Bekhor Isaac David Carmona

Bekhor Isaac David Carmona was an Ottoman financier who was a well educated person as he bore the title Celebi. His family was of Spanish origin and appears to have come from the Andalusian city of Carmona.

As a young man he dealt in alum, and with two other Jews, Ezekiel Gabbai and Isaiah Ajiman, he was the paymaster of the Janissary regiments, which he even accompanied on campaigns. Later, Carmona rose to a position of court banker and chief tax collector. He built an imposing mansion on the Bosporus where he maintained a yeshivah, providing the students with all their personal needs and supplying them with books.

In 1826 an Armenian rival accused him of conspiring with the Janissaries, and of defrauding the government treasury. On a Sabbath evening Carmona was arrested by the sultan’s guards and executed on the spot, and his property was confiscated.