Jamila Ḥarabun and her two husbands: On betrothal and marriage among ottoman jews in sixteenth-century Salonika

This article engages with Jewish marriage in the urban centers of the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire: the purpose of marriage, the choice of a proper spouse, the place of emotion in choosing a mate at first marriage, age at first marriage, the limits of patriarchal authority, power struggles between rabbinic leaders, and use made by Jewish litigants of the empire’s power in order to achieve their goals. Several rulings made by Salonikan rabbinic authorities of the time provide a “thick description” of the affair, enabling us to comprehend the behavior of all involved parties in terms of the sociological, political, religious, financial, and gendered context in which they lived.