Joseph Nasi
- Born:
- 1520, Portugal
- Died:
- Aug. 2, 1579, Constantinople (aged 59)
Joseph Nasi (born 1520, Portugal—died Aug. 2, 1579, Constantinople) was a Jewish statesman and financier who rose to a position of power in the Ottoman Empire under the sultans Süleyman the Magnificent and Selim II.
As a young man he gained a thorough knowledge of commercial and financial affairs in the service of his relatives, the bankers Mendes of Antwerp. In 1554 he settled at Constantinople and soon attained high favour with Sultan Süleyman, who granted him the town of Tiberias and seven adjoining villages in Palestine. There Nasi strove to establish a community of Jewish refugees from Europe.
In 1566 Sultan Selim II made him the duke of Naxos, in Greece. After Selim II’s death in 1574, Nasi found himself excluded from an active role in public affairs and spent the last years of his life in virtual retirement at his villa of Belvedere near Galata in Constantinople.