Mellah, Jewish Quarter Of Marrakech

The first official mellah was established in the city of Fez in 1438. In the first half of the 14th century, the Marinids founded, alongside Fez, the town of Hims, which was initially allocated to the archers and the Christian militia. In 1438 the Jews were driven from the old part of Fez to Hims, which had been built on a site known as al-Mallah, "the saline area". Ultimately, the term came to designate Jewish quarters in other Moroccan cities. Initially, there was nothing derogatory about this term: some documents employ the expression "mellah of the Muslims", and the Jewish quarter contained large and beautiful dwellings which were favored residences for "the agents and ambassadors of foreign princes". Later on, however, popular etymology explained the word mellah as a "salted, cursed ground" or a place where the Jews "salted the heads of decapitated rebels”, highlighting the outcast connotations attached to this word. For a long time, the mellah of Fez remained the only one, and only in the second half of the 16th century (around 1557) the term mellah appears in Marrakesh, with the settlement there of Jewish population from the Atlas and from the city of Aghmat (some 30 km east of Marrakesh), which had an ancient Jewish community. A Frenchman, who was held captive in Morocco from 1670 to 1681, wrote: "In Fez and in Morocco [that is, Marrakesh], the Jews are separated from the inhabitants, having their own quarters set apart, surrounded by walls of which the gates are guarded by men appointed by the King ... In the other towns, they are intermingled with the Moors."[citation needed] In 1791, a European traveller described the Marrakesh mellah: "It has two large gates, which are regularly shut every evening about nine o'clock, after which time no person whatever is permitted to enter or go out... till... the following morning. The Jews have a market of their own...". Info:Wikipedia