Summary
In the period of Ottoman rule Orthodox Christians in the Balkans followed economic trends and behaved according to existing laws. The elders from Hilandar monastery, as well as all Athonite monks acted accordingly. If the monks had some religious prejudices towards Jews, just like towards Muslims, it never refers to business relations. Ottoman documents from Hilandar monastery archive bear evidence to highly developed trade dealings, credit transactions, as well as the presence of Jewish merchants on Mount Athos itself. The monastic fraternity of Hilandar took out loans from Jewish creditors, usually those from Thessaloniki and Siderokavsia, especially in the case of large sums that were difficult to obtain from other sources. It seems that they pledged their estates (metochia) until the payment of their debts, if Jewish creditors who for a time governed the large Hilandar metochion in Üç Ev (Neochorion, Kalamaria) are to be believed. The largest loans were taken out during the period of the so-called “confiscation affair” (1568/69), when the monastic community of Hilandar (as all other monasteries in the Empire) was forced to purchase its own estates from the state. Jewish creditors sometimes took unlawful interest rates, as evidenced by disputes held at kadı courts. There are examples testifying that the hegoumens of Hilandar voluntarily took Jews for their legal representatives (vekils) in real estate transactions, which needed to be registered at the kadi court. They clearly trusted the Jews as financial experts. Their commercial expertise and ability to raise large funds in a short period of time made the Jews useful business partners of the Hilandar Monastery.
