The Sultan’s Communists: An Introduction
The Sultan’s Communists: An Introduction
The introduction presents the main interventions and arguments of the book in the overlapping fields of Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Maghrib Studies, and the history of global Communism. It depicts how the precolonial paradigm of Jews as representatives of the sultan, and the sultan as “protector” of the Jews, came under assault in Morocco with the introduction of European colonialism, formalized into French and Spanish Protectorates over Morocco. Across its chapters, the book demonstrates how the precolonial paradigm of “belonging” to the sultan became repurposed for modern Jewish participation in the future independent nation-state of Morocco. Most Jews active in the national liberation movement were members of the Moroccan Communist Party. Across the twentieth century, the book argues that the “Sultan’s Jews” became the “Sultan’s Communists,” demonstrating Moroccan Jewish patriotism and the mutually constitutive nature of “Moroccanness” and “Jewishness.”
Keywords: Jews, Morocco, Moroccan patriotism, Communism, Zionism, Arab nationalism, Colonialism, Politics of belonging, Dhimmi status, Alliance Israélite Universelle
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