Sijilmassa (ksour de)

Sijilmassa, a medieval caravan city of the Tafilalet (province of Errachidia), was from the eighth to the fourteenth century the principal crossroads for trans-Saharan gold and salt and the northern terminus of the caravan route to West Africa. The Jewish community played a central commercial role there, acting as money changers and dealers in precious goods. Its decline in the fourteenth century led to the dispersal of its Jewish inhabitants to other oases of the Tafilalet.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World — Brill
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan