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Tagoura (Tagiura), Libya

Tagoura, Libya

Archaeological evidence reveals a Jewish presence in and around Tagoura (Tagiura, Tajura, تاجوراء) dating back to at least the 10th century. A 10th century CE Jewish tombstone reportedly found near Tagoura is one of the earliest post-Islamic examples of Libyan Jewry.1 Tagoura was explicitly mentioned as a Jewish site that existed in 1510 in a codex by Mordecai Hacohen.2

Description

Muslims called the Jewish quarter of Tagoura ḥaretil’agab. The Jewish quarter was 1-2km east of the town center and its market days were Mondays and Thrusdays.3 

When the Ottomans overthrew Muslim rule in Tripolitania, Tripoli became a more welcoming place for Jews. The stable government and affordable food supply in Ottoman Tripoli attracted Jewish people from smaller cities such as Tagoura to move to the larger city, where they practiced trades and crafts, and experienced a better overall lifestyle.4


According to surveys by various later demographers, the Jewish population of Tagoura was recorded as follows:5

1853 70 Jewish families
1886 100 Jewish people
1902 200 Jewish people
1906 140 Jewish people
1914 120 Jewish people
1931 189 Jewish people
1936 174 Jewish people
1943 227 Jewish people
1948 202 Jewish people

 

Special Days

Goldberg notes the following names for holidays and other special religious time periods in Tagoura, as part of a larger study on the similarities and differences between tripolitanian Jewish towns:6

Time Name in Tagoura
Night after the Sabbath Lēllič ḥadd
New Moon of Nisan Rūš hūdeš mīšmāra
Counting of the ‘Omer Iyyām il’ūmer
Pentecost šabu’ōt
18th of Iyyar Hillūlā
9th of Ab əllai
17th of Tammuz Nə fs ṣīf
Solemn New-Year Rūššana
Fast of Gedaliah Ḫu kibbur
Day after Yom Kippur Simḥač kohēn
Tabernacles Sukka

 

Tagoura, Libya

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Sources

Endnotes
1.  Harvey Goldberg, “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 2, no. 3 (1971): 245.


2.  Goldberg, 259; “Mordecai’s Manuscript- Progress and Predicaments,” accessed July 20, 2022, https://www.associationforjewishstudies.org/publications-research/ajs-perspectives/the-unfinished-issue/mordecai-s-manuscript-progress-and-predicaments.


3.  Goldberg, “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry,” 248.


4.  Rachel Simon, “The Sephardi Heritage In Libya,” Shofar 10, no. 3 (1992): 93.


5.  Goldberg, 256–57.


6.  Harvey E. Goldberg, “Tripolitanian Jewish Communities: Cultural Boundaries and Hypothesis-Testing,” American Ethnologist 1, no. 4 (1974): 626.


Bibliography


Goldberg, Harvey. “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 2, no. 3 (1971): 245–65.


Goldberg, Harvey E. “Tripolitanian Jewish Communities: Cultural Boundaries and Hypothesis-Testing.” American Ethnologist 1, no. 4 (1974): 619–34.


“Mordecai’s Manuscript- Progress and Predicaments.” Accessed July 20, 2022. https://www.associationforjewishstudies.org/publications-research/ajs-perspectives/the-unfinished-issue/mordecai-s-manuscript-progress-and-predicaments.


Simon, Rachel. “The Sephardi Heritage In Libya.” Shofar 10, no. 3 (1992): 90–112.