Exile in the Maghreb

This translation of L'Exil au Maghreb: la condition juive sous l'Islam, 1148-1912 (2010) is an anthology of 'documents specifically portraying various aspects of the Jewish experience in the North African lands of the Islamic West.' Its broader aim, however, is to demonstrate that 'anti-Jewish persecution has been endemic to Muslim North Africa' and to refute the claim that Islam provided a more open and tolerant home for Jews than Christian Europe. To this end, the compilers present illustrations, maps, and a wide range of documents describing persecution and harassment of Jews, primarily in Morocco and Algeria over the period from 997 to 1912 until the end of Muslim sovereignty in Morocco. The first section consists of 146 enumerated selections from sources (as the preface states), including chronicles in Arabic or Hebrew and Muslim legal texts, diaries kept by travelers, newspaper accounts, and reports by physicians, adventurers, those in captivity, and diplomatic or consular authorities. The second section presents 188 sources from the Alliance Israélite Universelle archives in Paris, and the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Public Records Office in London. Document annotations are provided in chapter endnotes. While the compilers only allude to academic controversy regarding their thesis and sources, students would have benefited from a fuller discussion of the debate. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.