Solomon ben Shalom Zarqa, who died in Guelma in 1876, was a noted rabbi, author, and translator of religious texts in Algeria during the nineteenth century. A native of Tunis, he migrated to Algeria and lived at various times in Souk-Ahras, Oran, Constantine, and Guelma. As a member of the first generation of Algerian rabbinical scholars after the French occupation, he had to contend with the changes in the legal status of Algerian Jewry, the many challenges to the traditional way of life, and the overlap between Jewish and French law that all served to undermine…