Adjiman
ADJIMAN
ADJIMAN , family in Constantinople. Some members held important positions at the court of Ottoman sultans in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Some Adjimans were purveyors and treasurers of the Janissaries and therefore were called by the titles Ocak Bazergani ("Merchant to the Corps") or Ocak Sarrafi ("Banker to the Corps"). The bazergans must have ranked among the most prominent figures in the Istanbul markets, conducting large-scale transactions. They were also known as philanthropists.
baruch adjiman was the first rich man of the family in Istanbul. He settled in Jerusalem and died there in 1744. His two sons, Yeshaya Adjiman (d. 1751–2) and Eliya Adjiman, remained in Istanbul. His daughter was married to David Zonana.
eliya adjiman was one of the wealthiest persons in the Jewish community and a philanthropist who helped Rabbi Ezra *Malkhi during his visit to Istanbul in 1755. His sons were Baruch, Abraham, and David Adjiman. He was ocak bazergani in 1770.
yeshaya adjiman died in 1751 or 1752 and like his brother was one of the wealthiest Jews in Istanbul. His sons were Baruch (first mentioned in 1755 and last information from 1791/2 or 1803) and Jacob, who is mentioned in the years 1755 and 1769/70.
baruch adjiman was ocak bazergani from 1766–68 to 1782. It is not clear if he was the son of Eliya or of Yeshaya, as each had sons named Baruch. He was a wealthy man and a philanthropist in Istanbul. Jewish and Ottoman sources tell about his financial difficulties during the war between the Ottoman Empire and Russia (1768–74) and also in 1777. He left many debts. There is also a document from the year 1791/2 in which Baruch, son of Yeshaya Adjiman, signed his name as Pakid Ereẓ Israel in Istanbul.
Another yeshaya adjiman signed his name as Pakid Yerushalayim in Istanbul. There are documents which deal with his assistance in 1820 in building a hotel in Jaffa for pilgrims to the Jewish festivals. He was the last Jewish ocak bazergani, serving from c. 1820 until he was executed with Bekhor Isaac *Carmona in 1826. An elegy was written in their memory.
abraham adjiman was appointed a member of parliament in Istanbul in 1877–78. He served as the head of the Jewish community in Istanbul in 1880 but, following a dispute in which he was involved, he ceased to occupy his office. The dispute was between Adjiman and Nissim bar Nathan, who declared that Adjiman had wished to do harm to the rabbis, wishing to control the meat tax, which the rabbis opposed. In response Adjiman did not pay the chief rabbi his salary.
bibliography:
M. Franco, Essai sur l'histoire des Israélites de l'Empire Ottoman (1897), 134; A. Galanté, Histoire des Juifs d'Istanbul, 2 (1942), 58; Yehudei ha-Mizraḥ be Ereẓ Yisrael, 2 (1938), 28–29; Ben-Zvi, Ereẓ Yisrael, 677. add. bibliography: Rosanes, Togarmah, 5, 141–43, 416–17; Yaari, Sheluḥei, 663; H. Kayali, in: A. Levy (ed.), The Jews of the Ottoman Empire (1994), 509–17; A. Levy, in: ibid., 427–28; idem, in: M. Rozen (ed.), Yemei ha-Sahar (1994), 257–61.
[Abraham Haim /
Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky (2nd ed.)]