1522 Islamic Murder, Mayhem, and Mutilation

Safed

“The Jews of Egypt sent them (e.g. Jews of Safed) clothing and more than 3,000 gold florins. Rabbi Nissan Biba, who organized the aid, went to Safed to help rehabilitate the victims. By the time Rabbi Moses Basola arrived in Safed five years after the conquest, the flourishing city showed no signs of that it had been sacked but recently. The Ottoman conquest did not affect the size or composition of Jewish Safed. This is attested by the government roll of taxpayers which was prepared in 1525-1526 and which mentions four Jewish quarters: Musta’rabim (130 households), Frank (40), Portuguese (21), North African (33).”

Source: Finkelstein 1970, p. 407. Abraham David, To Come to the Land: Immigration and Settlement in 16^th-Century Eretz-Israel, p.97