From Crimea to Istanbul

Abstract

This chapter addresses how some of the Jewish captives were bought by professional slave merchants for resale elsewhere—most commonly Istanbul or Iran. With Jews so deeply engaged in the slave trade, it is surprising that so few of the Jewish captives from Ukraine following 1648 were actually ransomed in Crimea. It is impossible to determine why the local Jews and Karaites did not do more to help, but perhaps the huge number of captives overwhelmed them. They may have thought it better for the Jewish slaves to be shipped to Istanbul where there was a very large and wealthy community that could afford to ransom them. In addition to those taken to Istanbul via Crimea, however, there were other Ukrainian Jews captured by Tatars whose experiences were different. These Jewish captives found refuge in the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia.