Colomb-Béchar(today simply Béchar, Ar. Bashshār) is located 725 km south of Oran near the Moroccan border. It served as the state-capital of the French department Saoura, created by a decree of August 7, 1957. It is an important road and railroad node that was also the gate to the Sahara. The town was created from a conglomeration of villages along the banks of the Oued Bechar (Wādī Bashshār), when the French under General Hubert Lyautey occupied it in November 1903. A few Jews had been living in the ksar of Béchar where they worked asjewelers, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers, pe…
Béchar (Colomb-Béchar)(520 words)
Cite this page
Jacob Oliel, “Béchar (Colomb-Béchar)”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Consulted online on 29 January 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_SIM_0005610>
First published online: 2010
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