[Arab
conquest - persecutions]
<Arab Period. According to late Arabic sources, the Jews
were dispersed among the Berbers who lived around Mount
Nefusa before the Arab conquest, but in Jewish sources the
Jews of this district are only mentioned from the tenth
century onward. the Jews also believed that the Jewish
population of the entire region originated there. From the
frequent repetitions of the surname al-Lebdi in 11th- and
12th-century sources, it can be concluded that there was
also an important Jewish population in Lebda, near the
harbor town of Homs, and also in the oasis of G(h)adames.
There was also a Jewish population in Barce and in other
localities. Between 1159 and 1160 the Jewish population
suffered as a result of the victory of the Almohads but the
rulers did not take any lives or force conversion.
There is no extant information on Libyan Jewry during the
next 400 years. According to a later source, 800 Jewish
families fled from Tripoli to Tajura - situated to the east
of the latter - and to Jebel Gharyān (Garian) - in the
interior of the country - as a result of the Spanish
invasion of 1510. After the Turkish conquest the Jews
prospered again. At that time, R. Simeon *Labi, a Spanish
refugee, settled in Tripoli and strengthened the position of
Judaism and introduced Jewish learning. According to a
manuscript which belonged to M. Gaster (now BM. Or. 12368),
"A sad and bitter event happened to the people of the
Maghreb", i.e., the Jews of Libya were in great distress
during the years 1588-89 as a result of the revolt against
the Turks which was fomented by the Mahdi Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā.
Many of them were forcibly converted to Islam, but with the
suppression of the revolt, they returned to Judaism. There
is, however, no mention or allusion in Jewish sources to
this period of persecution.
[Jews in Tripoli]
The community of Tripoli gained in strength with the arrival
of Jews from *Leghorn. In 1663 the Shabbatean Abraham Miguel
*Cardozo arrived there and conducted his Shabbatean
campaign. From the second half of the 17th century until the
Italian conquest (1911) the Jews of Libya were led by
qā'ids ("leaders").
During the famine and plague of 1784-85, there was much
suffering among the Jews and they were threatened with grave
danger when Ali Gurzi, known as "Burgul", was appointed
pasha of Libya. After a year and a half he was banished from
the town, and in commemoration of their deliverance the Jews
of Tripoli celebrate "Purim of Burgul" every 29th of Tevet.
[Jewish quarters in Tripoli
- community life]
The Jews of Libya lived in special quarters
(ḥāra) in the various
town. In the two villages of Jebel Gharyān and Tigrinna,
they lived in below-ground-level caves until their
emigration to Israel in 1950-51. The
Ḥārat al-Yahūd ("Jewish
quarter") in Tigrinna contained about 300 Jews. They earned
their livings as goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and peddlers among
the Bedouin in the area.
The traveler Benjamin the Second found about 1,000 Jewish
families (about a third of the population in Tripoli. There
were four competent
dayyanim
[[judges]] and eight synagogues. In 1906 N. *Slouschz
visited Libya and his descriptions have become a historical
source of information. Most of the information in his books
about the 18th and 19th centuries stems from his guide
Mordecai Hacohen, whose history based on earlier sources is
still in manuscript.
[Military service in
Ottoman Empire since 1909]
At the end of Ottoman rule there were no important incidents
in the history of Libyan Jewry, apart from the fact that in
1909 they, like all citizens of the Ottoman Empire, were
subject to the compulsory military service law. Jews - of an
Orthodox religious background - feared the law because [col.
201]
they were forced to desecrate the Sabbath in the course of
military service. However, the law was only in force for a
short time, since Libya shortly thereafter fell to the
Italians. [H.Z.H.]
