Patronage and Protection: The Status of Jews in Precolonial Morocco

Basing himself on Arab and European historical sources, Allan Meyers, who teaches in the School of Public Health at Boston University, explores the issue raised in the previous chapter, the position of Jews under Muslim rule, focusing on pre-colonial Morocco. In that context, Meyers argues, different relationships obtained in different parts of the country. The crucial factors were the degree of power which local potentates and the central government wielded respectively. Communal protection obtained where the government was strong, and individual patrol—client relationships were forged where local strongmen ruled.