Eliyahu Capsali
1483 CE–1555 CE · AH · Crete (Candia)
R. Eliyahu Capsali (1483-1555) was the chief rabbi of Candia (Crete) and one of the earliest Jewish historians in the modern sense. His Seder Eliyahu Zuta (1523) is a chronicle of Sephardic and Ottoman Jewish history that places the 1492 expulsion in global context — recording the conversations of refugees who passed through Crete on their way to the Ottoman East.
His Divrei HaYamim l'Malkhut Venezia is a parallel history of the Venetian Republic from the perspective of its long-term Jewish subjects. Capsali also served as Av Beit Din of Candia for over four decades. He is a primary source for Sephardic refugee experience and for early-modern Sephardic-Italian-Ottoman networks.
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Crete (Candia)קריטיAegean island — Venetian then Ottoman
What they did here
Born in Candia (Crete). Served as Chief Rabbi of Candia for over four decades. Composed Seder Eliyahu Zuta and Divrei HaYamim l'Malkhut Venezia here. Died in Candia 1555.
About Crete (Candia)
Crete (then called Candia under Venetian rule, 1204-1669) was home to a sophisticated Sephardic-Romaniote-Italian community; produced Eliyahu Capsali (1483-1555) and R. Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (Yashar of Candia, 1591-1655).
Works
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