The Kings of Algiers: How Two Jewish Families Shaped the Mediterranean World during the Napoleonic Wars and Beyond

by Julie Kalman

A richly detailed history of the Bacris and the Busnachs, two renowned Jewish families whose influence and reputation shook the capitals of Europe and America

At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the Bacri brothers and their nephew, Naphtali Busnach, were perhaps the most notorious Jews in the Mediterranean. Based in the strategic port of Algiers, their interconnected families traded in raw goods and luxury items, brokered diplomatic relations with the Ottomans, and lent vital capital to warring nations. For the French, British, and Americans, who competed fiercely for access to trade and influence in the region, there was no getting around the Bacris and the Busnachs. The Kings of Algiers traces the rise and fall of these two trading families over four tumultuous decades in the nineteenth century.

In this panoramic book, Julie Kalman restores their story―and Jewish history more broadly―to the histories of trade, corsairing, and high-stakes diplomacy in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath. Jacob Bacri dined with Napoleon himself. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Horatio Nelson considered strategies to circumvent the Bacris’ influence. As the families’ ambitions grew, so did the perils, from imprisonment and assassination to fraud and family collapse.

The Kings of Algiers brings vividly to life an age of competitive imperialism and nascent nationalism and demonstrates how people and events on the periphery shaped perceptions and decisions in the distant metropoles of the world’s great nations.

Genres: History, Africa, Judaism

280 pages, Hardcover

Published November 14, 2023

Reviews

[Ulysse Colonna · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a difficult subject mixing diplomacy, commerce, local politics and more vaporous topics such as the perception of Jews in Revolutionary Europe. Unfortunately the author does not prove equal to the task. Most egregious is the total absence of anything resembling commercial history which is a problem considering the book is meant to be about a successful family of traders and bankers. Crucially a slightly broader point of view could have replaced the Bacris in the (very) complex and fast moving environment of the Maghribi Jews in the Age of Empires.

Numerous mistakes can be spotted along the way: no Algiers’ wheat did not constitute fourth fifth of Marseilles’ grain imports, no the “Moors” are not the recent Spanish exiles (the Moriscos) but the Kabyle “tribesmen” from the countryside, etc. Worse, the author often suddenly utters unsupported conclusions and the reader is left wondering whether he hasn’t missed a chapter or two.

However, the most problematic aspect of the book is the almost automatic association of Western practices (singularly the English ones) with modernity while the Maghribi (Jews and Muslims alike) are just unable to understand the modern world and to adapt to its ruthless impersonal efficiency.

And it’s a mess from a literary perspective. Not even pleasant to read. Which overall is a shame as the subject was well chosen and clear efforts have been expanded to offer a Europe-wide perspective with the point of view of Spain, Danemark and the Netherlands being presented.

[Ken Nilsestuen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a student of this period of Algerian history. Dr. Kalman has written an excellent book that weaves the story of the Bacri / Busnach family into the events of the regency and relations with other countries. Her style is readable and informative, although I might have inserted more paragraph breaks (U.S. v. Australian writing styles?). I am happy to add her book to my library.

[John Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounding up from a 2.5. No thick description. No real information.