Debdou (
Berber: ⴷⴻⴱⴷⵓ) is a town in
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
. It is known for its multi-ethnic population, including Berbers and Moroccan Jews.
The Ait Urtajjen, a Berber family related to the Moroccan dynasty of the
Wattasids
The Wattasid dynasty ( ber, Iweṭṭasen; ar, الوطاسيون, ''al-waṭṭāsīyūn'') was a ruling dynasty of Morocco. Like the Marinid dynasty, its rulers were of Zenata Berber descent. The two families were related, and the Marinids re ...
, had their own
semi-independent state here from 1430 until 1563.
Jewish centre
Debdou was a major Jewish centre in Morocco. The town was settled by many Sephardic Jews from
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, fleeing the wave of anti-Jewish riots in Spain in 1391. The earliest to settle were the clan of Cohen-Scali who reached Debdou in 1465, a family of Jewish priests said to trace their lineage to
Zadok
Zadok (or Zadok HaKohen, also spelled Ṣadok, Ṣadoc, Zadoq, Tzadok, or Tsadoq; he, צָדוֹק הַכֹּהֵן, meaning "Righteous, Justified") was a Kohen (priest), biblically recorded to be a descendant from Eleazar the son of Aaron (). H ...
, the High Priest.
[Shlomo bar Yosef ha-Cohen Atzvan, ''Ma'alot le'Shlomo'', Jerusalem 1985]
p. 56
in PDF (Hebrew)
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century the town was briefly renowned as a centre of Jewish learning, exporting rabbis to many cities in Morocco.
At the end of the 19th century the town's population was estimated at 2000 inhabitants, most of them Jews.
At the beginning of the 20th century the number of Jews was estimated at 1600, who formed roughly a third of the population.
Following the establishment of the French protectorate, with the concomitant rise in security, the majority of the Jewish population gradually emigrated to nearby towns in the plains.
Gallery
File:Debdou ancien cimetière 002.JPG, Former Marinid
The Marinid Sultanate was a Berber Muslim empire from the mid-13th to the 15th century which controlled present-day Morocco and, intermittently, other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) ar ...
cemetery.
File:Debdou architecture 005.JPG, The door of the typical Jewish house.
File:Debdou casbah 001.JPG, Former Marinid
The Marinid Sultanate was a Berber Muslim empire from the mid-13th to the 15th century which controlled present-day Morocco and, intermittently, other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) ar ...
kasbah
A kasbah (, also ; ar, قَـصَـبَـة, qaṣaba, lit=fortress, , Maghrebi Arabic: ), also spelled qasba, qasaba, or casbah, is a fortress, most commonly the citadel or fortified quarter of a city. It is also equivalent to the term ''alca ...
.
File:Debdou architecture 002.JPG, Typical street in Debdou.
References
External links
* C. El Briga,
Debdou», Encyclopédie berbère, vol.15, Edisud 1995, p. 2254-2255
Populated places in Taourirt Province
Municipalities of Morocco
Historic Jewish communities
Morocco geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia
{{OrientalMA-geo-stub