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eyes and when he emerged from the dark shadows, he was standing in the midst of a plush green paradise, where prancing peacocks poked their heads up from the grass, and gazelles grazed the low shrubs blossoming with blue and pink hydrangea. A few yards further, they passed through the Gates of Felicity, leading to the chamber where the Sultan was waiting to receive him.
    José smoothed down the burgundy caftan that Moses Hamon had given him as he walked through the azure-tiled sanctuary. At the far end of the room beneath a gilt canopy, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sat on his jewel-studded throne. José was led across four enormous oriental carpets before he finally found himself kneeling at the heels of the Sultan.
    Sultan Suleiman Khan, the tenth sultan descended from Osman, had been named for the wise ruler of Judea, King Solomon. It was said that in greatness, he had surpassed his namesake. He wore an enormous cloak secured with a gleaming diamond and a sprawling white turban fashioned with a green feather atop his head. He was not a handsome man, with his withered stature, beady eyes and hooknose, yet José knew, he was the single most powerful man on earth.
    “Rise,” he instructed José, who promptly came to his feet. “My physician has informed me that you are concerned over the well-being of your aunt. You needn’t be. I have secured her release and I assure you, you will be reunited shortly. Here, and in all the territories throughout my empire, your people are welcome to live freely as Jews.”
    José raised his gaze towards the Sultan and understood that he was in the presence of greatness. From the Persian Gulf to the furthest reaches of Hungary, from the Mamluk state of Egypt to the mountains of the Caucasus, the Sultan did not pass laws that he did not believe were just. He ruled his lands by his beliefs and conquered territories with the resolve that he would better the lives of their inhabitants. He was the first sultan to sleep and live with just one woman. A Polish slave by the name of Roxelana, she was his one true love and only wife. Suleiman governed by day and wrote poetry by night. He ate foods that inspired his senses and was a great patron of the arts: A man who sought to be inspired, he inspired all within his domain.
    Before him, his great-grandfather Mehmet the Conqueror had proclaimed, “Listen sons of the Hebrews who live in my country...May all those who desire come to Constantinople. May the rest of your people find here a shelter."
    His Grandfather, Sultan Bayezid II, had sent his fleets to collect thousands of stranded Jews who sought to flee Spain and Portugal during the Edict of Expulsion. Trapped between sea and land, they faced death whichever way they turned. If they took to the seas, they could be killed by pirates waiting offshore. If they stayed on the peninsula as unrepentant Jews, they risked being burned at the stake. It was at that time that Suleiman’s grandfather, Sultan Bayezid II, sent his fleet under the command of admiral Kemal Reis to rescue the stranded Jews. His ships transported nearly sixty thousand refugees, who came and settled throughout the empire, free to practice their faith in peace.
    Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was intent on continuing the work of his predecessors. He welcomed the Jews into his empire with open arms. For those that could not get there, he sent his fleets and helped arrange their escape.
     
    They came by the thousands, penniless and empty-handed. They entered Istanbul as a convoy of promise, rich with the education and experience that Ferdinand and Isabella could never confiscate. “How can anyone call Ferdinand wise when he is impoverishing his kingdom and enriching mine?” the Sultan proclaimed. With them, they brought their professional trades, knowledge of science and medicine, even the printing press. They would also bring the religion of their forefathers.

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    The hull bobbed gently upon the ebbing tide and against the