The history of the Jews in Istanbul and other parts of Turkey is a lot more extensive and colorful than the size of this small museum in the Zulfaris Synagogue might suggest. Even so, the documents and photos here, most of them donated by local Jewish families, provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Turkish Jews, who have been traced to Anatolia as early as the 4th century BC. Their numbers became sizeable in the Middle Ages as Jews were expelled from parts of Europe. In 1492, the Spanish Inquisition drove Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal, and Sultan Bayazid II welcomed the refugees in the Ottoman Empire. Many settled in Istanbul, and a large Jewish population thrived in the city for centuries. Today, 16 active synagogues, one of which dates from the Byzantine period, serve a Jewish community of 25,000, and some older Turkish Jews still speak a dialect of medieval Spanish called Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish. In the Neve Shalom Synagogue, on Büyük Hendek Sokak near the Galata Tower, 22 Sabbath worshipers were shot by Arabic-speaking gunmen in September 1986.