Joseph Nasi

Dom Joseph Nasi (or Nassi; also known as João Miques/Micas and Dom João Migas Mendes in a Portuguese variant, Giuseppe Nasi in Italian, and as Yasef Nassi in Ottoman Turkish; 1524, Portugal – 1579, Constantinople) was a Jewish diplomat and administrator, member of the House of Mendes/Benveniste, and a nephew of Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi, and influential figure in the Ottoman Empire during the rules of both Sultan Suleiman I and his son Selim II. He was a great benefactor of the Jewish people.

A Court Jew, he was appointed the Lord of Tiberias, with the expressed aim of resettling Jews in Ottoman Syria and encouraging industry there; the attempt failed, and, later, he was appointed to the Duke of Naxos. Nasi also brought about war with the Republic of Venice, at the end of which Venice lost the island of Cyprus to the Ottomans. After the death of Selim, he lost influence in the Ottoman Court, but was allowed to keep his titles and pension for the remainder of his life.

Joao Micas, Yosef Nasi was born in Portugal as a Marrano (practicing Judaism in secret), a son of the doctor Agostinho Micas (?-1525), a well known physician and professor at the University of Lisbon. A friend of Maximilian, nephew of the Habsburg King Charles I of Spain. He escaped to Portugal after Charles decided to confiscate the Mendes fortune, and, after the Holy Inquisition began operating against Portuguese Marranos in 1546, moved to Antwerp, in the Habsburg Netherlands, with his aunt, Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi. He studied at the University of Louvain, but had to flee the Inquisition in 1547. He then moved to France and later to Venice, before finally leaving for the Ottoman realm in 1554, where he married Ana (Reyna) Mendes, the daughter of his aunt Gracia Mendes Nasi.

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