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THE JEWS OF AFRICA
THE JEWS OF AFRICA
Especially in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries
BY
SIDNEY MENDELSSOHN,
F.Z.S., F.R.C.I., ETC.
Author of
Mendelssohn's South African Bibliography, The Jews of Asia,
Jewish Pioneers of South Africa, etc.
With a Portrait of the Author ^
LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER
& CO., LTD. NEW YORK : E. P. DUTTON & CO.
1920
MEMOIR OF AUTHOR
SIDNEY MENDELSSOHN died in London after
an illness of some months' duration on Septem-
ber 26th, 19 17. He had retired from business,
that of a diamond merchant in South Africa,
about twelve years earlier, and had come to England,
there to devote his leisure to reading, to pubHc work,
and above all to the collection of his magnificent library
of works on South Africa and the compilation of his
priceless bibliography based on that collection.
Sidney Mendelssohn was born at Bristol, the son
of the minister of the not very numerous Jewish
community there. The community being small the
means of the minister were not large. However, the
care of Jewish parents for the education of their
children is proverbial, and this devotion to education
which is so general among Jews is, not surprisingly,
even more strongly developed among the class to which
the parents of the subject of this memoir belonged.
Young Mendelssohn therefore had the best education
that it was within the means of his parents to give him,
and in this connection it must be remembered that his
father was a scholar and was therefore able to supple-
ment the instruction which the boy received at school.
However, in view of his financial resources he was
unable to keep the boy at school as long as he would
have wished or to send him to a university, and in
those days scholarships tenable at a university for
which boys such as Mendelssohn were eligible were very
Memoir of Author
few and far between, and consequently the boy, like
so many of his class and of his day, had to go out early
into the world, there to make a way for himself.
When he was still little more than a boy his father
went to South Africa, leaving his wife, two daughters,
and two younger sons to the care of the subject of this
memoir. Sidney Mendelssohn thereupon undertook as
much of the work of his father as he could perform.
He used to spend hours when other boys of his age were
asleep or engaged in recreation in preparing the
subjects he had to teach to his pupils on the following
day. In due course the boy and the other members of
the family followed the father to South Africa. Kim-
berley was then the El Dorado of British Jewry and it
was to Kimberley that young Mendelssohn betook
himself. In South Africa, as has already been in-
dicated, he secured for himself a successful career
which enabled him to return to England in early
middle age with a moderate fortune. In illustration
of his life in South Africa we may mention that
Sidney-on-Vaal was so named in his honour, and that
the public library of the town is a standing monument
of his munificence and interest in literature.
Careers such as those of Sidney Mendelssohn are on
the whole uneventful so far as the interest of the
general public is concerned, and the present case is not
exceptional. His literary activities after his return to
England are practically the only ones that are of general
interest. Mention ought, however, also to be made of
the zealous work he performed on behalf of the Liberal
Jewish movement and of Anglo- Jewish historical
research. An ardent Jew, Mendelssohn, immediately
upon taking up his residence in London, became a
warm supporter of the former movement, then in its
first stages in England, and was for some years prior
to his death treasurer of the Liberal Synagogue. He
was also during the last years of his life an active
vi
Memoir of Author
member of the Council of the Jewish Historical Society
of England, to whose Transactions he contributed a
valuable sketch of the history of the Jews in South
Africa. Before he left that part of the world he was
prominent in masonic circles. Easily first among his
literary works is his monumental Bibliography of
South .African Literat:.re, a work which is as complete
as any human work can be. Mr. Ian D. Colvin, who
wrote an introduction to this work, which, without any
fear of exaggeration, may be termed great, said of it
after its author's death, " The Mendelssohn Biblio-
graphy describes in detail practically every book,
pamphlet, and paper that in any way concerns South
Africa from the time of Vasco da Gama downwards.
And it is so arranged, classified, and indexed as to
enable the student to find what has been written upon
any South African place or problem. It is a guide to
the student of South Africa ; it is the foundation of a
South African culture ". This praise is high but not
higher than the work deserves.
The Bibliography was based on a collection of
books, which is itself the largest collection of South
Africana in existence and is now, in accordance with the
terms of the collector's will, the property of the Union
of South Africa. Mr. Colvin, writing on the same
occasion, said, " As a collector he was omnivorous. He
was in touch with every old bookshop of note in
Europe ; and went through their catalogues with the
eye of a hawk. No doubt his collection contains much
that is worthless upon any computation but that of the
student who says he wants to read everything on the
subject — and there are such students. South Africa
will one day have a literature of its own, and a body of
scholarship concentrated upon its history, its problems,
its humanity, its interests and what we might call its
spirit or soul. That body of investigation and ex-
pression, that South African scholarship will find the
vii
Memoir of Author
past of the country, as far as it is known, all charted
and mapped out in Mendelssohn's Bibliography ".
Sidney Mendelssohn's other writings include Judaic
or Semitic Legends and Customs amongst the South
African Natives, which appeared originally in the
Journal of the African Society and Jewish Pioneers of
South Africa in the Transactions of the Jewish Historical
Society of England. When the subject of this memoir
died the manuscript on which the present work and its
companion volume^ are based was far advanced towards
completion. His widow, aware of the interest her
husband had shown in the work, of the devotion with
which he had engaged in it, and how great was his
natural desire that the results of his years of research
should be made public, determined that the work
should be completed and published. This task was
entrusted to the present writer, who in fulfilling it has
considered it his duty to preserve intact the scheme
that the author had adopted and to publish with as
few changes as possible those portions of the work
which the author had apparently considered ready for
the press. In these chapters obvious slips and errors
only have been corrected. Otherwise the work is
untouched. But in a few instances the Editor has
added footnotes of his own. These are indicated by
square brackets. Two fragments, apparently intended
to form part of the Preface, were found among the
Author's papers, and it has been thought well to quote
them in full as indicating the scope and intention of
the work.
" It is not my intention to attempt an account of
the Jews in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
What I propose to lay before my readers is an
account of the Jewish people at this period, as
mirrored in the works of English writers who describe
1 The Jews of Asia {Kegan Paul ,
viii
Memoir of Author
the life of Jews not only in England but in other
parts of the world in which they have travelled ".
" My work must be considered more a mosaic than
an individual Hterary effort. I have tried to select
from the works of many historians such pieces of
information as taken together form a connected,
coherent, and — to a certain extent — correct record of
what has really occurred ".
Sidney Mendelssohn was not a scholar in the tech-
nical sense, but he had in him an admiration, a passion,
for scholarship. The present work, therefore, is neither
learned nor scholarly. It contains little that is
original. But it furnishes a record of the Author's very
wide reading and of the interest and care that he
devoted to that reading. The learned critic may find
many opportunities in the following pages for airing
his superior knowledge, but no one can deny that the
compiler of the present work has collected between
two covers very much interesting and useful matter
relating to the history of the Jews in Africa
which would otherwise have remained hidden. If
Mendelssohn has not written a history of the Jewish
people in this continent, he has provided in an easily
accessible form much material that will prove in-
valuable to the historian who will one day or other take
up the task.
A. M. H.
IX
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
IN spite of the fact that even since the final destruc-
tion of the Jewish kingdom by the Romans the
aims, ideas and, in some instances, even the
ideals of the Jews in the various countries in which
they have settled have been often divergent and at times
bitterly opposed, the many histories of them which
have appeared since the time of Josephus have almost
invariably represented them as one people as well as of
one race and one religion.
The present publication is the first, I believe, that has
been attempted on the plan which I have adopted, that
is, an endeavour to portray the separate and progressive
history of the Jews in the different countries in which
they have made their homes, since their expulsion from
the land with which they had been identified for
something like thirty centuries. In, at all events, the
majority of historical works on the Jews the student
has to follow the particular Jews he w.ishes to study
through all the mazes of their international wanderings,
and finally to dig them out from a lengthy publication,
as a schoolboy extracts a German verb from a seem-
ingly interminable sentence. In these pages I have
endeavoured to compile a narrative of a great part of
what has occurred to the Jews of Africa in the eighteen
and a half centuries which have elapsed since Titus
did his best to erase the Jews as a political race from
the face of the earth. I do not claim to have given
accounts of every country or former state in which Jews
may have resided to a greater or less extent, within the
Author's Introduction
limits of the period and continent laid down, but I
have, I believe, dealt with all centres of importance in
which they have been domiciled in any appreciable
numbers in the continent in question. Much of the
information contained in this volume is probably
unknown to the average educated Jew, to say nothing
of the average Gentile. Probably not one Jew in fifty
thousand ever heard of the Jewish kings of Abyssinia or
the Yemen or of many of the other romantic and per-
haps somewhat legendary heroes whom Israel has
mustered since the beginning of the Christian era. The
ghettoes, ancient and modern, know little of the
Gideons of Semen, of Dhu Nuwas of the Yemen, or of
Bar Cochba of Palestine. Few of them — at all events
of late years — have heard of Sabbathai Zevi, of David
Alroy, or of the other great Jews who did their best in
the early centuries and in far distant climes to help
their brethren.
This work, as I present it, must be regarded as a
basis for future augmentation and elaboration by other
and abler hands. Scholars possessing deeper know-
ledge, students trained to keener research, linguists
with advantages that I do not possess, and historians
with instinctive powers of selection, could produce on
these lines a history of the Jews which might have
weighty powers of benefit towards the solution of what
is known as " the Jewish Question ".
S. M.
XI
CONTENTS
PAGE
Memoir of Author ----- v
Author's Introduction - - - - - xi
CHAPTER I
Introductory Sketch ----- i
CHAPTER II
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
The Advent of the Jews — Maqueda, Queen of Sheba — The
First MeneUk — The Gideons and Judiths of Samen —
The Conquest of Abyssinia by Judith — The Fall of the
Kingdom of Samen - - - - - 4
CHAPTER III
Abyssinia and Ethiopia {continued)
The Falashas on the Sea Coast — ^The Withdrawal to the
Interior — The Pottery Industry — The Smiths and the
Weavers — The Modern Falashas — Stern's Experiences - 21
CHAPTER IV
Egypt
The Earliest Jewish Inhabitants — The Exodus — The
Ptolemies — Jewish Government Officials — The Cairo
Purim — Sabbathai Zevi — Raphael Joseph, the Tshlebi —
A " Blood Accusation " - - - - - 33
CHAPTER V
Egypt (continued)
The Alexandrites and the Cairenes— The Arab Domination of
Egypt — ^The Nagids of Egypt — The Zaraf Bashis —
Thevenot, Ogilby and Vansleb — Le Bruyn and His
Illustrations — Modern Jewry in Egypt - - - 42
CHAPTER VI
Tripoli •»
The Antiquity of the Jewish Settlements — The Jews of
Cyrenia — Djebel Nefoussi — The Jewish Troglodytes —
The Spanish Occupations — The Jews of Tripoli — Rabbi
Simeon Ben Labi — Later Events - - - 56
CHAPTER VII
Tripoli (continued)
Djado and its Jewish Inhabitants — The Exodus to Tripoli —
Jewish Customs of Djebel Nefoussi — Curious Tripolitan
Jewish Superstitions — Jewish Executioners — The Travels
of the Beecheys — Jewish Costumes in Tripoli — A Stern
Mosaic Punishment - - - - - 64
xii
Contents
CHAPTER VIII
Tunisia
The Jews of Carthage — The Early Spanish Refugees — The
Foundation of Kairwan — The Arab Domination — The
Spanish Occupation — Joseph Ha-Cohen's Account — The
Spaniards Expelled — The Deys and the Beys — French
Influence and its Effects — The Jews under the French
Regency - - - - - - So
CHAPTER IX
Tunisia (continued)
The Jewish Necropolis at Carthage — ^The Ordinances of
Omar — Jerba and Kairwan — Maimonides — A Jewish
Corsair — The Jews under the Turks — Mordecai M. Noah
— Benjamin II on Tunisian Attire — Wingfield's Remarks
— Tunis in the Twentieth Century - - - 90
CHAPTER X
Algeria
The Earliest Arrivals — The Jews under the Arabs — Simon
Ben Smia — The Arrival of the Spanish Jews — The Rise
of Algiers — Misfortunes in Tlemcen — Oran — The " Gor-
, neyim " — The French Occupation — Jewish Civil and
Religious Liberty . _ _ _ . 105
CHAPTER XI
Algeria (continued)
The Almohade Persecutions — The Miraculous Voyage of
Simon Ben Smia — Isaac Ben Sheshet — Algerian Jews
under the Turks — D'Aranda's Slavery — The Manumission
of Bellinck — Jewish Funerals — Benjamin II in Algeria
— Morell and Wingfield — The Twentieth Century - ii8
CHAPTER XII
Morocco
The Jews and the Berbers — The Jewish-Berber Queen — The
Foundation of Fez — Spanish and Portuguese Refugees —
Samuel Palachwe — Jewish Diplomatists — Muley Arxid's
Treachery — The Toledanos — Memaran and Ben Hattar
— Ben Hattar and the British Treaty — The Infamous
Muley Yazed — The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 142
CHAPTER XIII
Morocco (continued)
An Early Moroccan Synagogue — Leo Africanus — Jewish
Soldiers in Morocco — The Spanish and Portuguese Re-
fugees— Jewish Artizans and Craftsmen — The Palachwes
— Frejus and Pariente — Mouette's Account — Addison
and Ockley — Moses Edrehi and the Jews of the Atlas
Range — Davidson's Fatal Journey — Walter B. Harris
and Modern Morocco - - - - -161
List of Works Consulted - - - - -191
Index .--._,
197
xm
THE JEWS OF AFRICA
Especially in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH
THE History of the Jews of Africa, more
especially during the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, is necessarily hmited to
the northern portion of the continent. There may
possibly have been, from time to time, small colonies
or groups of traders on the eastern coast, and stray
travellers, merchants, or miners in Monomotapa, and
elsewhere before or after the destruction of the Jewish
state, but at the period to which this account is mainly
confined, no other important settlements existed than
those recorded, with the one exception of that of the
Marranos in the Canary Islands,^ which, dating from
the first quarter of the seventeenth century, appears
to have dwindled and disappeared about the time of
the readmission of the Jews to England, by which
1 See Crypto Jews in the Canaries, by Lucien Wolf. London.
Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society, 19 15.
The Jews of Africa
event its fortunes were closely affected. The countries
dealt with in this work are, — in geographical progression
from East to West, — Abyssinia (including Ethiopia),
Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco.
Egypt may be regarded as the cradle of the Jewish
race, and in all probability it has never been without
a Hebrew or Jewish population since the days when
Joseph and his brethren laid the foundations of the
nation. In all the other countries of Northern Africa,
the Jewish population has resulted from a later im-
migration, and in some cases, from successive waves of
immigration. Much of the history of this colonisation
has been lost in the lapse of time, and even in periods
more nearly approximating to the Middle Ages, the
records must be considered obscure, legendary, or
doubtful when examined from the more rigid his-
torical standpoint. In the course of the following
narrative it has often been necessary to thread together
data supplied by travellers, historians, and writers,
whose own works have been merely compilations from
the works of others, and the results achieved may be
reasonably questioned by critics to whom documentary
evidence in matters of history is almost a sine qua non.
The story of the Jews of Samen as related in the
Abyssinian section of this book is based on a number of
sources, each of which has been regarded as fairly
authoritative (although not necessarily exact), taken by
2
Introductory Sketch
itself. Nevertheless, the record in its cumulative
character, presenting a narrative which is not generally
known, will no doubt be questioned with regard to
historical accuracy.
The miraculous account of Ben Smia's voyage to
Algiers is a remarkable example of the intertwining of
the legendary with the historical, part of the narrative
being founded on documentary evidence beUeved to
be still in existence.
Many of the countries of Northern Africa proved a
haven of refuge to the harassed Jews of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. The barbarities of Torque-
mada, the bitter results of the hatred of Luther,
together with the savage greed of less distinguished
oppressors who had not even the religious excuses of
their bigoted coevals, drove the wandering Israelites
nearer and nearer to the land of their origin. The
Crescent granted them a qualified protection, a shelter
denied them by the adherents of the Cross, — Catholics
and Protestants alike. That this protection was
granted them when they most needed it should never
be forgotten by their modern co-religionists ; Jews
had few friends in those days ; it would be ill for them
to forget those who did them service in the day of their
bitter need.
CHAPTER II
ABYSSINIA|AND^ ETHIOPIA
The Advent of the Jews — Maqueda, Queen of Sheba — The
j^First MeneUk — The Gideons and Judiths of Samen — The
Conquest of Abyssinia by Judith — The Fall of the Kingdom
of Samen.
NO part of the long and chequered career of
the Jewish nation is more shrouded in
mystery, and more romantic in legend,
than the story of the advent and establishment of the
Israelites in the mystic land known in mediaeval times
as the territory of Prester John. It is a difficult task
to compile from legend, tradition, and such scanty
documents as exist the conjectured history of the
Falashas, those dark-visaged Hebrews, whose an-
cestors were distributed throughout the great and
distant regions which were nominally or actually under
the authority of the rulers of Abyssinia and Ethiopia.
As far, however, as can be surmised from such sources
as are available, an independent Jewish Kingdom long
existed within the confines of what was known as the
Ethiopian Empire. Its territory — which varied in
extent from time to time — was considerably greater
4
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
than that embraced by the ancient kingdoms of Judah
and Israel, and its existence, in all probability, was of
a longer duration. The great mystery, which shrouded
the greater part of Africa down to times still but little
distant, would account for the fact that so little was
known of this Jewish Kingdom, if, indeed, a kingdom
actually existed, and, as a matter of fact, very little
that is absolutely authentic, is known about it to-day
even by those few people who have made a very close
study of the history of the ancient Empire of Ethiopia
and of the Kingdom of Abyssinia.
A well-known authority states,^ that " there were
always Jews in Ethiopia from the beginning ", and
this statement may be conjecturally justified by the
proximity of Abyssinia and Ethiopia and their de-
pendencies to the ancient homes of the Israehtes in
Egypt and Palestine. There are, however, several
theories respecting the origin of the Jews in Abyssinia
and Ethiopia, and Falashas and Abyssinians alike
have always beheved, and still beheve, in the Judaic
origin of their individual races, while many authorities
are of opinion that three separate migrations of Jews
into Ethiopia actually took place. The three theories
chronologically arranged are as follows : —
(i) That Menelik, son of King Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba, who had received his education in
1 Tellez, The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia.
5
The Jews of Africa
Palestine, went back to Abyssinia on the establish-
ment of the Ethiopic Empire by his mother, bringing
with him a large number of Jews, at a day somewhat
anterior to that on which he ascended the Abyssinian
throne (986 B.C.).
(2) That Sargon, or Sennacherib, the successor of
Shalmaneser III, King of Assyria, having continued
the war commenced by his predecessor, conquered
the Kingdom of Israel, and brought the captive Jews
and their King Hosea to his coimtry (circa 722 B.C.),
and from thence they eventually found their way
into Abyssinia and Ethiopia.^
(3) That after the destruction of Jerusalem by
Vespasian in 70 a.d., large numbers of Jews fled or
drifted into Ethiopia, Abyssinia, and the neighbour-
ing territories.
Some writers state that the descendants of the earHer
emigrants who were supposed to have accompanied
MeneHk, treated the later arrivals as strangers, and
that the latter practised rites and observed festivals
unknown to the earHer colonists, who, for example,
had never heard of the minor festivals of Hanucah or
Purim, or of the Talmuds. If these statements are
accepted they provide some justification for the
acceptance of the first theory with reference to their
1 See Sayce, The Ancient Empires of the East, p. 128. Shalmaneser
III died during the siege of Samaria, 722 B.C.
6
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
origin. How far the account of the estabhshment of
the Empire of Ethiopia by the Queen of Sheba may be
considered as historical, it is probably useless to discuss
to-day. The Bible chronicles her visit to King
Solomon and all Abyssinian and Falashan traditions
agree as to its authenticity and affirm that Menelik,
her son (and son of King Solomon), succeeded her on
the throne, while a list has been preserved of the
Kings of " the Race of Solomon, descended from the
Queen of Saba ".^
Indeed, it has been maintained that it is quite
possible that the Queen of Sheba and her people
professed the Jewish Religion even before the reign of
King Solomon, although Abyssinian annals state that
the Queen was formerly a pagan, but was converted to
Judaism in Jerusalem. She appears to have been a
woman of learning, resource, and energy, and after
she had estabUshed the Empire of Ethiopia, she settled
the succession " in the family of Solomon ", enacting
that after her " no woman should be capable of wearing
the crown or being queen, but that it should descend
to the heir male, however distant ". In all pro-
babihty, most of her own people, the Sabeans, as well
as a large number of the inhabitants of Abyssinia
adopted the tenets of Judaism, probably soon after her
visit to King Solomon at Jerusalem, an event which
1 See Note I, p. 30.
7
The Jews of Africa
must have taken place somewhere about one thousand
years before the beginning of the Christian era.^
The Queen of Sheba ^ died, apparently, about the
year 986 B.C., and Menelik, her son, succeeded her in
due course. According to Abyssinian tradition, the
Queen had sent her son to the Jewish King in order
that his education should be completed, and " Solomon
did not neglect his charge ". It was believed that
Menelik was duly " anointed and crowned king of
Ethiopia, in the temple of Jerusalem, and at his
inauguration took the name of David ". He returned
to Azab, or Sheba, bringing with him a colony of Jews,
among whom were doctors of law or Judges, and
priests. " All Abyssinia was thereupon converted,
and the government of the church and state modelled
according to what was then in use at Jerusalem ".^
Menelik, or David I, reigned four years, but although
a list of his successors has been compiled, and the dates
of their accessions computed, there are so many dis-
crepancies in the Abyssinian annals that it is useless to
place any rehance on their historical value. There
appears, however, to be no absolute reason to doubt
the tradition that the general religion of the coimtry
1 Theodore Bent, in The Sacred City of the Ethiopians, expresses
his disbelief in the existence of Judaism in Abyssinia, until centuries
after the birth of Christ. * Sheba is also " written Saba, Azab,
or Azaba, all signifying South." See Bruce's Travels, vol. ii, p. 395.
» Ibid.
8
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
continued to be that of Judaism, till the joint reign of
the Kings Abreha and Atzbeha, when a large proportion
of the inhabitants were converted to Christianity under
the missionary influence and efforts of Frumentius,
first Bishop of Abyssinia (circa 330 a.d.). It is alleged,
however, that a considerable portion of the population
adhered to the older creed and resented the apostasy
of those who had joined the ranks of the Christians.
The Jewish minority is represented to have been
determined, powerful and enthusiastic for their faith,
and there can be Uttle doubt that the contest between
the adherents of the two religions was long and bitter.
The Jews eventually resolved to have a monarch of
their own, choosing Phineas, " one of the Royal line
of Solomon ... a prince of the House of Judah " ^
It has more than once been suggested, that the chosen
leader was no other than Dhu Nuwas, the Jewish King
of Yemen. 2 It must be remembered, however, that
presumably nearly two hundred 3^ears had elapsed
between the estabHshment of Christianity in Abyssinia,
and the defeat of Dhu Nuwas by the armies of Caleb,
the Abyssinian King. It is hardly probable that the
Jews would have waited two centuries before choosing
their king, and although the uncertainties respecting
the dates of these events might make it possible that
1 Bruce's Travels, vol. ii, p. 408. 2 jost. Geschichte der
Israeliten.
The Jews of Africa
the two kings were identical, it seems more feasible to
conjecture that there was an earlier Phineas, whom the
Jews appointed in the days of Abreha and Atzbeha,
while Dhu Nuwas, coming on the scene in the sixth
century, was also known to the Abyssinians under the
name of Phineas. In any case, it seems probable that
Hal^vy's theory, ^ that some of the Falashas are
descended from former subjects of Dhu Nuwas, is
substantially correct, as whether the King escaped or
not, there seems no reason to doubt that part of his
army fled to the mountainous regions of Samen and
Dembea after their defeat by the Abyssinian King
Caleb.
If the legend of the Falashas that Phineas was their
first King, be accepted, and it is further presumed that
he took possession of his territories soon after the
estabhshment of Christianity in Abyssinia, then the
Kingdom which he is supposed to have founded may
be computed to have had an existence of something
like 1,300 years. His accession to power was probably
characterized by the establishment of his state as a
kind of Zion, which attracted his co-religionists
from Abyssinia and other Ethiopic Dominions, from
north and south Yemen, and even more distant
countries, and possibly a large number of Jews dis-
persed throughout the Ethiopian Empire secretly
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. v, p. 329.
10
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
recognized the authority of the Jewish Kings who ruled
over the three provinces of Samen, Dembea, and We-
gara, while they ostensibly obeyed the ruler of the
district in which they resided. Jost evidently con-
jectures that for a considerable time,^ the Falashas
were in occupation of the whole of the territory of the
three provinces down to, and including, the coast, but
that at a later period, they retired from the maritime
districts towards Dembea and Samen. Very Httle,
however, can be ascertained respecting the history or
the condition of the Jewish Kingdom for many cen-
turies, but it seems probable that as Christianity
gathered strength in the Ethiopian Empire, the Jews
concentrated more and more in the mountainous regions
of Samen and the surrounding territories dominated
by its rugged fortresses. It would appear that,
generally speaking, the kings and queens of the country,
on their accession to the throne, assumed the royal
titles of Gideon, and Judith, respectively, in addition
to their other names. From time to time, this Jewish
kingdom was at war with Abyssinia, but, at all events
after the seventh century, the struggles sprang from
ambitions or political motives and do not seem to
have been precipitated by religious animosities.
In the last quarter of the tenth century, the whole of
1 Geschichte der Israeliten, vol. viii, p. 167.
II
The Jews of Africa
the Ethiopian Empire was stirred by occurrences
which left their impress on the kingdom of Abyssinia
for a period of three or four hundred years. At this
time, the reigning King Gideon of Samen, and his
Queen Judith, had a daughter who also bore the name
of Judith, and was married to the Governor of Bugna,
a province in the neighbourhood of Lasta, both of
which territories had a considerable Jewish population.
Judith,^ the king's daughter, was a woman of great
beauty, with an overpowering weakness for intrigue
and an almost unrestricted ambition. She had im-
mense influence in Samen and the adjoining territories,
and her following was so considerable and so powerful,
that she resolved to attempt the subversion of the
Christian religion in Abyssinia, together with the line
of King Solomon, whose kings were supporters of
the new faith. Circumstances favoured her schemes ;
the Christian King of Abyssinia, Aizor, died suddenly
and unexpectedly, and his son was a mere infant.
Hereupon, Judith determined to endeavour by a bold
and rapid stroke to capture the Abyssinian throne, and
estabhsh her reUgion throughout the territories of
Abyssinia and Ethiopia. ^ By a regulation established
by the Queen of Sheba, and thenceforth perpetually
* Judith, whom Salt calls Gudit, was also known as Esther,
Essat, Assaat, and Saat {i.e., fire) in the Amharic tongue, and, in
addition, as " Tredda Gabez," or " Terdae-Gobaz." ^ Bruce's
Travels, vol. ii, p. 452.
12
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
observed, the heirs to the Abyssinian throne and the
Princes of the Ruling Dynasty were confined to, or
housed on, Dano, an almost inaccessible mountain in
the province of Tigre. Judith gathered together an
adequate force, seized the Rock, and slew all the
princes and nobility there to the number of about four
hundred souls. The infant King, Del Naad, was
rescued by some of the nobles and taken to the King-
dom of Sceiva, or Shoa, which was apparently never
conquered by Judith or her successors. The escape of
the King, however, did not prove any obstacle to
Judith's plans, and she took possession of Tigre and
finally of the whole of the country with the exception
of Shoa, and placed herself on the throne, in defiance of
the Salic law instituted by Maqueda, the Queen of
Sheba of Solomon's time.
Like all historical traditions of the Abyssinians, the
date of these occurrences— if some of them occurred at
all — is the subject of much discrepancy. Jost says
they took place in the seventh century ; Ludolf ^ dates
them about 900 years after Christ ; Salt gives the date
as 925 A.D. ; Bruce says it was in the year 960 ; while
Halevy and other writers throw doubt on the authen-
ticity of the entire story. ^ The royal line founded by
Queen Judith reigned over Abyssinia for three hundred
1 Nouvelle Historie d'Abissinie ou d'Ethiopie. ^ Jewish
Encyclopedia, vol. v, p. 329.
13
The Jews of Africa
years, or according to Ludolf , for still another century.
Being usurpers, their history was not preserved in the
Abyssinian annals, but one of the Kings — Prince
Lalibala — seems to have been a ruler of some im-
portance. Bruce says that he " was a saint ", and
Ludolf avers that he built twenty-four magnificent
Temples. It is supposed, however, that the court and
country had reverted to Christianity before LaHbala's
accession to the throne, and Bruce states that these
edifices were the work of Christian fugitives from
Egypt and Arabia, many of the churches having been
hewn out of the solid rock. According to Abyssinian
authorities the whole period occupied by Judith's
successors " was one scene of murder, violence, and
oppression ", but so little information of historical
value has been preserved, that it is useless to conjecture
what really occurred within these three or four
centuries.
About the year 1255 a.d.. King Icon-Amlac of Shoa,
a descendant of the line of King Solomon, recovered
the Kingdom of Abyssinia, mainly through the assist-
ance and influence of a monk named Abuna Tecla
Haimanout, and under his successors, " the Jewish
Kings of Samen were weakened by successive conquests
and treachery. Their subjects were reduced to a
handful by the zeal of the monks and the allurements
of a superior protection. The remainder were forced
14
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
into the mountains . . . governed by tradition in
matters of faith ; for all their written records have
perished".^ Nevertheless, according to tradition,
Samen and the adjoining provinces were still under the
dommation of princes of Jewish Race, and despite
occasional wars, insurrections, and revolts, no tribute
appears to have been paid by them to the Kings of
Abyssinia, and their independence was maintained for
several centuries. Basnage relates that Oviedeo, whom
Pope Julius III made Patriarch of Ethiopia, with
hopes to re-unite this Kingdom to his See, wrote (a.d.
^557) " that the Jews possess'd great inaccessible
Mountains ; that they had dispossess'd the Christian of
many lands which they were Masters of, and that the
Kings of Ethiopia could not subdue them, because
they have but small forces, and it is very difficult to
penetrate into the Fastnesses of their Rocks ". Indeed,
the old Chronicler was greatly concerned at the
continued existence of the Jewish State. The prophecy
of the Patriarch Jacob would seem to have troubled
this somewhat biased historian. When he read in the
Book of Genesis that " the sceptre shall not depart
from Judah, or a lawgiver from between his feet until
Shiloh come ", his mind appears to have dwelt on the
^s yet unconquered Jewish Kings of Samen with
considerable uneasiness. He evidently considered he
1 Bruce's Travels, vol. ii, p. 492.
15
The Jews of Africa
ought to reassure his readers, and comments as
follows : —
" Such as fear lest this little Corner of a Kingdom or
rather this retreat into Rocks or Mountains may
weaken our interpretation of Jacob's prophecy, and
furnish the Jewish Doctors with a Pretence, that the
Sceptre of Judah is not broken, are too weak and
timerous. . . . For this is not the Kingdom of Judah
which Jacob promised to his Posterity, and it would be
ridiculous to say, that some Jews conceal' d in in-
accessible mountains keep up that Succession of
Princes and Lawgivers that were to make the Nation
flourish in the Holy Land ".^
But whatever Basnage may have thought or have
written at the end of the seventeenth century, the
position was differently regarded a century earlier.
Sanuto, the famous geographer of that period, whose
African Atlas and Geography was pubHshed in 1588,
shows a Jewish State distinctly marked as " Judaeorum
Terra ", in Tabula X of his African Maps, the country
extending some distance south of the Equator, and
surrounded by mountains, — a very considerable ter-
ritory. John Pory, the English Translator of The
History and Description of Africa, by Leo Africanus,
writing at the commencement of the seventeenth
century, contributed a chapter on " The Religions of
^ History of the Jews.
16
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
Africa ", in which he remarks : "At this day also the
Abassins affirme, that upon Nilus towards the West
there inhabiteth a most populous nation of the Jewish
stock under a mighte K(ing). And^some of our
moderne Cosmographers set downe a province in those
quarters which they call, the Land of the Hebrewes,
placed as it were under the equinoctiall, in certaine
unknowne mountaines, between the confines of Abassia,
and Congo. And likewise on the north part of the
Kingdom of Goiame, and the southerly quarter of the
Kingdome of Gorhan there are certaine mountaines,
peopled with Jewes, who there maintaine themselves
free, and absolute, through the inaccessible situations
of the same ".^ Pory would thus appear to have been
of the opinion that there was a Jewish state in the
region indicated by Sanuto, as well as other territories
under Jewish rule in the vicinity of the Abyssinian
Kingdom. Sanuto' s references to the " terra de'
Giudei " are solely of a geographical character, and the
position in which he locates the " Country of the
Jews " on the " African Tabula X " is south-west, and
near the Equator. He makes it adjoin the ancient
Kingdom of Benin, which is placed to the west of the
Jewish territory on his map.^
Some thirty years before Sanuto's map was pub-
^ A Geographical History of Africa. Leo Africanus : Pory's
Translation. ^ Geografia di M. Livio Sanuto. Venice, 1588.
17
The Jews of Africa
lished, Menas, King of Abyssinia, otherwise known as
Adamis Sequed, attacked Radaet (or Rade'et), the
Falasha King of Samen, but the Abyssinian Monarch
was unsuccessful and had to retire. The war was
continued by his successor Melee Segued, or Sartsa
Denghel, who defeated the Moors and the Falashas,
the latter surrendering their King Radaet, who was
banished by the Abyssinian monarch. However, the
Jewish Kingdom was still neither occupied nor con-
quered, and another King, named Caliph, being
appointed, the war continued, until finally Melee
Segued succeeded in defeating the Falasha ruler.
The Jews were, however, roused to further effort by
the destruction of their cattle and crops, and they
mustered in considerable numbers under a new king,
named Geshen, but were again defeated on the Plain
of Wegara, on the 19th of January, 1594, when four
thousand Jewish warriors, including their brave
general and leader, Geshen, were slain. After this.
Melee Segued marched through the adjacent terri-
tories where, although there were many Jewish strong-
holds, no further resistance was encountered. Later,
however, yet another Gideon, a brother of the dead
warrior Geshen, was raised to the throne, as King of the
Falashas.
In the year 1615, an adventurer named Amdo
claimed the throne of Abyssinia, held at that time by
18
Abyssinia and Ethiopia
Susneus or Soscinios. Amdo resided in, or near,
Samen, and was taken prisoner by Gideon, but later,
this King helped him in his designs, and assisted him to
raise an army. Susneus thereupon took the field against
the Jewish chief, stormed his principal fortresses, and
finally defeated Gideon's army, killing his principal
general. In these circumstances, Gideon, fearing " the
extirpation of his whole nation ", surrendered the
rebel Amdo, and made peace with Susneus. In the
year 1617, without assigning any reason for the
treacherous act, Susneus sent armed forces to massacre
all the Jews wherever they could be found, and in this
general holocaust, Gideon the King perished, and with
him the Jewish Kingdom of Samen, which is supposed
to have existed for thirteen hundred years. This
Gideon " was a man of great reputation, not only
among his subjects, but throughout all Abyssinia,
reputed also immensely rich ". His treasures, sup-
posed to be concealed in the mountains, were the
objects of search by the Abyssinians as late as the
period at which Bruce wrote. ^
The Fall of the Jewish Kingdom was followed by the
ostensible apostasy of the Falashas in Samen and
Dembea, who had to choose between the renunciation
of their religion, and death. Susneus "unwisely
imagined that he had extinguished, by one blow, the
1 See Bruce's Travels, vol. iii, p. 308.
19 C
The Jews of Africa
religion which was that of his country long before
Christianity, by the unwarrantable butchery of a
number of people whom he had surprised Hving in
security under the assurance of peace ", but he,
nevertheless, failed in his attempt to destroy the Jewish
People, as the survivors merely dispersed to adjoining
territories, and in all probability, Hved as secret Jews
after accepting the rite of baptism which they had been
forced to endure. Nevertheless, with this treacherous
massacre of the Falashas, the life of the Jewish King-
dom terminated, and no adequate foundation can be
found for the conjecture that the Falashas had a separate
political existence until the end of the eighteenth
century. Minor chiefs and leaders of the remnant of
the Jewish race may have been permitted, and perhaps
even encouraged, under the newly-appointed Governors
of Samen, but the people were vassals, and paid tribute,
and no Gideons or Judiths inspired the enthusiasm of
the broken and shattered nation of Falashas. In
modem times the race still exists, scattered over the
provinces of Abyssinia, and much interest has been
taken in its survival by modern travellers and writers.
20
CHAPTER III
Abyssinia and Ethiopia {continued)
The Falashas on the Sea Coast — The Withdrawal to the
Interior — ^The Pottery Industry — ^The Smiths and the
Weavers — The Modem Falashas — Stem's Experiences.
IF Jost's theory is correct, and the Falashas, at
one period, occupied some of the territory on the
eastern coast of the Red Sea, it seems very
extraordinary that more knowledge of them than
exists did not come to light in the course of so many
centuries, during which travellers were constantly
sailing over that long, narrow, and almost land-locked
piece of water. According to this author, the actual
territory occupied is unknown, and of the language of
the inhabitants we have also no knowledge. The
exodus from the maritime districts must, moreover,
have entirely changed the habits and industries of the
race. While on the coast, they had doubtless engaged
in over-sea commerce with neighbouring countries, a
traffic which may have commenced in the days of
Solomon, King of Israel, and Hiram, King of Tyre,
but when they moved inland, one of their principal
occupations was " the manufacture of Tiles, and other
21
The Jews of Africa
coverings for roofs, as well as earthen vessels, and
pottery of all descriptions, in the making of which
they had arrived at considerable excellence ".^ The
existence of this employment in the country of the
Falashas, lends colour to the theory that some of them
were descended from Yemenite fugitives who had been
similarly occupied in their own country. In support
of this it may be mentioned that the clay in both Samen
and Dembea is very suitable for this purpose. As a
matter of fact, Jost does not seem to doubt that
Phineas of Abyssinia, and Dhu Nuwas of Yemen, were
one and the same person, and that when the latter was
defeated, many of his subjects " chose the shorter route
to Ethiopia, where they found brethren, who enjoyed
a certain amount of power, whose language and
customs assimilated with their own, and above all,
with whom they had had commercial intercourse for
many centuries past ".^ Nevertheless, this author
expresses his amazement " that Jewish travellers from
the maritime countries of the Mediterranean never
thought of visiting their independent brothers in
Africa ", and that " even after news of them had
spread, still no Jew had the curiosity to see anything
of them with his own eyes". Only the vaguest
references are made to the Falashas by Jewish writers,
and nothing of any special value can be obtained from
1 Jost. Geschichte der Israeliten, ^ Ibid.
22
Abyssinia and Ethiopia (continued)
these sources. That most extraordinary searcher
after the ten tribes, Moses Edrehi, in his quaint and
garbled Book of Miracles, quotes from another book
which he calls Entry Bena, which speaks of the " Moun-
tains of the Moon ; and upon these mountains there are
multitudes of Jews even more than one milHon, and
they pay taxes to the King of Ethiopia. And the
country they inhabit is called Pretty Joaney " .^
As frequently occurs, we have to turn to the com-
pilers of the records of the Jesuit Missions for informa-
tion respecting the social conditions of the Falashas
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Balthazar Tellez, whose account of Ethiopia was
brought down to the year 1654, maintains that after
the Jews were dispersed by Susneus many of them re-
settled in Dembea, where they occupied themselves in
" weaving, or else by making of Darts, Plows, or other
such like Necessaries, being great Smiths ". He also
speaks of many Jews " free from any Subjection to the
Empire " of Abyssinia, who lived in territories " be-
twixt the Emperor's Dominions and the Cafres dwelling
near the River Nile ". The Old Jesuit father saw
some kind of religious justice in the constant dis-
persions of the Israelites and remarked : " God so
ordering, that they should have no settled Dwelling
on the Earth, who would not receive the King of
^ Historical Account of the Ten Tribes.
23
The Jews of Africa
Heaven ". He asserted that the Jews " have still
Hebrew Bibles ", but maintained that they sang " the
Psalms very scurvily in their Synagogues ".^
It is interesting to note that the English geographer
Ogilby, who closely follows the Dutch author Dapper,
remarks in his folio work on Africa, published in the
year 1670, that the Abyssinians called the kingdom of
Samen "Xionuche ", a name that seems curiously
reminiscent of a Palestinian connexion. He maintains
that it is " a country but little known and less conversed
with ; and under the Dominion of the Abessines ".
Ludolphus does not throw much fresh light on the
state of Samen in the seventeenth century, and much
of his information appears to have been derived from
the work of Balthazar Tellez. He rather criticizes
the Jesuit fathers Piaz, D'Almeyda, and Mendez, the
pioneer Cathohc missionaries in Abyssinia, whose
accounts of their travels and experiences were com-
piled and edited by Tellez. He complains that they
*' never took care to enquire when, or upon what
occasion, the Jews came first into Ethiopia ? . . .
What sacred books they use, whether with points, or
without points ? Whether they have any Traditions
concerning their own, or Nation of the Habessines ?
Which to know, would certainly be most grateful to
many Learned Men ; in regard it seems very probable,
* The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia.
24
Abyssinia and Ethiopia (continued)
that there may be some Ancient Books among them,
since they have liv'd so long and so securely in such
inaccessible holds ".^
Ludolphus further remarks that the Jews obtained
their livelihood by carpentry and weaving. Basnage
adds to these occupations those of the manufacture
of woollen fabrics and iron work. Jost and others
mention their pottery works ; and Bruce mentions the
crops and cattle raised by the Jews at the end of the
sixteenth century, and says that they were " a frugal
and economical people ". But what is especially
noteworthy and significant, is that one hears of neither
traders nor usurers. Here in a country densely
populated by Jews in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and under their own government, they
appear to have confined themselves, when at peace, to
artizan occupations and farming and agricultural
pursuits, thus showing that under their own rulers, and
under suitable conditions, their occupations differed
widely from those in which they engage in other parts
of the world, under other conditions, — pursuits which
have been a source of reproach to them, as undeserved
as it has been unwarranted.
Basnage states that after the defeats under Susneus,
the Jews dispersed all over the Kingdom of Abyssinia,
" in effect, some of 'em are Weavers, and others Smiths.
* A New History of Ethiopia.
25
The Jews of Africa
As the Abyssines hate this trade, they leave it to the
Jews who undertake to furnish them with all warlike
Instruments. They have there their Synagogues, and
Publick Worship, in which they use the Talmudic
Hebrew, tho' they have not receiv'd that collection of
Traditions. Lastly, great numbers follow the Court
of the King of the Abessines. An Arabian who had
travell'd in that country at the end of the last century
(seventeenth) assured Mr Ludolf that sixty thousand
of 'em were at Court. They correspond with the
Christians, and Hve familiarly with 'em in that
Country ".^
Notwithstanding the dispersion of the Falashas,
many of them still Hve together in villages in various
parts of Abyssinia, as well as in the larger towns.
Writing early in the nineteenth century, Gobat, one of
the emissaries of the Church Missionary Society, re-
marks that " the Falashas hve so retired, and are so
separated from the Christians, that the latter know
scarcely anything either of their doctrines or of their
manners. They live chiefly in the neighbourhood of
Gondar and Shelga, and to the north-west of the lake
Tsana. . . . They have, on the whole, the same
superstitions as the Christians : they are only a little
modified after a Jewish fashion. I have never observed
that they took the least interest in the idea of the
* History of the Jews.
26
Abyssinia and Ethiopia (continued)
Messiah. . . . They have a dialect among themselves,
which has no similarity either with the Hebrew or
with the Ethiopic, but all of them, except some females,
speak Amharic. I have seen but one book in the
Falasha dialect written in the Ethiopic character :
They told me that it was a book of prayers. . . . They
are much more laborious than the other Abyssinia ns :
the building of all the houses of Gondar is their work.
... All of them are considered as boudas or sorcerers,
as also are the artificers in iron and many others. The
Falashas, after having spoken with Christians, never
enter their own houses without first washing their
bodies and changing their dress. . . . Their inter-
course with the Mohammedans is a little more free
than with the Christians. They never carry arms
either for attack or defence. They maintain their own
poor, and will not suffer them to beg ".^
A far more detailed and interesting account of the
Falashas is afforded by Henry A. Stem, who was sent
as a missionary to them some thirty years after Gobat
visited the country A Jew by birth, Stern was in a
better position to judge of many characteristics and
customs of the Falashas than other travellers or
missionaries, and despite his conversion to Christianity,
he was more sympathetic towards their conditions,
and more tolerant of their superstitions. He remarks
* A Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia.
27
The Jews of Africa
that after the fall of their last kmg, '' the Falashas
were driven from their rocky homes, and forced to seek
a refuge in the midst of their enemies, the detested
Amharas. The provinces where they at present reside
are Dembea, Quara, Wogera, Tschelga, and Godjam,
where their settlements are strikingly distinguished
from the Christian villages by the red earthen pot on
the apex of their mesquid, or place of worship, which
towers from the centre of the thatched huts by which
it is invariably environed ". The Falashas pride
themselves on the purity of their race, and inter-
marriages with other tribes are strictly forbidden
Very early marriages are discouraged, and polygamy
is not allowed, but their daughters and wives are not
shut up in their houses, and enjoy immunity from all
slavish restraint. The Falashas are faithful to the
law of Moses " as far as their limited knowledge of the
Scriptures extends ". They still offer sacrifices, but
these observances are not carried out in the presence of
strangers. The laws of purification are strictly adhered
to, and " every Falasha settlement has a hut at its
outskirts, and there the unclean and impure must take
refuge during the prescribed number of days ". It is
stated that the Jewish feasts are regularly observed,
'* though with less rigour than by the Jews in other
parts of the world. Passover ... is solemnized by
offering the appointed sacrifice, and by the substitution
28
Abyssinia and Ethiopia (continued)
of unleavened bread. On the Feast ol Pentecost, the
Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the
Feast of Tabernacles, the people bring their offerings to
the mesquids, and also join in appropriate commemora-
tive prayers, but beyond this, and abstinence from
agricultural pursuits, they neither blow the horn, erect
booths, nor practise the other ancient ceremonies of the
Synagogue". The Sabbath is kept quite strictly, the
preparations for it commencing on Fridays at noon.
Services are held on Friday evenings and Saturday
mornings, and many of the prayers are not to be found
in other Jewish rituals. Stern alludes to the freedom
of the race " from many of the burdens, which Phari-
saical pride and arrogance imposed on the super-
stitious credulity of other Jews. Broad phylacteries
and the garments of fringes are utterly unknown
among them ", and they appear to have been unin-
fluenced by Rabbinic teaching, having " removed from
their native land long before the final dispersion of
their race ". It is noteworthy that Stern found them
" exemplary in their morals, cleanly in their habits,
and devout in their belief". It is stated that they
occupy themselves as smiths, potters, and weavers,
and repudiate commerce as incompatible with the
Mosaic Code. "It is quite a disappointment not to
find a merchant among a quarter of a million of people,
the lineal descendants of those who are supposed to
29
The Jews of Africa
have acquired a taste for traffic and riches, on the very
eve of their emancipation from Egyptian servitude ".
During the half a century which has elapsed since
Stern visited the country, many travellers have written
accounts of Abyssinia, and of the Falashas. The most
recent work on the subject is by Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch,
who went to Abyssinia, for the second time, solely to
acquire information respecting his co-reUgionists in
the dominions of the Negus Menelik II. ^
Note
I. Writing at the close of the first half of the nineteenth
century, Walter Chichele Plowden, the British Consul
in Abyssinia, observes that certain Abyssinian " tra-
ditions state that when Solomon commenced his reign
in Judaea, Axum was the seat of a serpent-king, of
whose dimensions and habits many uninteresting fables
are related ; amongst the rest (as usual in similar
stories that I need not recall to the educated reader), a
virgin was daily provided for his expensive appetite.
Saba, a virgin of high birth and pure spirit, by her
prayers and tears, obtained the favour of heaven, and
some celestial warrior in earthly form slew the dragon,
and deUvered the damsel ; on her foot, however, the
saUva of the serpent had fallen, and caused incurable
ulcers and lameness. Having been by universal
1 See his Quer durch Abessinien.
30
Abyssinia and Ethiopia {continued)
acclaim appointed queen of the nation (Queen of
Sheba ?), she crossed the seas to seek for cure at the
hands of the wise and far-famed Solomon, and after
various adventures returned to Abyssinia pregnant
with a son by that monarch. It is said that on her
departure Solomon gave her a golden staff, as the proof
his son was to bring to him if the child should be a
male, and a diamond ring to be presented if a daughter.
In due time she bore a son, who was named Menelek.
At the age of sixteen, having previously informed his
father of her intention by letter, she sent him to Jeru-
salem with the golden staff. Aware of the searching
mind of Solomon, and being herself quick-witted, she
apprehended that the pledge might be mistrusted, and
in her final instructions she bid her son beware of too
hastily bestowing it on the person he might find seated
on his father's throne, but first to examine his own
countenance in a mirror, and search amid the throng
of courtiers for a maturer resemblance of himself.
Following this advice, he presented the staff to his
father, whom he detected seated on the ground in
humble attire, while another in gorgeous robes filled
his usual seat. Thereupon Solomon acknowledged him
as his son in wisdom as in blood ; and, after keeping
him some years, sent him to govern Ethiopia, accom-
panied by the eldest sons of many Jews of rank and
consideration. From Menelek are said to descend the
31
The Jews of Africa
Kinga of Gondar to this day, and from the Jews the
twelve judges, the keepers of the sacred books, and
other officers that hold high rank in the empire.
" Two things are certain — that at a far later period,
six sovereigns of pure Jewish race and faith reigned at
Gondar, and that to this day numerous Jews are
found throughout Abyssinia. I think it also highly
probable, that (at whatever epoch it may be placed),
the whole of Abyssinia was of the Jewish persuasion
previous to its conversion ; as even those who have
adopted the Christian creed still retain, as will be seen,
numerous Jewish forms and observances. Their con-
version to Christianity occurred about three centuries
after Christ ; it appears to have been the work of an
Egyptian monk. . . ." ^
^ Travels in Abyssinia,
32
CHAPTER IV
EGYPT
The Earliest Jewish Inhabitants — The Exodus — The Ptolemies
—Jewish Government Officials-The Cairo Purim-Sabbathai
Zevi — Raphael Joseph the Tshlebi — A " Blood Accu-
sation."
THE foundation of the Kingdom of Egypt is
almost lost in antiquity. One of the first
— if not indeed the first — of countries to
emerge from barbarism to political civilization, it is
said to have been ruled by Princes even before King
Menes (sometimes considered the earliest historical
king) directed its destinies at a period calculated to be
something like 3,500 years before the beginning of the
Christian Era. Some 1,600 years later, the Patriarch
Abraham flourished ; about 150 years still later the Jews
were in slavery in Egypt, and the Egyptian Kingdom
was already nearly two thousand years old when the
Children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. In all pro-
bability, the Exodus was by no means universal, and a
few laggards and shirkers stayed behind amid the
alluring " fieshpots of Egypt ", or slipped back to their
old haunts during the forty years' wanderings in the
33
The Jews of Africa
desert. Possibly others returned during the days of
the Judges, or in the more exciting times of the King-
doms of Judah and Israel, when perhaps a maritime
traffic had developed between Palestine and Egypt,
and there were probably fair-sized colonies of Jewish
inhabitants at Cairo and other North Egyptian towns
when the destruction of Palestine as a state dispersed
the Jews in so many directions especially in Asia and
Africa . Those who went to Egypt from time to time
had no doubt to undergo many fluctuations of fate,
but they appear to have been allowed to remain per-
manently in the country and shared in its vicissi-
tudes of fortune throughout its many changes of
government and domination. When the mighty em-
pires conquered by Alexander the Great were divided
among his generals, Syria, Judea, and Palestine were
apportioned to Laomedon, who, however, was soon
dispossessed by Ptolemy I, formerly satrap, and
afterwards King of Egypt (322-285 B.C.). Ancient
historians state that Ptolemy visited Jerusalem circa
320 B.C., " pretending that he wished to sacrifice, and
seized it on a Sabbath, a day on which the Jews did
not fight ". The Egyptian monarch " is said to have
taken many captives from Jerusalem, and from the
rest of Judea, as well as from Samaria, and to have
settled them in Egypt ", and Josephus reports that
" thereafter many Jews went voluntarily to Egypt to
34
Egypt
live, partly on account of the excellence of the land,
and partly on account of the kind treatment accorded
them by Ptolemy ". It is maintained that this king
made good use of the Jews for military purposes, and
organized the Jewish population of Egypt, while
granting the Jews of Alexandria equal rights with the
Macedonians.^
Palestine remained an Egyptian province until
198 B.C., and the earlier Ptolemies befriended the Jews
both in Egypt and in her dependancies. The Jews of
Alexandria had formed an important portion of the
inhabitants of the town from its foundation by Alex-
ander the Great in 332 B.C., and Ptolemy I granted
them a separate section of the city, " so that they
might not be hindered in the observance of their laws
by continual contact with the pagan population ".
The Jews, however, were not confined to this quarter,
and their dwellings and synagogues were distributed
all over the city. Nor were their rights disputed when
the Romans took possession of Egypt, and the Emperor
Augustus confirmed and his successor maintained
them. As a matter of fact the Alexandrian Jews " not
only enjoyed civil rights . . . but in public Ufe
occupied a more influential position than anywhere
else in the ancient world ". In the year 38 a.d., a
persecution of the Jews in Alexandria took place under
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. x, p. 262.
35 D
The Jews of Africa
the auspices of the Roman Governor Flaccus, and in
the course of the next century, revolts of the Jewish
inhabitants against their Roman oppressors were
frequent.
Little is known regarding the position of the Jews
in Egypt during the Arab invasion and occupation of
the country, nor of their fortunes under the various
dynasties of Caliphs which ruled the land for so many
hundreds of years. In the twelfth century, certain
renowned Jewish scholars and travellers went to
Egypt, among whom were the celebrated poet Judah
ha-Levi, the great Jewish scholar, Maimonides, and
that famous Jewish traveller, Benjamin of Tudela.
The last-named gave a detailed account of the more
important Jewish communities in Egypt, from which
it appears certain that the Jewish population of
Alexandria had been much reduced in number since
the time of the Roman occupation. During the last
three centuries of Arab or Saracen domination, the
Jews on the whole led a quiet existence, although at
times a despot's persecution or a fanatical riot
resulted in much trouble and misfortune. The six-
teenth century, however, was destined to see the last
of the Mameluke rule over Egypt, for early in the year
15 17, the Turkish Sultan SeUm I, defeated the last Bey
of the Mamelukes, and took possession of the country.
Selim entirely altered the system under which the
36
Egypt
Jews had been governed in Egypt. For many hun-
dreds of years— under the rule of the Caliphs — the
Jews had been under the authority of an official of
their own race, appointed by the head of the state, and
known under the title of Nagid. At the time of
Selim's conquest of Egypt, the Nagid was a certain
Isaac Cohen Sholal, who had enacted many important
regulations for Jerusalem during his term of office.
When Selim abolished the post, Sholal took up his
residence in the Holy City, and the Turkish Sultan
made all the Jewish communities independent of one
another, appointing David ibn Abi Zimra at the head
of the Jews of Cairo, while Abraham De Castro was
selected to fill the post of " master of the mint ".
Later, this latter office appears to have been included
in the duties of the Zaraf Bassa or Bashi, who nearly
always was a Jew, while another JeVvdsh official (who
was often the Chief Rabbi), was named the " Tshlebi "
or " Chelebri ". Solyman I, " the magnificent ", who
succeeded to the Turkish throne in 1520, three years
later appointed Ahmed, or Achmed Pasha, to the post
of viceroy of Egypt. The latter was a most ambitious
soldier of fortune, and being disappointed in his desire
to obtain the post of Grand Vizier, conceived the design
of throwing off the Turkish yoke and recovering the
independence of Egypt, over which he proposed to rule
as supreme lord, instead of as the vassal of the Turkish
37
The Jews of Africa
Sultan. Abraham De Castro was still master of the
mint, and Achmed, after taking some preliminary steps
and many precautions, proposed to him that his
(Achmed' s) name should appear on the Egyptian
coinage instead of that of the Sultan. De Castro
feigned acquiescence, and, obtaining the viceregal
order for the alteration, secretly set out for Con-
stantinople, where he informed Solyman of Achmed 's
treacherous intentions. ^ In the meantime, Achmed,
incensed by de Castro's action, but unable to avenge
himself on the wary Zaraf Bashi, planned to destroy all
his co-religionists in Cairo. He therefore imprisoned
many of the leading Jews, and demanded from the
others for their release a sum of money so enormous
that the community was quite unable to raise the
amount. He then threatened to pillage the Jewish
quarter and put the whole of the inhabitants to death,
if the sum were not paid. The money not being
forthcoming on the appointed day, the Jewish quarter
was looted in part, and death appeared to confront the
inhabitants, when a rebellion, headed by one of the
viziers named Mohamed Bey, broke out against
Achmed. Achmed was wounded and escaped, but he
was subsequently captured, thrown into prison, and
beheaded. According to Basnage, " The Jews being
deUvered, made a great Entertainment, and called the
1 See Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. iv, p. 595.
38
Egypt
Feast they celebrated in Memory of this event, Nessim ;
because this word signifies a Miracle, and the Stake to
which Achmed's head was fastened ". These events,
which occurred in March 1524, gave rise to the estab-
lishment of a minor Jewish festival in Egypt, on the
lines of the national feast of Purim. The feast was
celebrated on the anniversary of the event, Adar 28th,
and was known as the " Cairo Purim ", or " Purim al
Mizriyim " (Purim in Egypt). A Megillah, or Hebrew
Manuscript, was prepared which contained a narrative
of Achmed's plot and its attendant circumstances, and
of the conspirator's fate, and this account of the
downfall of Achmed and the defeat of his devices, was
read in the synagogues throughout Egypt every year.
Soon after the middle of the seventeenth century,
the renowned pseudo-Messiah, Sabbathai Zevi, visited
Cairo. At this period, the post of Zaraf Bashi was
filled by Raphael Joseph,^ who, according to Graetz,
was " a man of great wealth, and open-handed benevo-
lence, but of unspeakable credulity, and ineradicable
propensity to mysticism and asceticism ".2 n Jq^s
not, however, seem probable that a man of " un-
speakable credulity" would have been appointed to
a post of this nature, and in all probability, Raphael
^ Raphael Joseph was known as the " Tshlebi " or " Chelebri,"
and was sometimes spoken of as " Joseph of Aleppo," and " Raphael
Joseph Halabi." 2 History of the Jews, vol. v, pp. 124-5.
39
The Jews of Africa >
Joseph was by no means as credulous as the historian
alleges. On the other hand, there can be little doubt
that he, like many other usually practical men of the
world, at this period, fell absolutely under the spell of
Sabbathai Zevi, among whose most faithful adherents
he soon occupied a prominent place. At the period
referred to, Raphael Joseph was one of the most
popular men in Cairo. We read that " fifty learned
Talmudists and Cabbalists were supported by him, and
dined at his table. Everyone who sought his com-
passion found help and reUef in his need ". The
support of a man like this was a tower of strength to
the new Messiah who, — ^to a certain extent, — made a
confidant of Raphael Joseph, to whom he disclosed
some of his plans for his Messianic career. In 1665,
Sabbathai again visited Cairo, this time to invoke the
aid of Raphael Joseph for the community of Jeru-
salem, which was then oppressed by the demands of
the local officials. The necessary money was provided
by the Tshlebi, and Sabbathai soon left Cairo for the
Holy City, where, in spite of the pecuniary assistance
he provided, he did not succeed in impressing the
Rabbis with his Messianic claims. As a matter of
fact, he appears to have been banished from Jerusalem
through the influence of those who disbelieved in him,
and he never returned to the Holy City. When he
divided up the world into twenty-six kingdoms, he
40
Egypt
requited Raphael Joseph for his services with one of
these territories which he was to rule over under the
title of King Joash.
f In more modern times the Jewish inhabitants of
Egypt lived on the whole in safety and comfort in the
country of their ancient taskmasters, but in the year
1840, they were subjected to attacks brought about by
" blood accusations ", which were afterwards officially
withdrawn, owing to the intervention of Sir Moses
Montefiore, Cr6mieux, and others who visited Cairo for
the purpose of aiding their brethren in Egypt and
Syria, a task in which they were eminently successful.
41
CHAPTER V
EGYPT (continued)
The Alexandrites and the Cairenes — The Arab Domination
of Egypt— The Nagids of Egypt— The Zaraf Bashis—
Thevenot, Ogilby, and Vansleb — Le Bniyn and his
Illustrations — Modern Jewry in Egypt.
THE history of the Jews of Alexandria is
unlike that of their brethren in most of the
towns of the world, inasmuch as they were
present at the very inception of the city by its founder
Alexander the Great. From that time, to the present
day — a period of nearly twenty-two and a half centuries
— the Jewish inhabitants of Alexandria have formed
an integral, and at times extremely important, portion
of the population of the town. Protected by the
Ptolemies, they enjoyed almost complete civil and
religious Uberty, and according to a recently discovered
inscription one of their ancient synagogues was dedi-
cated to Ptolemy II and his sister and wife Berenice. ^
When the Arabs conquered Egypt in the year 641,
and took possession of Alexandria, the treaty of
capitulation stipulated that the Jews were to be allowed
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. x, p. 263.
42
Egypt (continued)
to remain in the city, and the Arabian General, Amr,^
writing to the Caliph, stated that he found 40,000
Jews in the town. Early in the Christian era, they
had been ruled, according to Strabo, by an ethnarch,
who acting like " the archon of an independent city,
gives special attention to the proper fulfilment of the
duties and to the compliance with the various regula-
tions ". This official would appear to have been the
precursor of the later Egyptian official Nagid, but the
earliest date in which the latter title is referred to was
not until about the year 952. Cairo was established
by the conqueror of Alexandria, Amr ibn al-Asi, in
641, and was known at that period by the name of Al
Fostat. Cairo proper was founded nearly three
hundred years later by a vizier named Jaahar.^ The
older town was partially destroyed in 1168, but was
rebuilt, and now forms part of the suburbs of Cairo.
Maimonides called it a two sabbath days' journey from
Cairo proper, and it is quite three or four miles away
from the Jewish quarter in the Muski.
The great Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, settled
at Fostat with his family soon after they left the city
of Fez where they had formerly resided. Here he
practised as a physician in the family of the Sultan
1 See Note I, p. 55. ^ According to Leo Africanus, Cairo was
built by Gehoar, the vizier of Caliph Elcain, and was named by
him Alchair. See his Historie of Africa, vol. ii, p. 137.
43
The Jews of Africa
Saladin, and here the most learned of Jewish scholars
wrote his celebrated works " Mishneh Torah ", and
" Moreh Nebuchim ". On his death, which occurred
on December 13th, 1204, his remains were transferred
for interment to Tiberias in Palestine and his tomb has
ever been regarded as a place of pilgrimage for his
people. When he died, Jews and Mohammedans alike
observed pubUc mourning for three days. A few years
before the arrival of Maimonides in Egypt, Benjamin
of Tudela paid a visit to the country, and he wrote a
general account of the Jewish communities which
came under his notice. He found only 3,000 Jews in
Alexandria, and 2,000 in Cairo, and he estimated the
Jewish population in Damietta at 500 souls. In
addition he speaks of Jewish colonies at Mahalla or
Mahallat, Sefitah, and Al-Butji, and other travellers
of about the same period record a Jewish settlement at
Reshid, the Rosetta of more modem times.
For a considerable period the position of Nagid was
occupied by members of the family of Maimonides
who held the post until the early part of the fourteenth
century. During the fifteenth century the Jews of
Egypt endured some persecution at the hands of the
Mamelukes, and the Cairene Israelites suffered many
hardships. The travellers MeshuUam ben Menachem
Volterra,^ and Obadiah of Bertinoro,^ have left accounts
1 1481. 2 1487,
44
Egypt (continued)
of the position of the Jews in the country, and it
appears from the narrative of the former, that when he
visited the country only sixty families were left in
Alexandria, and the Jewish quarter in Fostat was in
ruins, although two synagogues still existed. Cairo,
however, still possessed 500 Jewish householders, in
addition to some Karaites and Samaritans, and there
were six synagogues in the city. Obadiah found still
fewer Jews in Alexandria, but reported that there
were 700 Jews in Cairo, together with 50 Samaritans
and 150 Karaites. The Samaritans, we are told, " are
the richest of all the Jews, and are largely engaged in
the business of banking ".^ The Community had been
strengthened and augmented by the arrival of refugees
from Spain, who were well received by the other Jewish
residents.
Better times, however, were coming for the Jews of
Egypt, and the advent of the Turks considerably
benefited the Jewish colonies. Within certain limits,
the Jews were reasonably prosperous and fairly secure
in their possessions, in addition to which they had the
rare privilege— for those days— of the free exercise of
their religious rites, while their customs and regulations
were not unduly interfered with. Reference has
already been made to the post of Zaraf Bashi, which
was held early in the sixteenth century by Abraham
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. v, p. 64.
45
The Jews of Africa
de Castro. Many travellers assert that the position
was one of great importance, as this official " takes
care of the Grand Signior's Revenue ". In all pro-
bability the post was something similar to that of a
modern minister of finance, although Graetz expressed
the opinion that it was merely that of a " Jewish mint
master and tax farmer ". Menasseh ben Israel
writing— somewhat indirectly — regarding the office, a
century later than de Castro's appointment, stated
that " the greatest viceroy of whole Europe " (sic) was
" the Bassa of Egypt : this Bassa always takes to him
by ordre of the Kingdome a Jew with the title of
Zaraf -Bassa, (Thresurer), viz., of all the Revenue of
that gouvernement ".^
When Leo Africanus visited Egypt, Cairo possessed
a numerous and busy Jewish colony. At this period
the Jews did not frequent the agricultural centres,
and, as George Sandys, the enterprising Elizabethan
traveller, remarked, they resided " onely in cities ".
Leo tells us of " the goldsmiths street " of Cairo, which
he says was " inhabited for the most part by Jewes,
who deale for riches of great importance '\^ and there
can be little doubt, that by this time, the Jewish
Community was already rising in wealth and influence.
Leo also mentions that he was informed " that at the
^ Humble Addresses. * Historie of Africa : Pory's Translation,
Brown's Edition, vol. ii, p. 872.
46
Egypt {continued)
verie head or confluence of the branches of Nilus
(about fifty miles from Cairo), there standeth a building
of marvellous antiquitie, called the sepulchre of
Joseph, wherein the dead bodie of Joseph lay, till it
was by the Jewes transported unto the sepulchre of
their fathers ". Leo was probably in Egypt during
Selim I's reign, and nearly a century elapsed before
George Sandys came to Cairo (circa 1610). He
reported, inter alia, that the customs were farmed by
the Jews, who paid " for the same unto the Bassa
twenty thousand Madeins a day, thirty of them
amounting to a Royall of eight ". He does not tell us
much regarding the Jews of Egypt, but there is a
touching reference to its Jewesses, in the account of
his caravan journey from Cairo to Jerusalem, which he
undertook in company with three other Englishmen
and three Italians. " Among us ", he remarks, " were
divers Jewish women ; in the extremity of their age
under-taking so wearisome a journey, onely to die at
Jerusalem ; bearing along with them the bones of their
parents, husbands, children, and kinsfolk ; as they
doe from all other parts where they can conveniently ".^
Thevenot devotes part of a chapter to a description
of the Jews of Cairo, and many other references to
them will be found throughout the Egyptian portion
of his Travels into the Levant. Writing soon after the
1 Sandys' Travailes.
47
The Jews of Africa
middle of the seventeenth century, he remarks on the
great number of Jews at Cairo, and states " the Jews
are very powerful in Egypt, and govern all the affairs
of that Kingdom ; the Customes being in their hands,
and they being the only Serats or Bankers. Besides
that, they enjoy some offices about the Basha, which
make them have his Ear ; and they daily put new
inventions into his Head, for raising of Avanies
(? Revenues). He has three principal officers, to wit,
the Basha' s Schelebi, which is an office instituted
within these few years ; the Saraf Basha, and the
Saraf of the Basha, who set their Wits continually a
devising, and think of nothing else but of ways how to
persecute the poor Franks. A Turk told me one day,
that the Jews were the Turk Hounds for catching
Money from the Franks ; for the Turks of themselves
are neither malicious or cunning enough, to chase the
Prey ; but when once the Jews have made sure of the
Game, the Turks come in and carry all away ". It
seems clear from the above statement that the Egyptian
Viceroy relied on his Jewish officials to find out sources
of revenue for the purposes of the state and for his privy
purse, that both the " Tshlebi ", and the " Zaraf-
Basha " were Jewish officials of very considerable
power, and that they were evidently in constant
attendance at the daily Divan presided over by the
Viceroy of Egypt. It is stated that the Jews had
48
Egypt (continued)
settled in a large quarter of the town of Cairo specially
reserved for them, which Thevenot stigmatises as
" short, narrow, nasty, and stinking ". Ogilby, who
wrote concerning the same period, observed that they
lived mainly in the " new city ", which appears at that
time to have been more favourably situated for
residents engaged in commerce. He estimated that the
town contained the large number of 100,000 Jews, for
the most part engaged in trading and merchandise.
They chiefly spoke " a mixt Language, a meet Gilly-
maufry hasht together of all usual Tongues now
call'd Lingua Franca " ; they still called the country
by the ancient name of Mizraim, from " Mizraim, the
son of Ham, being there the first planter ".
Many of the older writers on Egypt speak of the
works and traces of " Joseph, son of Jacob ", and
reference to these is sometimes made under the more
unfamiliar appellation of " Joseph Jacobson ", a name
more reminiscent of the Ghettos of Europe than of the
far-famed Viceroy of the Pharoah of whom we read in
the Pentateuch. An interesting volume published in
1660,1 refers to the canals constructed by Joseph, and
Vansleb, whose work on Egypt was issued a few years
later, speaks of a great pillar built by Joseph at
Memphis to measure the rising of the Nile, and of a
* The World Surveyed, by Vincent Le Blanc.
49
The Jews of Africa
canal or channel called " Bahr Jusef ", or " The
River of Joseph ", which passes the town of " Fium ",
and which is believed to have been carried out by
" Joseph Jacobson ". The same author tells us of " a
very ancient Bridge of Bricks made for a passage for
the River (Nile) when it overflows " at Sennuris, which
was built by " Joseph, Jacob's son ", and of certain
ruins at the top of a mountain near the monastery of
Casciabe, which are all that is left of an ancient town
which was once inhabited by the Patriarch Jacob, and
is still called " Modsellet Jacub ". Then there is a
long and detailed description of the wonderful well in
the Castle of Cairo, " commonly named Joseph's
Well ", but we are informed that "they that think
that Joseph, Jacob's Son caused it to be digged, are
deceived, for the Castle of Cairo was built many ages
after Joseph's death ; and it is a common opinion of
all Arabian authors that Joseph dwelt at Memphis,
which was on the other side of the river near the
Pyramids, and not on this side where Cairo stands ".
Joseph's Hall, Prison, and Well are all described by
Thevenot and Le Bruyn, the latter, however, con-
tenting himself with a practical recapitulation of the
former author's statements.
Vansleb states that he at first considered that the
main channel of Cairo was kept in repair by the Turks,
Copts, and Jews, in turns, each community doing the
50
Egypt {continued)
work once in three years, but he subsequently ascer-
tained that the " Soubaschi of Cairo " was made
responsible for the upkeep and clearance of the canal,
although no doubt he took care that the Jews and
Copts did not escape their share of the expense. He
remarks on the antiquity of the Jewish settlement,
and observes that the Jews " are very numerous, and
are in great repute, chiefly at Cairo, and in the maritime
towns ; but unless it be such places, there are none to
be found, for if their occupations call them into the
country, they usually disguise and hide themselves :
for when the country people find them out they abuse
and affront them strangely ". Nevertheless, according
to this author, the Copts were far worse treated than
the Jews. Basnage observed that the importance of
the Jewish population in Egypt was due to the Hberty
they enjoyed. * ' Their Mechanicks " , he asserts, ' * were
dispersed over the Countrey, and in all the Cities ",
and it is interesting to observe that evidently the Jews
did not confine themselves to dealing with merchandise
or money, but worked with their hands as well as their
heads. " In fine ", he goes on, " they pretended
(anno 1673) to be more numerous in this Countrey, than
when Moses led them out of it ", although according
to the writer, the Jewish population had been steadily
decreasing for some years. Jews and Christians ahke
had to pay a poll tax from " sixteen years of age ",
51 E
The Jews of Africa
paying " every one head by head a certain price yearly,
amounting to eight and forty bags ". Disputes
between Christians, Turks, Moors, and Jews, were
determined by having recourse to the decisions of their
respective Consuls, without bringing the matter before
the ordinary judges. The descriptions of Jewish
costumes in Egypt which are to be found in Le Bruyn's
Voyage to the Levant, are the most interesting because
of the plates with which the letterpress is accompanied.
One of the drawings depicts a Jew, apparently of
middle age, playing on a kind of three-stringed guitar,
which is, however, " play'd upon with a Bow just as a
Violin ". The costume is stated to be typical of those
in use in the seventeenth century by Egyptian Jews ;
" Their Turban ought to be mixt with blew Strypes
and the rest of their Habit must be of a Violet Colour ;
which colour they are obHged to wear to distinguish
themselves from others, for else there would be no
manner of difference betwixt them and the Turks in
their Habits ; the Persons of Note are much more
neatly habited than that which we have here repre-
sented in the Cut ". Other authorities speak of Jews
being ordered to wear yellow turbans, but this was
probably at an earher date. " The Jewesses . . .
wear upon their Heads a Black Cap very long, round
which is twisted a white or brown handkerchief
stryped with Gold and Silver. Their Habits are
52
Egypt (continued)
commonly of stryp'd Silst : When I drew the Jewess
that is represented here (Plate 93) she was sat upon a
Sopha, smoaking a Pipe of Tobacco, whose stalk was
of Egyptian Reed. . . ." ^ The lady depicted, like
most North African Jewesses, was inclined to cor-
pulence, a condition which appears to have been
universal with regard to them, when circumstances
did not conspire to the contrary. Evidently the new
custom of smoking had rapidly spread among the
Jewish race in spite of Rabbinic qualms on the subject.
We are told by a modern author, 2 that smoking was
very prevalent among the Jews of Cairo in the seven-
teenth century, and that they smoked more than their
Polish co-religionists. The orthodox Cairenes struggled
hard against the temptation to smoke on the Sabbath,
and certain tobacco devotees " were accustomed to
fill a hooka overnight on Friday, and thus they kept
the tobacco alight for Sabbath consumption ". Others,
still more scrupulous, would not smoke themselves, but
took the opportunity to visit a " Mohammedan friend
on the Sabbath and sit in his room while the latter
smoked ".
During the greater part of the nineteenth century,
and also at the present day, the Jews of Egypt have
enjoyed almost, if not entire civil and reUgious liberty.
* A Voyage to the Levant, by Le Bniyn. * Jewish Life in the
Middle Ages, by Israel Abrahams.
53
The Jews of Africa
and there can be little doubt of the general prosperity
of the community. Considerable information re-
specting the modern Cairene Jews is afforded in the
chapter entitled " Egypt in 1888 ", in Mr. E. N.
Adler's Jews in Many Lands, which also contains a
description of the ancient Jewish Synagogue in the
Fostat quarter of Cairo. Here is preserved a Sepher
Torah (Scroll of the Law) which, it is claimed, was
written by Ezra. The officials of the Synagogue
refused to show the Scroll to Benjamin II, and when
he expressed his disbeHef in the authenticity of the
document, called him " a reformer, who would not
beUeve in miracles ". Benjamin of Tudela, who
visited the Synagogue, must have also been a dis-
believer, and does not mention the Sepher. Mr.
Elkan Adler, however, was more fortunate and saw the
famous scroll which Graetz had denounced '' as a
sham, a fraud, a delusion, and a snare ", and he
evidently was of the same opinion as the Jewish
historian, as he did not think the scroll three hundred
years old. He saw, however, a far more reputable
document, a title deed or firman, relating to the
ancient synagogue, which confirms the Jews in
its ownership, and is about eight hundred years
old.i
^ Jews in Many Lands.
54
Egypt (continued)
Note
I. The Fostat Quarter of Cairo contains what was
once a magnificent Moqsue, erected in honour of Amr,
or Amru, the conqueror of Egypt. In the centre of the
court of this edifice there is a small building " tastefully
ornamented, a lasting proof of Amru's justice, like the
mill at Potsdam ; for it belonged to a poor Jewess who
would not sell it to the Sultan, for which reason instead
of having it pulled to the ground, he contented himself
with building around it ".^
1 Prince Puckler Muskau, Travels and Adventures in Egypt.
London, 1847.
55
CHAPTER VI
TRIPOLI
The Antiquity of the Jewish Settlements — The Jews of Cyrenia
— Djebel Nefoussi — The Jewish Troglodytes — The Spanish
Occupations — The Jews of Tripoli — Rabbi Simeon Ben
Labi — Later Events.
IT is impossible to ascertain at what period the
Jews first settled in the country now known as
Tripoli, but the celebrated Arabian historian,
Ibn-Khaldoun, asserts that the Nefoussi, an ancient
tribe of the Louata (the Lybians of Antiquity), them-
selves professed Judaism, a fact which had, he asserts,
hitherto been unrecorded by Jewish historians. These
very early Jewish inhabitants— if they really were
Jews — were strengthened and augmented by settle-
ments of Israelites estabhshed in Cyrenia circa 322 B.c.^
The first Jewish colonists " were introduced in con-
formity with the general policy of Ptolemy (I) ; and
they soon became so numerous . . . that at length, no
other country besides Palestine, contained so many
individuals of their nation. Enjoying equal rights
with the Greeks, and the special favour of the King,
1 Hamilton, Wanderings in North Africa,
56
Tripoli
they formed in the end a fourth order in the state, and
were governed by municipal magistrates of their own
. . . their frequent mention in the New Testament
proves how important a part of the Jewish nation
they constituted ".^ Under Roman domination, which
commenced circa 74 B.C., the Jews of Cyrenia lost some
of their privileges, and the other inhabitants of the
country appear to have oppressed them, now that the
personal favour of the Ptolemies had ceased to aid
them. Their numbers had, in all probability, greatly
increased, as large bodies had joined them from
Palestine after the Roman conquest. They appear
to have always resented their position under the rigid
rule of the Roman Empire, and their " fierce im-
patience of the dominion of Rome " existed from the
earliest days of the Roman occupation of Cyrenia. ^
Frequently in rebellion, the risings of the Jews finally
culminated in a sanguinary struggle in the course of
which they are said to have slain 220,000 Greeks and
Romans, but, after a contest marked by extreme
ferocity, in the course of which great slaughter took
place on both sides, they were finally suppressed by
Marcus Turbo. The final decision of the rebellion took
place in the reign of Trajan (117 a.d.), and Eusebius
and Josephus both give accounts of the campaign, the
1 S^eNotel, p. 79. 2 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, vol. ii, p. 384.
57
The Jews of Africa
former alleging that " the Jews attacked the Romans
on every side ", and that " Africa bore a very great
share in the common calamity " .^ The population of
Lybia is said to have been so reduced by these terrible
encounters, that new colonies had to be established
there, and many centuries had to elapse before the
country was able to recover from the effects of the
Jewish struggle for liberty.
According to the historian Morceaux, during the
sixth century " the persecutions of the Emperor
Justinian resulted in an altogether unforeseen result,
as they absolutely contributed to the growth of
Judaism in Africa ".^ Numbers of Jews fiercely
hunted within the Roman Empire, or expelled from
its confines, " took refuge with the Berbers in the
lofty mountains of the desert, and here they resumed
their propaganda, so that when the Arabs arrived on
the scene, a number of the Berber tribes were more or
less attached to Judaism particularly in Tripoli . . .
and in the Sahara ".^ " Under the Fatimite dynasty
in Egypt, Jews from the oasis of Pessato established
the most ancient community in Tripoli ",* but Ben-
jamin of Tudela, who travelled through Northern Africa
in the latter part of the twelfth century, makes no
1 Morgan, A Complete History of Algiers. 2 Slousch, Un
Voyage d'£tudes Juives en Afrique. ^ Revue des £tudes Juives,
vol. xliv, p. 22. (See also Slousch, p. 3.) * Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol. xii, p. 262.
58
Tripoli
mention of Tripoli. Nevertheless, there can be Uttle
doubt, that a large and important colony of Jews
existed for many centuries in the Djebel Nefoussi
territory of North-Western Tripoli, and that the
importance of this settlement — which has been com-
mented on by Ibn-Khaldoun — continued until the end
of the fifteenth century. The old tombstones, which
are still to be found in the existing cemeteries, indicate
the antiquity of the settlements, but, although the
last visible inscription is dated 1392, it was not until
the year 1496 that the Jews permanently quitted the
town of Djado, the most important of their settlements
in Djebel Nefoussi, and made their way to the port of
Tripoli, and to the island of Jerba, off the Tunisian
coast. ^ About this period, Arabs of a particularly
bigoted character commenced to attack both Jews
and Berbers, and Djebel Nefoussi became a centre of
persecution for these races. The majority of the
Jewish population consequently fled, and of those who
remained, some embraced Mohammedanism, while
the descendants of the few Jewish survivors are still
to be found in two troglodyte villages named Msellata,
and Dema, and in " the villages of Iffren which form
the eastern portion of Djebel Nefoussi ".^
Fourteen years later than the exodus from Djebel
* Slousch, Un Voyage d'^tudes Juives en Afrique. * Ibid.
59
The Jews of Africa
Nefoussi — that is, in the year 15 lo — Ferdinand, King
of Spain, one of the bitterest of the foes of the Jewish
race, sent an army to Northern Africa to harry and
destroy the unfortunate inhabitants, and to endeavour
to satiate his inordinate lust for the blood of his former
Jewish subjects. At this period, the Jews of Tripoli
were, in the main, a well-educated and prosperous
class. They possessed good schools, eminent rabbis
and teachers, and were altogether in a position superior
to that of their brethren in most other parts of the
world. The poor refugees from Djebel Nefoussi seem
to have lived in another part of the town, and formed
a separate community, until the exodus of the older
Jewish inhabitants to Jerba, when the former took
possession of the Jewish quarter. In the course of
Ferdinand's campaign, " the Spaniards marched against
Tripoli, and made themselves masters of the country,
which they dehvered up to pillage. All the Jews of the
town, who formed an important community, were
deported by the enemy to Naples, where many of them
died of misery and sorrow, in this sad year of desola-
tion ".^ Most probably, the Spaniards disdained to
interfere with the poverty-stricken Jewish refugees
from Nefoussi, and confined their attentions to their
wealthier co-religionists. At all events, when nearly
1 Joseph Ha-Cohen, La ValUe des Pleurs.
60
Tripol
forty years later the famous Fezzan Rabbi, Simeon
Ben Labi, visited the town, he still found descendants
of the Jewish fugitives in a wretched condition. Ben
Labi had intended merely to touch at Tripoli, on his
way to Jerusalem, but he was so struck by the miser-
able plight in which he found these people, that he
resolved to abandon the pilgrimage that he had planned
and to undertake instead the task of bringing back the
almost outcast Jews to the knowledge of their rehgion
and their law. He accepted the position of their
Chief Rabbi in the year 1549, ^.nd " under his manage-
ment matters rapidly improved and a modem com-
munity developed "^
The new Chief Rabbi was an eminent Jewish scholar
and cabbaUst, and had never come into contact with
members of his faith in so deplorable a state of ignor-
ance as those whom he had found at Tripoli. He
found that they knew nothing of the Jewish laws.
They were not even acquainted with the Jewish
prayers. Ben Labi's labours, however, were crowned
by wonderful success, and, as a matter of fact, he
actually re-converted these Jews to Judaism. Rab-
binical law was established in Tripoli, and within a few
years the town disputed with Jerba and Tunis the
claim of being the home of Rabbinism in North Africa.
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. vii, p, 589.
61
The Jews of Africa
Although Ben Labi was a Spaniard, Tripoli was
seldom chosen as a residence by the Spanish and Portu-
guese refugees. It was, of course, avoided during the
Spanish domination, but even when Solyman, the
Magnificent, conquered the Spaniards and drove them
out in 1551, the Spanish Jews settled there only in very
limited numbers, by which may be explained the scarcity
of Spanish names among the Jewish population.
Tripoli was very httle affected by the Sabbathai
Zevi movement in the seventeenth century. An
ardent disciple of the pseudo-Messiah, Miguel Cardoso,
visited the town, and endeavoured to conduct pro-
paganda there, but he was unsuccessful, and had to
flee from the attacks of his co-religionists in the city.
In the early part of the eighteenth century, the Jews,
in common with the other inhabitants, were threatened
with extermination by the Bey of Tunis, but the
latter — whose force was weakened by an epidemic —
had to retreat, whereupon the Jews established a local
Purim, or festival of rejoicing, which is held on the
24th of Tebet, and is called " Purim Sherif ", or " Purim
Kidebuni ". Another locally kept Purim is " Purim
Borghel", which is celebrated in memory of the defeat
of a well-known corsair who burnt " at the stake the
son of Abraham Halfon, the caid of the Tripolitan
Jews" (circa 1792). ^
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 262.
62
Tripoli
During the nineteenth century the Jews in Tripoli
have considerably increased in numbers, and the
community, as a whole, is prosperous, while the
advent of the Italian regime in the twentieth century
is likely to conduce still further to their benefit.
63
CHAPTER VII
TRIPOLI {continued)
Djado and its Jewish Inhabitants — ^The Exodus to TripoH —
Jewish Customs of Djebel Nefoussi — Curious TripoUtan
Jewish Superstitions — Jewish Executioners — The Travels
of the Beecheys — Jewish Costumes in Tripoli — A Stern
Mosaic Punishment.
AN ancient document in the form of a letter,
attributed to Maimonides, remarks that the
Jews of Jerba, and of Djebel Nefoussi,
although attached to their belief in the Almighty,
had the same superstitions and the same practices as
Berber Mussulmen. It is stated that though they
were unobservant of many Jewish customs, they were
particular not to eat the hindquarters of animals. In
short, although they were not orthodox Jews, they
were not Caraites. There can be little doubt that
many of the Berber tribes embraced Judaism, and
that the troglodyte villages still existing in TripoH are
inhabited by the descendants of some of these Jewish
converts who retain some of the practices of Judaism.
Many of these people have a tradition that their
forebears came from Palestine, or from countries in the
64
Tripoli (continued)
vicinity of the Holy Land. Little is, however,
known regarding the history and customs of these
primitive Jews, among whom, it has been contended,
Rabbinical Judaism was unknown.
At Djado, in the Djebel Nefoussi country, near the
ruins of the old Jewish town long deserted by its former
inhabitants, there is a subterranean synagogue and,
not far off, caverns with mortuary niches. The whole
of the Djebel Nefoussi country, in fact, contains
ancient relics of the former Jewish population. There
are ruins of synagogues, old cemeteries, troglodyte
villages, and Jewish catacombs or subterranean mor-
tuaries. Much of the information respecting these
was brought to light by the publication of M. Slousch's
Voyage d'l^tudes Juives en Afrique. The ruins, still
visible, however, no doubt only relate to a very small
portion of the ancient Jewish settlements of Nefoussi.
The Arabs who supplanted the Berbers had few
scruples about the destruction of cemeteries, and
nearly all of the Jewish ones were soon turned into
cornfields, in which every now and then a stray piece
of tombstone with an Hebraic inscription is turned up
by the plough. ^ A " Hebraic- African " patois was
current in Djebel Nefoussi and throughout the territory
occupied by the Jews of the Tripolitan Sahara, and
* Slousch, Voyage d'£iUides Juives en Afrique, p. 8.
65
The Jews of Africa
M. Slousch gives examples of the existing differences
between this Jewish lingua franca and pure Hebrew.
The patois is designated the Dialecte du Djebel, and
is still in constant use in Djebel Iffren and other Jewish
settlements in Tripoli.
When the majority of the Jews quitted Djado and
the territory of Djebel Nefoussi in the year 1496, the
settlement must have been of considerable importance.
In Djado alone there were no less than eighty Jewish
jewellers, and the exodus of the Jewish population is
still lamented by the inhabitants of the semi-deserted
town. The Jews of Fossato or Pessato occupied the
old Hara (or Ghetto) of Tripoli, after the former
Jewish inhabitants of the port had retired before the
Spanish conquerors, and, as previously recorded, these
descendants of the ancient Jewish aborigines of the
country, were brought back to a knowledge of Judaism
by the celebrated Rabbi Simeon Ben Labi. To com-
memorate this great religious revival, it is the custom
at Tripoli and in other communities on the coast for
the eighteen benedictions (Shemoni Asra), which
throughout the world are recited in the synagogues in
silent prayer on Friday evening services, to be intoned
aloud by the minister or Rabbi. Benjamin II observes
with regard to this custom that the Jews of TripoU
informed him that their ancestors " in their ignorance
. . . had only kept the Sabbath day, until a Chacham
66
Tripoli (continued)
had instructed them in the observance of Friday
evening, and in memory of this they had determined
to have this prayer recited aloud ".^ In many
instances the Jews of TripoU have customs very
dissimilar from those in force in other parts of the
world. For instance, although the admission of
strangers to the ceremony is distinctly alluded to in the
Haggadah, or Seder Ritual, and is practised throughout
Jewry, the Jews of Iffren and of several other Saharan
settlements never invite a guest during these evenings,
or during the f^east of the New Year. It is difficult to
trace the origin of this ancient practice so contrary to
the spirit of hospitaUty which is of the essence of
Judaism.
The Jews of Djebel used to celebrate a third day of
Pentecost, quite unknown to Judaism elsewhere. It
was instituted by them in memory of Moses, when he
struck the rock, and, by a miracle, produced a supply
of water in an arid place. Curiously enough, the
Mohammedans associated themselves with the celebra-
tion of this feast, believing that its commemoration
would lead to the coming of a year conspicuous for
its abundant supply of water. " This ceremony of
libations, however, is not absolutely unique, as a
similar custom was observed in Uzah by M. Huguet ".^
1 J. J. Benjamin II, Eight Years in Asia and Africa. * Slousch,
Voyages d'l^tudes Juives en AJrique.
67
The Jews of Africa
The evening of the first day of the month of Nissan is
known throughout all Tripolitan Jewry as the night
of " Bassisa ", or " the feast of the act of dipping ".
It is a family celebration unknown to the rest of
Jewry, and on its occasion the whole family come
together to celebrate it. When the members are all
assembled they soak or dip a preparation of mashed
corn and barley, mixed with caraway and coriander
seeds, in oil, and of this they all partake after the head
of the household has pronounced the following benedic-
tion : " O ! thou who openest without a Key, who
gives without humihating, give us and ours all that
we need ". When we remember that the majority of
the Jews of the TripoUtan interior were occupied with
agricultural pursuits, it will not be difficult to recognize
in this old custom the survival of an ancient ceremony
of the Harvest Feast. Benjamin II gives a description
of a dish called Busi which is, in all probabihty, the
one alluded to above and which he states is thus
prepared : " Water is boiled, and salt and wheat flour
poured into it ; this is well mixed, until it becomes a
thick hard dough, which is put into a large dish ; a
greasy sauce is then made and poured over it. The
whole family then seat themselves roimd the dish
and, as knives and forks are not used, each plunges his
hand into the dish, tears off a portion of the dough,
dips it several times into the greasy sauce, and then
68
Tripoli (continued)
eats it ". He says this dish is greatly enjoyed by Jews
and Christians alike. ^
Some of the Jews of Tripoh take an oath in a very
ancient formula which runs : "By the father, by the
Lamp, I declare this to be the truth". M. Sathon,
who first drew attention to this curious asseveration in
the Revue des Ecoles de V Alliance Israelite, declares
that he does not know its origin, but M. Slousch
asserts that he considers it may refer to the seven-
branched candlestick, the symbol of the African Jewish
ritual since the days of Carthage until the time of the
Mellahs of the Middle Ages.^ Another very quaint
Jewish custom practised by the Jews of Tripoli re-
lates to the destruction of Jerusalem. It is to have one
corner of the wall of their dwelling-place coloured
black, as a sign of mourning. ^ At Djerba and Iffren,
the Jewish fiancee who visits for the first time the newly
whitewashed house of her husband, throws an egg at
the angle of the wall situated in front of the gate so as
to disfigure its whiteness. The Berbers of Nefoussi
evidently copied an old custom of the Jews and thus —
in a measure — wept for the loss of Jerusalem.
Few writers of the seventeenth century mention the
1 Benjamin II, Eight Years in Asia and Africa, * Slousch,
Voyage d' Etudes Juives en Afrique. ' [This custom is also pre-
valent among the Jews of Eastern Europe, who also when they
erect a building, for the same reason, leave a small unimportant
portion unfinished].
69
The Jews of Africa
Jews of Tripoli, and, as a matter of fact, neither Ben-
jamin of Tudela nor Leo Africanus tells us anything
about them. Of later writers, Ogilby just mentions
the existence of Jews in New TripoU, and alludes to
their Poll Tax or to the " Tribute of the Jews ". There
can be Httle doubt, however, that they did not occupy
as prominent a station as did their co-religionists in
the other Barbary states. Their religion, in many
parts of the country, was tainted with local practices
and superstitions, and the absence to any great extent
of Spanish and Portuguese immigrants did not conduce
to the improvement of the status of their community.
Some of the more recent works on Tripoli make
mention of other curious traits and religious customs
among the Jews, and we are told that " they have a
fast of seven days and seven nights, which many
pretend to have kept ". It is stated that " the poorer
Jewesses will work night and day till they have
amassed money enough to purchase a piece of linen,
which remains by them till wanted to bury them ",
and that " a poor Jewess will buy a basket (called here
a cuffa) of lime, and go herself to decorate and white-
wash the grave of any near relation she has lost, and
plant fresh flowers round it. . . ." ^ Tully informs
us further that the Jews in TripoH were exceedingly
* Tully, Ten Years' Residence in Tripoli,
70
Tripoli {continued)
observant of the ancient rites and practices of Judaism,
but this was at a period when the reformer Ben Labi
and his immediate successors had revived the ancient
religion and swept it free from pagan and Moslem
superstition and error and from the mixture of local
customs and rites which had been assimilated in the
course of centuries of profound ignorance.
Although some persecutions of the Jews undoubtedly
went on from time to time in the town of TripoU and
other parts of the country, they were far better treated
there than in Morocco. In the year 1817, the Jewish
population of the port was estimated at 2,000 souls,
who possessed three synagogues. " There are about
thirty of them who are considered to be in good cir-
cumstances ; the others are workmen, goldsmiths,
etc. ". The trade with Europe " is almost entirely in
their hands ; they correspond with Marseilles, Leghorn,
Venice, Trieste and Malta ".^ The Jewish quarter
was shut up every evening at sunset, and during the
period when the Marabouts held their annual festival
the Jews were not allowed to walk about in the streets.
One of the works written about this period relates that
during the author's visit a Uttle Jewish boy who had
been unwise enough to go out was killed by the Mara-
bouts or their followers. With regard to costume, the
^ Jackson, Algiers : being a Complete Picture of the Barbary
States.
71
The Jews of Africa
use of gaudy clothes appears to have been forbidden to
the Jews, but in other respects the attire adopted was
not very different from that of the other sections of
the population. Their turbans, however, had to be
made of a blue material, and the Mohammedans, of
course, avoided the use of this colour in their head-
dress. Men had to restrict themselves to black slippers,
but women could wear either black or yellow slippers,
but were not allowed to use boots. " The garb of the
Jewish women varies but little from that of the Mos-
lems ; their full dress is exactly the same, but the walk-
ing dress, instead of showing one eye, exhibits both" ^
In the course of his expedition. Captain Lyon paid a
visit to the Gharian Mountains, and reported that at
that period, there were many Jews living in these
highlands, " whose dwelHngs are much cleaner and
better excavated than those of the Arabs, and are
also neatly whitewashed. These people as in Tripoli
are the only handicraftsmen, and seem here to be
rather better treated than elsewhere ". They " are
employed to weigh and prepare the Bey's share (of
the harvest), and are well paid by the Arabs, in order
that they may give short measure ; for although using
false weights is by the law of Mohammed a heinous
crime, yet they fancy the sin is not incurred if the Jews
defraud for them ".^ Many writers on Tripoh have
* Lyon, Travels in Northern Africa.
72
Tripoli (continued)
asserted that executions are not allowed to be per-
formed by Mohammedans, " a sufficient number of
Jews being always kept in reserve to discharge this
public duty ".^ Captain Lyon remarks that the
" Moors of Tripoli are never employed as hangmen ;
but the first Jew who happens to be at hand has that
office conferred upon him ", but there appears to be no
evidence of the antiquity or otherwise of this custom. 2
During the years 182 1 and 1822 an expedition was
formed to explore the northern coast of Africa from
Tripoh eastward, and in their narrative of this expe-
dition, Captain F. W. Beechey and Mr. H. W. Beechey
give some particulars of the Jews of Tripoli at this
period. In the course of their travels they visited an
ancient port named Zeliten, the centre of a group of
villages in which " a very considerable part of the
population " was Jewish. They reported that they
" were informed that the manufactures of the place
are chiefly in the hands of these people ; we found
them uniformly civil, obliging, and industrious, and
although much persecuted by the Mohammetan
inhabitants, they appear to support their ill-fortune
contentedly ". Another place visited was Hudia,
distinguished by its wells, and they were told that the
Arabs had given the locality this name " in con-
1 Russell, History and Present Conditioft of the Barbary States.
2 Travels in Northern Africa,
73
The Jews of Africa
sequence of the bad water usually found there, and
which they consider to be only fit for Jews ; the Arab
term for a Jew being Hudi ". . . . The authors,
however, did not beheve in the Arab explanation of the
name of the place. ^ They pointed out that the Jews
were formerly very numerous in the PentapoHs,^ and
we find them described by Procopius as having once
inhabited the country on its western extremity.
Hudia may in such case be the last settlement they
possessed in this neighbourhood, and the place may
very pr'obably have received its appellation from that
circumstance.
On arriving at Benghazi, the writers ascertained that
the town contained about 2,000 inhabitants, a large
proportion of whom were Jews. They were " a
persecuted race, but uniformly steady in their pursuit
after riches . . . they are . . . the principal mer-
chants and tradesmen of the place, and their well
directed and unremitting industry alone enables them
to meet the heavy exactions which are made upon
their purses and property by the adherents to the
religion of the Prophet. Their houses are generally
cleaner and better furnished than those of most of the
Mohammetans, and we never entered any of them
^ See Note II, p. 79. ' Appolonia. Arsinoe, Berenice, Cyrene,
and Ptolemais. Five cities in the district of Cyrenaica in Northern
Africa. Vide Jewish Ev cyclopedia, vol. ix, p. 589.
74
Tripoli (continued)
without finding the whole family employed in some
useful occupation. We found them invariably civil
and obliging, and apparently contented with their
condition . . . the ' fierce impatience ' which formerly
characterized the Jews of the Cyrenaica has disappeared
with the probability of its being successfully exerted ;
and poverty is now almost the only evil to which they
will not quietly submit ".^
A later visitor to Benghazi, James Hamilton, states
*' there are Jews here, into whose hands most of the
less laborious trades have fallen, as is usual in all
countries, especially in the East. . . They are ready
to turn their hands to anything, but after showing
themselves serviceable as may be, ask prices equal to
about ten times what would be demanded in Bond
Street. ... It must be confessed in favour of the
Jews, that if their filth and ignorance equal those of
their brethren in all these countries, they are not
behind them in industry. They are the only hard
workers in the place. . . . One of the community, who
by a series of most ingenious manoeuvres has contrived
to obtain EngHsh protection ... is now broker to
the Vice-Consulate ".^
Benjamin II, travelling in Tripoli in the middle of
* F. W. and H. W. Beech ey, Expedition to Explore the Northern
Coast of Africa, from Tripoly Eastward. 2 James Hamilton,
Wanderings in North Africa.
75
The Jews of Africa
the nineteenth century, found that the Jews Hved there
" free and happily . . . they carry on a considerable
trade, and are mostly very rich ". The Community
numbered " about i,ooo families ", and possessed
eight synagogues. Many of the Jews " dress in the
same fashion as in Tunis, others in the fashion of
Algiers, and many others wear a peculiar costume
consisting of a long garment reaching to the knees, a
short burnon (burnouse), white trousers reaching to the
knees, and red shoes. The women wear for head-dress
a red fez, wound round with a silk kerchief and beauti-
fully ornamented in different ways. To this is added
a long garment and a wide shawl hanging from the
head, thrown gracefully round the upper part of the
body. They wear slippers but no stockings, their
hands and feet are covered with gold and silver rings,
the nails painted red and the eyebrows black ".
An interesting account of the Jews of TripoH in the
last quarter of the nineteenth century is afforded by
Mr. Edward Rae, who travelled through '' The Country
of the Moors " at this period. He states that the
Jewish population was still estimated at 2,000, the
same number computed by Jackson sixty years
previously. The Jewish Quarter is near the Bab el
Djedid, or New Gate, and many of its inhabitants are
engaged in the manufacture of ivory and silver inlays
for the adornment of rifles and more peaceful articles
76
Tripoli (continued)
of domestic use. Mr. Rae employed a Jewish money-
changer, whose brother received him " in a pretty and
picturesque dwelling of the Jewish-Moorish type. We
were very hospitably entertained with brandy and
sweetmeats, of which, understanding it was good
breeding to do so, we ate large quantities. We passed
along the Har el Kebir, the chief street of the Jews'
quarter, and entered the Synagogue. Such a dis-
orderly, noisy, irreverent congregation, with its forest
of dark blue turbans, I have never seen. One of the
rabbis read from the Hebrew scriptures while the
conversation was animated and general. ..." The
Jews of the town were stated to be very charitable,
" and in every commercial transaction one in every
thousand of value is set aside for the poor ".
This author is responsible for a very curious state-
ment, which is, however, uncorroborated by any other
writer on Tripoli and the Tripolitans. In describing
a visit to the Jews' Quarter, which, at that time, could
be seen from a considerable distance in consequence of
an extremely lofty palm tree, he observes, " We came
to a square of waste ground, a dirty, ill-drained area.
It had a melancholy interest, for many a poor Jewess,
who had been unfaithful to her husband, was stoned to
death here. Banishment, of late years, has taken the
place of stoning ".^ It seems hardly probable that
* Rae, The Country of the Moors.
77
The Jews of Africa
this stern relict of the Mosaic Code could have survived
the period of the dispersion, and it seems questionable
whether the local authorities would have permitted
the infliction of so drastic a punishment. Above all,
unfaithfulness is an extremely rare offence among
Jewish women, especially those unaffected or but
little affected by European culture, and it is unHkely
that those of Tripoli should have proved an exception
to the universal rule. It is probable that the author
misunderstood his informant and that the place in
question served some other purpose.
Writing in the first decade of the twentieth century,
M. Slousch remarks that in the Djebel Nefoussi
country " the Jewish woman is absolutely free, and on
an equality with the man. She is the worthy relative
of the Hellenist Jewess, knowing how to defend her
rights, against all intrusions of Judaeo-Arabic customs
in force in the maritime oases, with a spirit of indepen-
dence which is truly characteristic ".^ At this period,
the Jews of the town of Tripoli numbered 12,000
people, out of a total population of 40,000. The
city contained eighteen synagogues, and several
others were distributed in the other towns of the
country. 2
* Voyage d'J^tudes Juives en Afrique. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol. xii, p. 262.
78
Tripoli {continued)
Notes
I. " The thousands whom Ptolemy Soter took from
their homes after he had subdued Judea were settled
by him in comfort and happiness at Alexandria and
Cyrene, as equal citizens with the Macedonians
patronized by him and his son, and allowed the free
exercise of their religion ; they were assisted, too, by
money and privileges in the pursuits of industry, so
that many of their countrymen followed voluntarily,
and all were raised to opulence and consideration". ^
II. Despite the opinions of the Beecheys, it would
seem probable that the word *' Hudia " signifies that
there is some defect in the quahty of the water. In
Frederick Horneman's journal he mentions " Jahudie,"
and informs his readers that it was so called " because
the water is bad, or other water is not to be found ".
The place is marked as Biltoradec on Horneman's
map, " Jahudie " being a second name for this inland
village or district, which is in Egypt, while " Hudia "
is on the Tripolitan Coast about five hundred miles
west of " Jahudie ".
1 See Note in " History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," by Edward Gibbon. Bohn's Edition, Vol. I, p. 35.
79
CHAPTER VIII
TUNISIA
The Jews of Carthage — The Early Spanish Refugees — The
Foundation of Kairwan — The Arab Domination — The
Spanish Occupation — Joseph Ha-Cohen's Account — The
Spaniards Expelled — The Deys and the Beys — French
Influence and its Effects — ^The Jews under the French
■ Regency.
THERE is an old tradition among the nomadic
tribes of Tunisia, that the Jews settled in
the country before the destruction of the
First Temple, and although this statement has been
sometimes regarded as unfounded,^ there can be Httle
doubt that a colony of Jews existed in Carthage soon
after the building of the city. The First Temple at
Jerusalem was erected circa 1004 B.C., and Josephus
maintains that Carthage was founded 143 years later,
circa 861 B.C., while other computations of the date
range from 878 B.C. to 826 B.C. As the First Temple
was not destroyed until 587 B.C., it is quite possible
that the Moslem legend may, after all, be correct. It
is impossible, however, even to conjecture what the
Jewish population of Carthage may have been, when
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 271.
80
Tunisia
that renowned city and republic challenged the
Roman Empire for the mastership of the world. In
recent times, a Jewish necropolis with many inscrip-
tions in Latin and Hebrew has been discovered to the
north of the site of the city near the hill Gamart, and
although this ancient rock-hewn cemetery only con-
tains about two hundred tombs, there may have been
other Jewish burying-places in the vicinity. " Modern
scholars are inclined to identify the Biblical Tarshish
with Carthage, since it is thus translated in the Septua-
gint, the Targum, and the Vulgate ",^ and the Talmud
particularly mentions some erudite Carthaginian
teachers of the Law. Nevertheless, in all probabihty,
the Jews did not arrive in Carthage in any numbers
imtil after the destruction of the Second Temple, and
little or nothing is heard of them in the accounts of
Hannibal's campaigns. There seems, however, Httle
doubt that " after the dissolution of the Jewish State,
a great number of Jews was sent by Titus to Maure-
tania, and many of these settled in Tunis. These
settlers were engaged in agriculture, cattle-raising, and
trades. They were divided into clans or tribes,
governed by their respective heads, and had to pay the
Romans a capitation tax of two shekels ",^ The
Carthaginian Jews were more content under Roman
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol iii, p. 594. * Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol. xii, p. 271.
81
The Jews of Africa
rule than were their co-religionists in the adjacent
state now known as Tripoli. They gradually increased
in numbers, and when the Vandals conquered the
country in the year 439 a.d., the Jews were treated
with much moderation.
The Byzantines, having subdued the Vandals, took
possession of the country, in 534, the armies of the
Emperor Justinian being led by the renowned general
BeUsarius. The status of the Jews was altogether
changed by the advent of their new rulers, and very
probably many of the Tunisian Jews fled to the
mountains of Tripoh and took refuge with the Berber
tribes in order to escape the cruelties of the " Emperor
of the East ". A century later, the Jewish population
was augmented by the arrival of numerous former
residents of Spain who fled from the persecution of the
Visigoths, and certain of these immigrants also mingled
with the Berbers who are supposed to have been con-
verted to Judaism about this period. Then came the
Arab invasion of Northern and Western Africa of circa
644 A.D., together with the arrival of the Arabian Jews,
and Tunis and other Tunisian cities soon contained a
very large number of Israelites by race or adoption.
About the year 670, the important town of Kairwan
was founded by Ubka ibn Nafi. It rapidly acquired
a large Jewish population, drawn from Egyptian,
Arabian, and Cyrenia sources. In the subsequent
warfare for Tunisian independence which ensued
82
Tunisia
between Imman Idris and the Caliphs of Bagdad, the
majority of the Jews took the side of the CaUphs.
Their party was unsuccessful, and the conqueror made
them suffer severely for their defection. For a time,
their influence in the country waned under Imman
Idris' rule, but under the Fatimites they again in-
creased in power and numbers, notwithstanding the
terrible decrees of Omar (see p. 92). They once more
took part in the politics of the country, and their
political importance from the end of the eighth to the
commencement of the eleventh centuries extended
throughout Tunisia and more particularly in Kairwan.
With the accession of the Zirite dynasty, circa 10 16,
another regime of persecution set in for the Jews who
suffered considerably in Kairwan, whence many fled to
Tunis, where the oppression was less violent. But in
the next century, the Jewish inhabitants of Tunis had
their own turn of misfortune under the Almohade
dynasty, when determined attempts were made to
convert them to Mohammedanism. Matters settled
down again" about the middle of the twelfth century,
when the Jews of Tunis had a quarter in the city
allotted to them for a ghetto, and, " under the Hafsite
dynasty, which was established in 1236, the condition
of the Jews greatly improved".^ In the year 1270,
however, Kairwan was proclaimed a holy city and the
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 273.
83 G
The Jews of Africa
Jews of that town as well as those residing at Hammat
were required either to leave, or abandon their faith ;
some preferred the latter course, and nominally
embraced Islam. ^
Shortly after the commencement of the fourteenth
century, a Jewish official, bearing the title of " caid ",
was appointed by the Tunisian authorities to the post
of Receiver of Government taxes. At this period, the
Jews in the country had to pay a communal tax, for
the benefit of the Jewish Community, to which every
member contributed according to his means. He had
also to pay a personal or capitation tax, for which all
classes of the inhabitants were liable. In addition,
" every Jewish tradesman and industrial had to pay
an annual tax to the guild to which his trade or
industry belonged ".^ Nevertheless, despite all these
exactions and taxes, the commerce of the country
was, in the main, in the hands of the Jews, who
appear, however, to have been treated more cruelly
in Tunisia during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries than in any other of the North African
States.
It has been stated, that it was " long enough before
the Jews enjoyed ... an existence worthy of human
dignity " in Tunisia. " Centuries of the greatest
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. vii, p. 416. « Ibid. Vol. xii, p. 273.
84
Tunisia
misery and of the most cruel oppression have succeeded
in bending them, but with the toughness peculiar to
their race, they have revived since they share the
rights and liberties of the hereditary people "^ As a
matter of fact, the condition of the Jews during those
tvv'o centuries was such that while refugees from Spain
and Portugal flocked into Algiers and Morocco, they
avoided Tunisia, and this may possibly account for the
few Jewish personages of note who are known to have
resided there daring this period. Nevertheless, the
Jews of Tunisia were empowered to conduct their own
affairs, and they held their own courts and administered
justice after their own rules. But the Jewish financiers,
the learned rabbis, and the great Jewish scholars, who
came in the train of the fugitives from the Iberian
Peninsula kept aloof from the kingdoms of Tunisia and
TripoU. Matters did not improve in the first three
quarters of the sixteenth century. During the wars
under the Arabian Prince Hascen, who had first
conquered the country and then suffered defeat at
the hands of Barbarossa's troops, the assistance of
Charles V of Spain was invoked by the defeated
ruler of Tunisia. The Spanish potentate sent a
powerful army to Africa, which, after two engage-
ments with Barbarossa's armies, took possession
1 Hesse-Wartegg, Tunis : The Land and the People.
85
The Jews of Africa
of Tunis and re-established Hascen on the throne as a
vassal of Spain. The Jewish author, Joseph Ha-
Cohen, published (1575) an interesting description of
the results of this campaign so far as the Jewish
population of Tunisia was concerned.
" The Emperor Charles marched against Tunis in
Barbary and took possession of it on the 21st of July
of the year 5295 (1535) and Tunis was deprived of all
its glory. The Jews were in great numbers there ;
some of them took flight to the desert, where they were
consumed by hunger and thirst, and reduced to the
last extremity of distress ; they were despoiled of all
they had brought with them by the Arabs, and many
of them subsequently perished ; others were massacred
by Christians who fell on them in an attack from the
town ; others again were carried into captivity by the
conquerors without anyone coming to their aid in this
day of divine wrath. Rabbi Abraham of Tunis has
written a description of the sufferings they endured,
and expresses himself on this subject as follows :
* Here we were literally swallowed up ; the sword
devoured us ; elsewhere they died of hunger and
thirst, but what can we do ? It is God's will ; if he has
decreed that I shall die, I shall hope for nothing less.'
Thus far Rabbi Abraham. They were sold — men and
women — as slaves, to various countries ; but at
Naples and Genoa the Italian Communities ransomed
86
Tunisia
a great number of them. God had intervened on their
behalf ".1
The Spanish domination of Tunis lasted from the
year 1535 to the year 1574, and was marked by the
cruelty and oppression which made Spain a by-word
throughout the world for despotism, barbarity, and
bigotry. The hatred felt for the Spaniards in Europe,
Africa, and America, at this period, was most intense
and fully deserved, and a thrill of reUef must have
been felt when the redoubtable Selim II swept them
from Africa, a few years before their Armada was
destroyed by the British. During the Spanish regime
the Jews suffered severely in Tunis and other seaports
in the country, but it is curious to observe that some
centuries later, resident Jews of Tunis and other towns
placed themselves under the protection of the Spanish
among other Consuls, " and so escaped the power and
jurisdiction of the Bey and his ministers. This is the
reason that some of the Consulates in Tunis count
their subjects or proteges by hundreds, and even
thousands, amongst the Tunisian Jews ".^
Under direct Turkish Government and the sub-
sequent semi-autonomous rule of the Tunisians, the
Jews enjoyed " a fair amount of security, being prac-
tically guaranteed the free exercise of their religion,
1 Joseph Ha-Cohen, La ValUe des Pleurs. 2 Hesse- Wartegg,
Tunis : The Land and the People.
8/
The Jews of Africa
and liberty to administer their own affairs. They
were, however, always exposed to the caprices of
princes, and to outbursts of popular fanaticism ".^
Notwithstanding the disturbed state of the country,
under the rule of the Turkish Deys, and the Tunisian
Beys, the Jews prospered amid the perpetual struggles
for supremacy. Early in the seventeenth century the
Jewish community was greatly augmented by the
arrival of a large number of Italian Jewish colonists.
The newcomers, at first, joined the Spanish and
Portuguese Communities, but later, at the end of the
seventeenth century, they established their own con-
gregation and communal institutions. In the year
1705, the Bey, Hussein Ben Ali, became the indepen-
dent ruler of Tunisia, and from this period the position
of the Jews steadily improved, and despite the op-
pression and suffering with which they had to contend,
they were the principal business men of the country
and exercised considerable influence, notwithstand-
ing the ostensible contempt with which many of
them were treated. A celebrated Jewish traveller
who visited Tunis in 1772, tells of the influence
which the Jewish Caid, Solomon Nataf, wielded
at the Tunisian Court, and many authorities allude
to the important status of the Jews of the
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 274.
Tunisia
country in financial and commercial matters at this
period.
Shortly after the middle of the nineteenth century,
the Jews of Tunisia obtained rights equal to those of
the other inhabitants of the country, mainly through
the intervention of the Emperor Napoleon III, who,
after two years of diplomatic negotiation, sent a French
man-of-war to enforce the demands of the French
Government for the enfranchisement of the Jews.
" The Constitution under which these rights were
secured was abrogated in 1864 in consequence of a
revolution which entailed great suffering on several
Jewish communities ",^ but in the year 1881, Tunisia
became a dependancy of France and the Jews now
possess full civil and reUgious Hberty.
When Benjamin II visited the city of Tunis in the
year 1853, he estimated the Jewish population to be
about 16,000, but by the commencement of the
twentieth century their numbers had nearly doubled,
while the total number of Jews in the regency was
estimated (1918) at 65,213 souls.
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 274.
89
CHAPTER IX
TUNISIA (continued)
The Jewish Necropolis at Carthage — The Ordinances of
Omar — Jerba and Kairwan — Maimonides — A Jewish Cor-
sair— ^The Jews under the Turks — Mordecai M. Noah —
Benjamin II on Tunisian Attire — Wingfield's Remarks —
Tunis in the Twentieth Century.
THE early advent of the Jews in the country
now known as Tunisia was conclusively
proved by the discovery of the ancient
Israelite cemetery in the Gamart Hills in the vicinity
of the city of Tunis, in close proximity to the site of
Carthage. It has been suggested that the rock tombs
there brought to light had been hewn according to the
regulations laid down for their construction by Jewish
tradition, while the fragments of Hebrew inscriptions
fully determined their origin, which was further em-
phasized by frequent representations of the seven-
branched candlestick, although most of the inscriptions
were in the Latin language.^ These tombs were
richly adorned with mural decorations in relief and
fresco, but they contained no vessels or furniture
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. iii, p. 617.
90
Tunisia (continued)
except lamps. The embellishments served to indicate
that the Jews of Carthage were both wealthy and
artistic, while the small number of tombs suggest a
small Jewish population. This possibly consisted of a
number of merchants whose ancestors had embarked
in oversea traffic when Solomon, King of Israel, laid
the foundations of maritime commerce with Phoenicia
and Northern Africa, and who had perhaps settled in
Carthage not long after the city was founded. It may
therefore be conjectured, perhaps with justification,
that some of the present Jewish inhabitants of Tunisia
are descended from ancient settlers in Carthage, while
others may claim as ancestors the Jews who migrated
there before the country was conquered by the Arabs.
Many of these early, and indeed almost aboriginal,
colonists had undoubtedly eventually to embrace the
Mohammedan faith, and their descendants are still
devotees of that religion, but others have in all pro-
bability remained true to the more ancient faith, from
generation to generation, until the present day.^
Others, again, like the Jews in the island of Jerba, have
become tainted with Mohammedan superstition, and
have assimilated certain rehgious practices and customs
foreign to Judaism.
When Tunisia was conquered by the Arabs in the
middle of the seventh century, the Jews came under
* Elis^e Reclus, Universal Geography, vol. ii : North-West Africa.
91
The Jews of Africa
the enactments laid down by Omar I, who reigned from
634 to 644 A.D., which were formulated to differentiate
between the Jews and the Christians on the one hand,
and the Mohammedans on the other. The provisions
dealt with taxes, places of worship, attire, cemeteries,
festal processions, free entertainment of Moslem
travellers, and many other matters. Neither Jew nor
Christian could hold an official position in the state ;
they were not allowed to enter a mosque, indulge in
singing, or ride on horseback. Many of these rules,
however, were not strictly enforced, but some of them
were in practice as late as the establishment of the
French Regency in the nineteenth century. About the
end of the eighth century, the Jews rebelled against
the power of Imam Idris, but being subdued, had to
pay him a capitation tax and to furnish a certain
number of Jewish virgins annually for his harem. A
large body of the community, however, refused to
accede to the demands of their conqueror and fled to
the island of Jerba where their movements and their
doings were less subject to his control. The remainder
of the Jewish population lost a good deal of their power
and influence for the time being, and tribes which
formerly inhabited the country districts found it safer
to seek protection in the larger towns and exchange
their agricultural and farming occupations for com-
merce. In this way Kairwan and other important
92
Tunisia (continued)
centres in Tunisia received a considerable addition to
their Jewish population which had previously been
diminished by the exodus to Jerba and by other
causes. After the death of Imam Idris, the Kairwan
Jews attained to prosperity, and the community began
to acquire high repute among the Jews of the East-
Many important institutions centred round the Syna-
gogue, the supporters of which found money to ransom
Jewish captives, and to contribute to the upkeep of
Jewish universities. Jewish chroniclers speak of the
" great scholars of Kairwan " who kept up an active
correspondence with the geonim ^ of Babylon. Part of
this correspondence has been discovered, and these
letters throw a certain amount of light upon the
intellectual activities of the city. The study of the
Talmud and of the related literature was highly
developed in Kairwan, and some of the heads of the
College and other resident scholars became famous
among the Talmudic authorities of this Period. ^
Until the middle of the eleventh century, the Jewish
Academy at Kairwan was an important centre of
religious and literary activity, but soon after the death
of the famous scholars Hananeel and Nissim (circa
1050) the college fell into decay. About this time the
general community was suffering severely from the
1 [The heads of the famous Jewish Academies.] * Jewish
Encyclopedia, vol. vii.
93
The Jews of Africa
effects of the raids of the Bedouin, and a large portion
of the Jewish population fled to Tunis. The im-
portance of Kairwan as a Jewish centre thereupon
rapidly declined, and has never revived.
Somewhere about the year 1165, Maimonides visited
the island of Jerba, when he was on his way to Egypt
where he eventually settled. He seems to have formed
a very poor opinion of the Jewish inhabitants, and,
indeed, of the Jews in general who were resident in
North- West Africa. His views have been preserved
in the form of a letter to his son in which he wrote :
" Beware of the inhabitants of the West, of the country
called Gerba, of the Barbary States. The intellect of
these people is very dull and heavy. As a rule beware
always of the inhabitants of Africa from Tunis to
Alexandria ; and also of those who inhabit the Barbary
coasts. In my opinion they are more ignorant than
the rest of mankind " . . . . ^ Possibly the great Jewish
philosopher was adversely prejudiced against his
North African co-religionists by their failure, for the
most part, to practise many of the precepts of Rab-
binical Judaism, coupled with their assimilation of
many local rehgious customs and superstitions. On
the other hand, these Jews scrupulously observed all
the first days of the principal Jewish festivals, and
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 272.
94
Tunisia (continued)
although they ignored the minor feast of Purim, they
duly celebrated the festival of Hanucah.
At first the Jewish inhabitants of Tunis were not
allowed to live in the city proper, but the ghetto, or
" Hira ", became their headquarters. After the pro-
clamation of Kairwan as a holy city, Jews were not
allowed to sleep even a single night in the town and
they could only visit it by day by the special permission
of the governor. Little information is available
respecting the Jews of Tunisia in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, although all authorities agree that
they were severely persecuted at that period. Few
travellers mention anything of them, and there are
not many Jewish writers or scholars of importance who
left accounts of their experiences in Tunisia. The
communal affairs were directed by a council, which
was presumably nominated by the Jewish Caid, who
was himself appointed by the government and whose
authority was supreme. He chose not only the
council, but also the rabbis, and no rabbinical decision
was held to be legal until it had received his sanction.
The duties of the Council included the administration
of law and justice among the Jews, the collection of
their taxes, and the settlement of their local dis-
putes. ^ When Barbarossa contended with the Em-
peror Charles V for the possession of Tunisia, he
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 273.
95
The Jews of Africa
entrusted the command of the garrison of Tunis to an
old friend of his named Sinan Rais, a renegade Jew of
Smyrna. Sinan had, at all events ostensibly, adopted
the creed of the Prophet, and he was admitted to have
been one of the boldest and most experienced of all the
leaders under Barbarossa's banner. His courage and
talents, however, did not avail on this occasion, as
Tunis was taken by storm on July 25th, 1535. It is
stated that Sinan used his influence with Barbarossa in
preventing the massacre of the 7,000 (some authorities
say 22,000) slaves who were shut up in the citadel.
The old corsair must have favourably impressed
Charles V, as nine years later the Emperor requested
Apiano, the governor or prince of Elba, to release
Sinan's son, who was in slavery on the island. Apiano
made some excuses, in consequence of which Elba was
raided by the commander of the Emperor's ships,
whereupon the youth was released, and it was reported
that '* his Father no sooner saw him, but he dropped
down dead thro' excess of joy and surprize ".^
Although the Jews of Tunisia experienced great
relief after the expulsion of the Spaniards, in many
respects their position was by no means enviable.
Nevertheless they felt great joy when the cruel op-
pressors who had driven them from Spain over a century
1 Morgan, History of Algiers. Sinan is sometimes alluded to as
" Chef out Sinan Rais ", Chef out meaning " The Jew ".
^6
Tunisia (continued)
and a half previously, and who had then persecuted
them atrociously in their new home for nearly forty
years, were driven out of Tunisia after their ignomin-
ious defeat by the Turks under Selim II. The Jews
had, however, to submit to all kinds of sartorial
regulations, and were obliged to wear a special costume
consisting of a blue frock with linen sleeves, wide
linen drawers, black slippers, and skull caps. They
were allowed to wear stockings only in winter, and to
ride only on asses or mules, and then without a saddle.
Subordinate officials imposed all kinds of tasks upon
them which they were compelled to execute without
any compensation. ^ Custom became with them, not
surprisingly, second nature, and when all the regulations
with regard to costume were withdrawn after the
French occupation, many of the Jews had become so
accustomed, perhaps even attached, to the obligatory
attire, as to neglect to exercise their liberty with
respect to their clothing until a considerable period had
elapsed.^
After the establishment of Turkish domination, the
position of the Jews in Tunisia gradually improved.
The advent of the Italian Jewish colonists brought a
class of Jews to the community which had hitherto
been denied them owing to the unwillingness of the
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii, p. 274. * Hesse-Wartegg
Tunis : Land and People.
97
The Jews of Africa
Spanish and Portuguese Jews to settle in the country,
and in the middle of the eighteenth century the older
congregation combined with the later arrivals in joint
support of the communal burdens. By degrees,
scholars and prominent rabbis began to settle in the
country, and with the rise of intellectual conditions,
poHtical progress once more began to make headway.
Travellers began to note the activity of the Jews in
commercial matters, and the influence of the im-
migrants from Leghorn eventually secured the trade
with Italy to the Tunisian Jews. When Jackson
visited the country in 1817 he reported that the Jews
had practically monopoUzed the trade with Italy and
exported the same sort of goods to that country as were
shipped to France.^
A few years previously, the United States Consul to
Tunis, Mordecai Manuel Noah, a prominent American
Jewish politician and philanthropist, sent an extremely
interesting report on the condition of the Tunisian
Jews to the Washington Government. He maintained
that in spite of some apparent oppression, the Jews
were among the leading people in Tunis. They were
at the head of the customs, they farmed the revenues,
and they guarded the Bey's money and valuables,
being his treasurers, secretaries, and interpreters.
* Algiers, . . . The Barbary States.
98
Tunisia (continued)
They were prominent in art, science, and medicine,
and possessed so much influence, that the public
functionaries were loth to incur their hostility and
cultivated their alliance and their friendship. ^ Ben-
jamin II arrived at Tunis soon after the middle of the
nineteenth century, and ascertained that some of the
Jewish inhabitants were very rich, counting even, as
he said, millionaires among them. Many held govern-
ment appointments. The Government allowed the
Jews every privilege, but they suffered at times from
the fanaticism of the Arabs. Most of them still dwelt
in the Jewish quarter or Mellah, although they had
no need to confine themselves to that part of the
town. By this time some of the men had adopted
European dress while others had modified the old
regulation costume. The women of the wealthier
classes showed much extravagance in their attire.
They wore " a folded garment and wide trousers of silk,
and satin, which are quite tight from the knee, and
ornamented with rich embroideries of gold and silver.
Over all this they put on a kind of silk tunic without
sleeves, reaching as far as the knee, composed generally
of two different coloured kinds of stuff. They cover
their head with a fez, round which is wound a silk
kerchief, with the ends hanging down. They Hkewise
* Travels in England, etc.
99 H
The Jews of Africa
wear stockings and shoes. Upon their trousers, in
particular, great extravagance is lavished ; and I was
told that they often cost the rich from 400 to 500 reals.
The married women wear round the waist a kind of
girdle. . . . They are generally very beautiful, rather
stout, and in their beauty resemble their sisters in
Bagdad. . . . The ladies of Tunis are more corpulent.
The Bagdad ladies are very industrious, while it is
quite the contrary with those in Tunis. In Tunis as
well as Bagdad the girls marry from the age of thirteen
and upwards ".^ Benjamin gives some description of
the curious superstitions and superstitious customs of
the Tunisian Jews, some of which were practised by the
women but concealed from the men. He mentions
that in the city of Tunis alone there were four large
s5niagogues and over fifty smaller ones. He also gives
a description of the Jews in the other towns in Tunisia,
some of which had very important communities, and
of the Jewish inhabitants of the country districts.
Much interesting information respecting the Jews of
Tunisia is afforded in a work written by the Hon.
Lewis Wingfield, who travelled in the country some
thirteen years later than Benjamin H.^ Evidence is
given of the custom of some of the Jews of Spanish
descent of placing themselves under the jurisdiction of
* Eight Years in Asia and Africa. * Wingfield, Under the
Palms in Algeria and Tunis.
100
Tuni sia (continued)
the Spanish Consul, a practice already mentioned. On
one occasion a Spanish official having granted protec-
tion to a certain Jewish family from the extortion of
the Tunisian Government, the authorities came to the
Consul and demanded the surrender of the Jew. The
Spanish Consul refused to give up the man, and
threatened to send for a man-of-war to defend him,
whereupon the Bey withdrew his claim. The Jews
are reported to have had another place of refuge when
in extremity and to have at times sought protection in
the vicinity of certain mosques, which possessed
privileges resembling those of the Savoy and Alsatia
in old London. At this period, the Jewish population
of Tunis was estimated at 20,000, about one-sixth of
the total inhabitants of the city, and the display of
wealth noticeable in the town was put down to the
preponderance of the Jewish inhabitants. They had
acquired from the Bey the exclusive right to manu-
facture wax, which brought them a relatively enormous
income. They were also engaged in distilling brandy,
nominally for their own use, but really for supply to
the Moors and Turks who bought it at a high figure.
The author gives a most amusing description of a
Jewish dance to which he was invited, which affords an
interesting picture of Jewish social Ufe in Tunis at this
period. He describes one of the Jewish dancers as
being " a vision of beauty, lithe and young, with a
loi
The Jews of Africa
warm yellow light shining down upon her : a really
lovely girl of about seventeen, exquisitely made, as we
could easily see through her very scanty raiment, her
great tender eyes shining out . . . from under heavy
eyelashes ".
Wingfield was of the opinion that the garb of the
Jewish women is the same as was worn by the women
of Palestine in the New Testament period. In this
view he is supported by the author of Africa Illustrated,
who states that according to tradition the Jewesses of
Tunis " have preserved the identical costume of the
Hebrews of Scriptural times ". According to this
writer the principal features of this venerable costume
consisted of a pointed cap on the head, a very loose
jacket often richly embroidered, descending to a little
below the waist, tight hose to cover the legs, and
either sHppers or a kind of Hessian boot with tassels. ^
About the year 1876, when Edward Rae travelled
to Kairwan, he found that neither Christians nor Jews
were allowed within its walls. A mile from the town
he came to a Httle village called Dar al Mana— the
House of the Obstacle or Prohibition— beyond which
point Jews were forbidden to approach the city. Rae
evidently found means to enter the city, and discovered,
inter alia, that owing to the absence of Jews and
1 W. R. Smith, Africa Illustrated,
102
Tunisia (continued)
Christians, there was not a silversmith's shop in the
town.^ The liturgy of the Tunisian Jews is in many re-
spects unique in Judaism and is distinct from the Ger-
man and Polish, or the Spanish and Portuguese versions,
while some of the prayers are recited in Arabic. Of
these an example is mentioned by filisee Reclus, who
quotes from Maltzan, who on his part observes that it
" is precisely the one most frequently uttered, and
indeed the only one that the women use ". This
ancient petition beseeches the Lord '* to let loose his
wrath upon Spain, as well as on Ismael, Kedar, and
Edom ".2
According to Hesse- Wartegg the Jews were still
oppressed in Tunisia after the French occupation, and
only succeeded in obtaining full Hberty in the last days
of the nineteenth century. By this time the Jewish
population of Tunis had increased to 30,000, but the
houses in the ghetto were still dingy, dirty, and
dilapidated. The Jews were very observant in
religious matters, and made pilgrimages to Jerusalem
as frequently as the Mohammedans went to Mecca.
The author gives a most interesting and entertaining
account of Jewish life in the Tunisian capital, which is,
however, marked by some obvious errors, for example,
the statement that the young Jewish girls were
» The Country of the Moors. * Universal Geography.
103
The Jews of Africa
fattened by being fed with " the flesh of young dogs ".
He also refers to the tight-fitting hose-like attire
adopted by the Jewish women, and asserts that,
according to some historians, these garments were
part of the dress of the old Biblical Jews.^
At the commencement of the twentieth century the
Jews in Tunisia enjoyed considerable prosperity and
possessed twenty-seven synagogues, some of which are
of considerable size and importance. They are for
the most part engaged in commerce, but a considerable
number follow the liberal professions, while others are
prominent in financial circles. The Island of Jerba
still has a Jewish population of 4,500, and many other
provincial congregations form prosperous and wealthy
communities. 2
1 Tunis : Land and People. * Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xii,
p. 276.
104
CHAPTER X
ALGERIA
The Earliest Arrivals — ^The Jews under the Arabs — Simon Ben
Smia — ^The Arrival of the Spanish Jews — ^The Rise
of Algiers — Misfortunes in Tlemcen — Oran — The
" Gomeyim " — ^The French Occupation — Jewish Civil and
Religious Liberty.
THE existence of certain Jewish epitaphs
discovered in Algeria which are beUeved to
date back to the first or second century of
the Christian era serves to indicate that Jewish
colonists arrived in that part of Northern Africa at an
early period.^ It may be conjectured, therefore, that
after the destruction of the Second Temple, a certain
number of Jewish fugitives found their way to Algeria
as they did to other countries of Northern Africa, but
there is no reason to beUeve that the immigration was
considerable. The advent of the Vandals may have
led to an increase in the Jewish population, for after
the conquest of the country, Justinian legislated for
the Jews, in common with other races who had settled
in Algeria from time to time. Later, as in Tunisia,
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 381.
105
The Jews of Africa
there was a great immigration of Jews from Spain,
whence they had been driven by the persecutions of
the Visigoths, and these new arrivals are said to have
conducted a Jewish propaganda among the native races.
The situation of the Algerian Jews under the Arab
rule varied with the different dynasties and their
individual rulers. On the whole, they prospered, and
there was no serious persecution until the Almohade
line came into power about the middle of the twelfth
century. These fanatical rulers attempted the con-
version of the Jews under their rule, and succeeded in
securing the apparent apostasy of a number of in-
dividuals, while at the same time many others fled
the country. For a considerable period, Algeria was
split up into four smaller states, Tremecen (Tlemcen),
Tenez, Algiers, and Bugia. These diminutive king-
doms were at peace with one another for a lengthy
period, until the King of Tlemcen broke his treaties,
and was conquered by the King of Tenez. ^ During the
era of the quadripartite division of Algeria, the Jews
gradually raised themselves to a situation that was
considerably better than that of their co-rehgionists
in Europe in general and in the Iberian Peninsula
in particular. 2 At the end of the fourteenth century,
the Spanish barbarities caused thousands of Jews to
^ Morell, Algeria. * Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 381.
106
Algeria
flee to Northern Africa, and a large number of these
settled in Algiers, Oran, and the other towns of Algeria.
There they were, on the whole, hospitably received,
being required only to pay a small capitation tax to
the Moslem authorities. Simon Ben Smia or Semia,
who is said by some writers to have been Chief Rabbi
of Seville, has been named in connection with this
settlement (circa 1390). ^ When Ben Smia ''and his
fellow exiles landed on the African Coast, the Rabbi
entreated Sidi-Ben-Jusuf, a celebrated Marabut of
Miliani, for an asylum, which was readily granted ".
The Arab Chief and the Hebrew Rabbi drew up a
formal agreement, guaranteeing the rights of the new-
comers. " The Rabbis of Algiers assured me that this
deed is still kept in the principal synagogue of the
City ".2 Ben Smia succeeded the celebrated Rabbi
Isaac ben Sheshat Barfat (otherwise known as
" Ribash ") as Chief Rabbi of Algeria, in 1408, and
held the office until his death in 1444. He seems to
have been a great leader, a most indefatigable writer^
a physician, a poet, and a learned theologian. The
Duran, or Durand, family, of which he was one of the
most distinguished members, are believed to have
originated in Provence.
* According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, his name was Simon ben
Zemah, Duran I, known under the abbreviation of Rashbaz.
Duran was his family name. ^ jjig Tricolor on the Atlas; or
Algeria and the French Conquest, by Francis Pulsky.
107
The Jews of Africa
At the end of the fifteenth century, the fall of
Granada and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain,
resulted in another great exodus to Algeria, and
according to an old chronicler, " Those who arrived at
Oran were so numerous that the Arabs on seeing their
vessels, thought that enemies were descending upon
them and killed a number ; but afterwards the Moslem
prince took pity on them, and, through the intervention
of an influential Jew of the country named Dodihan,
permitted them to land. He had board cabins erected
outside the city for them and the cattle they brought
with them "^ The newcomers were gradually ab-
sorbed into the older Jewish community, and thus
Arabic continued to be the current speech of the
Algerian Jews, although in Morocco, Spanish eventually
became the dominant language. Large numbers of
the immigrants settled in the city of Algiers, which
had hitherto been a town of somewhat insignificant
importance, and a mere " bone of contention between
the Kings of Tlemcen and Tunis ". When the Turks
took possession of the country, they made Algiers its
capital, and this further attracted Spanish immigra-
tion. The Jews were found useful citizens and were
encouraged to settle. Later they were allotted a
separate quarter of the city, although they were only
permitted to have a certain number of business
^ JewishJEncyclopedia, vol. i, p. 381.
108
Algeria
establishments, and were subjected to special
taxation.^
At the commencement of the sixteenth century the
town of Tlemcen — the ancient Caesaria — was a rich and
populous centre for the Jews, but, according to Leo
Africanus, the Jewish quarter was sacked during the
interregnum which occurred after the death of King
Abuhabdilla (Abu Abd Allah Mohammed) in 1516 a.d.,
and the inhabitants " were all so robbed and spoiled,
that they are now brought almost unto beggarie ".^ In
the same year, Barbarossa, who had been called to the
aid of the King of Algiers against the Spaniards,
treacherously seized the kingdom and then, with the
aid of the chiefs of the adjoining territory, captured
Tlemcen.^ At this period the town had ten large
synagogues, which, however, were not sufficient to
hold all the worshippers who presented themselves.
Leo remarks that they " were in times past all of them
exceedingly rich " — a frequent fable respecting Jews
—but the fatal year, 15 16, appears to have had terrible
consequences, as the old chronicler admits that by the
year 1517, " their number and strength is wonderfully
decreased ".
In the year 1509 the Spanish conquered the province
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 386. * Leo Africanus, History
and Description of Africa. ^ Otherwise known as Tremizen,
Tiemcen, Tlemsen, Telensin.
109
The Jews of Africa
of Oran, and Cardinal Ximenes, who had made use of
the services of a Jew to facilitate the capture of the
territory, severely oppressed the Jews as a mark of his
gratitude. He did not, however, expel them, in spite
of the Inquisition, and they were allowed to exist, if
not within the town of Oran, at all events in its im-
mediate neighbourhood, until the year 1669, when
they were all banished, under Taxardo, who turned the
principal synagogue into a church.
In the other provinces of Algeria, the change from
Arab to Turk domination had considerably improved
the condition of the Jews. They certainly had to put
up with heavy taxation, and the contempt of the
dominant race, but they had the right to manage their
own affairs and their religion was not interfered with,
although these privileges were denied them almost
everywhere else. Nevertheless, at times, their lot
was very bitter, and they were nearly always in the
hands of the Deys, and the Pashas, and sometimes
inferior officials, who occasionally when it suited their
purpose allowed the populace to pillage their houses.
Their fear of the Spaniards and their natural hatred
of Spanish rule was very intense, and when Charles V
suffered his disastrous defeat at the hands of the
Algerines in the year 1541, the joy of the Jews was
unbounded. The rabbis composed prayers, and the
poets wrote poems, to commemorate the misfortunes
no
Algeria
of their hated oppressors, and long after these occur-
rences, the anniversary was observed joyfully in the
Algerian synagogues. During the occupation of the
Kingdom of Tlemcen by the Spaniards, the latter
instituted a persecution of the Jews, in the year 1563,
in the course of which 1,500 Israelites are said to have
been murdered or enslaved. It is not to be wondered
at, therefore, that the Algerian Jews were full of joy
whenever the Turks were victorious over the Spaniards,
despite the fact that their Hves under the Moslems
were by no means always secure, their possessions
immune from robbery, or their fate in general one to
be envied. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the
Emperor Charles V sent Jacob Cansino, a Jew of Oran,
to represent Spain at the court of Morocco, and
descendants of this envoy held the ofhce of Spanish
Consul for more than a century. During all this time,
Jews were expelled from all Spanish territory, with the
exception of Oran, and had the envoy put his foot on
Spanish soil, he would have run the risk of suffering
severe penalties. These and other anomalies have
puzzled students of the Jewish question in Spain, and
it is perhaps as difficult to comprehend the appoint-
ment by the Emperor as it is to understand the accept-
ance of the position by the envoy, after the diabolical
treatment of his co-reUgionists.
At the commencement of the seventeenth century,
III
The Jews of Africa
the city of Algiers had, according to the historian
Haedo, 150 Jewish houses, and, according to another
report, 8,000 Jews. Another authority, Jean Baptiste
Gramaye, asserts in his Africa Illustrata, that " in the
Jews' quarter, the house of Jacob Abum had 300
inhabitants, and that of Abraham Ralhiri 260 ".^
This statement will assist in reconciling the two
preceding ones. Soon after this period, a new colony
of Jews consisting of emigrants from Italy, mainly from
Leghorn, settled in Algeria. They took up their
residence for the most part in the city of Algiers, where
they were called " Gorneyim " by their co-religionists,
and they soon attained great importance as social
economic factors. ^ During the greater part of the
seventeenth century, Algeria was almost continually
at war with either Spain, France, or England, mainly
in consequence of the exploits of the Algerine pirates,
and the cruelty shown by them to their prisoners.
Nothing, or practically nothing, is heard of Jewish
slaves among the victims of these pirates, although it
is improbable that there were not a considerable
nmnber of Jewish prisoners in the vast number of
prizes which they took in the course of their operations.
Whether the Jews were released on their landing or
ransomed by their co-reHgionists, does not appear, and
* Morell, Algeria. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 382.
112
Algeria
it is surprising that the point has not been mentioned
by writers on the Barbary States. By the end of the
seventeenth century, the Jewish population of Algeria
had increased considerably, and in Algiers alone there
were said to be nearly 10,000 Jews. By this time, the
two sections of the community were less distinct, and
there was an admixture of Spanish and Hebrew in the
Arabic language which the Jews used. The " Gor-
neyim ", too, began to make their influence felt,
although, up to this period, they had kept themselves
separate from the other Jewish sections of the com-
munity. Their business activities had considerably
increased, and some of their leading representatives
acted as bankers to the Deys, negotiators between the
Turkish authorities and European powers, and coun-
cillors to the highest officials.
During the eighteenth century, the position of the
Algerine Jews continued to improve, more especially
that of the " Gomeyim ", who had by this time " ac-
quired an ever-increasing importance in the economic
and political life " of the country.^ Their success,
however, was jealously resented by the janizaries, and
these and other discontented sections of the population
fomented a riot, in the course of which the mob at-
tacked the Jewish quarter, killed the principal Jewish
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 386.
The Jews of Africa
banker and other Jews, and destroyed much property.
The Dey seems to have acquiesced in the attacks on the
Jews, who fled for protection to the foreign consuls.
These riotous outbursts took place in the year 1795,
and were supposed to have occurred owing to the
opposition to an internal loan floated by two Jewish
bankers who had previously obtained a monopoly of the
gtain trade. Three years previously, Oran had been
permanently evacuated by the Spaniards, and the
Jews were invited to return to the province where they
were allotted a large tract of land on which they
settled, and built a new town adjacent to the older
part of the city. A letter written by a Dr. Naudi to
the Rev. C. S. Hawtrey, dated October 15th, 1816, gives
a vivid and interesting account of a persecution of the
Algerine Jews which broke out in the year 1804. Dr.
Naudi was a local secretary of the Society for the
Promotion of Christianity among the Jews. His
letter is dated from Malta, but he appears to have been
intimately acquainted with what occurred. He states
that at this period the Jews were nowhere in a better
position in Barbary than they were in Algiers, but that
a violent rebellion broke out in the neighbourhood of
the town, and the Jews were unjustly charged with
participation in the outbreak. " The traitorous
promoters were persons in the government, and nearly
114
Algeria
intimate with the Dey ... but as some of these
gentlemen borrowed money from a merchant Jew,
the Jews were considered as the perpetrators, not-
withstanding they were not concerned at all in the
affair ". The attitude the Dey assumed was, that if
the Jews had not lent the money, the rebellion would
not have ensued, therefore the Jews should be con-
sidered as the true revolutionists. " They were
therefore taken away, tortured, and racked in a variety
of barbarous ways, and made to suffer every kind of
torment, particularly that most terrible one, of being
suspended alive by a long rope on the outside of the
tower walls, having hooked nails thrust into different
parts of the body, often under the chin bone so as to
suspend the body perpendicularly. Several hundreds
lost their lives in this desperate way ; others were
punished by burning, some by stripes ; and the
greater part, by confiscation of their goods and
properties, were reduced to a state of poverty. . . .
This contingency was the cause of great migrations of
the Jewish people from Algiers to other parts of
Barbary, particularly to Tunis. Numbers of the more
religious among them . . . resorted to Palestine and
to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as if the time of
their restoration was at hand ".^
* Perceval Barton Lord, Algiers,
The Jews of Africa
The French expedition to Algiers commenced in the
year 1830, and eventually freed the Algerian Jews from
the cruelties and persecutions carried out under the
Turkish regime. The Israelites welcomed the advent
of the French as a veritable deliverance, " and the
very day after the entrance of the French troops at
Algiers, they became devoted allies of the civilizing
power which made an end of Turkish barbarity in the
country ".^ The services of the Jews were very
useful to their new protectors, and many of the Algerian
Jews joined the French forces, served with ability in
the field, and took a prominent part in the defence of
Oran, which was besieged by Abd-el-Kader in 1833.
With the fall of Constantine, in October 1837, the whole
country passed into the hands of the French, and a
new era opened out for the Jews. It did not follow,
however, that their position was one of absolute
freedom, although they were relieved from the con-
tempt and oppression of the Turks. The adjustment
of the local laws between Jews, Moslems, and Christians,
and the assimilation of the Algerian Jews into the
ranks of the French citizens, was spread over a con-
siderable period. The laws were frequently changed,
and full civil, religious, and political rights were only
obtained in the year 1870, while at the end of the
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 384.
116
Algeria
nineteenth century, an outburst of anti-Semitism in
the provinces resulted in attacks on the Jews in Oran
and other towns, followed by riots in Algiers itself.
The present Jewish population of Algeria in about
65,000, of whom more than 10,000 reside in Algiers,
while important communities exist in Oran, Biskrah,
Constantine, and other places.
117
CHAPTER XI
ALGERIA (continued)
The Almohade Persecutions — ^The Miraculous Voyage of Simon
Ben Smia — Isaac Ben Sheshet — Algerian Jews under the
Turks — D' Aranda's Slavery — The Manumission of Bellinck
— Jewish Funerals — Benjamin II in Algeria — Morell and
Wingfield — The Twentieth Century.
MANY of the inhabitants of Jewish com-
munities in Algeria maintain that their
ancestors settled in North Africa after the
destruction of the Second Temple/ but their claim has
not been substantiated. The ancient sepulchral in-
scriptions relating to Jews which have been discovered
in the country, bear Latin, not Hebrew, names, and
so the presumption that the owners of these names
came from Italy, and not direct from Palestine, is
fairly warranted. Nor is it considered that the number
of Jews who came to Algeria at this period was very
large, " since the proportion of Jewish epitaphs in the
great mass of Latin-Algerian inscriptions is very
small ".2 Practically nothing is known of the life and
habits of these early Jewish settlers, although their
1 See Note I, p. 138. 2 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 381.
118
Algeria (continued)
religious influence among the native races is supposed
to have been very considerable. In fact, one Arabian
ruler considered it his duty to stamp out all traces of
Judaism from his kingdom, in consequence of the
continued conversion of the Berber races to the ancient
faith. The persecutions of the Jews, instituted by Abd
al-Mu'min, in 1146, were carried out by the Almohades
owing to the supposed existence of a myth (" of which
it is impossible to find the least foundation in Moslem
tradition ") ^ that the Prophet had allowed the Jews
religious freedom for 500 years, but that after that
period, they were to be forced — if still unwilHng — to
adopt the faith of Islam. Large numbers of the
persecuted people ostensibly apostatized, but the
Moslems " becoming suspicious of the sincerity of the
new converts, the Almohades, in order to distinguish
them from Moslems of longer standing, obliged them to
wear a special garb ".^
During the years 1390 and 139 1, fearful massacres of
the Jews were enacted throughout the provinces of
Castile, Aragon, and Andalusia in Spain, and in the
Balearic Islands, and thousands of Jewish refugees
made their way to the coast cities of Northern Africa.
Large numbers of the exiles landed at Algiers, Oran,
Bugie, and other cities, and from thence penetrated
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i, p. 381. 2 Ji)i(i_^ vol. i, p. 381.
119
The Jews of Africa
into the interior of Algeria, where they settled with the
permission of the Moslem authorities, and were well
received by their Jewish co-religionists, and by the
population at large. The exodus of the Spanish Jews
to Algeria has been the source of many tales and
legends, among which there is an account of a miracle
which appears to have been firmly beheved in, even in
modern times, by Algerian Jews.^ The story is as
follows : When the persecutions of the Jews in Spain
commenced in the year 1390, Simon Ben Smia, the chief
rabbi of Seville, a man of exalted capacity and great
fortune, was, by the King's order, arrested, and thrown
into prison, together with sixty other heads of Jewish
families, and many of the Moors, who still remained in
Seville. This arbitrarj^ act was followed by a number
of exactions from the Jews and Moors throughout the
Kingdom, and finally, by an order for the execution of
those who were in prison. The night preceding the
day fixed for the execution had arrived, and all his
companions in misfortune were plunged in the deepest
woe, when suddenly Simon, who had been engaged in
fervent prayer, started up, took a piece of charcoal, and
sketched on the wall the figure of a boat ; then turning
to those who wept, " Let all", said he, " who fear
God and wish to leave this place, put a finger as I do,
* Lord, Algiers, with Notices of the Neighbouring States ofBarbary.
120
Algeria (continued)
on this boat ". They all did so, and immediately the
figure became a real boat, commenced motion of its
own accord, passed through the wall, which opened to
allow it to do so, glided through the streets of Seville,
to the great astonishment of all the inhabitants,
without injuring a single house, and directed itself
straight towards the sea, into which it plunged with all
its crew. Still left to its own direction, it continued
its course, until in due time it came to anchor in the
road of Algiers, then inhabited only by Mohammedans —
Moors, and Arabs. The rabbi having sent an embassy
to the Algerines, explaining by what means he had
been brought to tlieir coasts and requesting an asylum
for himself and his companions, was answered that
they could do nothing without consulting the Sidy Ben
Yusef , a famous Marabout, who then resided at Meliana.
Messengers were therefore immediately despatched on
horseback, and the saint's answer proving favourable,
the Algerines, headed by their Chiefs, went out to
receive the strangers, met all their needs, introduced
them into their city, and assigned them lodgings. As
late as the year 1835, when Lord's work on Algiers was
published, this legend was still impHcitly believed in
by Jews of education in Algeria, and when a French
visitor attempted to laugh at the story, in the presence
of a Jew, '* a person of good information and master
121
The Jews of Africa
of many European languages ", he was at once stopped
by the grave reply, " It is an article of our faith".
Ben Smia is said to have entered into a treaty with
the Algerines, and among the conditions of the ad-
mission of the refugees were " the free exercise of their
religion — liberty to build as many temples as they
might require — to engage in commerce, exercise trades,
and make wine and liquors." This treaty, written on
parchment, the rabbis of Algiers say they still possess
and retain among their archives. Nevertheless, its
stipulations were subsequently ignored, and the
condition of the Jews of the country was by no means
satisfactory until the French established their regency
more than four hundred years after the arrival of Ben
Smia and his fellow fugitives. At the time of the
great Spanish exodus to Algeria, among the fugitives
was the famous Rabbi Isaac Ben Sheshet who had been
a resident of Barcelona, and had finally returned to his
birthplace, Valencia. Wlien he arrived in Algiers, in
139 1, he was appointed Chief Rabbi, in the face of
much opposition, in which Ben Smia joined. Ben
Sheshet was much revered by the Algerian Jews, and
pilgrimages to his tomb are still made on the anniver-
sary of his death. When Ben Smia was elected Chief
Rabbi after Ben Sheshet 's death, the community
exacted a promise from him, that he would not, " Hke
his predecessor, have his election confirmed by the
122
Algeria (continued)
regent ". It is stated that much against his will, he
had to receive a salary as he had no other means of
existence, having lost all his property in the Spanish
persecutions. He was much respected in court circles
in Algiers, and on his death was succeeded by his son,
who died in 1467.
The Jews in Algeria under Turkish rule were, to a
certain extent, an ill-used and oppressed people and
suffered from the insolent arrogance of the Moham-
medans of every class, but they nevertheless were in
the possession of some compensations which were
denied to them in many European countries. Although
they were by no means admitted to equal rights with
the Mussulmans, the observance of their manners and
customs was not interfered with. It is true that their
attire was limited to the more sober colours, but this
was to a large extent nominal, for the law was not
observed with strictness, unless some over-ofhcious
official wished to assert himself, or some ostentatious
Israelite decked himself out in clothes which attracted
the cupidity of a not too friendly mob. As a matter
of fact, Jews, in many countries, have preferred to
wear dark-coloured clothes without any legal obligation
to do so. It has been stated that Jewish women were
forced to go with their faces unveiled, but this can
hardly have been a hardship to the daughters of
Israel, with whom veiling has never been a general
123
The Jews of Africa
custom. Jews certainly had extremely heavy taxes
to pay, but their activity in business and the ad-
vantages of their environment for traffic, compensated
them to some extent for the extra imposts for which they
had to provide. It has been observed that the Algerian
Jews are superior in bodily strength to those of Europe.
" Under the sky of Africa . . . the wondrous people
have preserved their special type ; an aquiline nose, a
black beard, a magnificent but deceptive eye, a clear
but colourless complexion. Their appearance is less
scriptural and engaging than the interesting charac-
teristic of the Lithuanian Jews. ... As always where
they muster strong, they engross almost all the com-
merce : bankers, brokers, and agents. . . . Nothing
can be done without them. They attend to all branches
of industry, save agriculture. Active, intriguing, and
versatile, they form a great contrast to the apathy of
the Moors ".^
Ogilby states that they were no better used in
Algeria than in all parts of Christendom. For besides
the imposts levied on them, "it is permitted to every-
one, yea and to the Christians themselves, to offer
them a thousand affronts . . . Free Christians or
Merchants . . . cannot take Lodgings in the Houses
of Turks ; but in those of the Jews they may, who
^ Morell, Algeria.
124
Algeria (continued)
have their quarters assigned them in the City ".^
Nevertheless, Hakluyt observed that " the securest
lodging for a Christian . . . is a Jew's house : the Jew
and his effects being responsible for the damages he
receives ". Ogilby remarks that the coins generally
in circulation were of foreign origin and that " the
Jews have the most Profit and Command of all this
money, being indeed the only Exchangers, for which
they pay an annual Rent to the Bassa ". He says
that the most certain part of the income of the country
was the " Poll Money " of the Jews and the Moors,
which was generally collected from the head of the
family.
Much curious information respecting the Jews in
Algeria in the middle of the seventeenth century can
be gleaned from the pages of a little work entitled
The History of Algiers and its Slavery, by Emanuel
d'Aranda, " sometime a Slave there ". D'Aranda
sailed from St. Sebastian in the year 1640, and was
soon after captured and sold as a slave in Algiers. In
the course of his adventures in the services of his
master (who was AH Pilchini, or Ali Pellegin, Captain
Pasha of the Algerine GalHes and Galeots), he was
shipwrecked near Tetuan, and he mentions that the
Jews, of whom a number were on board, prayed to
1 John Ogilby, Africa.
125
The Jews of Africa
Abraham, Isaac, and Moses. At Tetuan he got
lodgings with a Jew in the Mellah, and finally a Jew
of Ceuta negotiated his ransom between the " Christian
Fathers " and the Governor of Tetuan, and obtained
his freedom in March 1642. Although it would thus
appear that the Jews acted as agents between the
owners of slaves and those treating for their ransom,
they were not themselves permitted to purchase any
Christian slaves or otherwise to hold them. They do
not, however, seem to have been prevented from
purchasing negro or infidel slaves. D'Aranda states
that renegade Jews were not admitted into the army,
" but the Jews who would serve, eating Swine flesh
before they renounce, affirm, that by this means they
are become Christians, and then they renounce with
the same solemnities as are observed by the Christians ".
At the public wells and conduits, " Those who come to
these Conduits for water, take it in their Turns save
onely the Jews, who are to give way to every Slave
who comes after them, and to be served last of all ".^
D'Aranda tells a curious tale of one of the Jewish
slave ransom agents, which depicts the Jew in rather a
more favourable light than is usual by writers on
Algeria : "It happened that having some business
with a Jew, named Pharette, concerning a Bill of
^ Morgan, History of Algiers.
126
Algeria {continued)
Exchange, the Jew asked me whether I knew not a
Dunkirk slave named John Bellinck ? Whereto reply-
ing that I did, the Jew said to me, ' Pray bring me
where he is, I would fain speak with him, for I have
order to redeem him, and send him home to his
country ' ". Later d'Aranda found means to bring
Pharette to Bellinck, and said to the latter : " ' I
bring you good news, this Jew hath order to pay your
ransom '. . . . Bellinck was so surprised at these
words that he cast himself at the feet of the Jew,
saying to him in Dutch : ' Ah, good master Jew,
redeem me for the death and passion-sake of Jesus
Christ ' ". D'Aranda was extremely amused at the
way in which Bellinck expressed himself to a man
holding Pharette's religious views, and " could not
forbear laughing at that compliment, which the Jew
observing, asked me the reason of it ". So he told him
in Spanish what Bellinck had said, whereupon the Jew
also laughed at it, and said to him : " Tell him in your
language that what I intend to do for him shall be
upon no other account than his own ". Pharette had
evidently not been converted to the doctrine of
vicarious atonement.^
A curious seventeenth-century proposal connects
the then newly-established Jewish community in
1 D'Aranda, History of Algiers and its Slavery.
127
The Jews of Africa
London, in the time of Charles II, with the manu-
mission of slaves in Algeria. " A large sum of money
appropriated for the redemption of captives having
been lost, somehow, between the Navy Board and the
Commissioners of Excise, it was gravely proposed,
' That whatever loss or damage the EngUsh shall
sustain from Algerines, shall be required and made
good to the losers out of the estates of the Jews here
in England' ".^
Under the Turkish Administration, the organization
of the Jewish Algerian settlements steadily and
successfully developed. At the head of each com-
munity was an official selected by the Arab or Turkish
governor of the town or district, who was entitled the
mukaddam. This officer was the authorized representa-
tive of the Jews, and " the sole legal intermediary
with the Moslem authorities for all administrative and
financial affairs. He was assisted by a council ap-
pointed by himself, which, apart from its administra-
tion of the general affairs of the community, saw to
the levying and collecting of the taxes imposed on the
Jews of the country ".^ The Rabbinical Tribunal
could inffict penalties and fines, settle matrimonial
questions, and the succession to estates, and could
even sentence culprits to corporal punishment, and
* Christian Slavery in Barbary, p. 29. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol. i, pp. 382-3.
128
Algeria (continued)
these judicial pronouncements and sentences were
carried out by the mukaddam. The general law of the
country was only appealed to when one of the parties
to the suit was not of the Jewish faith. The revenues
of the community were obtained from taxes levied
upon articles of food, prepared according to Jewish
custom by officials selected for such purposes, in
addition to which, collections were made for different
objects four times a year. At this period the Jews
resided in a separate portion of the towns, but in the
country districts, although they lived apart, they were
under the immediate authority of the local sheik,
which rendered their position extremely precarious.
The " native " Jews were quite unprotected, but the
Italian and other foreign protected Jews claimed the
assistance of the consuls of their respective countries
with considerable benefit.
An extremely interesting and instructive account of
the Algerian Jews in the early part of the nineteenth
century is given in Lord's work on Algiers, in the course
of which it is stated " that the influence . . . they
exercise on the government, commerce, and revenues
of the states of Barbary, renders a notice of them
necessary in any work professing to treat of these
several subjects ". Lord paints a rather sombre
picture of the state of the Jews in Algeria, shortly
before the French occupation of the country, but in
129
The Jews of Africa
many respects their services in a business capacity
appear to have been almost indispensable to the other
inhabitants. Much is said of the beauty of the
Jewesses, and one author is quoted as saying of the
Barbary States that " any one who has visited these
countries, will not require to be reminded of the beauty
of the daughters of Israel ". Their dress is thus
described : "A fine linen chemise with long loose
sleeves, and over this a large robe, covering the body,
but leaving the neck and breasts bare : it is made of
cloth or velvet, according to the circumstances of the
wearer, and is embroidered round the edges ; their
petticoat is commonly dark green superfine cloth,
embroidered with gold, and reaching no farther than
the knee, the legs are bare, and the feet thrust into
httle slippers, so small that they just cover the toes
and can scarcely be kept on in walking. Round the
waist they wear a sash of silk and gold, the ends of
which, adorned with little metaUic plates, are suffered
to hang loosely behind, so that when they move these
make a tinkling noise. The unmarried women wear
the hair plaited in different folds, and flowing down the
back ; they have a very graceful method of twining a
wreath of wrought silk round the head, and weaving
it behind into a bow. ..." Men and women, married
and unmarried, all evidently delighted in personal
finery, although at this period they hardly dared
130
Algeria (continued)
to move outside their houses from fear of robbery or
attack.
It is stated that the Jews have imbibed many
Moslem superstitions and observances and frequently
consult " diviners " and fortune-tellers. Benjamin II
also alludes to the belief in " sorcery, witchcraft, and
incantations " prevalent among the Algerine Jews.
Many of these curious and superstitious customs were
observed during sickness, or at deaths and funerals^
An account of the burial of a Levite is related by Mr.
Riley, who states that at the funeral he observed
*' about a dozen women in tattered garments, who
formed an inner circle round the grave, while about a
hundred were standing at a little farther distance.
. . . The twelve women who had at first been quiet,
seemed to be seized with a sudden paroxysm of grief,
and began to approach each other with their hands
raised above their heads, stretching the palms towards
each others' faces. Then they commenced howling, at
first moderately, but soon broke out into the most
violent wailings and yellings, which it is impossible
to describe ; they tore their faces with their long
finger-nails, and made the most hideous contortions of
their features ; the mania was now communicated to
all the women present,who joined in the lamentations,
but the others did not tear their faces like the twelve,
who kept it up, stamping with their feet, and going
131 K
The Jews of Africa
round in their circle ; the blood and perspiration mixing
together, and streaming from their faces, ran all over
their filthy garments, and dyed them red in streaks
from head to foot. This paroxysm lasted from fifteen
to twenty minutes, when they were so much exhausted,
as to be under the necessity of ceasing for a few mo-
ments to take breath, when they commenced again and
went over the same ceremony, seemingly with re-
doubled vigour ".
There is also an account of the funeral of a rabbi,
which was communicated by M. Rozet, who was
present. At this interment, no women appear to have
been permitted. Two men bearing lighted tapers
accompanied the corpse, which was borne to the grave
followed by the sons and nearest male relatives of the
deceased, and many rabbis, all wrapped in long cloaks
with the hoods drawn over their eyes. The body was
taken to the tomb of the Great Rabbi, Simon ben
Smia, where it was laid down, " and all the assistants,
taking off their slippers, advanced one by one, to kiss
it, after which a short prayer was chanted ". After
this a sermon was preached by one of the rabbis, a
collection made for the poor, and the corpse taken to
the spot reserved for the interment of the rabbis.
After the body had been placed in an open grave, a
second oration, prayer, and collection took place.
Then, a further prayer having been chanted, the
132
Algeria (continued)
bearers suddenly seized the body and ran with it as
fast as they could for about a hundred paces, pursued
by eight old men and two rabbis, who on coming up
with them immediately formed a circle about the
body, holding hands, and commenced to move round
it, singing. After having made several turns, one of
the rabbis left the circle, took some gold pieces which
had been brought, wrapped up in paper, and threw them
as far as he could in different directions, taking care
to throw one for each turn which the others made.
When he had done, the circle opened, and the bearers
again seizing the body, bore it back with equal rapidity
to the grave, into which it was immediately lowered, a
few branches placed over it, and the earth thrown into
it.^ Lord's account of the customs of the Algerine
Jews extends to nearly seventy pages and far exceeds
in detail and interest any similar relation of the kind.
Benjamin II devotes only about ten pages to Algeria,
although he paid a lengthy visit to the Regency in
1854, making a stay of six months in Algiers, where
he published two works. Among other places de-
scribed by Benjamin is the town of Bona, on entering
which, after leaving Tunis, it seemed to him as if " he
had entered paradise after a sojourn in purgatory ".
Here he found a very large and ancient synagogue,
^ Lord, Algiers. See also Note II, p. 139.
The Jews of Africa
which was revered by the Mohammedans as well as
the Jews in consequence of an extraordinary legend
with which it is connected, which is related by Lord
as well as Benjamin 11.^
At the time of Benjamin's visit, he estimated the
Jewish population of Algiers to consist of i,ooo famihes,
and Morell, whose work was pubUshed about the same
time, reckoned that soon after the French occupation,
there were about 5,000 Jews in Algiers, and over
19,000 in the whole of Algeria. Benjamin states that
the houses of the Jews *' are built in the European
style and are very neat and clean. Some of them live
in the European, others in the African style ". Morell
remarks that the " upper town " of Algiers " retains
its Arab appearance, and is almost exclusively in-
habited by Moors and Jews ", the latter having
twenty-five synagogues in the city. Benjamin, how-
ever, only speaks of twelve synagogues, two large and
ten small ones ; he reports that " much care is bestowed
in the schools upon the instruction of the children in
the Hebrew and French languages ".^
Morell's account of the Jews of Algiers has many
points of interest, as by the time it was written the
Jewish population had had nearly twenty years of
liberty under the French flag. He remarks that " the
1 See Note III, p: 140. » Benjamin II, Eight Years in Asia
and Africa.
Algeria (continued)
Jewish women of Algiers have generally a greater
freedom, and are more confidentially treated by their
husbands, than the Moorish women. They go out at
option, and do their own commissions. They are
commonly pretty. Matrons or maids, they go with
uncovered faces ; and their coiffure consists of a
sarmah, or conical head-dress resembling the ancient
hennin, and the cap of the French cauchoises. The
rest of their costume consists, with the common womeni
of a full blue cotton gown, without being confined at
the waist, with very short sleeves, letting those of the
chemise descend below them. The poorer sort put a
kind of cap on their head instead of the sarmah,
letting the point fall back on the neck. Like most of
the men, they generally go bare-legged and bare-
footed. The young girls wear their hair long and
plaited in a tail, to which they tie red and blue ribbons.
As a coiffure, they wear a small but very elegant cap of
green velvet, adorned with a golden tassel, and with
a border also of gold, forming the sides of that kind of
Greek cap which passes gracefully under their neck,
where it is tied. Some sweet faces and regular features
are often seen amongst them. Nothing can be more
graceful than a pretty Algerian Jewess going to the
fountain, and carrying a pitcher on her head ".^ Morell
further observes that the Jews gave the French a
* Morell, Algeria.
The Jews of Africa
hearty welcome, and their condition has been so much
improved by their advent that they have turned the
tables on their former tyrants. He considered that it
might take time before they shook off the effects of
their former burdens and insults, " but if they put their
hands manfully to the plough, and drop the convict's
dress and mind ", and recognize " the wisdom of dis-
encumbering themselves of their narrow pride and
bigotry ... a bright future may very probably await
this singular people ".
Benjamin II wrote that " on the whole it can be
asserted without hesitation that the Jews in Algeria
live in a happy condition under the French Govern-
ment ", although the senior Jewish inhabitants spoke
of the decline of religion, and the falling off in business
profits, since the arrival of the new masters of the
country. Among the accounts of Algeria about the
last quarter of the nineteenth century, few books give
such interesting details as can be found in the work
entitled Under the Palms in Algeria and Tunis, by Lewis
Wingfield. The author devoted considerable attention
to the Jewish population, and in the course of a de-
scription of the city of Biskrah, remarks that the old
town was almost exclusively inhabited by Jews,
although the community was not mentioned by
Benjamin II, who had visited the country only fourteen
years previously. " The Jewesses ", says the author,
136
Algeria (continued)
*' wear nothing but gold (in the way of ornaments),
and a handsome set they are. There is one now
passing down the street, fine-featured and deUcate-
complexioned, her long black Oriental eyes shaded
with soft dark lashes. She wears the black pointed
cap of Constantine, festooned with thick gold chains,
and about her neck is draped soft filmy folds of crimson
gauze, all specked with shining dots. A pleasant and
refreshing sight is her small head and natty attire, as
seen by the side of the preposterously gaudy ' ladies of
the desert ' ". Wingfield gives some description of
the Jewish quarter in Tlemcen, through whose queer
labyrinths he found his way to the busy scene in front
of the palace. Here " Jewesses, in groups, were
wrapped in mantles of Pompeiian red, with wide gold
border, which is peculiar to them. Jews, their hus-
bands, cool and comfortable-looking , were dressed in
white full linen breeches and embroidered satin
jackets, with wonderful gold turbans rolled loosely
round the red tarbouche ". When Benjamin II
arrived at Tlemcen, circa 1854, he estimated the Jewish
population at about 500 famihes, evidently in a fair
financial situation. Lady Herbert remarks that the
Jews of Algeria, who are very numerous, preserve the
characteristic appearance of their race. " Under the
Mohammedan laws, they were always subject to
outrages and persecutions, but thanks to the patience
137
The Jews of Africa
and tenacity by which they are distinguished, they
appear to endure everything, and they have made
themselves indispensable to their persecutors by their
profound knowledge of commercial affairs, which seems
to be their almost exclusive monopoly at the present
time ".^ Lady Herbert gives an exceedingly interest-
ing account of the ceremonies attending a modern
Jewish wedding in Algeria, with other information
respecting Jewish customs at this period. At the
commencement of the twentieth century the Jewish
population of Algeria contained a large number of
artizans, as well as merchants, traders, and agents. The
chief rabbi, until the withdrawal of all state concern in
religious affairs, was appointed by the President of the
French Republic on the recommendation of the
Central Consistory of Paris. The City of Algiers has
nineteen synagogues, of which six are official and
thirteen private. ^
Notes
I. " History has recorded the date and cause of the
Israelitish immigration into West Africa, after the
destruction of Jerusalem ; but the immemorial estab-
lishment of the Scenite Jews, who in the whole extent
of Barbary are mixed with the Berber population,
* Lady Herbert, L'A Igerie Contemporaine. * Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol. i, pp. 286-7.
138
Algeria (continued)
would lead us to suppose that it forms the foundation
of this immigration from the East and Syria, which
Sallust has related in these words : * Afterward the
Phoenicians— some for the sake of lessening the pressure
at home, others from motives of ambition and curiosity
— built Adrumetum, Hippo, Leptis, and other cities
on the sea-shore '. Numerous Jewish migrations
occurred during the persecutions of Adrian ; and in the
third century these emigrants formed independent
tribes in the Hedjaz near Medina, and near Mecca ;
and their religion spread in Yemen. If we may
believe the Arab historians, most of the African
Berbers and Arabs professed the Hebrew faith in the
seventh and eight centuries, and the preaching of
Mohametanism made no way amongst them. This
would appear to explain the phenomenon of the Jews
forming till lately (1843) a fourth of the population of
Algiers, and more than four-fifths of that of Oran ".^
II. M. Rozet was much at a loss to know the meaning
of this last singular ceremony, and after some enquiry
was at last informed by a rabbi that as soon as a man
dies the Devil always stations himself at the door of
the house, in order to get possession of the body when
on its way to its last abode. He is appalled, however,
by the number of rabbis, whom he finds walking at
each side of the body, and, afraid to execute his project,
* Algerie, by Baron Baude, vol. iii, 1843.
The Jews of Africa
at once follows the procession in hopes of finding some
favourable moment, or of slipping into the grave along
with the deceased. To prevent this is the object of
the last manoeuvre. " The Devil ", said the rabbi,
*' who was at that moment certainly near the grave,
or perhaps in it, seeing that we took away the body,
ran after it : we then formed a circle to prevent his
taking it away, and while he was amusing himself
collecting the pieces of gold, which one of us had
thrown with that intent, we profited by the moment to
escape from his pursuit " !
III. " The community has a very large ancient
synagogue called Grebe, in which, on the north wall, the
place of the ark of the covenant is formed by a
small room to which they ascend by several steps : in
this room are the Pentateuchs. This little room has a
particularly sacred character. One day I remarked
several Mussulman- women enter it, seat themselves
for some time on the floor, and, after having offered a
gift, retire. I asked the cause of this ; for it seemed
to me strange that Mussulman-women should visit a
synagogue in such a manner ; and in reply I heard
the following story : — Several hundred years ago, at
very high tide in stormy weather, a plank was driven
very near ashore ; some Mussulmen tried to fish it out,
but it receded ; and the same thing happened when
some Christians endeavoured to draw it out : some
140
Algeria (continued)
Jews, however, having come and made the attempt
the plank was driven to land, and there it remained
Fastened on this plank they found a Pentateuch, and
this they conveyed to the synagogue, and displayed it
there. From this miracle arose the belief in the
holiness of the room where the Pentateuch was pre-
served, and whenever a woman, either Mussulman or
Christian, is not well, she has only to come here, to
pray and make offerings, in order to recover. I
expressed my disbelief in the miraculous power of this
sanctuary, and explained the history of the fishing-out
of the plank and the Pentateuch from the sea quite
simply ; for, if the story was true, perhaps some Jew
might have suffered shipwreck and might have fastened
the Pentateuch to a plank in order that it might not be
lost ; but, that it should have happened that Jews
had drawn it up, when Mussulmen and Christians had
failed to do it, I declared it to be either an accident,
or that the sea must have become calmer during the
time. After such an inference they considered me an
unbeliever, and scolded me as such ".
141
CHAPTER XII
MOROCCO
The Jews and the Berbers — ^The Jewish-Berber Queen — The
Foundation of Fez — Spanish and Portuguese Refugees —
Samuel Palachwe — Jewish Diplomatists — Muley Arxid's
Treachery — The Tolaianos — Memaran and Ben Hattar —
— Ben Hattar and the British Treaty — ^The Infamous Muley
Yazed — The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
MOROCCO is perhaps the most important of
the Barbary states ; it is formed out of a
considerable part of the ancient Maure-
tania. Some time before the Christian Era, Maure-
tania was conquered by the Romans, and in the year
45 B.C. it became a Roman province. It is held by
some authorities that even at this early period Jewish
colonies had long been established in this part of the
world, and both the Daggatuns (or Daggatouns)^
and the Berbers are said by them to be of Jewish
origin. John Davidson, who was ultimately murdered
by the wild Arab tribes of Morocco, stated in a letter
to the Duke of Sussex (1836), that he was told by some
Jews in the Atlas mountains that their ancestors ** did
not go to the Babylonish captivity, that they possess
many writings, that they have a city cut out of the
1 Leo Africanus, History and Description of A frica.
142
Morocco
solid rock with rooms above rooms, in which they
dwelt upon their first coming to this country ; and
that there are some writings carved in these rocks
which they attribute to some early Christians who came
and drove them into the valley which they now
inhabit ". In a village in the Warikah district near
VMorocco city, Davidson was visited by some Jews,
" who stated that they have here the tombs of two
rabbis who escaped from the second destruction of
Jerusalem ; that their nation has resided here ever
since that event ".^ It is therefore quite probable
that at a very early date Jewish colonization existed
within the territories now known as Morocco, and this
view is supported by the Hebrew inscriptions which
have been discovered in the province of Fez, and in
other parts of the country. ^ Moreover, most of the
Berber tribes in the Atlas and Rif mountains, the
district of Suz, and the oases of Tafilet, possess legends
and traditions connecting them with such early Jewish
settlers.
In any case, whatever may be the claims of superior
antiquity for those who may be designated the aborig-
inal Jewish inhabitants, the first really important
settlement of Jews in Morocco and in the adjoining
states of Fez and Suz, were in all probability composed
* John Davidson, Travels in Africa. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol. ix, p. i8i.
143
The Jews of Africa
of refugees from the destruction of Jerusalem and the
conquest of Palestine by the armies of Vespasian and
Titus. For a considerable period these refugees lived
under the Romans and the Vandals in a state of
considerable prosperity, but under their Byzantine
successors especially, and under the Emperor Jus-
tinian, whose renowned general, Belisarius, conquered
the country circa 534, they experienced some oppres-
sion. The Byzantine general was accompanied during
his campaign by the Greek historian Procopius, who
acted as his secretary and left an account of the
hostilities. The latter observed in one of his works,
that he had seen " near a great Fountain, at Tangier,
two columns of white stone, whereon, in the Phoenician
Tongue was an Inscription to this purpose : ' We fly
from the Robber Joshua, the son of Nun '. . . .
Almost innumerable are the writers, ancient and
modern, who make mention of this ; but he (Procopius)
was certainly the first introducer of it ".^ At what
date this interesting record of the aboriginal in-
habitants of Palestine was erected, it is of course futile
to conjecture, but nearly 2,000 years had elapsed since
Joshua had scattered the Canaanites, the Jebusites,
and other races, before Belisarius found traces of them
far away from their old home in Palestine.
1 Morgan, History of Algiers.
144
Morocco
About the year 667 a.d., the country was attacked
by the Arabs, and Jews and Berbers fought side by
side against the new invaders. At this period, accord"
ing to Mohammedan historians, the most powerful
Berber tribe was ruled by a Jewish princess, Kahinah .
Dahiyah Bint Thabitah Ibn Tifan, the tribe being \ J
known as the Kahinah, and having dominion over ]
nearly all the Berbers.^ Dahiyah fought the Arabian
general Hassan ibn al Numan, and defeated him, and
the Arabs had to withdraw ; but some years later they
returned, and although the Jewish princess made the
most strenuous efforts, the Berbers were defeated, and
their brave leader " fell near a well, which, in memory
of the heroine, is still called " Bir al- Kahinah ".
Dahiyah died in the year 703, and from this period, the
Arabs dominated Morocco, and the religion of the
Prophet became the paramount creed of the country.
No doubt many of the Berber races who had adopted
the Jewish faith, now embraced the tenets of Islam,
although they retained certain Jewish customs and
observances which their descendants practise up to
this day. Other tribes which preserved their Jewish
behefs have, however, been greatly affected by their
Mohammedan environment, and in language and
external appearances are entirely Berber. Morocco
1 The " Kahinah ", or " Cohanim ", were the descendants of the
High Priest Aaron.
The Jews of Africa
was eventually placed under the rule of the Caliphate of
Bagdad, and many Jewish inhabitants from that city
found their way into the new Arabian province.
About twelve years before the termination of the
eighth century, the CaUphate of Bagdad came to an
end, and the dynasty of the Idrisids was founded by
Imam Idris who speedily announced his independent
possession of the Empire of Morocco. His successor,
Idris II, founded the city of Fez in 808, and he colonized
it to some extent with Jews from Andalusia, whom he
invited to settle there, reUeving them of military
service on payment of 30,000 denarii, annually.
During the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the
Jews in Morocco enjoyed tolerable security, coupled
with a fair amount of social and intellectual progress,
limited, to a certain degree, by the civil and political
disabilities imposed by the Pact of Omar. Fez fell
into the hands of the fanatic Almohade, Abd al Mmnin,
in the year 1145, and from that time until about the
end of the fourteenth century, much persecution and
oppression fell to the lot of the Jews of the city. Never-
theless, when the great Spanish persecution of 139 1
broke out, the situation had so improved in Fez, under
the more lenient rule of the Sheik Maula, that many of
the Spanish fugitives found their way to the country
and its capital. When the Jews were expelled from
Spain, a century later, great numbers fled to Morocco
146
Morocco
and Fez, and in the latter country, they were enslaved
by the inhabitants but were afterwards set free by
Sultan Said III. This monarch set aside a large
portion of the new town of Fez for their use, and
\ protected and encouraged them. Later, in the year
^ 1536, another large influx of Jews took place, on this
occasion from Portugal. The inhuman bloodhounds
of the Inquisition had hunted the Marranos from the
Kingdom, and thus led to the downfall of their state
by the loss of many of their most wealthy and in-
telligent citizens. The loss of Spain and Portugal was
the gain of Morocco and the other states of Northern
Africa, and thousands of enterprising and capable
merchants, smaller traders and artizans, brought
commerce and wealth to the Moslem countries which
offered the Jewish refugees protection. Soon the new
settlers succeeded in raising themselves to their proper
status in their new homes. Some of them were men
of superior education and ability, versed in statecraft
and skilled in finance. It was not long before a few of
them attained considerable rank in civic and diplomatic
circles, acting in some instances as government agents,
consuls, and envoys to the very countries from which
they themselves had had to flee. The attachment of
the Jews to the countries of their birth is one of the
most amazing features of their history. Scorned, ill-
treated, and oppressed as they have been in almost
147 L
The Jews of Africa
every region in which they have settled, they have
ever forgiven the barbarities that have been showered
on them, and even when exiled from the lands of their
birth, they have often forgotten their former oppres-
sion in their love of what was once their native
country. It might have been thought that the very
languages of Spain and Portugal would have been
abhorrent to the victims of such cruelties, but the
refugees to Morocco were so numerous and their
retention of their mother tongue so strenuous, that
eventually the use of Arabic among the Jews of
Morocco was discarded, and Spanish was adopted, an
evidence of the powerful influence exercised by the
new arrivals.
About the end of the sixteenth century the army of
King Sebastian of Portugal was nearly annihilated
during the war with Morocco, and his Kingdom was
practically destroyed. Some few nobles who escaped
destruction at the battle of Alcazar- Kebir " were taken
captive and sold to the Jews in Fez and Morocco. The
Jews received the Portuguese Knights, their former
countrymen, into their houses very hospitably and let
many of them go free on the promise that they would
send back their ransom from Portugal".^ Probably
some of these very prisoners or their fathers had
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix, p. 21.
148
Morocco
gloated over the agonies of the co-religionists of their
benefactors in the auto-da-f^s of the Inquisition, but
the Jews are not as a people revengeful, although they
have not always benefited themselves by their chival-
rous attitude to their enemies. ^
In March 1554, the city of Fez " was totally pillaged
by the Algerines, who found therein an immense
booty ; And they being about to do the hke to the Jews
quarter . . . those people wisely compounded with
Saha Rais (the Algerine general) for 300,000 Ducats.
And because two Janissaries notwithstanding that
composition, broke into Juderia, with a design to
plunder, the Basha instantly caused them to be hanged
up over the gate of the said Juderia, or Jews Quarter ".^
Late in the sixteenth century, in the reign of Muley
Hamed, a certain Samuel Palachwe (or Pacheco), was
appointed Moroccan envoy to the Netherlands, and
eventually settled in Holland, where he acted as consul
for Morocco at the Hague. He is stated to have
*' proposed to Prince Maurice, the son and successor of
William of Orange, that the Jews should enjoy freedom
of domicile in the Netherlands ",^ and that the Prince
gave the proposal his support, thereby laying the
^ [A remarkable instance of the typical attitude of the Jew towards
his persecutor is that of Krushevan, the arch-Russian anti-Semite.
After the Russian Revolution his children were found to be friendless
and starving in exile, and were admitted and cared for in a Jewish
charitable institution] . ^ Morgan, History of Algiers. * J. A. J.
De Yilliers, Holland and Some Jews. p. 12.
149
The Jews of Africa
foundation of the important and wealthy Jewish
Community in Holland which contributed in no small
degree to the financial and political resuscitation of the
Netherlands. In the year 1614, the Spanish Am-
bassador to Great Britain, brought a charge of piracy
against Palachwe, alleging that the envoy had brought
three prizes into Plymouth. Palachwe' s " successful
defence was that he was a Moroccan subject, in the
service of the Sultan, then at war with Spain ".^ The
Jewish diplomatist evidently did not make a fortune
in the Moroccan service, for when he lay dying at the
Hague, the Netherlands Parliament assisted him with a
loan of six hundred guilders. He was granted a public
funeral by the States General and was buried with
much ceremony in the old Jewish cemetery at Ouder-
kerk in the year 1616.
Nearly half a century after the death of Samuel
Palachwe, Menasseh ben Israel tells of another
Palachwe in the service of the Kingdom of Morocco,
a certain " Seignior Moseh Palache, Judge and
Governor of the Jews in the city of Morocco ".^ About
the middle of the seventeenth century, the disciples of
the pseudo-Messiah, Sabbathai Zevi, did their best to
arouse the enthusiasm of the Moroccan Jews in the
* A. M. Hyamson, History of the Jews in England, p. 144.
* The Humble Address of Menasseh Ben Israel to His Highness the
Lord Protector,
150
Morocco
cause of this Arch-Pretender. The coming of the
Messiah in the year 1666 was predicted in Morocco as
it was almost everywhere else where Jews were to be
found. Sasportas who had been Rabbi in Sallee wrote
from England to his former congregants warning them
against Sabbathai's campaign, but the letter was
intercepted by one of the Pretender's agents, and
eventually the Jews in this port were persecuted, and
some of them had to flee in consequence of their
adherence to his Movement. In the main, however,
Morocco was not so deeply affected by the Messianic
frenzy as some of the other Asiatic and African King-
doms and provinces. The country was already in the
throes of the civil war which eventually led to the
consolidation of the Kingdoms of Morocco, Fez, and
Sus into the Empire of Morocco. The Jews had quite
enough to do to save their lives and property in the
prevailing confusion and terror, and, despite the
promises and the prophecies of the new Messiah, his
adherents made little headway in a country so pro-
foundly disturbed by internecine troubles. Eventually,
however, Muley Arxid, or Reshid, the vigorous Xeriff
of Tafilet, by dint of unwearied bravery and activity
and unbounded treachery, succeeded in eliminating his
brothers and other princes and rulers, and in making
himself the sole monarch of Morocco and the neighbour-
ing states. His enterprizes are said to have been made
151
The Jews of Africa
possible only by the funds provided by a wealthy Jew
who was eventually betrayed and murdered by the
ungrateful usurper. The tale of his perfidy is related
in an interesting small quarto, published anonymously
in London in 1670, which gives, inter alia, some little
information respecting the Jews of Morocco at this
period. 1 In this communication it is stated, that the
Jews of Morocco " never grow rich, but the Mohumetans
do accuse them of some Crime, to have a pretence to
seize upon their Treasure, as it happened lately to a
Jew, who was grown a petty Prince ; he commanded
a Place strong by Situation and Art, called Darbin-
meshaal (according to Basnage, Dar Michael) ; there
was but one ascent, and that so difficult, that without
his leave all the Moors of Barbary might have spent
their Dales in the siege of it. . . . This Jew had won
the esteem and favour of the Grandees round about by
his courteous behaviour and good hospitaUty : for it
was his custom to invite all the Persons of Note into
his City, and there entertain them very kindly ; this
dealing made every one, especially the Arabs, to love
him, and got him a great name. When Muley Archeid,
otherwise called Taffaletta, flung himself into the
protection of the Arabs, and that they had all owned
him for their Prince, he was also entertained by this
1 A Letter from a Gentleman of the Lord Ambassador Howard's
Retinue to his friend in London, dated at Fez, Nov. i, 1669.
152
Morocco
courteous Jew, and at a small provocation, he was
massacred ; Taffaletta found one Point in the Law of
Mahomet to justifie the Murder which was approved of
and applauded by the ignorant Multitude ". Basnage
partially confirms this account, stating that Muley
Arxid " must have miscarry' d had he not found a Jew
vastly rich, whom he stripped of all his Treasures, by
means of which he assembled the Inhabitants of the
Province, was elected King, and dispossessed his
brother King of Fez and Morocco ". He adds, how-
ever, that Muley Arxid " acknowledged the Service the
Jew had done him, by granting the Nation the same
Liberty it had enjoyed, making Joshua Ben Amossech
Prince of it ". It is, however, significant of the really
brutal character of Arxid that when (according to
Chenier), he took the town of Morocco in 1670, " at
the desire of the inhabitants he caused the Jewish
Councillor and Governor of the Ruling Prince Abu
Bekr together with the latter and his whole family, to
be pubHcly burned, in order to inspire terror among the
Jews ".^
Notwithstanding the cruelty shown by Muley Arxid
to some of his Jewish subjects, he placed certain
favourites of that faith in trusted and prominent posi-
tions, both at his court, and in his kingdom generally,
* Jewish Ev cyclopedia, vol. ix, p. 22.
153
The Jews of Africa
and much evidence of this is to be found in works
dealing with the Morocco of this period. Muley Ismail
who succeeded his brother Muley Arxid, continued his
brother's attitude to the Jews, as while oppressing and
taxing them heavily, he made confidants and prominent
officers of a few selected and trustworthy individuals.
This Sultan had been previously Governor of Me-
quinez, a post to which he had been appointed by his
brother Muley Arxid, and, while there, a certain Don
Joseph de Toledo (otherwise known as Joseph Toledani)
was of great service to him and enjoyed his confidence.
Joseph's father, Daniel Toledano, had also been a
confidant of Muley Ismail. He was a native of
Mequinez, and had been made a Councillor of State.
A Hebrew scholar, as well as a statesman, he was a
friend of Jacob Sasportas, the famous Rabbi. Another
son of Daniel, Hyam Toledano, was subsequently
appointed Ambassador to Holland and England, by
Muley Ismail. Joseph Toledani was eventually ap-
pointed one of the principal officers of Sultan Ismail's
household and was subsequently sent as envoy to the
courts of several European princes. He was also
deputed to draw up and conclude the Articles of Peace
between Morocco and the United Provinces in the year
1684. During the disturbances which ensued in
Morocco after the death of Muley Arxid, Ismail be-
sieged the city of Fez, and the town was surrendered to
154
Morocco
him after negotiations had been conducted with a
Jewish envoy sent to the Sultan by the Chief of the
City.
Two other well-known councillors and officers of
Muley Ismail, were Memaran (or Maimaran) and Moses
Ben Hattar (or 'Attar), both distinguished inhabitants
of Mequinez. Windus, in his Journey to Mequinez,
tells a story of the rivalries of the two Jewish courtiers,
which is corroborated by other authorities. " Me-
maran being formerly Chief Favourite, had the sole
command of the Jews ; but, seeing Ben Hattar boldly
push himself forward, and fearing a rival in the Em-
peror's Favour, he endeavoured to destroy him, and
offerred the Emperor so many quintals of Silver for his
Head ; Upon which he (the Emperor) sent for Ben
Hattar, and telhng him that a Sum of Money was bid
for his Head : He resolutely answered, That he would
give twice as much for the Person's who offerred it :
Then the Emperor bringing them together, took the
Money from both ; told them ' They were a couple of
Fools ', and bid them be friends. Which made Ben
Hattar desire Memaran' s daughter in Marriage, who
being granted to him, they now between them govern
the Jews of his Dominions with absolute authority ".
When, in the reign of George I, the Hon. Charles
Stewart was sent with a British Squadron " to
cruize against the Sally Rovers ", and to act as
The Jews of Africa
" Plenipotentiary to treat of Peace with the Emperor
of Morocco ", he was met at Tetuan Bay by Moses Ben
Hattar, who had been sent by the Emperor to arrange
the terms of peace. Windus remarks that Ben Hattar
" had often been employed in the former Treaties, and
was a Person more artful and interested than any other
in the Country, and chiefly to be considered, in regard
he had it more in his power to make the Negotiations
successful, or defeat it as he had done that of others ".^
Moses Ben Hattar duly signed the Articles of Peace,
which were then submitted to the Emperor for con-
firmation. The Jewish diplomat had unlimited powers
over the Jews of Morocco, a power extending to that of
life and death ; he was a personage of great im-
portance and wealth, and on the arrival of the British
Ambassador, the latter was invited to take up his
residence in the Jewish courtier's house, which " was
one of the best in Mequinez ". One of the Articles of
Peace between George I of England and Muley Ismail
provided that " the same Liberty shall be granted to
the Subjects of the Emperor of Morocco residing in the
Dominions of his Britannic Majesty, which is given to
the EngHsh Consul in Barbary, to name a Person, or
Persons, to decide the Differences that may happen
between the Subjects of His Imperial Majesty, a Moor
for the Moors, and a Jew for the Jews ".
^ A Journey to Mequinez. London, 1725.
156
Morocco
Ismail's successor, Muley Mohammed, attempted
still further to oppress the Jews by special taxation,
but the project was opposed by his eldest son who was
Governor of Fez and stated that the Jews of Fez were
unable to bear even the ordinary taxes with which
they were burdened. This prince had a Jewish
Minister named EHjah-ha-Levi, who had at one time
been sold as a slave, but who had gained the favour of
the Moroccan Prince ".^ In the year 1789, the
Emperor Muley Yazed ascended the throne on the
death of the Sultan Mohammed. He was an extremely
ferocious ruler who set no bounds to his cruelties.
Almost immediately on his accession he instituted a
merciless persecution of the Jews, who, he contended,
had supported his brother in his contest for the throne.
He also maintained that the Jews of Tetuan had
insulted him, and " he ordered a general plunder of
that unhappy people there, which was carried into effect
in a most destructive way, with all its attendant
horrors of insult and violation on the part of the
soldiery ".^ The richer Jews of Tetuan were tied to
the tails of horses and dragged through the city, and
many Jews were killed and robbed, and Jewesses
outraged in the cities of Morocco and Tetuan. In
Fez, Mogador, Mequinez, Tangiers, and other towns
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix, p. 23. ' Jackson, Algiers.
The Jews of Africa
terrible cruelties were enacted, and many of the Jews
fled to Gibraltar and other places. Some died as
martyrs ; others were converted to Mohammedanism.
Among the latter was Elijah ha-Levi, the former
minister of the despot's brother in Fez, but, tormented
by his apostasy, the ex-minister only survived his
conversion to the creed of Islam for a few days.^
Many fearful deeds of barbarity to the Jews are related
of this monster during the four years of his reign over
Morocco. His inhumanity, however, led to his death,
for many of his provinces rebelled, although un-
successfully, and in one of the battles near the city of
Morocco, he was severely wounded, and died " in the
most excruciating torture ", in the year 1794.^
Although Muley Yazed's successor, Muley Solyman,
was a mild and humane ruler as compared with his
predecessor, the position of the Jews in Morocco
continued to be one of misery and ill-treatment. " The
nineteenth century, which brought emancipation to the
Jews of most lands, left those of Morocco, on the whole,
in their old state of sad monotony and stagnation.
Every new war in which Morocco became involved
resulted in some persecution of the Jews, and the
contest with France in 1844 brought new oppression
of the unhappy Jewish inhabitants. The miseries
* Jost, Geschichte der Juden. ■ Buffa, The Empire of Morocco,
158
Morocco
endured by them led to the visit of Sir Moses Montefiore
to the country in 1863, and after negotiations between
him and the Sultan, an edict was pubHshed granting
equal rights of justice to the Jews. Although, in
theory, full protection was granted to them by such
edicts and proclamations, in practice, matters did not
improve much. The local authorities had very Uttle
power over the populace, and dared not carry out the
regulations for the protection of the Jews, as the
enmity between them and the Moslems broke out on
the slightest provocation. The only real protection
obtained by Jews in Morocco was from the foreign
consulates, and only a comparatively small number
could obtain these privileges, as the government
attempted by every means to Umit the number.
Benjamin II stated when he visited the country in
1854, that " as soon as the soil of civihzed Algeria is
exchanged for Morocco, dangers of every kind begin "•
Nevertheless, he was informed that over 100,000
IsraeHtes were resident in Morocco although " persecu-
tion, oppression, hatred and fanaticism surround our
fellow- worshippers on all sides. ... It is only in the
large harbour towns that the consuls take care that the
Europeans find some protection and justice ; but in
the interior the oppression is all the greater ".^
* Benjamin II, Eight Years in Asia and Africa.
159
The Jews of Africa
According to the Jewish Year Book of 19 19, the
\ Jewish population of Morocco amounted to 109,712
I souls, or a little over two per cent, of the general
' population.
160
CHAPTER XIII
MOROCCO (continued)
An Early Moroccan Synagogue — Leo Africanus — Jewish
Soldiers in Morocco — The Spanish and Portuguese Re-
fugees— Jewish Artizans and Craftsmen — ^The Palachwes
— Frejus and Pariente — Mouette's Account — Addison and ^
Ockley — Moses Edrehi and the Jews of the Atlas Range —
Davidson's Fatal Journey — Walter B. Harris and Modern
Morocco.
NOTHING absolutely authentic can be re-
lated concerning the ancient Jewish in-
habitants of Morocco, even though the
colonists of Borion, or Borium ^ claim that King
Solomon himself built their temple, which was trans-
formed into a church by the Emperor Justinian in the
sixth century. 2 The author Marcus Fisher, however,
in his work entitled The History of the Jews under
Mohammedan Rule, and Imam Idri'y, gives considerable
information respecting the Jewish refugees who colon-
ized Morocco after the destruction of the Temple. At
a later period, the Jews of Morocco were evidently at
times supporters of Imam Idris, while at others they
1 " Borium was a town on the borders of the Pentapolis where
the Jews are said to have had a splendid Temple or more probably
a fine Synagogue ". See Milman, The History of the Jews.
9 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix, p. i8.
i6i
The Jews of Africa
fought him, but they were by no means successful in
their opposition to that potentate. They were on
better terms with his successor, Idris II, and during
some centuries noteworthy Jewish scholars Uved in
Morocco. This may be accepted as a fair indication
of the comparatively peaceful state of the Jewish
population. When the Almohades commenced to
harass the Jews, they compelled them to wear a very
prominent yellow covering for the head, and from that
period, their clothing began to occupy a prominent
position in the regulations which were from time to
time enacted on their behalf. The mob, once given a
lead by national legislation against the Jews, proceeded
to further and unauthorized persecution, and for a
considerable period the unhappy people was treated
with contemptuous scorn and brutal persecution, from
the results of which they have never really recovered.
In the 'middle of the fifteenth century many misfortunes
befell the Jews of Fez. A famine succeeded a fire, and
in the two catastrophes, it is stated that over 20,000
Israelites perished. Nevertheless, every Jew orMar-
rano who could escape from Spain or Portugal fled to
North Africa, where, despite scorn, cruelty, and
robbery, they were at least allowed to profess their
religion without being burnt at the stake. At the end
of the fifteenth century, the King of Portugal dis-
covered his mistake and endeavoured to stop the
162
Morocco (continued)
Jewish exodus by proclamations, but it was too late,
and nearly every Jew who had money with which to
bribe or wit to escape fled from the barbarians of the
Iberian Peninsula.
The tragic results of the poHcy of the Portuguese did
not, however, come home to them for nearly a century
later. At the commencement of the fifteenth century
when " the empire of Morocco was in a condition of
poKtical disintegration and moral decay . . . the
Portuguese had possession of the best parts . . . and
were gradually extending their outposts into the
interior".^ About this period the traveller Leo
Africanus was brought as a child to Africa, his father
having been a victim of the fanaticism of the Spanish
monarchs in their policy against the Moors and the
Jews. Leo tells us a good deal about the Jews of
Morocco which cannot be learnt from other sources.
Benjamin of Tudela seems to have avoided the Barbary
States as far as possible and evidently had no great
opinion of the Jews of any of the North Central or the
North- Western countries of Africa. Little also is to
be gleaned from the pages of other authors of this era.
In the year 1506, when Leo was about twelve years of
age, he accompanied an official sent to Tefza by the
Sultan of Morocco, " to receive the fifty thousand
» Leo Africanus, History and Description of Africa.
163 M
The Jews of Africa
ducats' fine from the Jews, who ' were said * to favour
the King's enemies ". We are also told of a great
army of mercenary Jewish soldiers who, living on and
about the mountain of Demenfera> were led by *' diverse
princes, and are continually in armes, and they are
reputed and called by other Jewes in Africa, Carraum
(probably Chairem), that is to say heretiques. ... I
heard divers of their principal men avouch that they
were able (circa 1520) to bring into the field five and
twenty thousand most expert soldiers ". All kinds of
trades and professions were pursued by the Jews, who
were by no means confined to the capitals of the
provinces, but resided as well in the smaller towns and
villages. Many of them acted as bankers, changers
of foreign money and agents, and they appear to have
had the sole right of minting money, besides which, the
law, prohibiting Mohammedans from practising the
trade of goldsmiths, marked out a lucrative pursuit for
them, in which many no doubt possessed expert
knowledge brought from Spain and Portugal. There
were Jewish artificers and artizans who exercised
" divers handie-crafts ", as well as of other Jews
engaged as merchants, makers of wine, inn-keepers,
and vintners, and of Jewish architects who had been
employed in the designing of the " Arab structures of
Spain and Morocco ".
As a matter of fact, the later Jewish arrivals in
164
Morocco (continued)
Morocco were a great acquisition to their newly-
adopted country. " With their skill in the practise
of commerce as carried out in European centres, with
their knowledge of arts and industries, many of which
were entirely unknown to the other inhabitants of the
country, and with the wealth that they contrived to
bring with them, despite the greed of their persecutors,
they were able to contribute in no little measure to the
rise and development of the Moroccan Empire under
the rule of the Tafilet sherifs who came into prominence
about the middle of the sixteenth century ''.^ In the
main, the second half of the sixteenth and the first
half of the seventeenth centuries formed a peaceful
era for the Jews of Morocco. They appear, however,
to have systematically assisted the Portuguese in their
hostilities with the Moors, and in particular they aided
the people of Saffee, who were besieged, and acted as
negotiators for the Portuguese in many of the agree-
ments which were arranged between them and their
adversaries. Menassehben Israel, writing to Cromwell
in 1655, remarks that " In the Kingdome of Barbary,
there lives also a great number of Jewes, who (are) ever
crueUy and basely used by that Barbarous Nation,
except at Morocco, the Court and Kings house, where
they have their Naquid or Prince that governs them,
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix, p 21.
165
The Jews of Africa
and is their Judge, and is called at this day Seignor
Moseh Palache : and before him was in the same
Court, that Noble family Rutlies, that had power and
jurisdiction of all kinds of punishment, onely life and
death excepted ".^
As a matter of fact, despite the insults and grievances
to which the Jews were subjected, there can be Httle
doubt that their leaders exercised considerable power
and influence in court circles in Morocco at this period.
In a quarto pamphlet entitled The Moors Baffled, which
relates to circumstances concerning the City of Tangier
under the rule of Andrew, Earl of Teviot, circa 1663,
there is abundant evidence of the care exercised by the
British Governor in dealing with the Jews.^ The
anonymous author, in the course of some rather un-
complimentary remarks, mentions Lord Teviot's care-
fulness " to carry an Equal Hand in all Controversies
that happened betwixt the Christians and the Jews
that were residing upon the Place. He was no
stranger to the latter, and now it was their interest to
favour the Concerns of the Moors, as being the most of
them born amongst them and greatly sympathized in
their customs. Besides many of them were only come
to Tangier to trade, having left their Wives and
* To His Highness the Lord Protector . . . The Humble Address oj
Menasseh Ben Israel. ^ The Moors Baffled, by George Lord
Rutherford.
166
Morocco {continued)
Children in the Moors Dominions. But besides that
both by Nature and Religion he was inclined to an
impartial Justice ; he knew that to do otherwise,
would soon open the mouth of a clamorous Jew, loudly
to traduce him to the Moors ; and thereby instill an
ill opinion both of his person and religion ".^ Muley
Arxid, who reigned at this period, was one of the worst
of the Moroccan persecutors of the Jews, and his
extortions were mainly carried out by his Jewish tax-
collector, Joshua ben Amossech. At his succession,
Muley Arxid caused the synagogues in the city of
Morocco and other towns to be demoHshed, and they
were not re-erected until the advent of his successor to
the throne. During his reign, the manufacture of
wines and spirits by the Jews was considerably
developed, as Arxid forced them " to supply wine to
the Christian slaves as he found that it made them
work better ", and this industry continues in the
hands of the Jews up to the present day.^
In the year 1666, Sieur Roland Frejus of Marseilles,
was sent to Morocco by King Louis XIV of France, to
promote the establishment of trade between the two
countries, and he was well received by Muley Arxid.
Frejus employed a Jew named Jacob Pariente as his
interpreter and agent, and the latter rendered most
* The Moors Bafjied. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix, p. 22.
167
The Jews of Africa
valuable services to the Embassy, arranging the
audiences with the Sultan and keeping the French
envoy well posted with regard to the position of affairs
in Morocco. Pariente appears to have been well
known and respected, and his friendship with Aaron
Carsines, the Jewish goldsmith of Muley Arxid, paved
the way for friendly negotiations. In short, Frejus did
very little without the advice of his Jewish agent, and
succeeded in his mission extremely well. As Pariente
did not know a word of French the Spanish language
was used at all the interviews. Here and there in
Frejus' narrative, we get glimpses of the influence of
the Jews in Muley Arxid's Court ; his almoner was a
Jew named Carsenay, and we are also told of a certain
Isa ben Samuel, who showed the French envoy many
civilities.^
Issued in the same year as Frejus' Voyage into
Mauritania, and by the same publisher, was A Letter
. . . concerning the Religion, Manners, and Customs of
the Country s of Muley Arxid, ... By Mons. A.,
*' who lived twenty-five years in the Kingdom of Sus
and Morocco ". The little pamphlet was published in
167 1, but this account of Morocco evidently relates to
a period about twenty years earlier, and the description
of the Jews given is very clear and interesting. " The
^ Relation of a Voyage into MauritarAa, by the Sieur Roland
Frejus. . . . English'd out of French. — Minimop, 1671.
168
Morocco (continued)
Jews ", it says, " are very busily meddlesome in all
sorts of Commerce, and in the Farms, taking usually
the Kings Customes to Farm, wherefore there they are
called Farmers, and for this reason, whosoever Trafficks
there, must often pass through their fingers. ..."
They " have no Lands there in propriety unless it is
some gardens about their Houses, out of which they
make some Wine, but not enough for their own use ;
so that they . . . are forced to make use of Pass-wine,
or Raisin Wine, for they call raisin of the Sun Pass.^
. . . The Jews wear a shirt. Drawers, a black Close-
coat or Caffetan, and over it a black or dark coloured
kind of Cloak, which they call Albernous, made with
a Cowle Uke a Fryers Frock, but that there hangs down
strings at the end of the Cowle and at the bottom.
They have a black Cap, and black Pumps and Slip-
pers. ..." It is stated that about a half a mile from
the Great Mosque at Morocco, " is a great enclosure
with High Walls, and there is the Jews Habitation,
they are numerous and have a Synagogue, and a very
fair House ; To their enclosure they have but one
great gate which the Porter shuts every night and
opens in the morning". * The writer was evidently
disgusted at the state of the coinage and maintained
* Raisin wine is used by Jews in all parts of the world for religious
purposes, and especially for the ceremonies connected with the
Passover.
169
The Jews of Africa
that there was no " currant money of Mauritania ", as
it was fearfully debased. The old ducats of gold, he
remarks, were excellent, " but ", says Mons. A.,
" every roguish Jew melts down and coins ducats
after his own fashion, and impudently do it in their
publick shops, and for this there is no order taken ; so
that there are Ducats of several sorts and several
prices ".^
Basnage asserts that many Jews lived in Sus, and
that the capital of that province possessed " a rich and
fine Synagogue, served by many Priests ; and their
own Judges and interpreters of the Law, paid by their
Nation, that lived upon Labour and Trade. There are
in the Mountains of the Kingdom of Morocco, Farriers
and Smiths, and People that serve to build their
houses, because the inhabitants think this work too
laborious. But they are not always employed in such
sort of Works ; for they often force themselves into
Court, and enter into offices ".
Some of the Jewish rabbis in Morocco in the seven-
teenth century attained to considerable eminence.
Among these may be mentioned Jacob Sasportas, and
Samuel Zarfati. Sasportas came of a well-known
Spanish family of rabbis and scholars, and after having
been made Rabbi of Morocco, Fez, and other places,
1 The Religion, Manners and Customs of the Countrys of A'uley
Arxid. — By Mons. A.
170
Morocco (continued)
" was imprisoned by the Moorish King " in 1646. He
fled to Amsterdam, and remained there till 1659, when
he returned to Morocco and was sent by the King on a
special mission to the Spanish Court. Later, Sasportas
occupied positions as Rabbi in London and Amsterdam.
The Sabbathai Zevi movement had some curious,
but not important consequences in Morocco. For
several years the fast-day commemorating the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem was celebrated as a day of feasting.
Prayer houses were changed for the occasion into places
of festivity ; all mourning was turned into joy. A
French traveller relates that while he was in Sallee, a
Dutch ship arrived there with some Jews on board who
announced " that the long-looked-for Messiah would
be born in Holland at the beginning of the ensuing
year (1672). The Jews, hearing of this good news,
made a second feast of Tabernacles, and held a general
rejoicing and treating for eight days together ".^
The Sieur Mouette, who is responsible for the above
statements, gave a concise account of the position of
the Jews of Morocco at this period. He remarked that
they had a sheikh of their own in every town, either
chosen by them, or appointed by the Emperor, who
collected the taxes due to the State. The Jews rarely
visited the country districts as when there they went
in danger of their lives, and justice was rarely exercised
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix, p. 22.
171
The Jews of Africa
on their behalf. If brought before a local governor or
justice, any attempt at defence led to insult and ill-
treatment. Even at their funerals, the Jews were
attacked by boys who were not hindered from throwing
stones and using every kind of maledictory expression.
In the meantime, despite all their troubles, they
managed to provide for their poor, although heavily
taxed by every official who could legally or illegally
oppress them financially. ^
This position of affairs as regards the Jews of
Morocco in the reign of Muley Arxid is confirmed by
the Rev. Lancelot Addison, father of the poet, one of
the Chaplains of Charles II, who wrote two books
deahng mainly with the countries of West Barbary,
with special reference to the Jews.^ According to this
writer the Moors did not allow the Jews to be in
possession of any weapon of defence, unless it was for
purposes of trade. They were bulUed and hectored by
the Moors, and their children were ill-treated by the
Moorish children while resistance or retaliation was
impossible. Jews born and bred in the country
differed fit tie in their costume from the Moors. They
wore " little black brimless Caps ", instead of the red
Fez used by the other inhabitants, but went slip-shod
The Travels of the Sieur Mouette in the Kingdoms of Fez and
Morocco. « West Barbary. The Present State of the Jews . . .
in Barbary.
172
Morocco {continued)
like the rest of the Moors. They were accustomed to
wear Hnen drawers and vests, over which they put a
loose garment called a Ganephe, which differed only in
colour from the Mandilion or Albornoz, which the
Moors bestowed upon the Christians when they were
redeemed from slavery. " This Ganephe is a black
square piece of course Hair-stuff, closed at the cross
corners, and all round, it is a large Thrum, which at
first sight looks hke their Religious Fringes. ..."
Addison affords a very interesting chapter on the
marriage customs of the Jews of Morocco, together
with extracts from the Marriage Service, and descrip-
tions of many quaint ceremonies prevalent in the last
quarter of the seventeenth century, but it is observed,
that as a rule, no Christians were admitted to these
celebrations, " unless such are their slaves ",
A curious account of South-West Barbary was
published in the year 1713, by Simon Ockley, professor
of " Arabick " in the University of Cambridge. Ockley
does not claim to be the author of the work, but main-
tains that the manuscript came accidentally into his
hands some years before the book was printed. The
author does not appear to have had much sympathy
with the Jewish race, whose members he accuses of
insulting the founder of Christianity, in their syna-
gogues at Easter or Passover. This custom, he main-
tains, is not confined to the Jews of Barbary, " but
^7Z
The Jews of Africa
even in Amsterdam, they are arrived at this height of
Insolence against Heaven as to Practise it frequently
there ". According to his account, in the " Mellah "
or Ghetto of the town of Morocco, although the ordinary
houses were small and low, many of the residences were
magnificent, and several princes and ambassadors
chose to live there. The Jews were the chief traders
in the country, " and ... by their associates supply
the Moors with all necessaries ... so that the Moors
have their dependence on the Jews, as most of them
have theirs upon the Christian Merchants, who supply
them with Goods, whereby they are enabled to Pay
those exorbitant Taxes that are imposed on them ".^
It is observed that although there is little trade in their
town and villages, the Jewish Sabbath is easily dis-
tinguished from other days of the week, " for then all
the Tents of the Shops both of Moors and Jews are
shut up . . . and it were well if the Christians were as
strict in the observance of their Day of Religious
worship. But alas ! their merchants constantly on
Sundays have a Market or Fair in their Houses from
Morning 'till Night ; where abundance of Jews and
Moors meet together to weigh Wax, Copper, Hides,
&c., and to buy Nails, Iron, Linnen, Tobacco,
Brimstone, Cochenal, and other sorts of dyes ". The
writer charges the Jews with living meanly and being
* Account of S.W. Barbary.
Morocco (continued)
addicted to drinking — a charge rarely brought against
them elsewhere. He states that although they are
just as adverse to work as the Moors, they are more
ingenious, " and exceed them in all their Cruelty and
Malice to the Christians ".
According to Windus, in his Journey to Mequinez,
the Jews of Morocco were charged with preferring their
own people to all others. He suggests that they
believed that " they might cheat . . . with a safe
conscience ", all the rest of mankind, " provided they
give some part of the gain to raise the Fortune of such
of their own as are fallen to decay, and to keep their
Poor from begging : in this particular, their Charity is
wonderfuU ".^ Chenier, who was French Consul for a
considerable period in Morocco about the last quarter
of the eighteenth century, remarks of the Jews that
they were not allowed to possess land or estates, or to
cultivate gardens. They had to wear black clothes
and to walk barefoot when passing mosques or sanc-
tuaries. The law of the country was nearly always
strained in favour of the Mohammedans. "Not-
withstanding this state of oppression, the Jews have
many advantages over the Moors : they better under-
stand the spirit of trade ; they act as agents and
brokers, and they profit by their own cunning and the
ignorance .of the Moors. In their commercial bargains
* Journey to Mequinez.
175
The Jews of Africa
many of them buy up the commodities of the country
to sell again. Some have European correspondents,
others are mechanics, such as goldsmiths, tailors,
gunsmiths, millers and masons. More industrious and
artful, and better informed than the Moors, the Jews
are employed by the Emperor in receiving the customs,
in coining money, and in all affairs and intercourse
which the monarch has with the European merchants,
as well as in all his negotiations with the various
European governments ".^
Some of the most curious, if unreliable, statements
about Morocco in recent times, are to be found in a
volume written by a Rabbi who was a native of the
country in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
The author tells us in a footnote that the information
he affords is not generally known, as " all communica-
tions by printing is entirely and rigorously pro-
hibited ". He gives some account of a town named
Dubdo, which he calls a " peculiar and a very great
wonder in the kingdom of Morocco ". This place, he
contends, '* has a fine climate and a beautiful air, and
there are a great many fine gardens. The town is
built on a very high mountain ". In his time (circa
1830) he says, there were 700 Jewish families residing
there, all Cohanim (priests), together with a few (mere)
IsraeHtes who are very rich. The place was evidently
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ix, p. 24.
176
Morocco {continued)
under the same conditions as apply to other districts in
the Atlas Mountains -a kind of feudal arrangement by
which the Jews are protected by one or more chiefs or
individuals. It is remarked that *' the Jews'
masters, if anything wrong happens to any of them,
makes a complaint to the master of the one injured, and
he satisfies him. They would sooner kill twenty men
than one Jew ". The Jews have to make their masters
presents two or three times a year, but " by that they
have great protection, and live very happily together
in that town ", where none of the inhabitants pays
any duty or contribution to the government.^ The
arrangement between the Jews and their protectors in
the towns and districts in and abutting on the Atlas
range, is also noted by Davidson, and Mr. Walter B.
Harris, but neither mentions the town of Dubdu,
although it is quite possible that the place alluded to as
Coubba, or Cobba, by Davidson, is the same. The
latter wrote about the same period as Edrehi, and
Coubba had then between 3,000 and 4,000 people, and
allowing five persons to a family, this would bring
Edrehi's 700 families to 3,500 inhabitants. Davidson
greatly regretted that he could not get to Coubba
owing to heavy falls of snow. Another writer speaks of
Dubdu lying on an eastern affluent of the Moluya river,
and states that above the town rises a vertical bluff
1 Edrehi, Historical Account oj the Ten Tribes.
177
The Jews of Africa
crowned' with a minaret and a dismantled fortress.
" The place consists (circa 1899) of about four hundred
earthen houses ", and is the only town in the Moroccan
empire " where the Jews are in a majority. All are
engaged in trade, their commercial relation extending
eastwards to Tlemsen in Algeria, westwards to Fez ".^
It is not very easy to follow Edrehi's remarks, as the
writer is always rambling from one subject to another,
but according to his statement, in certain towns in
Morocco, Levites were not allowed. Whether this was
the case in Dubdo (or Dubdu according to Buffa's
Map 2), is not very clear, but Edrehi is very emphatic
about the prohibition against them in Tlemcen (or
Telmsan, as he calls it). As a matter of fact he
remarks, ''it is very extraordinary, that in that town
the Levites are not permitted to remain twenty-four
hours ; if one should remain, the climate kills him
directly, and nobody knows the reason how that is ".
According to this writer the Jewish population of
Mequinez at this period (circa 1830) was thirty-five
thousand families, but as the total population is given
as one hundred thousand inhabitants, there is evidently
some confusion in the good Rabbi's figures and
estimates. The Jews, he says, have a town of their
1 Reclus, Universal Geography, vol. ii. ■ Dubdu is marked on
this map as on the borders of the Atlas Mountains nearly one
hdndred miles from the Coast, or over one hundred and fifty from
Ceuta to the north-west.
178
Morocco {continued)
own, irregularly fortified and guarded by a strong force
under the direction of an Alcaid, who is styled the
" Governor of the Jews ". Edrehi paints the position
of the Jews in Morocco very differently from the
picture of other writers, and he asserts that " they are
esteemed and beloved by the whole nation ", and " are
employed for the principal offices ". He remarks that
in the new city of Fez " they have the whole town for
themselves ; no other nations live among them, only
consuls and some European merchants, and through
business and intercourse of language, etc., they are
sociable together ". In the old town, it is said, the
house of Maimonides still exists, but it is shut up, and
nobody is allowed to dwell in it. " They can see it,
and all the articles inside, but nobody can come near
it, for a particular reason ", etc.
Early in the nineteenth century John Buff a, a doctor
of medicine, resided for a time in Morocco, and his
volume of travels in that country affords a lively ac-
count of the Empire at this period. In March, 1806,
he visited Tetuan and, on landing, wasjeceived by the
British vice-consul, an opulent native Jew. He was
conducted to the Jewish quarter and spent the evening
with some Barbary Jews, and the next morning on his
visit to the Governor, " v/as not a' little surprised to
see our Vice-consul pull off his sUppers as we passed
the mosques, and walk bare-footed. I soon learned,
179 N
The Jews of Africa
that the Jews are compelled to pay this tribute of
respect ". It did not follow, however, that this
practice was " compelled " by law, as in some cases
these customs were exacted by the mob, notwithstand-
ing any legislation to the contrary. " For example the
sultan Sulaiman (1795-1822), decreed that the Jews of
Fez might wear shoes ; but so many Jews were killed
in broad daylight in the streets of that city that they
themselves asked the sultan to repeal the edict ".
Twenty thousand Jews resided in Tetuan. They
were " tolerably civilized in their manners but dread-
fully oppressed by the Moors. Seldom a day passed
but some gross outrage or violence is offered to the
Jewish women, the generality of whom are very
handsome, though their dress is by no means calculated
to set off, but rather to detract from their beauty ".
The costume of the ladies was stated to be rich in
material, but so heavy, that it appeared awkward and
unbecoming, and the use of enormous ear-rings did not
add to its attractiveness. They rarely went out, but
spent their leisure on the roofs of the houses, which
were often very dirty. The Jews are said to have
married very young ; "it is not at all unusual to see a
married couple, whose united ages do not exceed
twenty-two or twenty-three years ".^
Jackson, who wrote an account of the city of
^ Bufia, The Empire of Morocco.
180
Morocco {continued)
Morocco in 1817, remarks that the Jews of the town
were governed by an Alcaid to whom they applied for
protection against insult and injury. Only two
thousand families continued to reside in the city, as
large numbers of them had fled to the mountains where
they were less oppressed. It is stated that " the Jew
can neither shift his place of residence, nor ride a horse,
nor wear a sword without special permission. Yet
under all these vexations and degrading circumstances,
a Jew renegado is scarcely known • they are allowed the
free exercise of their religion, and it would seem as if
this indulgence were considered a compensation for all
their sufferings".^ Davidson, who visited the city
some eighteen years later, remarks on the filthy state
of the Jewish quarter, in which he estimated there were
about 5,000 Jews and Jewesses, exclusive of the
children, who were very numerous. The traveller was
supposed to live at the Sultan's expense, but this
arrangement resulted in everything costing him about
four times as much as if he had had to buy everything
himself. The Sheik of the Jews had been instructed
to receive the orders for everything required, and the
money spent was to be deducted from the Jewish tax
" which is only 1,000 dollars a year ".2 Among other
places Davidson visited was a town or village named
Trasermoot, in the Atlas Mountains. He describes it
1 Jackson, Algiers. ^ John Davidson, Travels in Africa.
181
The Jews of Africa
as a kind of Gibraltar in miniature. " I went in the
evening ", he says, " to dine with the Jews — here
called the sons of Yehudi : they are a most extra-
ordinary people. I never met with such hospitahty,
or such freedom of manners in any Jews. They had
dancing and music, and the ladies mixed in society
without the least restraint. . . . These are the Jews
who have each a Berber master ".
Many writers have given accounts of the peculiar
position of the Jews in the Atlas Mountains, who in
some respects appear to be in a similar condition to
the people who lived under the feudal system in the
Middle Ages. In some cases they are under the
direct protection of the local sheikh, in others, of
private individuals, for whom they have to do various
services and who can sell the right of these services to
others. " They may not marry or remove their
families till they have received permission from their
so-called protectors ; and without this protection they
would not be safe for a day. ... On the other hand,
outsiders are permitted to do them no injury, which
would be considered as inflicted upon their protector
(" kasi "), who makes the duty of avenging such injury
a point of honour. ... In travelling it is sufficient for
the protege to insure his safety, to bear some article
belonging to his master, written documents being
scarce, with few to understand them. . . . Centuries
182
Morocco (continued)
of this oppression have naturally had a very deleterious
effect upon the characters of the victims, who are
cringing, cowardly creatures, never daring to answer
back, and seldom even standing erect— a people
demanding the utmost pity ".^ Davidson, in describ-
ing this system, remarks that at Trasermoot (Mount
Atlas) every Jew has his master, but in Wari-Kah,
there appeared to be one chief, while " on the m.oun-
tain there are two ; in other places there are three and
so on. The annual tax is a ducat for the head of each
family ; but they have to entertain and provide for
all who come in the Sultan's name : they are the most
intelligent I have met with ". At Tafilet, Davidson
was greatly mystified, and remarked, " The Jews here
puzzle me sadly : they have an air of freedom and
defiance ".
Writing about sixty years later than Davidson, Mr.
Walter B. Harris found practically the same conditions
existing among the Jews of Dads and Tafilet. He
remarks, " the families of Jews here too live in a feudal
state, each being dependent upon some Shleh family
for immunity from ill-treatment and robbery : in
return for this they pay a small yearly tribute to their
protectors. As a rule they are the skilled workmen of
the place, being particularly renowned at Dads for
their guns, which are often gorgeously decorated in
* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol, ix, p. 28.
183
The Jews of Africa
silver ". In Tafilet ** each Jew family lives under the
protection of some Moslem, be he Arab or Berber . . .
any injury suffered by the Jew is revenged by the
protecting Berber as though it had been committed to
a member of his own family. In this manner the
Israelites are able to live in tolerable security from
murder and theft ". At Mogador, Davidson found the
Jewish population nearly equal to that of Morocco
city. The Jews were better housed and in better
circumstances. The Jewish women were very beauti-
ful, and the men, as a rule, dressed in European costume,
and many of them spoke English. The writer was
invited to dine in the Mellah, and was hospitably
entertained, learning much about the cabbaHstsand
their conversations with the Almighty and the angels,
etc., etc. During Davidson's residence in Mogador he
wrote a letter to the Duke of Sussex giving a most
extraordinary account of the Jews of Coubba or Cobba,
a place he intended to visit, although he could never
carry out his project.^
At Madnoon there was a small Jewish colony " who
are the working classes and manufacture good guns,
daggers, ornaments in silver, brass, etc. They are
also the tailors, and do the iron work". Davidson
speaks somewhat enthusiastically of the beauty of the
Jewish women, and remarks " the Jewesses bear away
1 5g«Note I, p. 187.
184
Morocco {continued)
the palm of beauty, and dirty as they proverbially are,
they are cleanliness itself, as compared with the Arab
ladies, whose filth, dirt, and misery are dreadfuU ".^
Mr. Walter B. Harris, who rarely mentions the Jews
without a jeer or a sneer, is very insistent on the dirt
of the Jews, which he emphasizes in such a manner
that readers of his works must almost come to the
conclusion that dirt is their monopoly in Morocco, as
well as their " deity ", as he maintains. He admits,
however, that the other inhabitants do not excel in
cleanliness, and remarks " wash the Bedouin lady,
undo the tangles of her hair, give her clean clothes . . .
and all her beauty is gone " . ^ Of all the biassed writers
against the Jews of Morocco, Mr. Harris is probably
the most bitter and unjust, and he even grudges them
the protection they receive from the foreign consuls,
although he is good enough to say that he does not
'' desire to totally aboUsh the only safeguard the Jews
have from the hands of the Moorish government ". He
was, he admits, at first shocked at the treatment the
Jews received at Morocco, " but it soon passed off, and
I have come to recognize, through intimate knowledge,
that there is no tribe of men more degraded ... or
more ready to rob and plunder, than the Moorish Jew ".
It certainly is well that the bias of this anti-Semite
1 Travels in Africa, p. 192. * Harris, Land of an African
Sultan, p. 285.
185
The Jews of Africa
exceeds his influence, although he does not carry his
criticisms of the Moorish Jews beyond " their love of
swindHng, their vice and drunken habits, the utter
filth in which they live, their bemeaning and cringing
ways " — beyond these somewhat deprecatory remarks,
he admits that " there is little more to say about
them ".
That some small portion of these charges against the
Moroccan Jews may be true is quite possible, con-
sidering the conditions under which they have lived in
the country ever since they first accepted the pro-
tection so grudgingly granted. With regard to the
protection afforded by the foreign consuls, a late
authority writes as follows : " Nowhere in Morocco
without such protection does the Jew receive common
justice. From the cradle to the grave he is despised
and vituperated, an apology being necessary even for
an allusion to him in polite society. Every possible
indignity is heaped upon him, and he enjoys neither
social nor civil equality with his neighbours ; they
tolerate him because he renders himself indispensable
and knows how, under the most unfavourable of
circumstances, to amass wealth which he is always
ready to put out at exorbitant interest, and of
which he may be ultimately despoiled by powerful
oflicials ".1
1 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol, ix, p. 28.
186
Morocco {continued)
Notes
I. Letter from John Davidson to H.R.H. the Duke of
Stissex
" MoGADOR, March i8tk, 1836.
" Sir,
" After a fruitless attempt to cross the
western branch of Mount Atlas, owing to the unusual
quantity of snow, I have been obliged to come to this
place, which affords me another opportunity of taking
advantage of your Royal Highness' s condescension in
permitting me to address you. Having received the
Sultan's consent to cross the mountains for the purpose
of visiting the Jews, I left Morocco for Mesfywa, and
taking the route by Trasemoot, reached an elevation
of 5,000 feet ; but here the loose character of the snow,
and the uncertainty of the track, obliged me to abandon
my project. I was accompanied in this journey by a
Rabbi, from the district of Coubba or Cobba, to which
place it was my intention to have proceeded. From
this man I received much curious information, and
have yet great hopes of reaching the people of whom
he spoke, and to whom he belongs, before I return to
England. He informed me that in this place, nearly as
extensive as that in which the city of Morocco is
situated, there are not less than 3,000 or 4,000 Jews
living in perfect freedom, and following every variety
of occupation ; that they have mines and quarries
187
The Jews of Africa
which they work, possess large gardens and extensive
vineyards, and cultivate more com than they can
possibly consume ; that they have a form of govern-
ment, and have possessed this soil from the time of
Solomon ; in proof of which he stated (that) they
possess a record bearing the signet and sign of Joab,
who came to collect tribute from them in the time of
the son of David ; that the tradition of their arrival
here runs thus : ' Crossing the Great Sea to avoid the
land of Egypt, they came to a head of land with a
river ; that here they landed, and following the course
of this leading westward, but going towards the south,
they came to a spot where they found twelve wells and
seventy palm-trees. This at first led them to suppose
that they had by some means got to EUm ; but finding
the mountains on the west, they were satisfied that
they had reached a new country : finding a passage
over the mountains, they crossed and took up their
dwelling in this valley, first in caves, which exist in
great numbers, then in others which they excavated,
and after this began to build towns ; that at a distant
period, they were driven across the mountains by a
people that would not acknowledge them, and that
some remained at Diminet, Mesfywa, and other places
on the western side of the range '. Looking at the
map, and following this man's observations, it is
perfectly easy to trace them. They must have reached
i88
Morocco {continued)
the gulf of Tremesen, and taking the river Muluwia, or
Mahala, have reached Tafilelt, where, to this day, are
twelve wells planted round with seventy palm-trees
and which many of the Jews call EHm ; and from this
day they (must) have taken the pass to which I at-
tempted to get. I^nowing the interest your Royal
Highness takes in all that refers to the history of the
Jews, I have offered this man fifty dollars to obtain a
copy of the record upon a skin of the same size and
pattern as that which contains it, and ten dollars for
the copy of two tombstones to which the Jews make
their pilgrimages, and these he promises to send to the
Jew agent in Morocco in six months, provided I do not
in the meantime visit Coubba. On asking him, if at
any period they had a great accession to their number,
or if he knew anything of the breaking off of the tribes,
he seemed anxious to drop the subject, and told me
that the more learned men whom I should see at
Coubba could better inform me ; that from time to
time, Jews came to them, but that these tombs and the
writings they possess contain all their history. This
man returned with me. I was most anxious to know
the meaning of the names of some of the towns : he
told me what the Moors call Mesfywa is Oom Siwa, the
Mother of Siwa, one of their families which crossed (the
mountains) ; that Ourika of the Moors, distant thirty
miles, was Rebka, founded by one of their daughters,
189
The Jews of Africa
and that most of these places had originally Hebrew
names. At Ourika he left me. I continued for eight
days to visit the towns inhabited by the Jews, to the
number of the above one hundred, and I should say
that on this side, there are more Jews dwelling with the
Berbers in the mountains than resident in Morocco.
They have all the same account of Coubba, and have a
great belief in the Caballists, who they say still exist,
and who receive direct communication from Heaven.
I here send your Royal Highness a few of the names of
the principal towns, but having lost my Rabbi in-
terpreter, cannot procure the meaning of them :
Argum, Roosempt, Towra, Towright, Ai Tat tab,
Tamazert, Zowisiderhald, Tedeeli, Tisgin (very large,
two hundred families), A Mismish (one hundred and
fifty families), Sefehnal, to the town on the Wad el
Fis "...
190
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED
A., MoNS. — The Religion, Manners and Customs o^ the Countries of
Muley Arxid. Minimo. 1671.
Abbott, G. F. — Israel in Europe. London. Royal 8vo. 1907
Abrahams, Israel. — Jewish Life in the Middle Ages. London. 8vo.
1896.
Addison, Lancelot. — The Present State of the Jews {more particu-
larly relating to those in Barbary). Wlierein is contained an
exact account of their Customs, Secular and Religious. To
which is annexed a Summary Discourse of the Misna, Talmud
and Gemara. London. i2mo. 1675.
Addison, Lancelot. — West Barbary. A short narrative of the
Revolutions of Morocco and Fez, with their customs. Oxford.
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196
INDEX
A., MoNS., cited, 168-170
Abd-al Mu'min, Persecution by,
119
Abraham, Rabbi, of Tunis, 86
Abrahams, Dr. Israel, cited, 53
Abreha, King of Abyssinia, 9
Abyssinia, 4-32
Achmed Pasha, Viceroy of
Egypt, 37-38
Adamis Segued, King of Abys-
sinia, 18
Addison, Rev. Lancelot, cited,
172-173
Adier, Mr. E. N., cited, 54
Aizor, King of Abyssinia, 1 2
Al-Butji, 44
Alexandria, 35, 36, 42-43, 44, 45
Algeria, 105-14 1
Algiers, 107, 108, 112, 113-114,
115, 117, 119. 134. 138. 139
Amdo, claimant to the throne of
Abyssinia, 18, 19
Amossech, Joshua ben, 167
Amr ibn al Asi, 43
Aranda, Emanuel d', 125-127
Atlas, Jews of the, 182-183
Atzbeha, King of Abyssinia, 9
Augustus, Emperor, 35
Barbarossa, 85-86, 95-96, 109
Barfat, Isaac ben Sheshat, 107
Basnage, cited, 16, 25-26, 38-39,
51-52, 152, 170
Baude, Baron, cited, 139
Beechey, Capt. F. W. and
Beechey, H. W., cited, 73-75
Ben Smia, voyage of, 3, 107, 120-
Benghazi 74, 75
Benjamin II, cited, 66-67, 68-69
75-76. 89, 99, 100, 131. 133,
134. 136, 159
Benjamin of Tudela, 36, 44, 58,
163
Berber Jews, 64
Berbers, Jews among the, 82,
142, 143, 145, 190
Biskrah, 117, 136
Bona, 133-134, 140-141
Borion (Borium), 161
Bruce, James, cited, 8, 9, 15, 25
Buffa, John, cited, 179-180
Bugie, 119
Byzantines, Jews under the, 52<
144
Cairo, 34, 37, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48,
49. 50-51
Cairo Purim, 39
Canary Islands, i
Cansino, Jacob, 1 1 1
Cardoso, Miguel, 62
Carsines, Aaron, 168
Castro, Abraham de, 37, 38, 46
Carthage, 80-81, 90-91
Charles V, 85-86, 96, no, m
Chelebri. The, 37, 48
Chenier, French Consul, 175
Constantine, 117
Costume of the Jews in Algeria,
123, 130, 135, 137 ; Egypt, 52-
53; Morocco, 162, 169, 172-173,
175. 180; Tripoli, 72, 76;
Tunisia, 97, 100, loi, 102, 104
Coubba (Cobba), 177, 184, 187
Cremieux, Adolphe, 41
Customs of Jews of Tripoli, 67
et seq.
197
Index
Dads, 183
Daggatuns (Daggatouns), 142
Damietta, 44
Davidson, John, cited, 142-143,
181-182, 183-185, 187-190
Derna, 59
Dhu Nuwas, King of Yemen, 9-
10, 22
Djado, 59, 65, 66
Djebel Nefoussi, 59, 60, 64, 65,
66, 78
Dubdo, 176, 177
Duran (Durand) family, 107
Edrehi, Moses, cited, 23, 176-
177, 178-179
Egypt. 33-55
Elijah-ha-Levi, 157-158
Ethiopia, 4-32
Faitlovitch, Dr. Jacques, 30,
Ferdinand, King of Spain, 60
Fez, 146, 147, 149, 154. 157.
162, 179, 180
Fisher, Marcus, cited, 161
Flaccus, 36
Fossa to, 66
Fostat. 43, 45, 54. 55
Frfejus, Sieur Roland, 167, 168
French Conquest of Algeria, 116
Fromentius, Bishop of Abys-
sinia, 9
Funeral customs, 131-133, 139-
140
Geonim, The, 93
Geshen, King of the Falashas, 18
Gibbon, Edward, cited, 79
Gibraltar, 158
Gideon, King of the Falashas,
18, 19
Gobat, Samuel, cited, 26-27
" Gorneyim ", 112, 113
Graetz, cited, 39-46
Gramaye, Jean Baptiste, cited,
112
Ha-Cohen, Joseph, 86
Haedo, cited, 112
Hakluyt, cited, 125
Ha Levi, Judah, 36
Hal6vy, cited, 10
Hamilton, James, cited, 75
Harris, Mr. Walter B., 177, 183,
185-186
Hascen, Prince, 85, 86
Hattar (Attar), Moses ben, 155-
156
Herbert, Lady, cited, 137-138
Hesse-Wartegg, cited, 85, 97, 103
Hudia, 73-74. 79
Ibn-Khaldoun, cited, 56, 59
Icon-Amlac, King of Shoa, 14
Idris, Imam, 92, 93, i6i
Iffren, Jews of, 67
Isa ben Samuel, 168
Jaahar, vizier, 43
Jackson, cited, 180-181
Jerba, 59, 60, 64, 91, 92, 94, 104
Joseph, the Patriarch, 49-50
Josephus, cited, 34
Jost, cited, II, 22
Judith, Queen of Abyssinia, 12-
13
Kahinah, The, 145
Kairwan, 82, 83, 92, 93, 95, 102
Lalibala, Prince of Abyssinia,
14
Laomedon, 34
Le Bruyn, Corneille, cited, 52, 53
Leo Africanus, 46, 47, 109, 163
Lord, Perceval Barton, cited,
115, 120, 129, 131-133
Ludolphus, cited, 24-25
Lyon, Captain, cited, 72, 73
Madnoon, 184
Mahalla (Mahallat), 44
Maimaran, 155
Maimonides, 36, 43-44, 64, 94
Maltzan, cited, 103
Marranos, i
Mauretania, 81, 142
Mequinez, 157, 178-179
Memaran, 155
Menas, King of Abyssinia, 18
Menasseh ben Israel, cited, 46,
165
198
Index
Menelik, Jewish King of Abys-
sinia, 5, 6, 8
Mogador, 157, 184
Monomotapa, i
Montefiore, Sir Moses, 41, 159
Morceaux, cited, 58
Morell, J. R., cited, 124, 134-136
Morgan, I., cited, 126, 144, 149
Morocco, 142-190
Mouette, Sieur, cited, 171
Msellata, 59
Muley Arxid (Reshid), 151-154,
167, 168, 172
Muley Ismail, 154
Muley Mohamed, 157
Muley Solyman, 158
Muley Yazed, 157-158
Nagid, The, 37
Naples, Deportation to, 60
Nataf, Solomon, 88
Napoleon III, 89
Nandi, Dr., cited, 114
Nefoussi Tribe, The, 56, 59
Noah, Mordecai Manuel, 98
Obadiah di Bertinoro, 44-45
Ockley, Simon, cited, 173-175
Ogilby, John, cited, 24, 49, 124-
125
Omar, Ordinances of, 83, 92, 146
Oran, 107, 108, no, 114, 117,
119. 139
Oviedo, Patriarch of Ethiopia, 15
Palachwe, Samuel, 149-150
Palachwe (Palache), Moses, 150,
166
Pariente, Jacob, 167-168
Pessato, 66
Phineas, King of Abyssinia, g-
10, 22
Plowden, Walter Chichele, cited,
30-32
Portugal, Persecutions in, 147
Pory, John, cited, 16-17
Ptolemy I, 34-35
Ptolemy Soter, 79
Purim al Mizriyim, 39
Purim Borghel, 62
Purim, Cairo, 39
Purim Kidehuni, 62
Purim Sherif, 62
Rae, Mr Edward, cited, '](>-']'],
102
Raphael Joseph, 39, 40-41
Reclus, Elisee, cited, 178
Reshid (Rosetta), 44
Romans, Jews under the, 81-82,
144
Rosetta, 44
Sabbathai Zevi, 39, 40-41, 62,
150-151, 171
Samen, Jewish Kings of, 14-15,
24
Samen, Jews of, 2,11
Sandys, George, cited, 46
Sanuto, geographer, 16, 17
Sartsa Denghel, King of Abys-
sinia, 18
Sasportas, Jacob, 151, 1 70-1 71
Sefitah, 44
Segued, King of Abyssinia, 18
Sehm I, Sultan, 36-37
Selim II, 87
Sheba, the Queen of, 5, 7, 8,
30-32
Sheshet, Rabbi Isaac ben, 122
Sholal, Isaac Cohen, 37
Simeon ben Labi, 61, 66, 71
Sinan Rais, 96
Slousch, M., cited, 65-66, 78
Solomon, King, 5, 7
Solyman, the Magnificent, 37,
38, 62
Spain, immigration from, 106,
108, 119, 120
Spain, massacres of Jews in, 119,
146
Spanish invasion of Tripoli, 60
Spanish Protection, 10 1
Stern, Henr>'^ A., cited, 27-30
Strabo, cited, 43
Sus, 151, 170
Susneus, King of Abyssinia, 19,
23
Tafilet, 183-184
Tangiers, 157
Tellez, Balthazar, cited, 5, 23, 24
199
Index
Tetuan, 157, 180
Thevenot, John de, cited, 47-48
Tlemcen, 109, in, 137, 178
Toledani, Joseph, 154
Toledano, Daniel, 154
Toledano, Hyam, 154
Trasermoot, 1 81-182, 183
Tripoli, 56-79
Troglodyte Jews, 64
Tshlehi, The, 37, 48
TuUy, cited, 70, 71
Tunis, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 89, 95,
99, 103, 115
Tunisia, 80-104
Vandals, Jews under the, 82,
105, 144
Vansleb, cited, 50-51
Volterra, MeshuUam ben Men-
achem, 44-45
WiNDUS, cited, 156, 175
Wingfield, Lewis, 100-102, 136
XiMENES, Cardinal, no
Zaraf Bassa {Bashi), 37, 46, 48
Zarfati, Samuel, 1 70
Zeliten, 73
Zimra, David ibn Abi, 37
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