The sultan's Jew
Subtitle: Morocco and the Sephardi world
By: Daniel J. Schroeter
Series: Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
Subjects: Macnin, Meir; Macnin, Meir; Jews -- Morocco -- Essaouira -- History -- 18th century; Jews -- Morocco -- Essaouira -- History -- 19th century; Sephardim -- Morocco -- History -- 18th century; Sephardim -- Morocco -- History -- 19th century; Court Jews -- Morocco -- History -- 18th century; Court Jews -- Morocco -- History -- 19th century; Jewish merchants -- Morocco -- History -- 18th century; Jewish merchants -- Morocco -- History -- 19th century; Essaouira (Morocco) -- Ethnic relations
Description: "This study uses the extraordinary life of Meir Macnin, a prosperous Jewish merchant, as a lens for examining the Jewish community of Morocco and its relationship to the Sephardi world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Macnin, a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in Marrakesh, became the most important merchant for the sultans who ruled Morocco, and was their chief intermediary between Morocco and Europe.

He lived in London for about twenty years, and then shuttled between Morocco and England for fifteen years until his death in 1835.".

"This book challenges accepted views of Muslim-Jewish relations by emphasizing the ambivalence in the relationship. It shows how elite Jews maneuvered themselves into important positions in the Moroccan state by linking themselves to politically powerful Muslims and by establishing key positions in networks of trade. The elite Jews of Morocco were also part of a wider Sephardi world that transcended national boundaries.

However, Macnin remained more connected to Morocco, where Jews were, according to Islamic law, proteges of the ruler and still subject to specific legal disabilities. The early-nineteenth-century sultan Mawlay Sulayman confined Jews in a number of Moroccan cities to newly created Jewish quarters as part of a policy of defining boundaries between Muslims and Jews.

Yet Macnin remained closely tied to royal power, and in 1822 he became the principal intermediary between Morocco and the European powers for Mawlay Sulayman's successor, Mawlay Abd al-Rahman."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-230) and index
Table of contents: title: Introduction: court Jews and Muslim-Jewish relations in Morocco; title: The rise of the Macnins; title: The plague and the world of Mediterranean Jewry; title: The Berberiscos of London; title: The Macnins in Morocco; title: The sultan's Jew; title: The unwanted emissary; title: Macnin's Legacy: Sephardi and oriental