Abraham de Castro
Abraham de Castro (Hebrew: אברהם קסטרו; d. 1560) was an Ottoman Jewish financialist who served as the head of the mint for Ottoman Sultan, Selim I and played an active role in the Cairo Purim.
Biography
Possibly born in
Viceroy of Egypt. In 1523, Pasha plotted to establish himself as an independent sovereign, and asked de Castro to mint the coins with his name in lieu of the sultan. de Castro secretly left Egypt and hastened to Constantinople to inform the sultan of Aḥmad's plot. The sultan received him with high honors and gave him costly presents. After hearing of de Castro's actions, Pasha threatened to murder all the Jews in Cairo, although this massacre was evaded after Pasha was stabbed to death by one of his junior officers, leading to the event later being known as the "Cairo Purim". By the late 1530s, de Castro had moved to Jerusalem, where he played a central role in the city's Jewish society, primarily in its economic life, mainly dealing with real estate. Castro evidently remained in Jerusalem until his death in 1560.[1][2][3]
References
- ^ "Castro, Abraham | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
- ^ "Castro, De, Family - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
- ^ A.B. Pollack, "The Jews and the Egyptian Treasury in the Times of the Mamluks and the Beginning of the Turkish Regime,"