The Draa (Ar. Dar‘a; Mor. Ar. Dra‘) is the region around the Draa River in southern Morocco, which rises on the southern slopes of the High Atlas and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It was home to some of the oldest Jewish communities in Morocco. According to some sources, the Jewish communities of the Draa Valley were the only ones in North Africa to exist as autonomous powers before the Arab conquest. Local Jewish chronicles, dating from a much later period, recount that there was a Jewish kingdom of the Draa, and that its capital city was Tamgrut (Tamgrout). These facts have no…