Jewish Immigrants to Jerusalem: Instructions, Advice, Warnings From the Ottoman Period
The Jews themselves are the best witnesses to their status in the city, and the following piece of advice delivered to prospective immigrants by Abraham Kalisker in the last decade of the eighteenth century contains a gentle warning that was probably true for the entire Ottoman period:

Many, many changes and events, experiences and fates befall every single man who comes to this land, until he adjusts to it, has joy in its stones, and loves its dust, until the ruins of the Land of Israel are dearer to him than a palace abroad, and dry bread in that place dearer than all delicacies elsewhere. But this does not happen in one day nor in two, not in a month and not in a year. Many a year passes before his initiation is over, his initiation into the true life. (Wilhelm 1946: 13)

The advice, as general as it was, was well worth heeding, doubtless, and it could be supplemented by far more specific instructions as the stream of Jewish immigrants and visitors to Eretz Israel grew deeper and broader. The following highly practical suggestions, for example, come from a work called "Ways to Sion," written by Moses ben Israel Poryat of Prague in 1650:

The caravan [from Constantinople to Jerusalem] usually remains stationary by day and travels during the night because of the great heat. The only bedding to take along is that which is to be used on the way since feathers can be obtained cheaply at Jerusalem from the Germany community. You can never bring along a sufficient quantity of sheets, shirts, veils, tablecloths, handkerchiefs, and all other kinds of linen, for in Jerusalem such things are expensive and not very good. Each person should also take along a pair of good shoes as well as woolen winter stockings, for such clothing is not very good in Jerusalem. Apart from this, winter is cold in Jerusalem, even though it does not freeze. Men's clothing should not be brought along in quantity since they are not expensive here.

…The baths, thank God, are very good and healthful. Do not take much silver and gold along, even if you are rich, for that only attracts attention. But it is good to bring iron padlocks in order to lock up your rooms and boxes.
In Ofen [the departure point on the Danube] let each man buy something to wrap around his head after the fashion of the Turks, and if the cloth is quite white you should sew a few colored threads in it, but none of green. It is very dangerous to wear anything of green. Sometimes the borders or a payer shawl are also green and this must be changed in advance. Green, the color of the Prophet, is forbidden to Jews in the whole of Turkey and Jerusalem. (Wilhelm 1946: 68-9)

Poryat even supplies guidance on reading matter for the immigrant and so provides a profile sketch of the religious culture of the seventeenth century Eastern European Jew en route to the Holy City and, by indirection, of Jerusalem itself:

Books are not expensive in Jerusalem, so you should not burden yourself with them on account of the expense of transportation. Let each person take with him only a thick prayer book, a Pentateuch with commentaries, a Penitential Prayer Book, the Mishna, Rabbi Mordechai Jaffe's "Lavush" ["The Garment," a compendium of Jewish law and religion; Rabbi Jaffe d. 1612 in Posen], a "Shomrim le-Boker" ["Watch till the Morning," dawn service prayers], a Festival Prayer Book according to the Prague usage, a midrash, "En Yaakov" ["The Spring of Jacob," a collection of non-legal material from the Talmud composed in the fifteenth to the sixteenth century], the "Shulhan Aruk" [of Joseph Caro, d 1575 in Safed] and the "Yalkut" [a compendium off midrashic material put together by Simeon Kara in the thirteenth century]. The womenfolk take with them a "Teutsch Humash" [a Judeo-German translation of the Pentateuch], the Festival Book and "Tehinnah" [a book of vernacular devotions], and other Teutsch books. The prayer books should be small, for there is no lectern in the synagogues and the books must be held in the hand… (Wilhelm 1946: 69)

And once in Jerusalem:

For a large living room an annual rent of eight lion thalers is paid; for a small, five or six. Those who dwell in the synagogue court, where the Loeb Synagogue and the two Houses of Study are, live cramped and often lack for water. But on the other hand they can go to the synagogue very early in the morning every day. For the synagogue is locked in the evening as soon as the Evening Prayer is over, and not opened until the break of day. To go through the streets at night is dangerous. Anyone who does not dwell in the Synagogue Court has ample room and also more water at home. The water is good and healthful. He who so desires can drink it with liquorice at twenty kreuzer the rotl. There are some who also drink it with lemonade. The water is only rainwater and not well water. Every house has a large, very well whitewashed cistern under the ground, and up above there is a little hole where the water runs and is drawn up. In years when there is little water it must be bought from the Turks, who bring it into the house in leather sacks. (Wilhelm 1946: 70-71)

From F.E. Peters, Jerusalem. p525-7