Baqri Family
BAQRI FAMILY
Prominent Jewish family in Algeria.
The Cohen–Baqri family (not related to the Arab Bakri family) was one of three Livornese (Italy) Jewish clans (the others were the Boucharas and the Busnachs) that were prominent in Algerian commerce and politics throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Invariably it was a member of one of these three families who served as muqaddam (government-appointed head) of the Jewish community in Algiers.
In 1797, Joseph Baqri and his brother-in-law Naphtali Busnach went into partnership. Naphtali was the chief adviser of the newly elected Dey Mustafa, and all diplomatic and commercial contact with the regency had to go through the Baqri & Busnach firm. It was over a debt of 5 million French francs owed to the firm by the government of France since the 1780s that the Dey Husayn insulted France's consul in 1827. This touched off an international "incident" that ended with the French invasion of 1830. The last Baqri of importance was Jacob, who was reconfirmed as "Chef de la Nation Juive" by the French in November 1830 but moved to France shortly thereafter.
see also busnach family.
Bibliography
Hirschberg, H. Z. A History of the Jews in North Africa, 2d edition. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1974–1981.
Norman Stillman