Musta'arabi Jews ( al-Mustaʿribīn "Mozarabs"; Mustaʿravim) were Arabic-speaking Jews (often with their own Judeo-Arabic varieties) who lived in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) prior to the arrival and integration of the Sephardic Jews.

Following the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and the persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal in 1497, Sephardic exiles moved into more hospitable regions of the Mediterranean Basin, and many settled among the Musta'arabim in MENA countries. They quickly developed a koineised Judeo-Spanish that they used amongst themselves.

In many Arabic-speaking countries, Sephardim and the existing Musta'arabim maintained separate synagogues and religious rituals, but often shared a Chief Rabbi. However, the communities generally amalgamated halakhic norms, adopting mostly the nusach (liturgy) of the Sephardim (not to be confused with the much later Nusach Sefard, an Ashkenazi rite of Orthodox Judaism). This pattern was found in most Musta'arabi communities. A typical example is in the Syrian Jewish community, although the adoption of the Sefardic nusach by Yemenite Jews was due to the writings of Maimonides and, later, aggressive missionary work by Sefardic rabbis.

In contrast, in Tunisia, there was a strong and enduring social distinction between the Touansa, the established communities of Mustaʿaravim and early Sefardic exiles, and the later Grana, who were later Sefardic Livornese immigrants who had a distinctly European self-identity.

Background The word "Mustaʿrabi" itself, and its Hebrew equivalent mistaʿrevim, meaning "those who live among the Arabs", are derived from the Arabic mustaʿrib, meaning “arabized”. Compare with the term "Mozarab" (mozárabe in Spanish, borrowed from Arabic) to refer to Arabized (but not Islamized) Christian Spaniards in Arab ruled Islamic Spain. "Musta'arabi" was also used by medieval Jewish authors to refer to Jews in North Africa, in what would become the modern states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt (which also underwent cultural and linguistic Arabization following the Muslim conquest there).

Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant, Syria and the surrounding region was brought under Arab rule in the first half of the seventh century, and the Jews of the land, like the Christian majority at that time, became culturally Arabized, adopting many of the ways of the new foreign elite minority rulers, including the language.The New Israel Atlas: Bible to Present Day, Zev Vilnay, Karṭa, Israel Universities Press, 1968, p. 91

Musta'arabim, in the Arabized Hebrew of the day, was used to refer to Arabic-speaking Jews native to the region of Syria who were, "like Arabs" or "culturally Arabic-oriented". These Musta'arabim were also called Murishkes or Moriscos by the Sephardi immigrants.A description of the Murishkes is cited in וזה שער השמים from שאלי שלום ירושלים, whose author participated in the "Hasid's" Aliyah. Rabbi Shlomo Suzen, from the times of the Beth Yoseph, was known as a descendant of the Murishkes. This may be either a corruption of "Mashriqis" (Easterners) or a Ladino word meaning "like Moors" or "Moorish" (compare with the Spanish word Morisco).

In the Land of Israel The Musta'arabi Jews in the Land of Israel constituted one of the three main components of the Old Yishuv (Jewish community of Eretz Yisrael), together with the Sephardi Jews, and Ashkenazi Jews.Abraham P. Bloch, One a day: an anthology of Jewish historical anniversaries for every day of the year, KTAV Publishing House, 1987, , M1 Google Print, p. 278.

The Musta'arabi Jews in the Land of Israel were descendants of the ancient Hebrews who never left the Land of Israel, instead remaining there through the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD to the First Aliyah in 1881, prior to the onset of Zionist immigration. In the sixteenth century, Musta'arabi Jews were noted as performing agricultural work, as in the ancient periods of Israel. Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-16th century, there were no more than 10,000 Jews divided between numerous groups of congregations in all of Ottoman Syria. Within the Jewish community at this time, there was some conflict between the Musta'arabim and Jews who had immigrated to Israel from Spain and Sicily. Later on, there was also conflict between Jewish citizens of the Ottoman Empire and those who held foreign passports (the so-called Francos or Señores Francos). From 1839 onward, Jewish subjects of the Ottoman Empire, including the Musta'arabim, were represented by a locally nominated rabbi, whose appointment to serve as a hakham bashi or "chief rabbi" required approval from the Ottoman authorities. This hierarchical system paralleled one previously established for Christian bishops in the empire.

Due to the persecution of the rural Jewish population since the Islamic period into the Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods, the Musta'arabim decreased from a majority of the Galilee's population to its smallest minority.. In many of them, there were indigenous Jewish villagers until the Ottoman period, including Peki'in, Shefar'am, and possibly Alma and Kfar Hananiah. In the village of Peki'in, the Musta'arabi presence survives to the present day, although the Jewish residents were forced to evacuate their ancestral homes during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt. The majority relocated to Hadera, where their descendants primarily reside today, though a small number eventually returned to Peki'in. The synagogues and cemeteries of Musta'arabi Jews, as in Peki'in, are considered the oldest in the Jewish world and can be dated largely to the Talmudic period but also to Mishnaic and Second Temple period.

Roman and Byzantine era

In late Roman Palestine, the vast majority of those indigenous Jews who would come to be known as Musta'arabim lived in small villages, especially in the north or Galilee, but also many around Jerusalem, and even toward Ramallah. They suffered extreme oppression and frequent massacres under the Byzantines. They continued to speak Aramaic, but many were illiterate.

Crusades

The Jews in Palestine defended against the Crusaders with Arabs, especially at Haifa in 1100. Many were massacred or captured during the Siege of Jerusalem (1099) to the Crusaders. At Ashkelon, 1191, many Jews were forced out by the crusaders, with some moving to Jerusalem.

Mamluks

During the Mamluk period, the Jews generally saw a decline in status and demographics. Jews started to move out of small villages and into larger ones such as: Peki'in Safed Tiberias Jerusalem Hebron Haifa Akko

Safed, Tiberias, and the area that surrounds them saw an increase in population, in 1500 it is estimated that over 10,000 Jews were living in the Safed Region. Jews started to move towards etrog exportation and rabbinic studies.

Galilee Revival

The 1492 Alhambra Decree and the 1496 decree of King Manuel I converted or expelled all Jews from Iberia. Many of these settled in the two main cities of the Galilee, Safed and Tiberias; notable Jewish scholars such as Yosef Caro settled in Eretz Yisrael. This had two major outcomes: the adoption of Sephardic practices, and the start of a golden age of Jewish life in Palestine. This golden age happened almost exclusively in the Four Holy Cities: Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, and Hebron. Along with the Musta'arabim adopting some Sephardic practices, they also intermarried extensively with the Sephardim. In some respects, the Musta'arabim in the four holy cities ceased being a distinct group; only in rural areas such as Peki'in did the Musta'arabi Jews remain dominant.

Ottoman Era

In the Ottoman era, the main Jewish population center moved away from the Galilee and towards Jerusalem. Still, the Ladino-speaking Jews dominated Jewish life. New arrivals from the Balkans, North Africa, and Iraq also cemented Sephardic traditions over those of the Musta'arabim.

Zionism

The arrival of mainly socialist and secular Zionists from Eastern Europe angered the Arab-Islamic ruling class. Relations between the Old Yishuv and the New Yishuv also suffered at times. Musta'arabim either joined sides with the Zionists, fighting in Haganah or Irgun, or left the Ottoman Empire entirely, joining the waves of Syrian Jews emigrating to America.

Today

The Musta'arabim have assimilated into mainstream Sephardic Israeli life, besides for Margalit Zinati, and it is unknown how many Israeli Jews of Musta'arabi descent there are. In America, they follow the general Syrian traditions, and have mainly settled in New York, California, and Washington.

Syrian Musta'arabi rite

Old Aleppo rite The Aleppo Musta'arabim in Syria originally had a distinct way of worship, set out in a distinct prayer book called Maḥzor Aram Soba. This ritual is thoughtEzra Fleischer, Eretz-Israel Prayer and Prayer Rituals: as portrayed in the Geniza documents (Jerusalem 1988) pp 202ff. to reflect Jerusalmite rather than Babylonian traditions in certain respects, particularly in the prominence of piyyut (see below).Other shared features are the practice of reciting Psalm 8 at the beginning of the evening service on Shabbat and festivals (Fleischer, above) and the wording of the Modim blessing of the Amidah (B Outhwaite and S Bhayro (eds), From a Sacred Source: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C Reif (Leiden 2011), pp 132 and 135. In a broad sense, it falls within the "Sephardi" rather than the "Ashkenazi" family of rituals, but has resemblances to non-standard Sephardi rites such as the CatalanFor this, see Maḥzor le-nosaḥ Barcelona minhag Catalonia, Salonica 1527. rather than to the normative Castilian rite. It also contains some archaic features which it shares with the Siddur of Saadia Gaon and Maimonides' laws of prayer.

The following are some of the differences that stand out in the Maḥzor Aram Soba. The order of the Psalms in the morning service is different. The following prayers are worded differently (while still preserving the same message of the prayer): Baruch She’Amar, Kaddish, Kedushah, certain blessings of the Amidah, Tachanun, and the Birkat Hamazon (grace after meals). The Kaddish has a long set of “messianic references in the second verse” (unlike the Sephardic rite where it is much shorter and the Ashkenazic rite where it is absent). Psalm 8 was recited each night before the Evening Service, a practice no longer in place anywhere else.This is thought to have been a feature of the Palestinian minhag: Fleischer, above. There was a tradition to recite 72 different verses from the Bible immediately after the Amidah of the Morning Services. There is a tradition, still followed by many Syrian Jews, called Alpha-Beta, which consists of reciting Psalm 119–134 before the Evening Services on Motzaei Shabbat: this also appears in the prayer book of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. There was also an important tradition pertaining to the month of Elul, the month of repentance before the Days of Judgment. At dawn of Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, special Seliḥot prayers were recited. There were different seliḥot prayers, piyyutim, and Biblical verses to be recited for each week of that month. Syrian Jews, like other Sephardim, still recite Seliḥot during the entire month of Elul. However, the seliḥot recited by the Syrian Jews are standardized and do not vary from day to day as do the seliḥot of the Aram Soba Maḥzor. On Tisha B'ab, they only read Megillat Eicha at night and not in the morning: Syrian Jews still recite it before rather than after Arbit. The Kiddush for the three pilgrim festivals is very long, and resembles that found in the Siddur of Saadia Gaon and the Baladi Yemenite tradition.

A facsimile edition has recently been published by Yad HaRav Nissim, using pages from the best surviving copies of the 1527 edition.

Influence of the Sephardic rite