Israel Abrahams, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 19… (1911)
“ NASI, JOSEPH (16th century) , Jewish statesman and financier, was born in Portugal of a Jewish (Marano) family. Emigrating from his native land, he founded a banking house in Antwerp. Despite his financial and social prosperity there, he felt it irksome to be compelled to wear the guise of Catholicism, and determined to settle in a Mahommedan land. After two troubled years in Venice, Nasi betook himself to Constantinople. ”
