Mellah
A mellah is the place of residence historically assigned to Jewish communities in Morocco.
The urban mellah, as it exists in numerous cities and large towns, is a Jewish quarter enclosed by a wall and a fortified gateway, typically near the residence of the sultan or governor. In cities, the mellah was usually situated near the qaṣba, the royal palace, or the residence of the governor; some residents of the mellah held senior administrative positions and had to be available.
The rural mellah, as it exists or existed in the mountainous regions of the Atlas and the Rif and in the plains regions reaching to the Sahara, is a relatively isolated open village inhabited exclusively by Jews. These villages existed at a distance from the nearest qṣar or qaid.
Starting in the 15th century in Fes and especially since the beginning of the 19th century elsewhere, mellah districts were established in many Moroccan cities for the Jewish communities to live in. The name mellah derives from a local toponym in Fes which became the name of the first separate Jewish district in Morocco created in that city during the 15th century. Haim Zafrani notes that the institution of the mellah was only imposed on some communities and only as of relatively recently in Moroccan history, and that segregation was not the rule in Islamic lands as it was in Christian lands.
History
Origins of the first ''Mellah'' in Fez (15th century)
The first Mellah of Morocco was created in the city of Fez. Fez had long hosted the largest and one of the oldest Jewish communities in Morocco, present since the city's foundation by the Idrisids. Since the time of Idris II a Jewish community was concentrated in the neighbourhood known as Foundouk el-Yihoudi near Bab Guissa in the northeast of the city. Nonetheless, historical evidence also shows that the Jewish population was widely distributed in many parts of the old city alongside the Muslim population, including near the University of al-Qarawiyyin in the heart of the city.In 1276 the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd al-Haqq founded Fes el-Jdid, a new fortified administrative city to house their troops and the royal palace. The city included a southern district, known as Hims, which was initially inhabited by Muslim garrisons, particularly the Sultan's mercenary contingents of Syrian archers, which were later disbanded.
The same district, however, was also known by the name Mellah due to either a saline water source in the area or to the presence of a former salt warehouse. It was this name which was later retained as the name of the subsequent Jewish quarter in the area. Afterwards, the name came to be associated by analogy with similar districts that were later created in other cities such as Marrakesh.
The name mellah thus originally had no negative connotation but was rather just a local toponym. Nonetheless, over generations a number of legends and popular etymologies came to explain the origin of the word as a "salted, cursed ground" or a place where the Jews were forced to "salt" the heads of decapitated rebels.
Both the exact reasons and the exact date for the creation of a separate Jewish Mellah of Fez are not firmly agreed upon by all scholars. Historical accounts confirm that in the mid-14th century the Jews of Fez were still living in Fes el-Bali but that by the end of the 16th century they were well-established in the Mellah of Fes el-Jdid. Some authors argue that the transfer likely happened in stages across the Marinid period, particularly following episodes of violence or repression against Jews in the old city. The urban fabric of the Mellah appears to have developed progressively and it's possible that a small Jewish population settled here right after the foundation of Fes el-Jdid and that other Jews fleeing the old city joined them later. Some scholars, citing historical Jewish chronicles, attribute the date of the move more specifically to the "rediscovery" of Idris II's body in his zawiya at the center of the old city in 1437. The surrounding area, located in the middle of the city's main commercial districts where Jewish merchants were quite active, was turned into a horm where non-Muslims were not allowed to enter, resulting in the expulsion of the Jewish inhabitants and businesses there. Many other scholars date the move generally to the mid-15th century.
In any case, the transfer occurred with some violence and hardship. Many Jewish households chose to convert rather than leave their homes and their businesses in the heart of the old city, resulting in a growing group referred to as al-Baldiyyin.
Broader political motivations for moving the Jewish community to Fes el-Jdid, closer to the royal palace, may have included the rulers' desire to take more direct advantage of their artisan skills and of their commercial relations with Jewish communities in Europe and other countries. The Mellah's Jewish cemetery was even established on land which was donated to the Jewish community by a Marinid princess named Lalla Mina in the 15th century. The Mellah's location next to the royal palace, within the more heavily fortified Fes el-Jdid, may have also been intended to better protect the Jewish community from the larger and more restive population of the old city; a pattern that would be repeated for future mellahs in other cities.
Despite the more secure location, however, disasters still occasionally struck the community and its district. The 15th century was also a time of relative political instability, with the Wattasid viziers taking over effective control from the Marinid dynasty and competing with other local factions in Fez. In 1465, the Mellah was attacked by the Muslim population of Fes el-Bali during a revolt led by the shurafa against the Marinid sultan Abd al-Haqq II and his Jewish vizier Harun ibn Battash. The attack resulted in thousands of Jewish inhabitants being killed, with many others having to openly renounce their faith. The community took at least a decade to recover from this, only growing again under the rule of the Wattasid sultan Muhammad al-Shaykh.
Major changes in the Jewish population also took place when in 1492 the Spanish crown expelled all Jews from Spain, with Portugal doing the same in 1497. The following waves of Spanish Jews migrating to Fez and North Africa increased the Jewish population and also altered its social, ethnic, and linguistic makeup. The influx of migrants also revitalized Jewish cultural activity in the following years, while splitting the community along ethnic lines for many generations. In Fez, for example, the Megorashim of Spanish origin retained their heritage and their Spanish language while the indigenous Moroccan Toshavim, who spoke Arabic and were of Arab and Berber heritage, followed their own traditions. Members of the two communities worshiped in separate synagogues and were even buried separately. It was only in the 18th century that the two communities eventually blended together, with Arabic eventually becoming the main language of the entire community while the Spanish minhag became dominant in religious practice; a situation which was repeated elsewhere in Morocco, with the notable exception of the Marrakesh community.
16th–18th centuries
For a while, the mellah of Fez remained the only one. The second mellah was only created in the second half of the 16th century in Marrakesh, which by then had replaced Fez as the capital of Morocco under the new Saadian dynasty. Here too the Jewish population of the city had lived alongside the Muslim population. Many of them had come from the Atlas Mountain regions and from the nearby city of Aghmat, where a much older Jewish community had already existed.The Jewish district at the time was concentrated in what is now the Mouassine neighbourhood. In 1557-58 CE sultan Moulay Abdallah al-Ghalib ordered that the Jewish population of the city relocate from here to an area next to the royal Kasbah, and construction of the new Mellah of Marrakesh was probably finished around 1562-63. The political motivations for this may have been similar to those of the Marinids in creating the Mellah of Fez, which served as a precedent followed by the Saadian dynasty. Additionally, however, Moulay Abdallah appeared to have been planning the creation of new "model" Muslim neighbourhoods in the city, centered around the new Mouassine Mosque which he immediately built on the newly-liberated land of the old Jewish neighbourhood. Another factor for the move may have been the rapid growth of the Jewish population due to the influx of Jewish migrants from Fez and other towns seeking economic opportunities in the capital. Incidentally, the new Mellah was indeed quite large and functioned as a city unto itself, with its own services and facilities. Despite this, some historical references indicate that Jews may have still been living in other parts of the city in the decades after the Mellah's creation.
A Frenchman, who was held captive in Morocco from 1670 to 1681, wrote: "In Fez and in Morocco , the Jews are separated from the inhabitants, having their own quarters set apart, surrounded by walls of which the gates are guarded by men appointed by the King... In the other towns, they are intermingled with the Moors." In 1791, a European traveller described the Marrakesh mellah: "It has two large gates, which are regularly shut every evening about nine o'clock, after which time no person whatever is permitted to enter or go out... till... the following morning. The Jews have a market of their own...".
The third mellah of Morocco wasn't created until 1682, when the Alaouite sultan Moulay Isma'il moved the Jewish population of Meknes, his new capital, to a new district on the southwest side of the city, next to the vast new royal citadel that he was building for himself there.
In Fez, the 17th century saw a significant influx of Jews from the Tadla region and from the Sous Valley arriving under the reigns of the Alaouite sultans Moulay Rashid and Moulay Isma'il, respectively. A serious disaster, however, took place in 1790 to 1792 during a period of general turmoil for the city under Sultan Moulay Yazid. During these two years the sultan forced the entire Jewish community to move to the outlying Kasbah Cherarda on the other side of Fes el-Jdid. The Mellah was occupied by tribal troops allied to him, its synagogue was replaced by a mosque, and the Jewish cemetery and its contents were moved to a cemetery near Bab Guissa. Moreover, Moulay Yazid permanently reduced the size of the district by demolishing the old city walls around it and rebuilding them along a much smaller perimeter. It was only after the sultan's death that the chief Muslim qadi of Fez ordered the Mellah to be restored to the Jewish community, along with the demolition of the mosque built by Yazid's troops.