Almohad persecutions

The Almohads, coming from the High Atlas, overthrew the Almoravid empire in the name of a rigorist interpretation of divine unity. With them disappeared the *dhimmī* status which, since the origins of Islam, had guaranteed Jews and Christians protection in exchange for tribute: under 'Abd al-Mu'min, only conversion, exile, or death remained.

Sijilmassa, Fès, Marrakech, Tlemcen, the Dra, Ceuta, and then the cities of al-Andalus conquered one after another — Séville, Cordoue, Grenade — saw synagogues closed, schools dispersed, and communities converted en masse. The converts remained suspect: a distinctive garment was later imposed upon them, and their children were taken from their families to be raised as Muslims.

It was this persecution that drove the family of Maïmonide onto the roads, from Cordoue to Fès, then to Acre and Cairo, and that led him to write the *Épître sur la conversion forcée*: in it he argues, against an anonymous rabbi, that one who has pronounced the formula under duress remains Jewish and must emigrate rather than die. Abraham ibn Ezra, for his part, composed a lament in which he names the extinguished communities.