What Race to Mark

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

When speaking with my son's doctor and asked about his ethnic background I was told (Middle Eastern doctor in a prevelant Middle Eastern area), that I should always mark caucausian, hispanic and african american on health questionaires because of the high prevelance of inter-mixing of populations in North Africa and Spain. There are certain diseases that are prevalent in specific ethnic groups that might not be done if these boxes are not checked. Just an FYI for those with Moroccan or N/A spouses.

Also Jewish blood.Fez was the head of judaic thought in Morocco.Benni yanni is a jewish name.....(think redheads and the kinds new wife)

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

When speaking with my son's doctor and asked about his ethnic background I was told (Middle Eastern doctor in a prevelant Middle Eastern area), that I should always mark caucausian, hispanic and african american on health questionaires because of the high prevelance of inter-mixing of populations in North Africa and Spain. There are certain diseases that are prevalent in specific ethnic groups that might not be done if these boxes are not checked. Just an FYI for those with Moroccan or N/A spouses.

Also Jewish blood.Fez was the head of judaic thought in Morocco.Benni yanni is a jewish name.....(think redheads and the kinds new wife)

70 – Wave of Jewish immigration following destruction of Second Temple in Jerusalem.

694 – Queen Kahaina leads Berbers against invading Arab armies.

1033 – 6,000 Jews killed in Fez by Muslim mobs.

1106 – Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashifin founds Marrakesh, decrees death penalty for local Jews even as his military leader and physician are Jewish.

1107 – Almoravide ruler Yusuf ibn Tashifin orders Jews to convert or be expelled from Morocco.

1148 – Almohadin become rulers of Morocco, offer Christians and Jews the choice of conversion or expulsion. Many Jews convert, but continue to practice Judaism in secret.

1165 – Almohad ruler declares all Jews must convert to Islam. Judah ha-Kohen ibn Shushan burned alive for refusing to convert. Maimonides flees Fez for Egypt.

1276 – Riots targeting Jews of Fez stopped by Sultan.

1438 – Jews of Fez forced into mellah (ghetto).

1465 – Massive anti-Jewish rioting in Fez spreads across Morocco. Hundreds murdered. Only 11 Jews left alive in Fez.

1492 – Jews fleeing Spanish Inquisition settle in Morocco.

1500s – First Hebrew press established in Fez.

1557 – Marrakesh mellah established.

1682 – Meknes mellah established.

1790 – Pogrom in Tetouan: All Jews stripped naked, many women raped, most homes ransacked.

1808 – Mulay Suleiman orders Jews of Tetuan, Rabat, Sale, and Mogador into mellahs.

1815 – Jews of Mogador ordered to pay sudden jizya poll-tax. Those who pay punched on the forehead after turning over coins, those who refuse thrown in dungeon.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

When speaking with my son's doctor and asked about his ethnic background I was told (Middle Eastern doctor in a prevelant Middle Eastern area), that I should always mark caucausian, hispanic and african american on health questionaires because of the high prevelance of inter-mixing of populations in North Africa and Spain. There are certain diseases that are prevalent in specific ethnic groups that might not be done if these boxes are not checked. Just an FYI for those with Moroccan or N/A spouses.

Also Jewish blood.Fez was the head of judaic thought in Morocco.Benni yanni is a jewish name.....(think redheads and the kinds new wife)

70 – Wave of Jewish immigration following destruction of Second Temple in Jerusalem.

694 – Queen Kahaina leads Berbers against invading Arab armies.

1033 – 6,000 Jews killed in Fez by Muslim mobs.

1106 – Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashifin founds Marrakesh, decrees death penalty for local Jews even as his military leader and physician are Jewish.

1107 – Almoravide ruler Yusuf ibn Tashifin orders Jews to convert or be expelled from Morocco.

1148 – Almohadin become rulers of Morocco, offer Christians and Jews the choice of conversion or expulsion. Many Jews convert, but continue to practice Judaism in secret.

1165 – Almohad ruler declares all Jews must convert to Islam. Judah ha-Kohen ibn Shushan burned alive for refusing to convert. Maimonides flees Fez for Egypt.

1276 – Riots targeting Jews of Fez stopped by Sultan.

1438 – Jews of Fez forced into mellah (ghetto).

1465 – Massive anti-Jewish rioting in Fez spreads across Morocco. Hundreds murdered. Only 11 Jews left alive in Fez.

1492 – Jews fleeing Spanish Inquisition settle in Morocco.

1500s – First Hebrew press established in Fez.

1557 – Marrakesh mellah established.

1682 – Meknes mellah established.

1790 – Pogrom in Tetouan: All Jews stripped naked, many women raped, most homes ransacked.

1808 – Mulay Suleiman orders Jews of Tetuan, Rabat, Sale, and Mogador into mellahs.

1815 – Jews of Mogador ordered to pay sudden jizya poll-tax. Those who pay punched on the forehead after turning over coins, those who refuse thrown in dungeon.

Under the Almohads (1146-1400s)

The tolerance of the jizya (The tax demanded of dhimmis) paying Jews and Christians in the cities of Morocco came to an end under the intolerant dynasty of the stern Almohades, who came into power in 1146. Jews and Christians were compelled either to accept Islam or to leave the country. Here, as in other parts of North Africa, many Jews who shrank from emigrating pretended to embrace Islam. As for example, we can quote names like Benchekroun (initially Chokron or Choukroun or Chekroun depending on the pronunciation), El Kohen and Kabbaj, that were Jews. Maimonides, who was staying in Fez with his father, is said to have written to the communities to comfort and encourage his brethren and fellow believers in this sore time of oppression (see Ibn Verga) [6]. In the above-mentioned elegy of Abraham ibn Ezra, which appears to have been written at the commencement of the period of the Almohads, and which is found in a Yemen siddur among the ḳinot prescribed for the Ninth of Ab, the Moroccan cities Ceuta, Meknes, the Draa River valley , Fez, and Segelmesa are especially emphasized as being exposed to great persecution. Joseph ha-Kohen [7] relates that no remnant of Israel was left from Tangier to Mehdia. Moreover, the later Almohads were no longer content with the repetition of a mere formula of belief in the unity of God and in the prophetic calling of Muhammad. Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, the third Almohad prince, suspecting the sincerity of the supposedly converted Jews, compelled them to wear distinguishing garments, with a very noticeable yellow cloth for a head-covering; from that time forward the clothing of the Jews formed an important subject in the legal regulations concerning them. The reign of the Almohads on the whole exercised a most disastrous and enduring influence on the position of the Moroccan Jews. Already branded externally, by their clothing, as unbelievers, they furthermore became the objects of scorn and of violent despotic caprice; and out of this condition they have not succeeded in raising themselves.

An account by Solomon Cohen dated January 1148 AD describes the Almohad conquests:

"Abd al-Mumin ... the leader of the Almohads after the death of Muhammad Ibn Tumart the Mahdi ... captured Tlemcen [in the Maghreb] and killed all those who were in it, including the Jews, except those who embraced Islam. ... [in Sijilmasa] One hundred and fifty persons were killed for clinging to their [Jewish] faith. ... One hundred thousand persons were killed in Fez on that occasion, and 120,000 in Marrakesh. The Jews in all [Maghreb] localities [conquered] ... groaned under the heavy yoke of the Almohads; many had been killed, many others converted; none were able to appear in public as Jews."[8]

[edit] The Merinids and the Saadites

After the Almohads, the Merinids ruled in Morocco until they were overthrown by the Saadites in the 15th century. During the murderous scenes which were enacted in 1391 in Seville and were repeated in a large part of Spain and then across the sea in Majorca, the Spanish Jews were glad to seize the first opportunity to emigrate to North Africa in order to escape the persecution in Spain. A hundred years later, when the Jews were driven out of Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496, the sudden inroad upon Morocco and the whole of north Africa was repeated on a very much larger scale. This unexpected flood of Spanish immigrants, which soon caused overcrowding in the larger cities of Morocco, aroused uneasiness both among the Muslims, who feared an increase in the price of necessities, and among the Jews already settled there, who had hitherto barely succeeded in gaining a livelihood by following handicrafts and in petty commerce. In addition to this unfriendly reception, the newcomers had to endure much from both great and small rulers eager for booty, as well as from the Moorish population (see Ibn Verga).[9] In Sale, in 1442, many Jewish women were raped; and in Alcazarquivir, the Jews were robbed of all they possessed. Many died of hunger and some returned to Spain [10]; most fled to Fez, where new trials awaited them. A terrible conflagration occurred in the Jewish quarter of that city, from which the historian of these events, Abraham ben Solomon of Torrutiel, then eleven years of age, escaped [11]. A famine broke out soon after the fire, during which more than 20,000 Jews died in and around Fez. Notwithstanding these untoward events, the secret Jews or Maranos who were left in Spain and Portugal and who were determined to remain true to their faith under all circumstances so little feared the dangers and trials of removing to a foreign country that Manuel I, King of Portugal (1495-1521), felt obliged to forbid the Jews to emigrate without express royal permission. This prohibition was contained in two ordinances dated respectively April 20 and April 24, 1499. Nevertheless, with the aid of money and the exercise of shrewdness many Maranos succeeded in escaping to Africa. A certain Gonçalo of Loulé was heavily fined because he secretly transported Neo-Christians from Algarve to Larache on the coast of Morocco [12].

A new group of Maranos was brought to Morocco through the definite establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal under Pope Paul III in 1536.[13] But in spite of all the suffering which Portugal had brought upon the Jews, there yet remained enough patriotism in the hearts of her rejected Jewish sons to cause them to help their former oppressors to preserve their old possessions on the Moroccan coast and to gain new ones. Through the strategy of a Jewish physician the Portuguese in 1508 succeeded in conquering the old seaport town of Safi, which had a large number of Jewish inhabitants and which, chiefly through them, had become an important commercial center.[14] Two years later, in the same city, upon the reconquest of which the Moors had been steadily intent, was besieged by a large Moorish army. Thereupon two Portuguese Jews, Isaac Bencemero and a certain Ismail, brought assistance to the besieged with two ships manned by coreligionists and equipped at their own cost.[15] In Safi, the Jews were allowed to live as such by Emanuel's permission; also in Asilah after 1533, which had long been a Portuguese possession. In the quarrels which afterward took place between the Moors and the governors of Azamur in 1526, Abraham ben Zamaira and Abraham Cazan, the most influential Jew in Azemmour in 1528, served the Portuguese as negotiators.[16] The Jews Abraham and Samuel Cabeça of Morocco also had dealings with the Portuguese generals. When, in 1578, the young king Sebastian with almost his whole army met death, and Portugal saw the end of her glory, at Alcazarquivir, the few nobles who remained were taken captive and sold to the Jews in Fez and Morocco. The Jews received the Portuguese knights, their former countrymen, into their houses very hospitably and let many of them go free on the promise that they would send back their ransom from Portugal.[17] The numerous newly immigrated Jews, whose descendants have faithfully adhered to the use of their Spanish dialect, Ladino and Haketia, down to the present day, and who far surpassed the older Jewish inhabitants of Morocco in education and in intellectual acquirements, come into the foreground in the following period of the history of Judaism in Morocco. With their skill in European commerce, in arts and handicrafts, much of which had hitherto been unknown to the Moors, and with their wealth, they contributed largely to the great rise and development of the Moroccan kingdom under the Alaouite Dynasty reign, who began to rule in 1666.[

[MrsAmera 41]

Jews = Caucasian

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

Jews = Caucasian

except you if youre an ethiopian jew

[doodlebugg 10]

wahrania i'm having a hard time understanding what you're trying to get at with this jewish history that you're posting. What does it, and the video have to do with the discussion? I feel like I'm out in left field reading all of this.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

unless arab/middle eastern is specified, its always White/Caucasion

[*Maureen* 0]

my finger got sore scrolling through it so i gave up

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

wahrania i'm having a hard time understanding what you're trying to get at with this jewish history that you're posting. What does it, and the video have to do with the discussion? I feel like I'm out in left field reading all of this.

Its in response to the genetic make up of moroccans and ms amera...it talks about some of the forced conversions to islam over the years of jews by varying dynasties...

wahrania i'm having a hard time understanding what you're trying to get at with this jewish history that you're posting. What does it, and the video have to do with the discussion? I feel like I'm out in left field reading all of this.

the video was in response to other races and genetic makeups in mena to virtual wife

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

wahrania i'm having a hard time understanding what you're trying to get at with this jewish history that you're posting. What does it, and the video have to do with the discussion? I feel like I'm out in left field reading all of this.

some jews stayed jewish....many became muslim and are part of the genetic makeup in morocco...the wife of the king is a desecendant of a jewish family that became muslim hundreds of years ago

[Sofiyya 1,687]

unless arab/middle eastern is specified, its always White/Caucasion

Arabs are only politically White/Caucasian, certasinly not always genetically White/Caucasian. Historically and physiologically, there's no reason to consider yourself as White beyond that. Europeans politically helped sell my people out. Why would I consider myself to be politically White after that?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Jews = Caucasian

Jewish isn't a race any more than Arab is.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

Jews = Caucasian

Jewish isn't a race any more than Arab is.

well...if you want to get technical,with the number of conversions many people would have the shock of their lives to see their dna....I have syrian roots according to my www.familytree.com with my chart and haplops taking my relatives through syria and the fertile cresecent and Im irish...go figure...

Also lots of "arabs" have jewish dna markers....carrying cohen genes ....think forced conversions to Islam....so technically we are all cousins....

[sarahaziz 0]

unless arab/middle eastern is specified, its always White/Caucasion

Arabs are only politically White/Caucasian, certasinly not always genetically White/Caucasian. Historically and physiologically, there's no reason to consider yourself as White beyond that. Europeans politically helped sell my people out. Why would I consider myself to be politically White after that?

07.03.1962

[sereia 0]

i read somewhere there really are only three true races. caucasian, asian, and black. so arabs and jews would then fall under caucasian. i think government documentation and all that list more to further classify people but scientifically there are three. i wish i had a link to back up that argument but i haven't found one yet. i forgot where i read it! maybe sharon (where has she been lately anyway?) can further discuss this with us?!