Born in 1917 in Essaouira (Mogador), Morocco, David Corcos, the son of Jacob Corcos and Hanna Abulafia was the scion of a family tracing back its origin to thirteenth-century Spain. His forebears were tujjār al-sulṭān (sultan’s merchants) involved in Morocco’s foreign trade from the eighteenth to the twentieth century and were among the founders of Essaouira.  David Corcos followed in their footsteps, becoming a successful and respected merchant in Agadir from 1938, engaged in import-export in the south of the country, but at the same time keenly interested in the history of Moroccan…