Exposure to Semitic influences continued to a limited extent during the 268-year rule of the Knights of St. John over Malta, due in part to trade between the Knights and North Africa, but primarily due to the large numbers of slaves present in Malta during the 17th and 18th centuries: upwards of 2,000 at any given time (or about 5 per cent of the population of Malta), of whom 40–45 per cent were Moors, and the remainder Turks, Africans and Jews. There were so many Jewish slaves in Malta during this time that Malta was frequently mentioned for its large enslaved Jewish population in Jewish literature of the period.