Saturday, September 21, 2019
ThessalonÃÂki Case Essay Example for Free
Thessalonà ki Case Essay Salonica or Thessalonà ki means the victory of Thessalonian and it is the capital city of Macedonia and in Greece it is the second largest city while in the whole of Southern Eastern Europe, it one of the largest city. The city still retains a number of Jewish and Ottoman buildings together with a good number of Byzantine architectural monuments. Thessalonà ki was founded by a king from Macedon known as King Cassander at around 315 BC who gave it the name Thessalonà ki which was his wifes name and the wife was a half sister to Alexander the Great (David 2004). When the kingdom of Macedon was no more in 168 BC, the Roman Republic took over the city and it became one of its own. The city tremendously grew and it became the capital city of Macedonia. In 379 BC, the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was split into two which gave rise to the West and East Roman Empires and the new Prefecture named Thessalonà ki as its capital city. In 1204, immediately after the capture of Constantinople which happened by the fourth crusade, Thessalonà ki was redeemed and it was no longer under the Byzantine. (Donald 2000) In 1246, Thessalonà ki was recovered by the Byzantine Empire who later sold it to Venice in 1423 who ruled the city until on 1430 29th March, when Thessalonà ki was again captured by Ottoman Sultan Murad.            Over the reign of Ottoman, Thessalonà kis Jewish and Muslims increased in numbers and by 1478, the city had a total of 4,320 Muslims and 6,094 Greek Orthodox together with a good number of Catholics but there were no Jews. In order to prevent the Greeks from dominating Thessalonà ki, Ottoman welcomed the Sephardic Jews who were thrown out of Spain by Isabella and Ferdinand. For the next two centuries, Thessalonà ki grew to be the largest Jewish city in the whole world and it was nick named â€Å"The Mother of Israel†(Albert 1923). The Ottoman Empire was founded by the Turkish Osman but unfortunately it suffered so many problems like, the ancestor of the Mogul dynasty in India, the 1402 attack by the Tamerlane and the Mongol ruler of Samarkand. Constantinople was the main threat of the empire but when he was captured in 1453 it was an advantage to the Ottoman Empire since it was able to stabilize in the region. Thessalonà ki was under the empire until 1912, when it was worn back by the Greek about 90 years following the other Greece cities which had already gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire. The destruction of the Ottoman empire was overseen by the Mustafa Kemal who was born and brought up in Thessalonà ki in 1923, he later became the president of the Republic of Turkey. He was a very good leader but a dictator but he brought great reform in Turkey and he greatly emphasized on a strong Turkish nationalism which lead to him getting the title of â€Å"Father Of the Turks†in 1935.            At the beginning of the 20th Century Thessalonà ki was dominated by the European but the situation changed and currently it is completely filled by the Greek. (Apostle 1980) In the late 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century, Thessalonà ki was drastically destroyed by a series of fire which resulted in to the 1917 devastating fire incident that destroyed so many homes leaving many citizens being homeless and it resulted to the city center being rebuilt and re planned which took a period of twenty five years. In 1978, Thessalonà ki suffered a number of drastic earthquakes, which led to many casualties and disruption and it also destroyed many early churches.                        From the time when Thessalonà ki came into being which is like 2,000 years ago, the Jewish in that city contributed so much in its development. From the foundation of Thessalonà ki the leader of Egypt who was also the initiator of the Ptolemaic dynasty had also acted as a Macedonian General working under Alexander the Great and his name was Ptolemy, I (Donald 2000). He was requested by the founder of Thessalonà ki Kassandra to give a number of his Jewish artisans to beef up the team that was building the city. When the Jewish Artisans went to Thessalonà ki they did not went back to their homeland after completing their task of rebuilding the city which resulted to the foundation of the Jewish community in Thessalonà ki. In 140 BC the Jewish from Alexandria also arrived in Thessalonà ki who were later followed by the Jewish from Macedonian who arrived in 10 AD. From the Holy Bible in the book of Acts of Apostles it is recorded that in 50 AD St Paul visited Thessalonà ki where he taught in the synagogue which shows that the Jewish community was already established in Thessalonà ki by then.            During the following century very many Jews came to Thessalonà ki, but the largest mass migration of Jews to the city happened at the end of the 15th Century. (David 2004) By then the Jewish who were in Spain were doing very well for some time and it resulted into the Jewish community producing very great artists, scholars, artisans, traders, scientists, artists and philosophers. But in 1492 the trend suddenly came to an end when Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain and the inquisition felt like the Jewish were flourishing very much and if they could be given a chance they may be they could have planned on how to overthrow them hence they decided to do away with the threat and they threw them out of their territory. After the departure of the Jewish community from Spain, the Spanish dug out their cemeteries and they even set ablaze the areas where the Jewish were living and they even renamed those places by giving them new Christian names so as to do away and to forget the Jewish community, they even went to an extend of destroying anything that could have brought their memories back.            The Ottoman Empire warmly welcomed the Spanish Jewish whom he saw as new taxpayer and he could not comprehend why the Spanish could do away with such important and valuable resource. From the middle of the 15th Century when the Ottoman Empire took over Thessalonà ki, that city had been almost abandoned thus the Jewish Community who were later joined by other Jews from different troubled parts had superior strength than other communities who later joined them (Edward 1947). They had authority in Thessalonà ki and they worked in different mines, they started the first printing house and just like they did in Spain, they produced very great artists, scholars, artisans, traders, scientists, artists and philosophers. They also did very well in businesses, commerce and in industries while their professionals established their own organizations and charitable institutions. The Jewish lived in prosperity and in harmony with other Christians and their Muslim neighbors they even ganged up with them in war.            Thessalonà ki was one of the very important cities in the Ottoman Empire and it remained under the Empire up to the year 1912. Thessalonà kis day of rest was Saturday which was the Jewish Sabbath Day. In October 1912, the city was captured by Greek and in March 1913, the king of Greece King George the first was assassinated in the city. In 1915, which was during the world war one, some forces captured the city and they wanted to use it as a base against the supporters of German Bulgarians. Later a mysterious fire accident attacked the city and it caused a lot of destruction and the results of the destruction was that a good number of Jewish population vacated the city and they resettled in different places like, America, Paris and Palestine (Albert 1913). The Jewish who vacated were replaced by Greek refugees who were evicted from Turkey in 1922 after the Greco-Turkish war. This caused the city to increased in size very fast and it was named â€Å"The Refugee Capital†while others called it â€Å" The Mother Of The Poor†. In 1941 Thessalonà ki was captured by the forces of Nazi Germany until 1944 but later it was attacked by bombing which drastically destroyed it while many Jewish were exterminated by the Nazis which resulted to only a thousand Jewish population remaining in the city. However, the citys glory was restored since it was rebuilt very fast after the war. (Apostle 1980) Currently Thessalonà ki has been transformed into a modern city which has very wonderful roads and boulevards that has been laid out and designed in a grid pattern. The city also has well designed and wonderful shopping streets, restaurants, hotels, concert hall and even nightclubs. Work Cited Albert H., The Government of Ottoman, New York : Alpha Publishers, 1913. Apostle Papagiannapoulos, History of Thessalonà ki, Wales : DA Capo Press, 1982. Apostle Papagiannapoulos, Thessalonà ki, LA : Baton Rouge Press, 1980. David Willett, The Greece, West minister : West Minister John Knox Press, 2004. Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, Wales: DA Capo Press, 2000. Edward Shepherd, The history Of Ottoman Empire, LA: Baton Rouge Press, 1947.
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