Exile in the Maghreb

Jews under Islam, Sources and Documents, 997–1912

Paul B. Fenton, David G. Littman

• Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781611477887
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Jewish Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Exile in the Maghreb entails the first attempt at describing the historical reality of the legal and social condition of the Jews in the Muslim countries of North Africa (principally Algeria and Morocco) over a thousand year period from the Middle Ages (997 C.E.) to the French colonization (1830 Algeria/1912 Morocco.). The Exile is not a formal history but a chronological anthology of documents drawn from literary (section A) and archival sources (section B), many of which are published for the first time.

In section A, Arabic and Hebrew chronicles, Muslim legal, and theological texts are followed by the accounts culled from European travelers—captives, diplomats, doctors, clerics, and adventurers. Each document is introduced and annotated in such a way as to bring out its importance.

The second section (B) reflects the diplomatic activity deployed by humanitarian organizations in favour of North African Jewry. Spanning the 19th and early 20th centuries, these are mainly drawn from the archives of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (Paris) and the Anglo-Jewish Association (London). The documents are richly elucidated with illustrations taken from the international press. The book presents a new and illuminating insight into the status of Jews under the Crescent. The Jews of North Africa were the only minority under Islam, in this region and their history reflects Judaism's exclusive encounter with Islam.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Preface to the English Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• HISTORICAL AND LITERARY SOURCES (A)
• From the ZenĀta to the WattĀsids (990–1492)
• Algeria
• Al-MAGHĪLĪ FIXES THE DHIMMA SYSTEM (1492–1493)
• UNDER THE OTTOMAN REGENCIES (1529–1830)
• FROM THE FRENCH CONQUEST TO THE CRéMIEUX DECREE (1830–1870)
• Morocco
• UNDER THE SA‘DIdS (1509–1659)
• UNDER THE ‘ALAWIDS (1666–1800)
• PERSECUTIONS UNDER MAWLĀY YAZĪD (1790–1791)
• SUFFERING IN ISOLATION (1800–1860)
• BEGINNINGS OF HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION BY EUROPEAN JEWRY (1860)
• THE RISE OF THE FRENCH PROTECTORATE (1907–1912)
• ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS (B)
• GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE ARCHIVES OF THE AIU PERTAINING TO THE MAGHREB (1860–1912)
• ARBITRARY PERSECUTION AND THE HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION OF EUROPEAN JEWRY (1863–1864)
• THE PRISONERS OF TETUAN (1864–1865)
• TYRANNY IN THE EMPIRE (1867–1877)
• THE MADRID CONFERENCE AND THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN PROTECTION (1879–1888)
• THE AUTODAFé OF ABRAHAM ELALOUF (Fez, 1880)
• THE SYSTEM OF PROTECTIONS AND THE BACKDROP OF TERROR (1880–1881)
• TWENTY YEARS AFTER MONTEFIORE’S MISSION RENEWED PERSECUTION IN DEMNAT (1884–1885)
• A DECADE OF DHIMMITUDE (1885–1895)
• THE SULTAN’S DEATH AND TRIBAL SEDITION IN MZAB (1895–1896)
• NEW CENTURY, OLD VICISSITUDES (1899–1906)
• TRAGIC EVENTS OF CASABLANCA AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES (August 1907–February 1908)
• THE MASSACRE OF SETTAT, PRELUDE AND POGROM (NOVEMBER 1907–JANUARY 1908)
• MOROCCO BESET BY ANARCHY (1908)
• PEACEFUL PENETRATION AND THE FATE OF THE JEWS (1909–1912)
• THE POGROM OF FEZ (APRIL 1912)
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• About the Authors