She was sixteen. From Tangier. A Muslim man wanted to marry her. She refused.
He went to the authorities and claimed she had already converted to Islam and then recanted. Apostasy was a capital offence.
The case went to the sultan, Moulay Abd al-Rahman, in Fes. Sol Hachuel was given a choice: confirm the conversion and live, or deny it and die. According to every account — Jewish, Muslim, European — she denied it.
Publicly executed in Fes. 1834. She was buried in the Habarim cemetery, which holds 22,000 whitewashed tombs and is the largest Jewish burial ground in Morocco. Her grave became a pilgrimage site. In death, Sol Hachuel became Lalla Solica — the 'Lalla' an honorific reserved for saints and noblewomen.
European writers seized on it as evidence of Muslim barbarity. Jewish communities across the Mediterranean mourned a martyr. In Morocco, the story was more complicated — an embarrassment for a sultanate that generally protected its Jewish subjects.
She has been the subject of poems in Ladino and Hebrew, a novel in French, academic papers in English. Eugène Delacroix may have painted her. Art historians argue about which of his North African subjects she might be.
But in the mellah of Fes, Lalla Solica is not literary. She is local. Her tomb is visited. Candles are lit. She is one of the saints of Moroccan Judaism — not because she performed miracles, but because she performed the most difficult act a person can perform.
She held.
The Habarim cemetery was fully restored in 2015 under royal patronage. Three small synagogues within the grounds serve as museum and prayer space. Her grave is not marked with anything grand. Everyone in the mellah knows where she is.
Lalla Solica's grave in Fes is still a pilgrimage site. The Habarim cemetery holds 22,000 whitewashed tombs.
Tell us about your trip →The Facts
- —Sol Hachuel: 16 years old, from Tangier
- —Muslim man claimed she had converted then recanted
- —Apostasy was capital offence
- —Sultan Moulay Abd al-Rahman heard case in Fes
- —Given choice: confirm conversion or die
- —Publicly executed in Fes, 1834
- —Buried in Habarim cemetery (22,000 tombs, largest Jewish burial ground in Morocco)
- —Became "Lalla Solica" — honorific for saints/noblewomen
- —Grave became pilgrimage site
Sources
- Ben-Ami, Issachar. Saint Veneration Among the Jews in Morocco. Wayne State University Press, 1998
- Gottreich, Emily. The Mellah of Marrakesh. Indiana University Press, 2007
- Schroeter, Daniel. The Sultan's Jew. Stanford University Press, 2002
