The Busnach family was one of the three major families of shipowners and merchants in Algeria between 1730 and the French conquest in 1830 (the other two were the Bushʿaras and the Bacris). The Busnachs (the family name is also spelled Bouchnach, Bouznach, Bosnach, Busnak, and Bujanah; from Maghr. Ar. bū janāḥ, father or possessor of a wing) originated in Oran but moved to Livorno in the seventeenth century in search of business opportunities. They returned in the eighteenth century when their ventures in Italy failed. Abraham Busnach settled in Algiers in 1724 and began exporting go…