One of the books I have been reading lately is entitled "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean" by Edward Kritzler. He explains how long before Spain was Spain, Jews were living there as it was one of King Solomon's trading posts, circa 1000 B.C. The settlement became Sephard and was a strategic outpost of the roman empire. Over time these and related people, namely so-called Moors, developed a cultural continuum that extended from Jerusalem to Guinea coast, to Libya to Cairo and Medina. This also extened to Darfur.
As early as the 15th century groups migrated into the Niger River basin and in the 1500s he states "The North African shore known as the Barbary Coast, was likewise familiar to Iberian jews, whose forebears had settled there in the first century after Rome's legions conquered Jerusalem and dispersed upward fifty thousand Jews to Spain and ports around the Mediterranean. The displaced citizens of Judea took to the sea, becoming the region's major shipowners, merchants and traders. Fifteen hundred years later, when the Sephardic exiles arrived in North Africa, they were consigned special quarters by their Muslim hosts. Together, the two exiled groups forged a formidable force."
In the next chapter he explains the background of Samuel Palache and states," Jews lived in Morocco centuries before the Arabs captured the native Berber tribes in the 17th century and introduced Islam."
The interesting thing here is the role Palache played in a treaty signed between Morocco and Holland in 1611. As a result, in the summer 1611, a Dutch flotilla, flying the flag of Morocco and led by a Moroccan Jew, sailed for the Mediterranean to assail Spanish ships.
It was this naval power that also secured the west African coast, and as a result this power extended north to Amsterdam and held the Spaniards in check. It must be noted that at this time the Dutch also dominated the slave trade and their builders owned most of Europe's trading ships.
Another Dutch Jew, Diego Diaz Querido, employed several African slaves who were natives of the coast and gave then instruction in Portuguese and Dutch so they could serve as interpreters in Africa to assist him in his Africa dealings, and this instruction included giving instruction in the Mosaic Law and conversion to Judaism.
That's very interesting. The Sephardic family, which I have been researching, apparently navigated deep into the interior of Africa after the Jews were exiled from Iberia. This family went to North Africa, but they navigated a great deal. In addition, from records that I pulled they seemed to be welcomed by certain Muslims in Morocco. I need to read that book. Good post bro Omowale!