Urban and architectonic approach to the old Jewish quarter in Tetuán, Mellah al-Bali

Abstract

Jews appeared in Tetuán simultaneously with the reestablishment of the city by al-Mandari in 1484-85. Coexistence of Jews and Muslims was ruled by the Pact of Umar. Sephardic communities, represented in every level of the social scale, experienced all the vicissitudes of exile –including misfortunes and benefits– in much the same way as their Hispanic-Muslim “compatriots”. Jews were one of the members of the social fabric of Muslim Morocco. Never before were they forced to live apart in Tetuán; but in 1807, a Dahir (decree) by the Alaouite Sultan, Mulay Slimane, required their transfer to mellah al-Jadid. The reoccupation and conversion of the old Jewish quarter involved a systematic dismantling, demolition and rearrangement process. The main goal of this work is to approach the siting of the mellah al-Bali quarter, as well as to the type of domestic architecture that had to be developed there.