Search

According to many sources, bearers of the name Cohen-Tannoudji (also rendered Tanoudji, Tanugi, and Tenoudji) are all members of a single family. The name, which means “Tangier Kohen,” probably came into use with the twelfth-century Almohad conquests. At the end of the twelfth century, a Cohen family left Tangier for Sicily (see Palermo and Sicily) and joined the North African Jews there; the Latinized last name Tannugius was registered in Palermo in 1358. Expelled from Sicily by the edict of January 1493, the Cohen-Tanoudjis found a refuge in Tunis before being kicked out by Charles V i…