122 r Juliette Hassine
- This piyyut about the martyrdom of Sol Hachuel was only recently discovered,
written on the last pages of one of the two manuscripts by Rabbi Yedidiah Monsoniego
entitled Qupat ha-Rokhlim (The Peddler’s Satchel), setting out that which is forbidden
and permitted by Torah law. The contents are arranged in alphabetical order, summa-
rizing sources and referring to them. The manuscript, which includes the piyyut about
Sol, is in the possession of Rabbi Dr. Moshe Amar of Bar-Ilan University. In his poem,
the author testifies that it was written on the thirtieth day after Sol’s execution. Rabbi
Monsoniego also served as a ritual slaughterer in Fez and was appointed a judge on
the rabbinical court in 1840, replacing his father, Rabbi Raphael Monsoniego, after his
death. For further biographical and bibliographical details, see Sefer Minkhat Ziqaron,
ed. Moshe Amar (Lod: Orot Yahadut Ha-Maghreb, 1999), 1–9. - This q#sā about the righteous Sol came to me as a text found in a manuscript in the
possession of Dr. Hayyim Bentov of Bar-Ilan University. Throughout this essay, we refer
to the q#sā by its opening phrase, Bisam Allah qaomi (In the name of God my shelter). - The Arabic qassida in Morocco is called malhun. The q#sā is a less complex poetic
form than the qassida and was adopted in popular Jewish literature in Morocco. The
manuscript q#sā Bisam Allah qaomi was influenced by the Arabic qassida of the malhun
type. The structure of the Sephardic Hebrew qassida is derived from the Arabic qassida.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, after the Arabic qassida of the malhun type
became the primary poetic form in Morocco, even Hebrew verse accepted the form. The
q#sā Bisam Allah qaomi belongs to the malhun genre and is characterized by a division
into stanzas (aqsam) accompanied by a refrain (harba). The stanzas are composed of
strings. Each string has two parts: the first part includes three lines whose rhyme changes
in each stanza. The second part includes two couplets. The rhymes of the couplets are
uniform in each stanza. For a discussion of the malhun, see Meir Nizri, “Ha-Prosodiyyah
shel ha-qassida be-shir yedidut le-or ha-qassida ha-Aravit (al-Mallhun) be-Morocco,”
PhD thesis, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 1997. - Moroccan Jews were defined as dhimmis or a “protected minority” by the Muslim
authorities. The delineation was common practice as regards non-Muslims and included
both Jews and Christians, who were described as “People of the Book.” They were al-
lowed to live under Muslim rule if they accepted a number of limitations embodied in
the Pact of Omar, compiled in 687 ce (Muslim date, ah 78) and named after its origina-
tor, Omar b. al-Hatāb. These precepts were designed to ensure the supremacy of Islam
over the other religions. One of the clauses relevant to our discussion is the prohibition
against discouraging anybody from converting to Islam. The dhimmis who obeyed these
rules were guaranteed protection against threats to their lives and possessions and were
permitted freedom to organize their religious and social life. The Pact of Omar in effect
separated Muslims from other communities. This segregation deepened over time, so
that by the early nineteenth century very little communication took place between the
Jewish community and the Muslim authorities, a situation exacerbated by persecution.
Jews could neither read nor write Classical Arabic, because as dhimmis they were for-
bidden to study the Quran. This explains the Jewish ignorance of complex legal matters
such as ridda, under whose provisions Sol was sentenced to death. See Antoine Fattal,
Le statut légal des non-musulmans en pays d’Islam (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1958),