In the Maghreb, the Encaoua occupied a leading position in the rabbinic hierarchy for several centuries.
Several members of the family were chief rabbis or dayanim in Tlemcen, Oran, Fès, Rabat and Salé. Rav Mardochée Encaoua (17th century) represents an important link in the chain of transmission. The line of Encaoua dayanim in Salé, documented in Chapter 15, illustrates the exceptional continuity of this judicial tradition over more than two centuries.
The Encaoua radiated from several major urban centers of the Maghreb. In Tlemcen, the cradle of the line since the arrival of the Rab Éphraïm in 1391, the family supplied rabbis and dayanim without interruption for five centuries. In Salé, the judicial dynasty of the Encaoua (from Moshé Ankawa in 1758 to Raphaël Encaoua in 1935) constitutes an exceptional case of family continuity in the exercise of the rabbinate. In Oran, the Encaoua played a central role in the Jewish community, particularly under French colonization. In Fès, branches of the family contributed to the kabbalistic flowering of the 16th and 17th centuries.
One of the markers of the Encaoua's rabbinic prestige is the abundance of their halakhic correspondence. The Encaoua dayanim exchanged responsa with the greatest decisors of their time: the Rashbash of Algiers, the Rivash, and later the rabbis of Livorno, Tunis and Jerusalem. This correspondence, partially published in the 19th century by the publisher Benamozegh of Livorno, constitutes a precious source for understanding the legal and social life of the Jewish communities of the Maghreb.
The MMJMM project compiles the biographies and lineages of the great Maghrebi rabbinic figures, making it possible to situate the Encaoua within the broader network of Sephardic religious authority.