Mostaganem (Ar. Mustaghānim) is the capital of the Algerian province of the same name. The town was founded in the Roman period and was settled by Catalan Jewish traders in the fourteenth century. The Jewish population increased with the arrival of Spanish Jews fleeing the waves of anti-Jewish violence that swept Iberia and the Balearics in 1391 and again after the expulsion in 1492. The exiles were headed by Rabbi Makhlūf ben Ḥanīn and Saʿadya Medioni ha-Dayyan. Spain conquered the city in 1510, but was unable to maintain control for long. In 1792, with …