History of The Jews in Kosovo - Ottoman Rule

Ottoman Rule

Prior to the Ottoman Turkish conquest of the region, documentation on the Jews of the Balkans was sketchy. The Jewish communities of the Balkans were boosted in the 15th and 16th centuries by the arrival of Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire welcomed the Jewish refugees into his empire. Jews became involved in trade between the various provinces in the Ottoman Empire, becoming especially important in the salt trade.

The 1455 Turkish cadastral tax censusa of the Branković lands (covering 80% of present-day Kosovo) recorded 1 Jewish dwelling in Vučitrn.

An Austrian statistic published in 1899 estimated:

• Albanians: (90%)
• Serbs: (2%)
• Remaining 8%: Tsintsars, Turks, Circassians, Roma, and Jews