The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions
A Study of Jewish Communal Leadership in Meknes, 1750–1912 r 317
- I agree with Mark Cohen on this point: see Mark R. Cohen, Poverty and Charity in
the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005),
- Only Gabi Levi has focused on the history of the Jews of Meknes, although his
work is highly problematic. See Gabi Levi, The Jews of Meknes: Outlines of the Character
of a Community in Morocco (Tel-Aviv: Alef, 1982) (Hebrew).
- Yaron Ben-Naeh, “Poverty, Paupers, and Poor Relief in Ottoman Jewish Society,”
Revue des Etudes Juives 163, nos. 1–2 (2004); Cohen, Poverty and Charity. See also S. D.
Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Por-
trayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1967–1988), 2:91–143. No studies devoted to poverty and charity exist for Morocco, but
see the relevant section in Jane S. Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez, 1450–1700: Studies in
Communal and Economic Life (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980).
- On the legal history of awqāf in the Moroccan context, see David S. Powers, “The
Maliki Family Endowment: Legal Norms and Social Practices,” International Journal of
Middle East Studies 25, no. 3 (1993).
- Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez, 38; Amar, “On ‘the Taqanot of Meknes,’” 38.
- Eugène Aubin, Le Maroc d’aujourd’hui (Paris: A. Colin, 1904), 359–60. The number
six thousand is repeated by Mme. Valadji, director of the AIU girls’ school (AIU Maroc
XXXII E 561, Mme. Valadji to AIU, March 13, 1902).
- Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez, 97.
- Levi, The Jews of Meknes, 49. Gerber records that the members of the ma ̔amad in
Fez were all scholars. Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez, 98.
- The nagid was appointed by local Muslim authorities. Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez,
- Many taqanot were in fact only signed by one or two rabbis. However, to use the
term va ̔ad to refer to decisions that were not signed by all members seems inaccurate.
It is my impression that the leadership structure was more fluid than this term indicates.
- See the letter from Ben Hasin to the AIU, describing the economic state of the
Jewish community of Meknes in 1900. Amar, Taqanot, 421.
- A tiny percentage of wealthy Jews was common in Jewish communities elsewhere.
See, e.g., Michel Abitbol, Les commerçants du roi, Tujjar al-sultan (Paris: Maisonneuve et
Larose, 1998); and Ben-Naeh, “Poverty,” 153.
- I use this term, borrowed from European historians, to avoid the more confusing
alternative “middle class,” which has connotations that I do not want to introduce here.
By “middling” I mean neither wealthy nor very poor. According to Ben Hasin’s letter,
these artisans and merchants constituted 880 households (out of a total of 980)—that is,
the vast majority of the population. Amar, Taqanot, 421.
- Some professions were more susceptible to impoverishment than others. Accord-
ing to an 1824 taqanah about gifts to the sultan, the poorest artisans were tailors, gold-
smiths, and cobblers (who were exempt from contributing to gifts for the sultan). See
Amar, Taqanot, 179.
- AIU Maroc II B 12–98, Community of Meknes to AIU, Tammuz 5671 (1911); AIU
Maroc II B 12–98, Community of Meknes to AIU, Tevet 5653 (1903); AIU Maroc III C
