page_title: Mellah
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Mellah / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: A_Jewish_house_in_Mogador_by_Darondeau_1807_1841.
context_page_description: A mellah is a Jewish quarter of a city in Morocco. Starting in the 15th century and especially since the beginning of the 19th century, Jewish communities in Morocco were constrained to live in mellah districts in many Moroccan cities. The name mellah derives from a local toponym in Fez which became the name of the first separate Jewish district in Morocco created in that city during the 15th century. The term is often mistakenly conflated with European ghettos.
  In cities, a mellah was often surrounded by a wall with a fortified gateway. Usually, the Jewish quarter was situated near the royal palace or the residence of the governor, in order to protect its inhabitants from recurring riots since its inhabitants played a vital role in the local economy. In contrast, rural mellahs were separate villages inhabited solely by the Jews.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the 19th century, around 1807, sultan Sulayman forced Jews to move to mellahs in the towns of the coastal region, in Rabat, Salé, Essaouira, and Tetouan. (In Tetouan, the Spanish word judería was later used as the name of the district.) The mellah in Rabat was established in 1808 by Sultan Mawlay Sulaiman; this separated the Jewish and Muslim people who had lived together in a shared area of the city. In Salé, the new Jewish quarter was a long avenue with a total of 200 houses, 20 shops and trading booths, two kilns and two mills. In 1865, the mellah of Essaouira, having become over-populated, was permitted to extend.
  During this century, the fortunes of the Jewish community of Fez in particular improved considerably as the expansion of contact and trade with Europe allowed the Jewish merchant class to place themselves at the center of international trade networks in Morocco. This also led to a greater social openness and a shift in tastes and attitudes, especially among richer Jews, who built luxurious residences in the upper parts of the Mellah there.
caption: A Jewish house in Essaouira, by Darondeau (1807–1841)
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