Jews, Moors, Arabs and Kabyles of the Regency of Algiers Under European Gaze (16th Century–1830)

Abstract

Although the Regency of Algiers was little known in Europe before 1830, a number of studies on this territory had been published since the sixteenth century by diplomats, travelers, captives, and clergy dedicated to the redemption of captives and militaries. Their writings described a territory inhabited by people of various cultures and religions, Jews, Moors, Arabs, and Kabyles, each of these having its specific place and role in the country’s society and economy. Inside the Regency, dhimma, an inferior status, was granted to all non-Muslim followers of the revealed religions (Jews and Christians) accepting Islam domination. However, the Christians mostly enjoyed the benefits of an alleviated dhimmitude (The researcher Bat Ye’or, in his works on Egyptian Jews, first used this term as a synonym for “dhimmi legal status”. Some researches in English, French or German commonly use the word: See for references: http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_bycv.html ), under agreements with European countries. Directly under the protection of the French Consul, the Franc Jews were exempted from it. The other Jews were scorned, subjected to dhimma, and sentenced to discriminatory and humiliating punishments. These accounts help map out the origins of the various ethnic groups of the Regency, their number and range of activities, the level of confidence placed in them, and the ways to modernize their conditions and possibly turn them into allies. Some of the foci of these early writings would be validated and developed during the first stages of French colonization: for example, the future importance of the Jews coming from France for Algerian Jews’ “education”, or the difference perceived by Europeans between Arabs and Kabyles, which led the latter to enjoy more consideration, and ultimately gave birth to the “Kabylian myth.” The positive reception by Algerian Jews, supposed to be favorable to the French, as well as their important role as intermediaries, was confirmed by the facts. Yet, the very low opinion of Jews harbored by the conquerors was so persistent that it soon fostered among the European settlers a prevailing “anti-Judaic” sentiment throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.