Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949

Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949Author(s): Harvey GoldbergSource: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 245-265Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/162197 .

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Int. J. Middle East Stud. 2, (1971) 245-265 Printed in Great Britain

Harvey Goldberg

ECOLOGIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC ASPECTS

OF RURAL TRIPOLITANIAN JEWRY: 1853-19491

As Libya is the smallest in population of the four Maghreb countries, so Libyan Jewry was less numerous than those of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Jewish settlement in rural Tripolitania is quite old. A tombstone reportedly found near

Tajura dating from the tenth century (Cazes 1890; Slouschz I927: 11-12) and El-Bekri's eleventh century mention of the Jews of Jado in the Jebel Nefusa

(El Bekri I913: 25) are two of the earliest post-Islamic examples. The present discussion, however, focuses on the century before the mass migration of

Tripolitanian Jewry to Israel, which began in 1949. At that time there were over

29,000 Jews living in Tripolitania (see Table 3), and somewhere between 4,000 and 6,ooo living in Cyrenaica.2 Within the former group, over 2I,000 lived in the city of Tripoli and less than 8,000 were in small Tripolitanian communities.

The present essay will discuss some of the main ecologic and demographic characteristics of rural Tripolitanian Jewry. The discussion will consider four

general questions: (I) Where, exactly, did the Jews of Tripolitania live? (II) What was the relationship of these communities to their socio-economic environment? (III) What were some of the main demographic trends among the

Jewish population during the past century? (IV) What other socio-cultural factors may be related to the ecologic and demographic variables? An intelligible discussion of these questions requires consideration of some of the main demo-

graphic and ecologic features of Tripolitanian life in general. The province of Tripolitania, in spite of being the most densely populated of

the three Libyan provinces, had the low average population density of 2-96

persons per square kilometer in I954 (Libya I964: 33). Figure I (Libya 1964: 59) indicates the population density of inhabited areas only and shows that only in

I Most of the data presented here were collected in Israel during the tenure of a postdoctoral fellowship from the U.S. Public Health Service (I-F-2-MH-I5, 902-01

CUAN) sponsored by Dr Marvin Herzog of Columbia University. I wish to express my appreciation to the Manuscript Department of the National and University Library in Jerusalem for permission to examine and photocopy portions of Higid Modechai (Hacohen MS.). Robert Attal's (1965) bibliography of Libyan Jewry was invaluable. Discussions with Drs June Helm and George Hillery aided me in preparing this paper. The maps and graphs were drawn by Beryl Gillespie.

2 Horowitz (I953: 385) reports that 4,000 Jews left Cyrenaica in the summer of I949 and that 200oo were left in I952. Chouraqui (1952a: 127) mentions 5,000 Jews in Cyrenaica and later (1952b: 386) 6,ooo Jews. Y. Guweta (I960: 26), a resident of Ben-Ghazi, reports the Jewish population at about 6,ooo of which 4,000 lived in Ben-Ghazi.

x6-2

245



246 Harvey Goldberg

Mizda ==Mizda \

FIGURE I (a) Population density.

FIGURE I (b) Major roads and towns.

I I.

"I 11

, 4



Aspects of Tripolitanian Jewry 247

the environs of Tripoli did the density go above 20 persons per square kilometer. The population was concentrated in three zones: (i) Tripoli and its environs, (2) the coastal plain to the east and west of Tripoli, and (3) the Tripolitanian Jebel. This latter zone, consisting of the Nefusa, Gharian, Terhuna, and Mesallata

ranges, is separated from the coastal plain by the sparsely settled Jefara plain which narrows as one moves from west to east.

Even the more densely populated areas are not heavily peopled by absolute standards. Many of the inhabitants of the coastal plain live in dispersed farms and hamlets rather than in nucleated villages (Despois 1945: 360; Libya 1964: i26). In I954, outside 'greater Tripoli', there were only three towns with esti- mated populations of more than 5,000 (Libya 1959: x). Moreover, in that year, 25 per cent of the population (outside of Tripoli) was classified as nomadic or semi-nomadic (Libya 1959: I9).

Certain 'towns' that appear on Italian and later maps were in fact market centers with relatively small permanent populations. Blake (1968: 3) says of the term Misurata that 'as an urban entity it is not always recognized. To the

countryman Misurata has a regional connotation... approximating the hinterland of the market. The town itself, on the other hand, is frequently referred to

simply as Suik or market.' The same is probably true of other 'towns' of Tripoli- tania such as Terhuna, built by the Italians around the market center Libirat, Sirte, built at Zafran, and Gharian-town built next to Teghessat (Great Britain

I920: 148, 156-7; Khuja I960: 12o-3). It is upon this background of general population dispersion that one should view the geographical distribution of rural

Tripolitanian Jews.

I

Fig. i also shows major roads and 'towns' near which there were Jewish communities in I944. As may be seen at a glance, the Jews lived along the major routes (most of which had been paved by the Italians) and in or near the major 'towns'. The scale of the map does not permit a precise representation of the Jewish settlements and this data is presented in Table i. Several Jews from

Tripoli operated shops in Azizia, and the Jews of Mizda officially resided in the GhariAn. There were many other instances of Jews officially residing in one town while their main occupational pursuits took them far from home.

Table i shows clearly that the Jews invariably lived within several kilometers of the major towns (the farthest being Ben'abbas, 14 kilometers from GhariAn-

town). Most of these towns were the sites of (at least) semi-weekly markets. Thus, the 'rural' Jews tended to live in the more 'urban' spots of the Tripoli- tanian hinterland.

II

The location of the Jews close to the market centers was undoubtedly related to their 'occupational' specialization. According to the 1936 census (Italy 1939),



248 Harvey Goldberg

TABLE I. Location, ethnic settlement patterns, and market days of

Tripolitanian towns with Jewish communities

Name(s) of Ethnic Main town Jewish settlement Market

and/or region settlements Location(s) patterns days

Elgsir (M) Liqsir (J)

Eshshegama (M) Disr (J)

Elgusbat (M) Me'aniin (J, M) Gharian

Tighrinna (J, M) Hushilyehud (M) Ardiltehud (M) Haritilyehud (M) Ben'abbas (J)

All three settlements located several km. N.E. of Yefren

Main town

4 km. south of Gharian-town

I4 km. north of Gharian- town

Jews and Berbers both live in ' coupled quarters' (Despois 1935: 219)

Jews dispersed

Separate Jewish hamlet

Separate Jewish hamlet

Libirat (M) In main town

Mesallata (J, M) Kusabat (I)

Zengetil- haddada

Elhara (M)

Haretilyehud (M)

'Amrus (J) Haretil'agab

(M) Homs

Adjoining N.W. end of Italian town

In main town

1-2 km. N.W. of central market

Near central market

1-2 km. N. of market (Sugh eljuma')

1-2 km. E. of center of town

In main town

Jews dispersed Jewish quarter

Jews concentrated in shara'loti

Jews partially dispersed, partially concentrated

Jewish quarter

Jewish quarter

Jewish quarter

Jewish quarter

Jews dispersed

Zliten Haretilyehud (M)

Near central Jewish quarter market

Nalut Yefren

Gharian

In Yefren, Sunday and Thursday

Monday, Thursday

Tuesday

Terhfna Beniulld

Mesallata

Zuiara

Zawia

Monday Bi-weekly (Gt. Britain I920: 60)o

Thursday

Daily

Monday, Thursday

Zanzur

Sahel

Tajura

Homs

Friday

Monday, Thursday

Monday Friday,

?




TABLE I (cont.)

Name(s) of Ethnic Main town Jewish settlement Market

and/or region settlements Location(s) patterns days

Misfurata Yidder 3-4 km. N.E. Jewish quarter market

Matin Near central Jewish quarter Sunday, market Tuesday,

Thursday Sirte Sirte In main town Jews dispersed Sunday,

Tuesday, Thursday

Symbols: M = Moslem term, J = Jewish term, I = Italian term.

Sources consulted: Informants; Agostini (I917); Great Britain (1920); G.S.G.S. 3980, Tripoli : 100,000.

Note on orthography. I have tried to reach an (arbitrary) compromise between accuracy and typo- graphical convenience. Aside from the clumsiness of recording Arabo-Berber place names with an English typewriter, accurate representation is complicated by (a) the diversity of spelling found in Italian, French and English sources, and (b) communal dialect differences (cf. Blanc I964) found in the Jewish and Moslem rendering of place-names. In the first case I have utilized English orthography, e.g. Nefusa rather than Nefousa. The second problem exists on several linguistic levels. (I) One phono- logical difference between (some) Jewish dialects and Moslem dialects was in the pronunciation of Old Arabic /t/, rendered [d] by the former and [t] by the latter. Thus the town Misurata was pronounced misura6a by the Jews of that town. I have ignored this difference. Another difference was in the pronunciation of Old Arabic /q/, rendered [q] in most Jewish dialects and [g] by the Moslems. Thus, one of the Jewish settlements near Yefren would be called elgsir by the Moslems and liqsir by the Jews. Unless otherwise indicated, I have given the Jewish pronunciation. (2) Frequently, in a Moslem dialect, a definite article appears before a place name while this does not appear in the Jewish dialect, e.g. I1 homs/I;oms. Again, I have followed the Jewish pattern unless indicated. (3) Lastly, there were certain places which were represented differently in the Muslim and Jewish lexicons as appear in the Table. I believe the long vowels appearing in the Table to be accurate (the orthographic conventions should be clear to those who are interested), but the short vowels are a first approximation only. I have indicated vowel length in the first column of the Table only, ignoring it elsewhere. I am grateful to Professor Haim Blanc for the opportunity of discussing some of these problems which should be considered by anyone attempting to locate small communities on maps of Tripolitania.

52'3 and 33-2 per cent of the Jewish heads of families living outside the city of

Tripoli were engaged in 'commerce' and 'industry' respectively. In most instances 'industry' referred to traditional trades such as blacksmith, tinsmith, cobbler, tailor, carpenter, manufacturer of wool combs, jeweller, and so forth. 'Commerce' referred, for the most part, to small-scale retailers. Both the artisans and the retailers (and persons were frequently both) serviced the needs of the agricultural-pastoral based' Moslem population on market days. A fair number of Jews (both artisans and retailers) reached their dispersed clients as tawwdfa, or itinerant peddlers and artisans. Mordechai Hacohen (1856-1923), a

I The I936 census (Italy 1939) lists 85% of the Tripolitanian Moslems (outside Tripoli) as engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing.



250 Harvey Goldberg

Tripolitanian Rabbi who worked as a tawwdf for many years, describes the activities of the Jewish merchants of Yefren (MS: 203):

They bring merchandize from Tripoli on the humps of camels: pepper, cumin, coriander, ginger, spice-stems and all kinds of spices; honey, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco; rose and myrtle flowers' and spikenard and saffron, cassia and cinnamon and all sorts of spices (cf. Song of Songs 4: 14); powders and pure frankincense and incense and the ointments of women (cf. Esther 2: I2); antimony powder for women to darken their eyes; walnut shells for them to paint their lips as a scarlet thread (Song of Songs 4: 3); henna plants to color their hands and feet red; mirrors, hair combs, glass beads and corals, matches, thread, needles and other merchandise too numerous to mention.

All the Jews peddle, scattering throughout the district with a bundle on their back, or on a donkey, to barter with the Berber and Arab women for grain, olives, olive oil, figs, butter, lamb's wool, goat hair... chicken eggs and so forth.

As indicated by Hacohen (MS: 204a) one socio-ecologic niche (Barth I956) occupied by the Jewish tawwdfa was that involving bartering with the Muslim women. The low-status Jews could freely enter a Moslem's house to deal with the womenfolk, while this could not be permitted to a Moslem (cf. Antoun I968: 677-8).

Another factor which gave importance to the role of traders was the regional specialization in agricultural products and crafts which, in turn, was partly a function of ecological variation in the different zones of Tripolitania (e.g. Despois I935: 313-I6; Blake I968: i6, 23-5).

The geographic distribution of the Jews, and their specialization in commerce and crafts, seems to make sense in terms of the general model of traditional agrarian marketing applied by Skinner (1967) to rural China and in

particular to the Szechwan province, where the settlement pattern was more

dispersed than elsewhere. Skinner distinguishes between 'standard markets' and 'intermediate markets', the latter having 'an intermediate position in the... flow of goods and services' in and out of the area serviced by the market (Skinner I967: 68). He says of the 'mobile firms' of rural China (itinerant peddlers, wandering artisans, and so forth): 'their home base was in the intermediate market town, and they needed to return there periodically to dispose of what

they were buying, to restock what they were selling, and simply to rest with their families' (Skinner 1967: 83). Characteristic of the scheduling of market

days was the fact that they minimized the conflict of market days between an intermediate market and the smaller standard markets to which they were linked (Skinner I967: 78-83).

This model seems to fit the data available on rural Tripolitania. Many or most of the towns in which the Jews lived should probably be considered 'intermediate market towns'. Table I lists the main market days of each of these towns. Informants were always able to provide me with the names and market

I The translation 'flowers' of the Hebrew shoshan was suggested to me by Alexander and Yonat Sened. Other possibilities are 'petals', or 'rosettes'.




days of smaller 'standard markets' in the regions where they usually met only one day a week. For example, near Homs there were the 'standard markets' of Mesallata, Gasrqiyar (Wednesday), and Sahel (Sunday and Thursday). A market 'schedule' for the area around Misurata is found in Blake (I968: 23).

It is possible to hypothesize retrospectively that another important economic function was being accomplished by the small-scale Jewish traders. Ward

(I967) suggests that the multiplicity of small-scale traders in peasant societies is dependent on the degree to which the peasant producers grow crops that must be marketed (rather than subsistence crops) and on the degree to which, because of the lack of cash in the hands of the peasants, they must depend on credit extended to them by traders. The extension of credit, in turn, depends upon the existence of some sort of social bond between peasant and trader. While I have little information to indicate the degree to which Tripolitanian agriculture and postoralism were market-oriented, there is data indicating that an important economic function of the artisans and traders was the extension of credit.

In the first instance, Hacohen (MS: 205a, 32Ia, 233b) explicitly mentions

Jews lending money to Moslems in Yefren, 'Amrus and Zawia. Feraud (I927: 414) mentions that in the last century junior officers of the Ottoman army pawned their swords to Jews when their salaries were greatly delayed. Despois (1935: I69) tells of the Jews near Yefren buying land and trees from Arabs and Berbers who needed cash. In the passage quoted above, Hacohen indicates that much of the peddler's trade involved barter transactions (cf. Elmaleh I945 a: 6), implying a shortage of cash on the part of peasant cultivators.

Artisans from the Gharian have told me that they had several types of clients. Local Moslems, with whom the Jewish artisans were long acquainted, might pay for work in kind, at harvest time, after having been serviced by the artisans

throughout the season or year. This payment was called wehaba (Hacohen MS: 204b). In this manner, it was reported, the Jews received produce whose

monetary equivalent was greater than the amount they would have collected on a piece-work basis throughout the year. If this is so, then these artisans were

implicitly functioning as money-lenders. Transactions with non-familiar customers were usually carried out on a cash basis.

A Moslem with whom a Jew had long-standing economic ties occupied a recognized social status and was known as a sahab (in the Gharian) or a

ma'ruf (in 'Amrus), terms which may be translated as 'friend' but which were not applied to informal acquaintances, Jewish or Moslem. In the case of the

tawwdfa, the sdhab was the man with whom the Jew would find lodging during his search for trade. Slouschz (1927: Io8) mentions (but does not describe) 'blood brotherhoods' between the Moslems and 'Jewish merchants in Africa'. If the Jewish traders of Tripolitania did function as creditors, then it seems, as

suggested by Ward (I967), that these credit transactions followed the lines of social bonds.



252 Harvey Goldberg

Some informants indicated to me that a tawwdf might alter his route from one

year to the next in response to reports of adequate rainfall and crops which would enable the farmers to barter with or sell to the trader. If a tawwdf came to a village where he had no structural 'friend', the sheikh of the village might provide him with lodging. In circumstances such as these, the Jewish peddler might be expected to entertain his hosts by telling stories.I

The Jews' specialization in 'secondary' occupations within the overall

ecologic-economic arrangements of Tripolitania is, perhaps, reflected in the

correspondence between the size of the Jewish and general populations in those districts where Jews lived. This data is presented in Table z, which indicates this by inspection of the rank orders of the populations concerned.

Finally, the traditional economic role of the Tripolitanian Jews does not seem to have been greatly altered by the Italian occupation and colonization. One effect of the influx of the Italians was to increase the number of Jews who could conduct commerce on a 'sedentary' basis and thereby depress the number of

tawwdfa. Italian road building and their attempt to regulate and increase in number the Jebel markets (Despois 1935: 316) also contributed to the decline of itinerant trading.2 During Italian times, and perhaps earlier, some merchants worked at collecting the market tax (mikes), a privilege that was farmed out on an annual basis. In some cases one individual would tax farm at more than one market in a region, as the markets met on different days. Mobility in search of income, then, was not limited to the poorer members of the Jewish communities.

I The sahab-Jewish trader relationship seems similar to that of the transhumant no- mads and their 'village friends' (Barth I960: 346), and might be seen as a specific instance of 'visiting trade institutions' (Heider I969). The expectation that the Jewish trader tell stories was also common in Morocco (Dr I. Ben-Ami, personal communication).

2 Hacohen (MS: 205 a) says of Yefren, 'The whole district is beginning to collapse because presently it receives much merchandise from Tripoli and gives only barley, figs . .linens and mats made in an African weave by the women' (cf. Despois I935: 313- I6). Elsewhere (MS: i6b) he says that the value of imports to Tripoli was double the value of the exports. This leads one to speculate about the extent to which the small- scale trading of the rural Jews was linked to the African caravan trade, terminating in Tripoli, which began to decline rapidly in the i88os (Slouschz 1927: 33).

Y. Kakhlon (personal communication), a native of 'Amrus, has suggested that inci- pient Arab nationalism during the present century influenced the rural Moslems to switch their commercial dealings from Jews to Moslems when feasible (cf. Hacohen MS : 204a). I attempted to utilize census data to estimate the extent of Jewish itinerant trading. The I93I census (Italy 1935) lists 73 Jews in the Jebel region (Yefren, Gharian and Mesallata) as semi-nomadic. The I936 census distinguishes between 'present population' and 'resident population' (see note to Table 3), but the figures show only i i Jews living in a town who do not normally reside there and i6 Jews not present in their usual residence. It should be noted, however, that in both cases the census was carried out on 2I April, which was within one week after the end of the Passover holiday. The traders would invariably return home on this festival. The ideal pattern was that they would linger with the families as long as possible until forced 'back on the road' by economic necessity. Thus, the census data may not reflect the actual state of itinerant trading. It seems clear, though, that by the I930s, much fewer people were engaged in this mode of livelihood than had been in the past.




TABLE 2. Comparison of Jewish population (1943) and Moslem population

(I954) in the districts of Tripolitania

Population Jewish pop. District (1954) Rank (I943) Rank

Tripoli City 129,728 I I8,980 I Zawia 12,723 2 775 7 Suqiljuma' I 10,49 3 1,729 2 HIoms 62,272 4 1,342 3 Misurata 56,902 5 1,222 4 Gharian 55,956 6 520 8 Zliten 41,o66 7 764 6 Terhuna 40, I87 8 225 10 Yefren 32,255 9 400 9 Zuara 30,634 Io 794 5 Beniulid 21,929 I 82 I

Nalut 20,857 I2 25 12 Sirte 8,264 3 20 13 Ghadames 5,146 14 0 I4

Source: Libya (I954: Io) and Table 3 (below)

Aside from the market provided by the Italian colonists (the 1936 census listed 64,000 Italians and the 1940 estimate was I40,000; Pan 1949: I13), the Italian military constituted an important feature of the economic environment of the Tripolitanian merchant. The majority of the towns in which the Jews lived were near one or more military garrisons, which were often located in or near former Turkish forts. In many instances there were one or several Jewish families who became relatively wealthy by supplying clothing, food and drink to the Italian troops. This economic role also had precedents in Turkish times

(Slouschz I927: I72). The production of alcoholic beverages, of course, has long been a Jewish specialty in North Africa.

It is also relevant to note that because of the concentration of Jews near the

major markets and the general dispersion of the population as a whole, Jews frequently constituted a disproportionately large segment of the population in the immediate vicinity of the market. Thus, in 1931 (Italy I935), Jews constituted 33 per cent of the municipality of Homs, 30 per cent of the combined

population of Tighrinna and Menzel Tighrinna, 20 per cent of the population of the villages near Yefren, 15 per cent of the village of Kusabat, 14 per cent of the municipality of Sirte, 12 per cent of Libirat, and 9 per cent of the munici-

pality of Zfiara. In 1914 the Jews constituted more than one-third of the population of Tripoli (Agostini I917). Other demographic implications of the Jewish specialization in trade will be considered in the following section.



254 Harvey Goldberg

III

Table 3 presents data on the population of the Jewish communities of Tri-

politania for approximately a century before the mass migration to Israel. This data will be discussed from four perspectives: (i) overall population growth, (2) migration from the small communities to Tripoli, (3) the relative size of the interior and coastal populations, and (4) the growth in the number of Jewish communities in the I9oos.

30 -

25- (1906) r -

20 -

15 -

= 10 .--t (1906)

5 1Rural pop

1 _ u I ,ua 1 I 1853 1873 1893 1913 1933 1953

FIGURE 2. Population growth of Tripolitanian Jewry

(I) There was a fairly steady overall population growth throughoutlmost of the century under discussion. This is shown graphically in Fig. 2. (In Fig. 2 and in this discussion I have ignored the figures for I906; see the note to Table

3.) The growth from 1853 (assuming 4-25 persons/family) to 1902 (4) suggests a

geometric (constant rate) pattern; the drop between the latter date and 1914

undoubtedly reflects the Italo-Turk and Italo-Arab conflicts. Around I9I0 there was a cholera epidemic in which 470 Jews died and also a malaria epidemic (Hacohen MS: 119 a, 234a). Several years later there were two consecutive years of drought and famine. A geometric increase appears again after 19I4.

While not apparent on the graph in Fig. 2, there probably was some drop in the growth rate in the I940s due to the expulsion to Algeria of 500 families of

Algerian descent in 1942 (Eisenbeth I948: 442-3),I the anti-Jewish riots in

I945 which claimed about 130 lives (Rennel I948: 466), and clandestine migration to Israel between I945 and I949 (Horowitz 1953: 385). The overall increase in population during the century was 398 %, a figure that does not take into account the variations which did exist among the different ecologic zones.

(2) The population growth of the rural Jewish communities over the past 1 These families were probably descendants of the I805 refugees from Algiers (Slouschz

1927: 3I; cf. Chouraqui 1952a: 84).




century was 232 per cent, while the growth of the community of Tripoli was

516%, more than double that of the rural areas. Among the possible factors

contributing to this growth, natural increase and migration from the rural areas were the most important, as there is no evidence of large-scale in-migration to

Tripoli from areas outside Tripolitania.' It is highly unlikely that the more

rapid growth of the city population could be explained by an unusually high birth rate in the city vis-a-vis the towns. The 1936 census (Italy 1939: I05-6) indicates that the fertility ratio of the Jews of Misurata Province, which included

45 per cent of the rural Jews, was 736, while the fertility ratio of the Jews of

Tripoli Province, 82 per cent of whom lived in the city of Tripoli, was 575.2 Thus the steady decline in the percentage of Jews living in the rural towns during the past century (Table 3) implies a constant migration from the rural areas to the city of Tripoli (cf. Slouschz 1927: I41).

In some instances there may have been 'large-scale migrations' relative to the communities of origin. Thus, I have been told, the whole community of Ben'abbas abandoned their village in about 1915, moving to Tripoli for two

years. After this period many, but not all, of the families returned. This might account for the difference in size reported by Slouschz (1927: 127) in 1906 (240 inhabitants) and by Elmaleh (I943b: 8) in 1923 (22 families). Elmaleh

(I945 d: 8) reports that most of the Jews of Zawia fled the town in 1922 during the Italo-Arab conflict there, and only I20 had returned by April 1923, when he visited the town.3 Events such as these obviously contributed to the overall

migration to Tripoli, but for the most part, I believe, the migration was an un- dramatic but steady flow of families, the net effect of which is reflected in the

figures presented. There is a popular notion among the Jews of Tripoli that many of them

'came from the Jebel' (Slouschz I927: I3). This may reflect, in part, the city- bound migration during the past century. It is also relevant to point out that

many Tripolitanian Jewish patronyms are similar to place/tribal names from various localities on the coast and in the mountain interior; for example, 'Amran, 'Atia, Dabush, Duib, HIajjaj, Hakmiun, Mahluf, Mimun, Serfisi, Seror, Wuzzin and Zanzuri (cf. Zuaretz et al. 1960: 123).

The flow of Jewish migrants to Tripoli may also be viewed in the context of the general migration to Tripoli which began in the last century and continues

I The only exception to this of which I know is when a number of Jerban Jews fled to Tripoli in the early i86os (F6raud 1927: 4I9). Depending on the size and permanence of this migration, it might have had a significant effect on the size of the Jewish population of Tripoli at that time.

2 The fertility ratio of the Jews in Tripoli in I93I was 606. The fertility ratio was calculated as children aged I-5 per women aged I5-49.

3 Elmaleh (I943a, b, I945a-e) visited a number of Jewish communities in Tripoli- tania in 1923 and gives the following figures: Yefren, 50 families; Tighrinna, 67 families; Ben'abbas, 22 families; Mesallata, 520; Ben'ulid, 90 families; Zuara, 200 families; 'Amrus, 1,500; IHoms, 500; and Zliten, 240. His article (x945e) on 'Misufrata' describes Mesallata.



TABLE 3. The population of Tripolitanian Jewish communities: I853-1949

1853 1902 I943 1948 families I886 (4) I9o6 1914 1931 1936 (4) (9)

TOTAL 1,730 x1,840o 6,510 23,316 I6,0I2 21,138 24,042 29,914 29,24I

TRIPOLI I,000 7,500 12,000 15,000 IO,47I 15,279 17,196 I8,980 22,032

% (57-8) (63-3) (72'7) (64'3) (65 4) (72-3) (71-5) (70'5) (75'3)

COMMUNITIES OF INTERIOR

Subtotal 370 2,055 1,650 3,506 I,650o ,124 I,408 1,664 1,549 Percentage (21'4) (I7'4) (IOo-) (I5'0) (103) (5'3) (5'9) (62) (5'3) Naluit - - -41 25 Jado - - - 6 (Yefren) 100 785 1,000 2,000 - 322 375 400 399

Liqsir - - -380 - -

Disr - - -290 - 29 Me'aniin - - 230 --

(Gharian) 120 550 300 8oo - - - 464 Gharian -- - - - -90 -

Tighrinna - - -200 256 322 343- Ben'abbas - -- - I00 85 97 87

Terhuna - - - - -73 95 225 I19 Mesallata I50 720 350 700 450 333 404 412 410 Benifilld -- - -44 58 82 85

.... ,/ ... ... ..... ,trtta

0 og



COASTAL COMMUNITIES

Subtotal 360 2,285 2,860 4,81o 3,89I 4,735 5,438 6,270 5,66o Percentage (20o8) (19'3) (I7'3) (20-6) (24'3) (22-4) (22-6) (23'3) (I9*4) Zuara - - - 40 - 621 736 830 794 Zawia 40 310 450 6oo 517 516 566 675 676 Zanzur - 65 6o 40 80 61 117 Ioo 150 'Amrus 50 500 1,000 2,000 754 1,159 1,313 1,502 1,240 Tajura 70 100 200 140 120 I8g 174 227 202 Hjoms - 150 300 400 420 688 745 930 902 Zliten 100 550 450 640 750 529 607 764 6o4 (Misfirata) I00 6 o 400 g9 970 702 838 1,222 912

Yidder - --

Matin Sirte - - - 50 280 26 341 20 i8o

Population 42-2 26'7 27'3 35'7 34-6 27'7 28-5 29'5 24'7 outside Tripoli (%)

Sources and notes. 1853: Benjamin I859. Figures are given for families. If the data from the 1931 and 1936 censuses may be projected backward a t good guess would be 40oo-4'25 persons per family; I886: Ish S.D.H. (1886); I902 (4): Alliance (I902, I904). These two publications of the Alliance 4 Israelite Universelle give the same figures except for the following instances-Tripoli, Misurata and Gharian are listed at 15,000, 260 and 260 respec- .

tively in which cases I have shown the 1904 figures. Homs does not appear in the 1904 list; I906: Hacohen (MS: 25oa). Parallel figures appear in o Slouschz (1927) and Hacohen (1969: 84). The latter publication contains what seems to be a carelessly written letter and some of Hacohen's numerals may have been miscopied by the editors. Some of the figures given by Hacohen seem grossly inflated, such as for Tripoli, Yefren, and 'Amrus. This is surprising, as Hacohen shows a propensity for precision in much of his writing, but he may have been influenced by Slouschz's romanticization of the c North African Jews; 19I4: Agostini (1917); 1931: Italy (1935). The subtotal for the interior communities includes Ir Jews at Hon in the south and the subtotal for the coastal communities includes three Jews at Agelat and six at Sabratha. Eisenbeth (1936) seems to have used the census material differ- i

ently; 1936: Italy (1939). I have listed the 'present population' (those actually present on the census date) and not the 'resident population' (those '

normally residing in a census unit but not present on the census date). The subtotals include 14 Jews at Hon, two at Brach, and one at Suani Benadem; 2 1943 (4): Comunita (I943), A. Guweta (1960: 25), Hirschberg (1965a: 352). Roughly similar figures are given by Hornby (1945: 249), and Great Britain

(I920); 1948 (9): Landshut (I950: 92); Chouraqui (1952a: 127, n.l). I am not sure whether Chouraqui utilized Landshut's figures or whether they both q draw from a third source. In any event, Landshut gives no figure for Zanzur, Chouraqui probably miscopied the figure for Beniulid and I have put 399 for Yefren as the mean of the former's 391 and the latter's 407. Some of these data have previously been presented in Attal (1967). t

w - , X w * A ** - "* - - - - *-" - - **i' * * ' - w X-" * ^ 4



258 Harvey Goldberg

to the present (Harrison I967: 388-407). If, as suggested, the size of the Jewish population in a given region is a function of the overall population, then the flow of Moslems from the small villages and towns would understandably be

accompanied by an outflow of Jews whose livelihood depended on the presence of Moslem customers.

(3) Table 3 also suggests strongly that migration to Tripoli was greater from the interior than from the coastal oases. Throughout the period under discussion the percentage of the Jewish population inhabiting the coastal towns remained relatively constant (ranging from 17.3 to 24-3 per cent), while the

percentage of Jews living in the interior declined from 2I.4 to 5-3. Probably one of the most important factors in the out-migration from the Jebel was the

political instability in the wake of the Italian retreat from the interior (1915), which lasted till the Jebel towns were retaken in 192I-3. Examples of this were the flight of many or most of the Jews of Yefren to Zfara (Despois I935: 3I0; Elmaleh 1943b: 8), and that of many of the families of Mesallata to HIoms (Elmaleh I945e: 9).

In addition to these political migrations, there undoubtedly was a continuing economic migration from the interior to the coastal towns and/or to Tripoli. It should be noted that by far the largest source of Moslem immigrants to Tripoli also was from the Jebel (Harrison I967: 407), again suggesting the functional link between the size of the Jewish and Moslem populations.

(4) The decrease in the percentage of Jews living in the interior should not obscure the existence of an opposite trend as well, namely the expansion of the number of Jewish communities at the end of the last century and the beginning of the present one (see Table 3). Thus, Jewish communities were established in

Terhfina, Beniflid, Nalut, HIoms, Zanzur, and Zuara, where none had been in the recent past. In some cases this expansion seemed to be an outgrowth of

tawwdfa, who worked in a certain area for months at a time and eventually decided to move there with their families. Thus Terhuna was settled by Jews from Mesallata and the Gharian, while HIoms was settled mainly by tawwdfa from Trip oli (Elmaleh I945 b: 6). This tendency was reinforced after the Italians established firm control of the interior, and there was a slight increase in the total percentage of Jews living in the interior from I93I to 1943 (Table 3).

There are also instances of semi-permanent moves which never resulted in the establishment of permanent communities, such as the Jews encountered by Slouschz an d Hacohen in the Jado region in I906. During World War II several

Jewish families from Misurata moved to Zawiet el Mah. jib, 12 kilometers to the

west, but returned home after several months when, according to a story told

me, some of the local Moslems opposed the establishment of a synagogue in a room that the Jews rented from an Arab (cf. Goldberg I967: 219).

This type of short-range migration from one settlement to another near a

given market center appears to have been fairly common. It seems that some

Jewish families moved from Jehisha, about 8 kilometers south of Gharian-




town, to Tighrinna in the early part of the nineteenth century (Goldberg 1967: 2I5). In I850 the Jews moved from Taqerbos, adjacent to the fort at Yefren, to Me'aniin, several kilometers away (Hacohen MS: 2I6a; cf. Despois I935: 317). The bulk of the Jewish population of Misurata also shifted from Yidder to Matin as the importance of the latter market grew under the Italian administration (Blake I968: I3-I5).

Another point to note is that political insecurity did not always result in city- bound migration. Hacohen (MS: 34a) states that in I510, when Spain captured Tripoli, Jews and Moslems fled to GhariAn, Mesallata and Tajuira. During World War II, when the Jewish quarter of Tripoli was hit heavily by the British bombardment (Kleinlerer I948), several thousand Jews took temporary refuge in GhariAn and Terhuna.

The influence of political security on Jewish settlement may also be seen by considering the ethnic settlement pattern of the various towns (Table i). In

general, in the older towns Jews were settled in separate quarters, an arrange- ment which gave greater security in troubled times. On the other hand, Jews did not live in separate quarters in most of the communities established during the past century.

From a long-range point of view, one could suggest the following model. The

ecological givens (water availability, topography, and so forth) of Tripolitanian life held the general location of 'intermediate market towns' constant, and these were the main locations of Jewish communities during the past several centuries. Thus, it seems that there was a relatively continuous, if at times insecure, Jewish population in or near such towns as Misurata, Mesallata, Yefren, and the like. The following list indicates some of the dates for which there is evidence of Jewish settlement in these towns from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries:'

Yefren (end of i6th century, I712, 1714, 1742, end of I8th century)

GhariAn (I510, 1559, 1589, 17II) Mesallata (I510, I589) Zawia (early I7th century, I797) Zanziur (I589)

Tajura (I5I0) Misurata (1589, early i8th century)

The starting point of the sixteenth century is selected arbitrarily. Many of these communities are much older. The communities with the date of 5Io0 are mentioned by Hacohen (MS: 34a). He also mentions the community of Ben'abbas in 1559 (I969: 69), a Jew from Yefren in the latter half of the sixteenth century (MS: 17I a), and responsa to Misurata in the sixteenth century (MS: 336). The communities dated 1589 are mentioned in a mythical account of an historic Mahdist revolt which took place then (Hirsch- berg 1965b). Elmaleh (945 d) claims to have seen tombstones in the cemetery at Zawia which were 300 years old or more. In I71I, in Tripoli, a male servant named Lavi Elghariani was executed. Hacohen (MS: 213 b, 1969: 72-4) tells of synagogues in Yefren

17 MES 2 3



260 Harvey Goldberg

The actual location and size of the Jewish population with respect to these market centers, however, might have changed quite frequently in response to

shifting economic and political conditions. Some locations may have been abandoned and resettled again after short or long intervals. Thus, Zanzur was inhabited in the sixteenth century (see above list) and abandoned at some unknown time after that. The presence of an 'ancient' Jewish cemetery there and the patronym Zanzuri are evidence of the earlier Jewish settlement in this

oasis, which proved attractive again at the beginning of the present century. In conclusion, geographical mobility was a familiar feature of traditional

Tripolitanian life in general (Harrison 1967: 397) and of Jewish life in particular. This mobility was sometimes individual (the breadwinner) or familial, weekly or

seasonal, temporary or permanent, short-range or long-range, town to city or the reverse, economic or political (cf. Bensimon-Donath I968: 35). Geographic mobility both encouraged, and was sustained by, commercial links among the various Jewish communities with Tripoli as the node. The following section will discuss some implications of this mobility for other socio-cultural features of Tripolitanian Jewish life.

IV

This section will briefly suggest lines of possible research into connexions between the ecologic-demographic and other socio-cultural aspects of Tripoli- tanian Jewish life.

(i) Community leadership. Barth (1960: 347-8), in a general discussion of Southwestern Asia mountain/plateau nomadism, has hypothesized a functional link between the nomadism of the 'average' tribesman and the political importance of a tribal chief who 'mediates and regulates relationships between members of local sedentary communities and members of nomad camps', because the latter cannot be tied to a specific locality for too long a time. A

study of one Tripolitanian Jewish community in depth (Goldberg n.d.) has found that a single sheikh was the main link between the members of the Jewish community and the outside world, and a survey of informants from other such communities indicates that the central position of a single sheikh was fairly common. One informant stated that the ruling power would always seek, as

sheikh, a relatively wealthy merchant who could usually be found at the market

(rather than a tawwdf whose whereabouts were difficult to determine). Thus, in these communities too, there may have been a functional connexion between

high geographic mobility and the political importance of a single community leader.

dating from 1712, 1714, and 1742, and of an old biblical manuscript found there at the end of the eighteenth century (MS: I87a). Both Misurata, in the early eighteenth century (Hirschberg 1965b: 420-I), and Zawia, in 1797 (Slouschz I927: 26-7) are mentioned in connexion with Moslem opposition to the building of a synagogue. The scar- city of dates from the seventeenth century bears investigation.



Aspects of Tripolitanian Jewry 26I

If the importance of a single political leader was related to the high degree of itinerant trading among the rural Jews, then it is to be expected that as the extent of itinerant trading declined, so did the exclusive importance of one

political leader. This seems to have, in fact, been the case in several communities. In some cases the head of a local family who was a supplier to the Italian

military became a local, unofficial, community leader by virtue of his commercial ties to the sources of power. In other cases, the sheikh, the official wielder of power, also enjoyed lucrative commercial ties with the Italian military and was not threatened with political competition (cf. Goldberg n.d.).

(2) Family organization. Another potential area of research is the relationship between the 'migratory' type of life led by many Jewish men and family organization. To a certain extent, itinerant trading was the specialty of young, un- married boys, who sought more 'sedentary' types of work after marriage (Goldberg I967: 2II). Many of the small-scale peddlers were supplied by wealthier Jewish merchants who had direct commercial links to Tripoli. The

relationships between young, 'apprentice' fawwdfa and older ones or between

poorer peddlers and well-to-do merchants frequently followed family lines. Another question has to do with the nature of domestic life during the long absence of the husband. Hacohen (MS: 235 b) reports of Mesallata, and Elmaleh

(I945 a: 6) of 'Amrus, that the Jewish women engaged in trade. This arrange- ment was not as 'honorable' as when a woman would not have to leave her house, but it may have been frequent among the wives of the poorer tawwdfa. In any case, the notion of 'the patriarchal family' should be re-examined in this context.

(3) History. Slouschz (I927) and Hacohen (MS), on the basis of their travels

throughout Tripolitania, have pointed to numerous Jewish 'ruins', such as

villages with 'Jewish names', cemeteries, wadds, and hilltop forts described as

belonging to the Yehud and so forth. Partially based on these findings, Slouschz writes of 'Jewish tribes which dominated the Syrte' (1927: 66), 'Jewish supre- macy in the Gharian' (I927: I35), and of Jewish 'mastery over the Jebel' (I927: I79), claiming that the Jewish population in these regions was once much

larger than is the case today. This interpretation should be considered in light of the factors discussed earlier.

Despois, in his geographic study of the Jebel Neffisa, discusses in general the 'problem of ruins'; that is, the abundance of ruined villages throughout the

region. He concludes (1935: 270-7) that the Jebel Nefusa was once two to three times more heavily populated than at present. If this is so, then it is quite

I Kimche (1948) states that the welfare payments to the poor Jewish families in Tripoli were given to the women. Bensimon-Donath (I968: 56) notes that there exists no sociological or ethnological study of the traditional North African Jewish family at the beginning of the twentieth century.

17-2



262 Harvey Goldberg

possible that the Jewish population too was once much greater, and indeed there is 'undeniable' evidence to this effect (Despois I935: 289). A larger Jewish population which formed part of a larger Moslem population, however, is no evidence for the political position of the Jews having been much different than in more recent times.

Secondly, if we assume that high geographical mobility was characteristic of Jewish individuals and communities in previous centuries as well, it may be that the many Jewish ruins are relics of different time periods, some of which may not have been very long nor very separate from one another. Thus, the large number of former Jewish localities may be a function of past geographical mobility rather than of a large Jewish population. In any event, demographic considerations such as these should not be ignored in attempting to interpret the Jewish ruins and other historical evidence.

(4) Urbanization. Rural Tripolitanian Jewry, at least during the past century, was not settled in 'peasant' communities, namely communities in which the

majority of the members were engaged in subsistence agriculture (agricultural work and land ownership, though, were not unknown to them).' Rather, Jews were located in the 'intermediate market towns' as well as the more 'urban' settlements in Tripolitania. Their urban orientation was reinforced by com-

mercial, kinship, and religious ties to Tripoli. It should also be noted that these

Jews were for the most part literate, employing Hebrew script to read and write their dialect of Arabic. On the other hand, there was a rural-urban differential in fertility (but no significant difference in family size), greater development of

voluntary associations in Tripoli than in the towns, and a definite disparagement of the Jebel Jews on the part of the Jews of Tripoli. To what extent, then, the urban-bound migration of the Tripolitanian Jews during the last century (and more recently to Israel) involved a basic restructuring of economic and social

arrangements is a matter that is open to investigation. The 'demographic transition' and demographic urbanization of Tripolitanian Jewry began well before the beginning of this century and was not triggered by the Italian take- over. In any event, pigeon-holing Tripolitanian Jewry into categories such as

'traditional', 'transitional', or a mixture of both, only serves to discourage refined comparative research.

In conclusion, I must stress that most of the field data collected by me was

I The Jews were allowed to, and in some cases did, own land. In most instances the work on the land would be carried out by a Moslem in accordance with several conven- tional arrangements. There were Jews who worked their own land and Falldh (agricultural laborer) is a common Jewish patronym. In the case of Jews owning flocks, they seem to have been tended by Moslems. Some wealthier Jews owned flour mills and oil presses, powered by camels. A Moslem would always be hired to run the mill or press as the Jews considered the camel a ritually unclean animal. The 'roles' of the Jew and Moslem might be reversed as Hacohen (MS: 228a) reports that the poorer Jews of the Gharian borrowed money from Moslems.




gathered from Tripolitanian Jews who lived in the rural towns until I949. The

separation of the study of the rural communities from the study of Tripoli can

only be justified on the temporary grounds of convenience. Collecting data from former Jewish residents of Tripoli would further illuminate many of the problems discussed here as well as contribute to the general social history of the city. UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

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Documents

Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949