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Mawza Exile
The Exile of Mawzaʻ (the expulsion of Yemenite Jews to Mawza') - , ; 1679—1680, is considered the single most traumatic event experienced collectively by the Jews of Yemen,〔Yehudah Ratzaby, ''Galut Mawzaʻ'', Sefunot (Volume Five), Ben-Zvi Institute: Jerusalem 1961, p. 339 (Hebrew)〕 in which Jews living in nearly all cities and towns throughout Yemen were banished by decree of the king, Imām al-Mahdi Ahmad, and sent to a dry and barren region of the country named Mawzaʻ to withstand their fate or to die. Only a few communities, ''viz.'', those Jewish inhabitants who lived in the far eastern quarters of Yemen (Nihm, al-Jawf, and Khawlan of the east) were spared this fate by virtue of their Arab patrons who refused to obey the king’s orders.〔Yosef Qafiḥ (ed.), “''Qorot Yisra’el be-Teman'' by Rabbi Ḥayim Ḥibshush,” Sefunot, Volume 2, Ben-Zvi Institute: Jerusalem 1958, pp. 246-286 (Hebrew); Yosef Qafiḥ, ''Ketavim'' (''Collected Papers''), Vol. 2, Jerusalem 1989, p. 714 (Hebrew)〕 Many would die along the route and while confined to the hot and arid conditions of this forbidding terrain. After one year in exile, the exiles were called back to perform their usual tasks and labors for the indigenous Arab populations, who had been deprived of goods and services on account of their exile.
==Background==
With the rise to power of the Qāsimīd Imām, al-Mutawakkil Isma'il (1644—1676), there was a crucial turning point in the condition of Jews living under the Imamate kingdom of Yemen. He endorsed the most hostile policies toward his Jewish subjects, partly due to the claim that the Jews were aiding the Ottoman Turks during the local uprising against them.〔Yosef Tobi, ''Politics and Poetry in the Works of Shalom Shabazī'', Routledge - ''Israel Affairs'' 2014, p. 6〕 The rise of the Shabbathian movement in Yemen in 1666 exacerbated the problems facing the community, calling into question their status as protected wards of the State. One decree led to another.〔One Jewish poet bewails their fate at this time, saying: "Since the day that they removed the turbans from our heads (i.e. 1666), we are full of orders which he decrees (us ). He has placed over our heads (governor ) who is the master of oppression!" See: Ratzaby, ''Sefunot'' (Volume Five), Jerusalem 1961, p. 378 (Hebrew)〕 The king initially demanded their conversion to Islam and when they refused, he made them stand out in the sun without apparel for three days, which was later followed by harsher decrees. It is said that al-Mutawakkil Isma'il consulted with the religious scholars of Islam and sought to determine whether or not the laws concerning Jews in the Arabian Peninsula applied also to Yemen, citing Muhammad who was reported as saying, “There shall not be two religions in Arabia.” When it was determined that these laws did indeed apply to Yemen, since the country was an indivisible part of the Arabian Peninsula, it then became incumbent upon Jews living in Yemen to either convert to Islam or to leave the country. Yet, since the king fell ill and was bedridden, he did not presently perform his ill-designs to expel the Jews from his kingdom, but commanded the heir to his throne, al-Mahdi Ahmad, to do so.〔(Yosef Tobi, ''Politics and Poetry in the Works of Shalom Shabazī'', Routledge - ''Israel Affairs'' 2014, p. 7 )〕〔Yosef Tobi, ''The Jews of Yemen'' (''Studies in Their History and Culture''), Brill: Leiden 1999, pp. 77-79〕
Al-Mahdi Ahmad of al-Ghirās, who is also known by the epithet ''Ṣafī al-Din'' (purity of religion), succeeded al-Mutawakkil Isma'il, but perpetuated the same hostilities toward his Jewish subjects as those made by his predecessor. Everything reached its climax between the years 1677 and 1680, when he ordered the destruction of the synagogues in Ṣanʻā’ and elsewhere.〔Tanḥum ben Joseph, of Jerusalem, ''al-Murshid al-kāfi'' (in manuscript form), p. 112 (Yosef Tobi’s Private Collection), we read the following marginal note: “The synagogue was destroyed here, () Ḥamdah, on Wednesday, the 17th day of the lunar month Teveth, in the year 1,989 (the Seleucid Era ) (=1678 CE), by order of al-Mahdi and Muhammad ben Ahmad.” Yehudah Ratzaby (1984, p. 149) also brings down a manuscript extracted from the binding of an old book, now at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York (239), in which the author complains: "The razing of the synagogue of Būsān on the fourth day of the week which is the third day of the year 1,989 (the Seleucid Era ) (= 1678 CE), and the enemies forbade us to gather as a quorum of ten for prayer and three scrolls of Law were slashed to pieces. May He in His mercy save us and all Israel from all the decrees." (See: Yosef Tobi, ''The Jews of Yemen'' - ''Studies in Their History and Culture'', Brill: Leiden 1999, pp. 78 () - 79)〕 By early summer of 1679, he gave an ultimatum unto his Jewish subjects, namely, that they had the choice of either converting to Islam, in which they’d be allowed to remain in the country, or of being killed by the sword. He gave to them three months to decide what they would do.〔Yosef Qafiḥ (ed.), “''Qorot Yisra’el be-Teman'' by Rabbi Ḥayim Ḥibshush,” (''Sefunot'', Volume Two, Jerusalem 1958 ), page רסב (p. 270 in PDF) (Hebrew); Yosef Qafiḥ, ''Ketavim'' (''Collected Papers''), Vol. 2, Jerusalem 1989, p. 713 (Hebrew)〕
The king’s words led to no small consternation amongst his Jewish subjects in Yemen, who immediately declared a time of public fasting and prayer, which they did both by night and day. Their plight soon became known to the local Yemeni tribesmen, whose chiefs and principal men pitied their condition and intervened on their behalf. They came before the king and enquired concerning the decree, and insisted that the Jews had been loyal to their king and had not offended the Arab peoples, neither had they done anything worthy of death, but should only be punished a little for their “obduracy” in what concerns the religion of Islam. The king, agreeing to their counsel, chose not to kill his Jewish subjects, but decided to banish them from his kingdom. They were to be sent to Zeilaʻ, a place along the African coast of the Red Sea, where they would be confined for life, or else repent and accept the tenets of Islam.
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