North Africa
Ibn Danan Synagogue, Fez, founded in the 17th century. By Csörföly Dániel – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=181397
North Africa at the time of the Expulsion was less than an ideal region for Jewish settlement. Political and military struggles between the Berbers, Turks, Portuguese and Spanish made it an area of great unrest and disorder. Nevertheless, North Africa figures prominently in contemporary accounts that discuss the destinations of Jewish exiles from Spain. A number of exiles found temporary refuge in port cities on the Moroccan Atlantic coast that were held by the Portuguese. Jewish craftsmen who knew a language close to Portuguese – especially those who produced weapons – were welcomed in these towns, at a time when Portuguese policy was still favorable to Jews.
But the Spanish also had interests in North Africa. While the Portuguese dominated the Atlantic coast of Africa, the Spanish sought conquests on the Mediterranean coast. In 1509, they launched a campaign during which they seized several port cities, including Oran. The fate of the small number of exiles who had fled to these places was bitter. A few of the exiles settled in the sparsely-populated Atlas Mountains. They also settled elsewhere in inland trade centers – Tlemcen, Marrakesh and, above all, Fez. The great attraction of Fez for the exiles was the warm reception they received from the ruler, who welcomed their mercantile skills. Fez was also a place of relative stability in the region. A non-Jewish chronicle gives us an impression of the impact of the exiles on the Jewish settlement of Fez-
“[The Jews] used to dwell in the old city [of Fez]. But each time a king died, the Moors would attack and loot the Jews. The king Abu Sahid was forced to move them [the Jews] from the old city to the new city, doubling their taxes; and there they live today. They live on a long, wide street where their shops and synagogues are located. The Jewish population has grown so much that one cannot know their number, especially since the Jews were expelled by the monarchs of Spain.”
Secondary Sources
- Israel, Jonathan. “The Jews of Spanish Oran and Their Expulsion in 1669.” Mediterranean Historical Review 9, no. 2 (1994)- 235-255. Abstract- Discusses the Jewish population driven from Spanish Oran and Mers el-Kébir in North Africa by the territorial governor, the marqués de los Veléz, in 1669. Los Veléz maintained that the expulsion of the closely-knit, Spanish-speaking Jewish community of 466 men, women, and children would strengthen the Spanish and Christian position on the Barbary Coast. Despite expulsion of Jews from Spain itself, the Spanish crown welcomed the Jews in Oran as a link between Christian Spaniards and Muslims of North Africa. Fluent in Spanish as well as Arabic, Jews served as interpreters, intelligence gatherers, moneylenders, merchants, and slave traders. Spain’s mounting fear of Jewish sympathies toward Turkish conquests and the messianic Shabbatian frenzy served as catalysts for the expulsion orders. The Jewish community sailed for Villa France de Niza, a port belonging to the duke of Savoy, on 16 April 1669.
- Valensi, Lucette. “Multicultural Visions- The Cultural Tapestry of the Jews of North Africa,” Cultures of the Jews (2002), 887-931.
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