The Martyrdom of Sol Hachuel: Ridda in Morocco in 1834 r 125trans. Boaz Cohen (New York: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1952), 28, 52. The
authors of the piyyutim about Sol—all sages and rabbinical judges and well acquainted
with Maimonides’ religious thought and philosophy—were fully aware of these details.
In fact, it appears they reread Maimonides’ works, especially Igeret Teman, before writing
their poetry.
For sources discussing Maimonides’ attitude toward Islam and forced conversion in
North Africa, see Nehamiah Levtzion’s articles and also the articles by Menahem Ben-
Sasson and Eliezer Schlossberg, which appeared in Pe ̔amim 42 (Winter 1990): 8–60.
- For sources on forced conversions in Andalusia in the Muwahidūn period, see
Judit Taragona and Angel Saenz-Badillos, “Moshé ben Maimon sous le pouvoir almo-
hade,” in Présence juive au Maghreb, ed. Joseph Tedgui and Nicole S. Serfati (Saint-Denis:
Bouchère, 2004), 203–18. See especially 214–15. - Rey, Souvenirs, 147, 153.
- See the entry for taklif in the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2000),
10:149–50. - In Rey’s book, Souvenirs d’un voyage au Maroc, 153–54, the governor repeats in
Sol’s presence, “You are certainly not insane.” - We express our gratitude to the president of the Shari ̔a court in Israel, Ahmed
Natour, who explained the paragraphs relating to ’akl and bulugh in the laws of ridda,
after checking the relevant sources in Muslim law books. The meeting took place in his
office on January 7, 2004. The relevant paragraphs in the law will be examined in detail as
part of a more extensive research project now in progress. Here we have only presented
a summary of the law and general conclusions. - Line 12 of the manuscript reads, “ ̔inuha shne h odashim / yeme ̔onya umerudeha”
(They tortured her for two months / the days of her suffering and her bitterness). - Fattal, Le statut legal, 165–66. In Souvenirs, Rey introduced the possibility of the
body being burned or even that Sol might have been executed by burning (167). - See the Archives marocaines (1907), 10:155.
- See the introduction to Minhat Zikaron by Yedidiah Monsoniego, ed. Moshe Amar
(Lod: Orot Yahadut Hamagreb, 1992).