Bibliography

Explore the references, sources, and research that support Morocco's stories and cultural content.

• Literature and folktales

  Stories and Writers of the Jews of Morocco

  Moroccan Jews have one of the richest literary and storytelling traditions in the Jewish world, from medieval poets and scholars to thousands of folktales and a new generation of novelists and poets in French and Hebrew.

  Medieval voices

  Poets and scholars of Fez

  In the tenth century, Dunash ben Labrat, born in Fez, brought the rhythms of Arabic poetry into Hebrew and helped launch the golden age of Hebrew poetry in Spain. In the eleventh century, Rabbi Isaac Alfasi, named for Fez, wrote a digest of Talmudic law that is printed alongside the Talmud in its standard editions. Maimonides lived in Fez as a young man.

  Folktales and legends

  Saints, tricksters, and ballads

  Moroccan Jews told stories of tzaddikim, holy men such as Rabbi Amram ben Diwan of Ouazzane and Rabbi Haim Pinto of Essaouira, whose graves became places of pilgrimage. They laughed at the tricks of Seha, known elsewhere as Djoha, a folk hero Jews shared with their Muslim neighbors. In the north, women sang Judeo Spanish ballads, the romances, carried from medieval Spain. Thousands of Moroccan tales are preserved in the Israel Folktale Archives, one of its largest collections.

  Modern writers

  French and Hebrew voices

  Edmond Amran El Maleh wrote novels in French about Moroccan Jewish and Muslim life, beginning with Parcours immobile. Marcel Bénabou, born in Meknes, became a member of the Oulipo group of writers in Paris. In Israel, the poet Erez Biton, born in Algeria to a Moroccan family, wrote about immigrant life in Minha Marokait and received the Israel Prize. In the United States, Ruth Knafo Setton's novel The Road to Fez draws on the legend of Suleika, a Jewish girl martyred in Fez.

  Read with students

  Start with these

  • Two Thousand Years of Jewish Life in Morocco, Haïm Zafrani (high school and adult)
  • Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco, Aomar Boum (high school and adult)
  • The Story of the Baba Sali, Sarah Feldbrand (children)

  See all books on the Jews of Morocco in JIMENA's bibliography →

  Sources: Dunash ben Labrat; Isaac Alfasi; Amram ben Diwan; Edmond Amran El Maleh; Erez Biton; Israel Folktale Archives.