Place
Fez פאס
The Moroccan city that produced the Rif and sheltered the young Rambam—and where they wrote under the threat of conversion.
Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasi, the Rif, headed the yeshiva in Fez until he fled to Spain; his Sefer ha-Halakhot—the Talmud boiled down to practical law—became a foundation for all later halakha.
A century later the Rambam's family fled here from Córdoba before the Almohads. In Fez he studied and wrote the Iggeret ha-Shmad, the letter on forced conversion: to those who had outwardly said the Muslim formula under threat of death he answered that they remained Jews and should leave at the first opportunity rather than despair.
On the timeline
4773 · 1013 CERabbi Yitzchak Alfasi (the Rif) and the Sefer HaHalakhot4898 · 1138 CEThe Birth of Maimonides and the Years of Wandering5225 · 1465 CEThe revolt in Fes: a Jewish vizier, an attack on the mellah, and the end of the Marinids5254 · 1494 CEThe Takkanot of Fes: exiles and natives, two hundred and fifty years apart5672 · 1912 CEThe tritel of Fes: a pogrom at the establishment of the protectorate5701 · 1941 CEThe Vichy dahirs in Morocco and the legend of Muhammad V
Related
Rif—Rabbi Yitzchak AlfasiRambamCordobaFustatThe mellahToshavim and megorashimThe Takkanot of FesYehuda ibn QurayshEpistle on Forced ConversionOr ha-Chaim—Rabbi Chaim ibn AttarMarrakeshMeknesAlliance Israélite UniverselleRabbi Shimon LaviAlgiersTunis
Sources
Rishonim
- Sefer ha-Halakhot — the Rif's code, composed in these yeshivas
- Iggeret ha-Shmad — the Rambam's letter on forced conversion, written in Fez
Basis: documents and evidence.