Joseph Nasi

Joseph Nasi

Joseph Nasi (1524, Portugal – 1579, Constantinople), known in Portuguese as João Miques, was a Portuguese Sephardi diplomat and administrator, member of the House of Mendes/Benveniste, nephew of Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi, and an 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 lord of Tiberias, with the expressed aim of resettling Jews in Palestine and encouraging industry there; the attempt failed, and, later, he was appointed Duke of Naxos. Nasi also supported a war with the Republic of Venice, at the end of which Venice lost the island of Cyprus to the Ottomans. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Joseph Nasi has received more than 145,135 page views. His biography is available in 21 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 19 in 2019). Joseph Nasi is the 4,663rd most popular politician (down from 3,750th in 2019), the 112th most popular biography from Portugal (down from 89th in 2019) and the 63rd most popular Portuguese Politician.

Joseph Nasi was a Jewish banker and diplomat from the Ottoman Empire. He was also a close friend of King Philip II of Spain. Nasi was most famous for his diplomatic efforts to help the Jews in the Ottoman Empire.