to the Crusaders in a treaty in 1240, a larger fortress was erected, which was expanded and reinforced in 1268 by the Mamluk sultan Baybars , who developed Safed into

3420-715: The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 to purchase extensive tracts around Safed. The major Muslim landowning clans were the Soubeh, Murad and Qaddura. The latter owned about 50,000 dunams toward the end of the century, including eight villages around Safed. In 1878 the municipal council of Safed was established. In 1888 the Acre Sanjak, including the Safed Kaza, became part of the new province of Beirut Vilayet , an administrative state of affairs which persisted until

3534-636: The Sidon Eyalet , of which Safed was briefly the capital. The province was created by the imperial government to check the power of the Druze of Mount Lebanon, as well as the Shia of Jabal Amil . As nearby Tiberias remained desolate for several decades, Safed gained a key position among Galilean Jewish communities. In 1665, the Sabbatai Sevi movement arrived in Safed. In the 1670s, the account of

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3648-454: The 11th century. According to the Muslim historian Ibn Shaddad (d. 1285), at the beginning of the 12th century, a "flourishing village" beneath a tower called Burj Yatim had existed at the site of Safed on the eve of the Crusaders' capture of the area in 1101–1102 and that "nothing" about the village was mentioned in "the early Islamic history books". Although Ibn Shaddad mistakenly attributes

3762-469: The 15th and 16th centuries there were several well-known Sufis (mystics) of ibn Arabi living in Safed. The Sufi sage Ahmad al-Asadi (1537–1601) established a zawiya (Sufi lodge) called Sadr Mosque in the city. Safed became a center of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) during the 16th century. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 , many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed, among them

3876-422: The 1830s, and many perished in an earthquake in that same decade – through the philanthropy of Moses Montefiore , its Jewish synagogues and homes were rebuilt. Safed's population reached 24,000 toward the end of the 19th century; it was a mixed city , divided roughly equally between Jews and Muslims with a small Christian community. Its Muslim merchants played a key role as middlemen in the grain trade between

3990-676: The 19th century, and whose inhabitants mainly were Kurds ; al-Wata (the lower), the southernmost quarter of Safed and situated below the city; and al-Suq, named after the market or mosque located within the quarter. The Jewish quarters were all situated west of the fortress. Each quarter was named for the place of origin of its inhabitants: Purtuqal (Portugal), Qurtubah ( Cordoba ), Qastiliyah ( Castille ), Musta'rib (Jews of local, Arabic-speaking origin), Magharibah (northwestern Africa), Araghun ma' Qatalan ( Aragon and Catalonia ), Majar (Hungary), Puliah ( Apulia ), Qalabriyah ( Calabria ), Sibiliyah ( Seville ), Taliyan (Italian) and Alaman (German). In

4104-509: The 20th century. Due to its high elevation, the city has warm summers and cold, often snowy winters. Its mild climate and scenic views have made Safed a popular holiday resort frequented by Israelis and foreign visitors. In 2022 it had a population of 38,029. Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood . According to the Book of Judges ( Judges 1:17 ),

4218-464: The Arab neighbourhoods, causing fires in the marked area and in the fuel dumps, which exploded. "The Palmah 'intentionally left open the exit routes for the population to "facilitate" their exodus...' " According to Gilbert, "The Arabs of Safed began to leave, including the commander of the Arab forces, Adib Shishakli (later Prime Minister of Syria). With the police fort on Mount Canaan isolated, its defenders withdrew without fighting. The fall of Safed

4332-585: The Arabs' property had been seized or stolen in the meantime, the Jewish community would be unable to withstand the pressure of the returnees' demands for restitution. In 1974, 25 Israeli Jews (mainly school children) from Safed, were killed in the Ma'alot massacre . Over 1990s and early 2000s, the town accepted thousands of Russian Jewish immigrants and Ethiopian Beta Israel . In July 2006, "Katyusha" rockets fired by Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon hit Safed, killing one man and injuring others. Many residents fled

4446-531: The Crusader castellany . After the fall of the Montfort Castle to the Mamluks in 1271, the castle and its dependency, the Shaghur district, were incorporated into Mamlakat Safad. The territorial jurisdiction of the mamlaka eventually spanned the entire Galilee and the lands further south down to Jenin . The geographer al-Dimashqi , who died in Safed in 1327, wrote around 1300 that Baybars built

4560-592: The Crusader leader Theobald I of Navarre and the Ayyubid al-Salih Ismail, Emir of Damascus , in 1240 Safed once again passed to Crusader control. Afterward, the Templars were tasked with rebuilding the Citadel of Safed , with efforts spearheaded by Benedict of Alignan , Bishop of Marseille . The rebuilding is recorded in a short treatise, De constructione castri Saphet , from the early 1260s. The reconstruction

4674-506: The East, Karo's authority was, if possible, even greater. His name heads the decree of excommunication directed against Daud, Joseph Nasi 's agent; and it was Karo who commissioned Elisha Gallico to draw up a decree to be distributed among all Jews, ordering that Dei Rossi 's "Me'or 'Enayim" be burned. But, Karo dying before it was ready for him to sign, the decree was not promulgated, and the rabbis of Mantua contented themselves with forbidding

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4788-811: The Egyptian governor of the Levant. In the following year, the Muslim notables of the city, led by Salih al-Tarshihi, opposed to the Egyptian policy of conscription, joined the peasants' revolt in Palestine . During the revolt, rebels plundered the city for over thirty days. Emir Bashir Shihab II of Mount Lebanon and his Druze fighters entered its environs in support of the Egyptians and compelled Safed's leaders to surrender. The Galilee earthquake of 1837 killed about half of Safed's 4,000-strong Jewish community, destroyed all fourteen of its synagogues and prompted

4902-577: The Empire's fall in 1918. The centralization and stability brought by the imperial reforms solidified the political status and practical influence of Safed in the Upper Galilee. The Ottomans developed Safed into a center for Sunni Islam to counterbalance the influence of non-Muslim communities in its environs and the Shia Muslims of Jabal Amil. Along with the three major landowning families,

5016-681: The Franks [Crusaders], it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district." The native qadi (Islamic head judge) of Safed, Shams al-Din al-Uthmani, composed a text about Safed called Ta'rikh Safad (the History of Safed) during the rule of its governor Emir Alamdar ( r.  1372–1376 ). The extant parts of the work consisted of ten folios largely devoted to Safed's distinguishing qualities, its dependent villages, agriculture, trade and geography, with no information about its history. His account reveals

5130-478: The Galilee in general, though by 1824 Jewish immigrants were steadily moving to the city. The forces of Muhammad Ali of Egypt wrested control of the Levant from the Ottomans in 1831 and in the same year many Jews who had fled the Galilee, including Safed, under Abdullah Pasha returned as a result of Muhammad Ali's liberal policies toward Jews. Safed was raided by Druze in 1833 at the approach of Ibrahim Pasha ,

5244-401: The Jewish community developed the textile industry in Safed , transforming the town into an important and lucrative wool production and textile manufacturing centre. There were more than 7000 Jews in Safed in 1576 when Murad III proclaimed the forced deportation of 1000 wealthy Jewish families to Cyprus to boost the island's economy. There is no evidence that the edict or a second one issued

5358-405: The Jewish community of Safed was plundered by the Druze under Mulhim ibn Yunus , nephew of Fakhr al-Din. Five years later, Fakhr al-Din was routed by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, Mulhim abandoned Safed, and its Jewish residents returned. The Druze again attacked the Jews of Safed in 1656. During the power struggle between Fakhr al-Din's heirs (1658–1667), each faction attacked Safed. In

5472-521: The Jewish population rose from a mere 233 households in 1525 to 945 households in 1567–1568. The Muslim quarters were Sawawin, located west of the fortress; Khandaq (the moat); Ghazzawiyah, which had likely been settled by Gazans ; Jami' al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque), located south of the fortress and named for the local mosque; al-Akrad, which dated to the Middle Ages and continued to exist through

5586-541: The Jewish population. Following Abdullah Pasha of Acre's ordered killing of his Jewish vizier Haim Farhi , who served the same post under Jazzar and Sulayman, the governor imprisoned the Jewish residents of Safed on 12 August 1820, accusing them of tax evasion under the concealment of Farhi; they were released upon paying a ransom. The war between Abdullah Pasha and the influential Farhi brothers in Constantinople and Damascus in 1822–1823 prompted Jewish flight from

5700-456: The Jewish quarter of the town came under siege by the Muslims. British forces that were present did not intervene. According to Martin Gilbert , food supplies ran short. "Even water and flour were in desperately short supply. Each day, the Arab attackers drew closer to the heart of the Jewish quarter, systematically blowing up Jewish houses as they pressed in on the central area." On April 16,

5814-545: The Jezreel Valley and the area of Atlit , part of the larger province of Damascus Eyalet . In 1525/26, the population of Safed consisted of 633 Muslim families, 40 Muslim bachelors, 26 Muslim religious persons, nine Muslim disabled, 232 Jewish families, and 60 military families. In 1549, under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent , a wall was constructed and troops were garrisoned to protect the city. In 1553/54,

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5928-650: The Kabbalists Isaac Luria and Moses ben Jacob Cordovero ; Joseph Caro , the author of the Shulchan Aruch ; and Solomon Alkabetz , composer of the Shabbat hymn " Lekha Dodi ". The kabbalistic response to the trauma of the exile varied widely, ranging from a quietistic approach adopted by the Italian and North African kabbalists, to a more activist apocalyptic approach which sought signs of

6042-465: The Muslim ulema (religious scholarly) families of Nahawi, Qadi, Mufti and Naqib comprised the urban elite ( a'yan ) of the city. The Sunni courts of Safed arbitrated over cases in Akbara , Ein al-Zeitun and as far away as Mejdel Islim . According to the late 19th-century account of British missionary E. W. G. Masterman, the Muslim families of Safed included Kurds, Damascenes, Algerians , Bedouin from

6156-433: The Muslim character of the area. At least two Muslim families in the city itself, Arabi and Delasi, were of Algerian origin, though they accounted for a small proportion of the city's overall Muslim population. Masterman noted that the Muslims of Safed were conservative, "active and hardy", who "dress[ed] well and move[d] about more than the people from the region of southern Palestine". They lived mainly in three quarters of

6270-579: The Oral Torah itself (of which the Mishna is the fundamental part) spoke within him. (However, these two explanations are not necessarily contradictory—in the merit of the Mishna Karo constantly reviewed, he was worthy of an angelic teacher). The Maggid promised him that he would have the merit of settling in the Land of Israel, and this promise was fulfilled. Another promise, that he would merit to die

6384-464: The Ottomans. Rumors in 1517 that Selim was slain by the Mamluks precipitated a revolt against the newly appointed Ottoman governor by the townspeople of Safed, which resulted in wide-scale killings, many of which targeted the city's Jews , who were viewed as sympathizers of the Ottomans. Safed became the capital of the Safed Sanjak , roughly corresponding with Mamlakat Safad but excluding most of

6498-520: The Palmach plan to capture Safed, was to secure a corridor through the mountains by capturing the Arab village of Biriyya . The Arab Liberation Army placed artillery pieces on a hill adjacent to the Jewish quarter and started its shelling. The Palmach's Third Battalion failed to take the main objective, the "citadel", but "terrified" the Arab population sufficiently to prompt further flight, as well as urgent appeals for outside help and an effort to obtain

6612-464: The Syrian coastal mountains. Safed, with its position overlooking the Jordan River and allowing the Crusaders early warnings of Muslim troop movements in the area, had been a consistent aggravation for the Muslim regional powers. After a six-week siege, Baybars captured Safed in July 1266, after which he had nearly the entire garrison killed. The siege occurred during a Mamluk military campaign to subdue Crusader strongholds in Palestine and followed

6726-425: The Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi recorded that Safed contained three caravanserais , several mosques , seven zawiyas, and six hammams . The Red Mosque was restored by Safed's governor Salih Bey in 1671/72, at which point it measured about 120 by 80 feet (37 m × 24 m), had all masonry interior, a cistern to collect rainwater in the winter for drinking and a tall minaret over its southern entrance;

6840-482: The area east of the Kingdom). Testifying to the considerable expansion of the castle, the chronicler Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) wrote that it was practically built anew. The remains of Fulk's castle can now be found under the citadel excavations, on a hill above the old city. In the estimation of modern historian Havré Barbé, the castellany of Safed comprised approximately 376 square kilometers (145 sq mi). According to Barbé, its western boundary straddled

6954-454: The area where Safed is located was assigned to the tribe of Naphtali . It has been suggested that Jesus ' assertion that "a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden" referred to Safed. Safed has been identified with Sepph, a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus . Safed is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce

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7068-413: The attention and ruling of the Safed Beth Din. Its rulings were accepted as final and conclusive, and Karo's halachic decisions and clarifications were sought by sages from every corner of the diaspora. Rabbi Joseph Karo was also visited in Safed by the great Egyptian scholars of his day, Rabbi David ibn Abi Zimra and Rabbi Yaakov Castro . He came to be regarded as the leader of the entire generation. In

7182-403: The cave tomb of a rabbi, Hanina ben Horqano, in Safed. The iqta of Safed was taken from the family of Sa'd al-Din by the Ayyubid emir of Damascus , al-Mu'azzam Isa , in 1217. Two years later, during the Crusader siege of Damietta , al-Mu'azzam Isa had the Safed castle demolished to prevent its capture and reuse by potential future Crusaders. As an outcome of the treaty negotiations between

7296-450: The city after heavy fighting, precipitating British forces to withdraw. Most of the city's predominantly Palestinian-Arab population fled or were expelled as a result of attacks by Jewish forces and the nearby Ein al-Zeitun massacre , and were not allowed to return after the war, such that today the city has an almost exclusively Jewish population. That year, the city became part of the then-newly established state of Israel. Safed has

7410-529: The city of Safed , Ottoman Galilee , where he arrived about 1535, having en route spent several years at Salonica (1533) and Istanbul . By 1555, Joseph Karo was already a resident of the village Biriyya near Safed, during which year he completed writing the first order of the Shulhan Arukh , Orach Chayim . For a short while he lived in Nikopol, but decided to make his way to the Land of Israel so that he could immerse himself in its sanctity and complete his written works. Passing through Salonica, he met

7524-421: The city's dominant features were its citadel, the Red Mosque and its towering position over the surrounding landscape. He noted Safed lacked "regular urban planning", madrasas (schools of Islamic law), ribats (hostels for military volunteers) and defensive walls, and that its houses were clustered in disarray and its streets were not distinguishable from its squares. He attributed the city's shortcomings to

7638-420: The city. The geographer Abu'l Fida (1273–1331), the ruler of Hama , described Safed as follows: [Safed] was a town of medium size. It has a very strongly built castle, which dominates the Lake of Tabariyyah [Sea of Galilee]. There are underground watercourses, which bring drinking-water up to the castle-gate...Its suburbs cover three hills... Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir [Baybars] from

7752-593: The city: al-Akrad, whose residents were mostly laborers, Sawawin, home to the Muslim a'yan households and the city's Catholic community, and al-Wata, whose inhabitants were largely shopkeepers and minor traders. The entire Jewish population lived in the Gharbieh (western) quarter. Safed's population reached over 15,000 in 1879, 8,000 of whom were Muslims and 7,000 Jews. A population list from about 1887 showed that Safad had 24,615 inhabitants; 2,650 Jewish households, 2,129 Muslim households and 144 Roman Catholic households. Arab families in Safed whose social status rose as

7866-437: The civil service, local administrations or businessmen. When the Ottomans established a branch of the Agricultural Bank in the city in 1897, all of its board members were resident Arabs, the most influential of whom were Husayn Abd al-Rahim Effendi, Hajj Ahmad al-Asadi, As'ad Khouri and Abd al-Latif al-Hajj Sa'id. The latter two also became board members of the Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture branch opened in Safed in 1900. In

7980-402: The dearth of generous patrons. A device for transporting buckets of water called the satura existed in the city mainly to supply the soldiers of the citadel; surplus water was distributed to the city's residents. Al-Uthmani praised the natural beauty of Safed, its therapeutic air, and noted that its residents took strolls in the surrounding gorges and ravines. The Black Death brought about

8094-399: The domains of Acre, including the fief of St. George de la Beyne , which included Sajur and Beit Jann , and the fief of Geoffrey le Tor, which included Akbara and Hurfeish , and in the southwest ran north of Maghar and Sallama . Its northern boundary was marked by the Nahal Dishon (Wadi al-Hindaj) stream, its southern boundary was likely formed near Wadi al-Amud, separating it from

8208-457: The entrance, alongside the doorpost of the gate, while my cogitations from foolishness were sorely gripped by fear. Now, that wise man the elder sat upon a chair, and with his mouth he did amplify the subject matter. By an utterance he would draw man away from his burthen caused by the vicissitudes of time, in drawing him nigh unto the faithful God. He would then clothe him, as it were, in sumptuous apparel fit for those who are free, by his recital of

8322-437: The event of a renewed Crusader invasion of the coastal region, a strongly fortified Safed could serve as an ideal headquarters to confront the Crusader threat. In 1268, he had the fortress repaired, expanded and strengthened. He commissioned numerous building works in the town of Safed, including caravanserais , markets and baths, and converted the town's church into a mosque. The mosque, called Jami al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque),

8436-562: The fief of Tiberias, while its eastern limits were the marshes of the Hula Valley and upper Jordan Valley . There were several Jewish communities in the castellany of Safed, as testified in the accounts of Jewish pilgrims and chroniclers between 1120 and 1293. Benjamin of Tudela , who visited the town in 1170, does not record any Jews living in Safed proper. Safed was captured by the Ayyubids led by Sultan Saladin in 1188 after

8550-478: The flight of 600 Perushim for Jerusalem; the surviving Sephardic and Hasidic Jews mostly remained. Among the 2,158 residents of Safed who had died, 1,507 were Ottoman subjects, the rest foreign citizens. The Jewish quarter was situated on the hillside and was particularly hard hit; the southern and Muslim section of the town experienced considerably less damage. The following year, in 1838, Druze rebels and local Muslims raided Safed for three days. Ottoman rule

8664-541: The following year for removing 500 families, was enforced. In 1584, there were 32 synagogues registered in the town. A Hebrew printing press , the first in West Asia , was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi of Prague and his son, Isaac. By the early part of the 17th century, Safed was a small town. In 1602, the paramount chief of the Druze in Mount Lebanon , Fakhr al-Din II of

8778-548: The governor. The simultaneous rise of Acre, established by Zahir as his capital in 1750 and which served as the capital of the Sidon Eyalet under Jazzar Pasha (1775–1804) and his successors, Sulayman Pasha al-Adil (1805–1819) and Abdullah Pasha (1820–1831), contributed to the political decline of Safed. It became a subdistrict center with limited local influence, belonging to the Acre Sanjak . Underdevelopment and

8892-431: The governorship of Safed, which the Ma'n dynasty had lost, after his victory against the governor of Damascus at the Battle of Anjar . In c.  1625 , the orientalist Franciscus Quaresmius spoke of Safed being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world." According to the historian Louis Finkelstein,

9006-488: The great kabbalist Joseph Taitazak . He continued his journey to the Holy Land via Egypt and eventually settled in Safed . At Safed he met Jacob Berab and was soon appointed a member of his rabbinical court. Berab exerted great influence upon him, and Karo became an enthusiastic supporter of Berab's plans for the reinstitution of semicha (rabbinical ordination) which had been in abeyance for over 11 centuries. Karo

9120-407: The imminent redemption. The expulsion was seen by many as the tribulation that would herald the beginning of the messianic age as foretold in rabbinic literature. The spiritualization of religious life culminated in the creative outburst of religious innovation in Safed in the second half of the sixteenth century as a response to the expulsion. This spiritual revolution spread from Safed and transformed

9234-413: The intra-communal turmoil among the Druze following the death of Mulhim, the 1660 destruction of Safed targeted the Jews there and in Tiberias; only a few of the former Jewish residents returned to the city before 1662. Survivors relocated mainly to Sidon or Jerusalem . Safed Sanjak and the neighbouring Sidon-Beirut Sanjak to the north were administratively separated from Damascus in 1660 to form

9348-410: The last decade of the 19th century, Safed contained 2,000 houses, four mosques, three churches, two public bathhouses, one caravanserai, two public sabils , nineteen mills, seven olive oil presses, ten bakeries, fifteen coffeehouses, forty-five stalls and three shops. Safed was the centre of Safad Subdistrict . According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities , Safed had

9462-456: The last half of the 19th century by immigration from Persia , Morocco , and Algeria . Moses Montefiore (d. 1885) visited Safed seven times and financed much of the rebuilding of Safed's synagogues and Jewish houses. In 1864 the Sidon Eyalet was absorbed into the new province of Syria Vilayet . In the new province, Safed remained part of the Acre Sanjak and served as the center of a kaza (third-level subdivision), whose jurisdiction covered

9576-409: The local farmers and the traders of Acre, while the Ottomans promoted the city as a center of Sunni jurisprudence . Safed's conditions improved considerably in the late 19th century, a municipal council was established along with a number of banks, though the city's jurisdiction was limited to the Upper Galilee. By 1922, Safed's population had dropped to around 8,700, roughly 60% Muslim, 33% Jewish and

9690-428: The minaret had been destroyed before the end of the 17th century. The Tiberias-based sheikh Zahir al-Umar of the local Arab Zaydan clan, whose father Umar al-Zaydani had been the governor and tax farmer of Safed in 1702–1706, wrested control of Safed and its tax farm from its native strongman, Muhammad Naf'i, through military pressure and diplomacy by 1740. The Naf'i, Shahin, and Murad families continued to farm

9804-548: The part of Palestine recommended to be included in the proposed Jewish state under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine . By 1948 the city was home to about 12,000 Arabs and about 1,700 Jews, mostly religious and elderly. On 5 January 1948, Arabs attacked the Jewish Quarter. In February 1948, during the civil war , Muslim Arabs attacked a Jewish bus attempting to reach Safed, and

9918-478: The people of the Upper Galilee, the Hula Valley , the Golan Heights and parts of modern-day South Lebanon . Through the late 19th century, Safed's merchants served as middlemen in the Galilee grain trade, selling the wheat, pulses and fruit grown by the peasants of the Galilee to the traders of Acre, who in turn exported at least part of the merchandise to Europe. Safed also maintained extensive trade with

10032-459: The population consisted of 1,121 Muslim households, 222 Muslim bachelors, 54 Muslim religious leaders, 716 Jewish households, 56 Jewish bachelors, and 9 disabled persons. At least in the 16th century, Safed was the only kasaba (city) in the sanjak and in 1555 was divided into nineteen mahallas (quarters), seven Muslim and twelve Jewish. The total population of Safed rose from 926 households in 1525–26 to 1,931 households in 1567–1568. Among these,

10146-451: The port of Tyre. The bulk of trade in Safed, which was traditionally dominated by the city's Jews, largely passed to its Muslim merchants during the late 19th century, particularly trade with the local villagers; Muslim traders offered higher credit to the peasants and were able to obtain government assistance for debt repayments. The wealth of Safed's Muslims increased and a number of the city's leading Muslim families made an opportunity from

10260-409: The practice of Judaism throughout the Jewish world. The influx of Sephardic Jews —reaching its peak under the rule of sultans Suleiman the Magnificent and Selim II —made Safed a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. Sephardi Jews and other Jewish immigrants by then outnumbered Musta'arabi Jews in the city. During this period,

10374-613: The province, through Upper Galilee, unto the city of Safed, the land of Canaan. … I then came into the city, and lo! Within her dwelt the Divine Presence, for within her there is a large community, frowardness being removed far from them, about fourteen thousand in number! In eighteen seats of learning they had come to study the Talmud. There, I saw the light of the Law, and the Jews had light. They surpassed all other communities. … Then it

10488-469: The reading of the work by Jews under twenty-five years of age. Several funeral orations delivered on that occasion have been preserved (Moses Albelda, Darash Mosheh ; Samuel Katzenellenbogen, Derashot ), as well as some elegies from Karo's passing. Karo's literary works are considered among the masterpieces of rabbinic literature . He published during his lifetime: After his death there appeared: The Maggid Meisharim (1646, Preacher of Righteousness )

10602-438: The remainder Christians. Amid rising ethnic tension throughout Mandatory Palestine , Safed's Jews were attacked in an Arab riot in 1929 . The city's population had risen to 13,700 by 1948, overwhelmingly Arab, though the city was proposed to be part of a Jewish state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan . During the 1948 war , Arab factions attacked and besieged the Jewish quarter which held out until Jewish paramilitary forces captured

10716-442: The same day that British forces evacuated Safed, 200 local Arab militiamen, supported by over 200 Arab Liberation Army soldiers, tried to take over the city's Jewish Quarter. They were repelled by the Jewish garrison, consisting of some 200 Haganah fighters, men and women, boosted by a Palmach platoon. The Palmach ground attack on the Arab section of Safed took place on 6 May, as a part of Operation Yiftach . The first phase of

10830-629: The sanjak, with highway brigandage and Bedouin raids having ceased under his watch. Trade and agriculture consequently thrived and the population prospered. He formed close relations with the city's Sunni Muslim ulama (religious scholars), particularly the mufti , al-Khalidi al-Safadi of the Hanafi school of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), who became his practical court historian. The Ottomans drove Fakhr al-Din into European exile in 1613, but his son Ali became governor in 1615. Fakhr al-Din returned to his domains in 1618 and five years later regained

10944-434: The taxes of Safed and its countryside into the 1760s as Zahir's subordinates. By the 1760s, Zahir entrusted Safed to his son Ali, who made the town his headquarters. After Zahir was killed by Ottoman imperial forces, the governor of Sidon, Jazzar Pasha , moved to oust Zahir's sons from their Galilee strongholds. Ali made a final, unsuccessful stand against Jazzar Pasha from Safed, which was afterward captured and garrisoned by

11058-539: The tower's construction to the Knights Templar , the modern historian Ronnie Ellenblum asserts that the tower was likely built during the early Muslim period (mid-7th–11th centuries). The Frankish chronicler William of Tyre noted the presence of a burgus (tower) in Safed, which he called "Castrum Saphet" or "Sephet", in 1157. Safed was the seat of a castellany (area governed by a castle) by at least 1165, when its castellan (appointed castle governor)

11172-422: The town for the duration of the conflict. On July 22, four people were injured in a rocket attack. The town has retained its unique status as a Jewish studies centre, incorporating numerous facilities. In 2010, eighteen senior rabbis led by the chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu , issued an edict urging the city's residents not to rent or sell property to Arabs, warning of an "Arab takeover"; Arabs constitute

11286-461: The verse: 'The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul'. He then deliberated on a certain matter by explicating its plain and esoteric sense. Before him were seated about two-hundred very admirable and distinguished pupils, sitting upon benches. When he had finished his words of wisdom, he gestured to a certain disciple opposite him to speak. … Now, when that wise man (i.e., Rabbi Joseph Karo) heard

11400-436: The villages around the city and the subdistrict of Mount Meron (Jabal Jarmaq). In the Ottoman survey of Syria in 1871, Safed had 1,395 Muslim households, 1,197 Jewish households and three Christian households. The survey recorded a relatively high number of businesses in the city, namely 227 shops, fifteen mills, fourteen bakeries and four olive oil factories, an indicator of Safed's long-established role as an economic hub for

11514-540: The walls of the ceiling, all the way down to its foundation – but, especially, the great luminary, even the wise man, Rabbi Joseph Karo, from whose seat of learning the wise men of Safed do not quit themselves, for in his heart the Talmud is stored, after he had sat down in learning for seven years, within a confined chamber. Now, aside from several branches of wisdom, within his heart are sealed, both, revelations and mysteries. I went one Sabbath to his seat of learning, to see his honourable and glorious magnanimity. I sat down by

11628-520: The wise man (i.e., Rabbi Joseph Karo). When Jacob Berab died, Karo was regarded as his successor, and together with Rabbi Moshe of Trani he headed the Rabbinical Court of Safed. In fact, by this time, the Rabbinical Court of Safed had become the central rabbinical court in all of Old Yishuv (southern Ottoman Syria ), and indeed of the diaspora as well. Thus there was not a single matter of national or global importance that did not come to

11742-431: The words of that disciple, he was astonished by his eloquence of speech who had given plausible arguments about the soul, and he then raised him up and exalted him above all the pupils that were with him. … I stayed there awhile, until the wise man (i.e., Rabbi Joseph Karo) had gestured to his pupils to stand up, and then gave order to each one to learn a Mishna . So they went their way, the pupils who were there gathered and

11856-581: Was Fulk, constable of Tiberias . The castle of Safed was purchased from Fulk by King Amalric of Jerusalem in 1168. He subsequently reinforced the castle and transferred it to the Templars in the same year. Theoderich the Monk , describing his visit to the area in 1172, noted that the expanded fortification of the castle of Safed was meant to check the raids of the Turks (the Turkic Zengid dynasty ruled

11970-407: Was a blow to Arab morale throughout the region... With the invasion of Palestine by regular Arab armies believed to be imminent – once the British had finally left in eleven or twelve days' time – many Arabs felt that prudence dictated their departure until the Jews had been defeated and they could return to their homes. According to Abbasi, the exodus of the Arabs of Safed had three phases. The first

12084-600: Was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law , the Beit Yosef , and its popular analogue, the Shulhan Arukh . Karo is regarded as the preeminent halakhic authority of his time, and is often referred to by the honorific titles HaMechaber ( Hebrew : הַמְחַבֵּר , lit.   'the author') and Maran ( Jewish Babylonian Aramaic : מָרַן , lit.   'our master'). Joseph Karo

12198-618: Was born in Toledo , Spain, in 1488. In 1492, aged four, he was expelled from Spain with his family as a result of the Alhambra Decree and subsequently settled in the Kingdom of Portugal . Following his father's death, Karo's uncle Isaac, an author of biblical commentary, adopted him. After the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal in 1497, the Ottomans invited the Jews to settle within their empire . Karo went with his parents, after

12312-421: Was completed at the considerable expense of 40,000 bezants in 1243. The new fortress was larger than the original, with a capacity for 2,200 soldiers in time of war, and with a resident force of 1,700 in peacetime. The garrison's goods and services were provided by the town or large village growing rapidly beneath the fortress, which, according to Benoit's account, contained a market, "numerous inhabitants" and

12426-593: Was completed in 1275. By the end of Baybars's reign, Safed had developed into a prosperous town and fortress. Baybars assigned fifty-four mamluks , at the head of whom was Emir Ala al-Din Kandaghani, to oversee the management of Safed and its dependencies. From the time of its capture, the city was made the administrative center of Mamlakat Safad, one of seven mamlakas (provinces), whose governors were typically appointed from Cairo , which made up Mamluk Syria . Initially, its jurisdiction corresponded roughly with

12540-484: Was due to the departure of the British compounded by the failure of an attack on the Jewish quarter and a disagreement between the Jordanian and Syrian commanders. The second was due to the fall of nearby Ein al-Zeitun and the massacre that Jewish forces committed there. The third was due to the deliberate creation of panic by Jewish forces. Some 12,000 Arabs, with some estimates reaching 15,000, fled Safed and were

12654-502: Was one of the first he ordained and after Berab's death, Karo tried to perpetuate the scheme by ordaining his pupil Moshe Alshich , but he finally gave up his endeavors, convinced that he could not overcome the opposition to ordination. Karo also established a yeshiva where he taught Torah to over 200 students. A Yemenite Jewish traveler, Zechariah (Yaḥya) al-Dhahiri , visited Rabbi Karo's yeshiva in Safed, in circa 1567 CE and wrote of his impressions: I journeyed from Syria,

12768-520: Was protected by the fortress. The settlement also benefited from trade with travelers on the route between Acre and the Jordan Valley, which passed through Safed. The Ayyubids of Egypt had been supplanted by the Mamluks in 1250 and the Mamluk sultan Baybars entered Syria with his army in 1261. Thereafter, he led a series of campaigns over several years against Crusader strongholds across

12882-435: Was restored across the Levant in 1840. The Empire-wide Tanzimat reforms, which were first adopted in the 1840s, brought about a steady rise in Safed's population and economy. In 1849 Safed had a total estimated population of 5,000, of whom 2,940-3,440 were Muslims, 1,500-2,000 were Jews and 60 were Christians. The population was estimated at 7,000 in 1850–1855, of whom 2,500-3,000 were Jews. The Jewish population increased in

12996-431: Was that I knew my estimable worth, based on all my strength and ability, and lo! I had been deficient in several matters. Now, 'that which is lacking cannot be numbered'. I made myself inconspicuous in her midst, while my thoughts were languorous. Within the synagogues and midrashic study halls I had come to hear the expositors who expound upon a certain matter in several ways, seeing that they know every secret thing, from

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