The Bushʿara (Bouchara) family held an important position in international trade in Algiers under Turkish rule in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1712, Abraham Bushʿara (1690-1760) was the head of one of the largest Jewish mercantile firms in Algiers, importing European goods and supplying cereal grains to France. He was also the rabbi and head (Ar. muqaddam) of the Jewish community.

Abraham’s son Jacob Raphael Bush‘ara (d. 1768), chartered ships to ports throughout the Mediterranean and the Levant and was involved in the ransoming of Christian …