Musta'arabi Jews

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Musta'arabi Jews (Arabic: المستعربين al-Mustaʿribīn "Mozarabs"; Hebrew: מוּסְתערבים 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)...

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