The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies Series Editor David S. Katz VOLUME 44 The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint by Sharon Vance LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vance, Sharon, 1963– The martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish saint / by Sharon Vance. p. cm. — (Brill’s series in Jewish studies ; v. 44) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-20700-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Hatchuel, Sol, 1817–1834. 2. Morocco—Ethnic relations—Historiography. 3. Jewish martyrs—Morocco— Historiography. 4. Zaddikot—Morocco—Historiography. 5. Jews—Morocco— History—19th century. 6. Jewish-Arab relations. I. Title. II. Series: Brill’s series in Jewish studies ; v. 44. DS135.M9H388 2011 305.892’4—dc22 2011008039 ISSN 0926-2261 ISBN 978-90-04-20700-4 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. 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CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..................................................................... vii Note on transliteration ............................................................... ix Introduction ................................................................................ 1 Chapter One The Many Lives of Sol Hatchuel .................... 7 Conclusion .............................................................................. 38 Chapter Two The Limits of Protection: The Execution in Historical Context .............................................................. 41 Introduction ............................................................................ 41 Jewish Legal Status in Moroccan Islam ................................. 41 Political Legitimacy in Morocco and Jewish Roles in Moroccan Society ........................................................... 52 Conclusion .............................................................................. 79 Chapter Three The Tale of the Martyred Maiden ............... 81 Introduction ............................................................................ 81 Polemics ................................................................................... 82 The Prose Genres and Jewish Historical Memory ................ 85 Saints and Pilgrimage ............................................................. 89 Jacob M. Toledano ................................................................. 93 Joseph Ben Naim .................................................................... 99 Conclusion .............................................................................. 113 Chapter Four ‘As An Ewe Before Her Shearers’: The Hebrew Elegies ............................................................... 117 Introduction ............................................................................ 117 The Poetic Elegies .................................................................. 118 Gender Discourse ................................................................... 121 Samuel Elbaz .......................................................................... 126 Jacob Berdugo ......................................................................... 135 Haim Haliwa .......................................................................... 144 Jacob Abuhasera ..................................................................... 152 Conclusion .............................................................................. 158 vi contents Chapter Five The Fallen Gazelle ............................................ 161 Introduction ............................................................................ 161 The Tale of Ben Sa{adon ....................................................... 163 David Pinto’s Tale .................................................................. 169 The Jewish Community in Oran and Algeria ....................... 173 Conclusion .............................................................................. 186 Chapter Six The Sacrificed Lovers: Sol’s Story in the Judeo-Spanish Newspaper La Epoka ....................................... 189 Introduction ............................................................................ 189 The Judeo-Spanish Press ........................................................ 193 Sol La Âaddeqet ...................................................................... 194 Gender Discourse in La Epoka ................................................ 206 Conclusion .............................................................................. 208 Conclusion .................................................................................. 211 Bibliography ................................................................................ 219 Index ........................................................................................... 233 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I first heard the story of Sol Hatchuel while doing a field study assign- ment for a class at Hebrew University taught by Issachar Ben-Ami. Dur- ing a visit to a senior center I interviewed Hanna Levi and residents of the Musrara neighborhood in Jerusalem and asked them if there were any Éaddiqot, female saints. In response they told me her story. My time as a visiting graduate student at Hebrew University was supported by a Lady Davis Fellowship. It was these experiences in Israel that I have to thank for setting me on this journey and as a result of the amazing stories I heard from Mrs. Levi and other Moroccan immigrants I was inspired to make a trip to Morocco to see the Mella of Fez and other places they talked about so fondly. I was able to do so thanks to an Institute for Maghrib Studies grant between 1996 and 1997. While there I benefited from the generous spirit of the Jewish communities of Fez, Casablanca and Tangier. I would especially like to thank the Ameri- can Joint Distribution Committee and the Comité de la Communauté Israélite de Tanger, along with the American Legation Museum. This project would not have been possible without the support of my dissertation advisors, Dan Ben-Amos, Esther Schely-Newman and Roger Allen and the aid of a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship I received while a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. I am also grateful to Daniel Schroeter for reviewing the historical sections of the dissertation. The staff at a number of librar- ies and archives provided the needed documentation without which this work would not exist. My thanks to the libraries of the University of Pennsylvania and Northern Kentucky University, Colin Harris at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, Benjamin Richler of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the Jewish National and University Library, David Benayem of the Hebrew Manuscripts Department at Bar Ilan University, the Israel Folklore Archives Named in Honor of Dov Noy, the Habermann Institute for Literary Research, the Ben Zvi Institute, the British Library, Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid, the Hispanic Society of America Museum and Library in New York City and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. I was also greatly aided by the language skills and translation help of Joseph Chet- rit and Haim Benaim with the Judeo-Arabic manuscripts and David viii acknowledgements Hirsch facilitated my plunge into Judeo-Spanish. Jonathan Cohen and Susan Einbinder of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati reviewed my translations of some of the Hebrew poems. Of course any errors are mine alone. The preparation of this book would not have been pos- sible without the support of the Northern Kentucky University Faculty Development Summer Fellowship and Research Grant. My colleagues in the History and Geography Department were also very supportive and picked up the departmental duties I left while taking a leave to write this book. Paul Tenkotte and Debra Meyers read chapters and gave needed encouragement. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewer and Jennifer Pavelko, the acquisitions editor at Brill. Finally thanks are in order to my husband Alejandro Mandel for his support and encouragement. NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION I have followed the transliteration tables of the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World (EJIW) for Hebrew and Arabic. I used the English spelling of common Hebrew Biblical names in keeping with EJIW’s system. Arabic proper names are spelled with diacritics and long vowels as they appear in EJIW. However in both cases I have not altered the spelling of names of individuals that have established Romanization. Common place names in Morocco widely known by their French spelling are also retained, except when there is a generally accepted English version (e.g. Marrakech and Fez). The Judeo-Arabic texts were written in the local North African dialects and spelled phonetically using the Hebrew alphabet, my transliterations followed the EJIW chart for Hebrew with slight modifications