Joseph Pallache , was a Jewish-Moroccan-born merchant and diplomat of the Pallache family, who, as envoy, helps his brother conclude a treaty with the Dutch Republic in 1608.
Background
Pallache was born in Fez, Morocco. His father, Isaac Pallache, was a rabbi there, first mentioned in takkanot in 1588. His brother was Samuel Pallache. His uncle was Fez's grand rabbi, Judah Uziel, whose son Isaac Uziel was a rabbi of the Neve Shalom community in Amsterdam. His family originated from Islamic Spain, where his father had served as rabbi in Córdoba. According to Professor Mercedes García-Arenal, "The Pallaches were a Sephardi family perhaps descended from the Bene Palyāj mentioned by the twelfth-century chronicler Abraham Ibn Da’ud as 'the greatest of the families of Cordoba'." Sometime in the first half of the 16th Century, following the Christian conquest of Islamic Spain, the family fled to Morocco, where Jews, like Christians, were tolerated as long as they accepted Islam as the official religion. How they arrived is unclear. One Italian historian states, "Verso i Paesi Bassi emigra anche la famiglia Pallache, forse dal Portogallo o dalla Spagna, oppure, secundo un'altra ipotesti, dalla nativa Spagna emigra a Fez, dove un Isaac Pallache è rabbino new 1588" (The surname is spelled "Palache" on his death certificate.
Career
After a delegation from the Dutch Republic visited Morocco to discuss a common alliance against Spain and the Barbary pirates, sultan Zidan Abu Maali in 1608 appointed the merchant brothers Samuel and Joseph Pallache to be his envoys to the Dutch government in The Hague. Officially, they served as his "agents", not ambassador. The Pallaches received the support of stadholderMaurice of Nassau and the States-General in The Hague and negotiated an alliance of mutual assistance against Spain. On December 24, 1610, the two nations signed the Treaty of Friendship and Free Commerce, an agreement recognizing free commerce between the Netherlands and Morocco and allowing the sultan to purchase ships, arms and munitions from the Dutch. This was one of the first official treaties between a European country and a non-Christian nation, after the 16th-Century treaties of the Franco-Ottoman alliance. After his brother Samuel's death in 1616, Joseph inherited his brother Samuel's position as lead agent for Morocco in the Netherlands. When he traveled to Morocco, his son David Palache served as his deputy. During one of his trips to Morocco, he and his sone Moses tried to build a new port near Cape Cantin; the effort failed.
Death
Pallache's date of death varies widely in reports. His burial record shows a 10-year discrepancy of "1639 or 1649." He is buried next to his brother Samuel in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel near Amsterdam. The record for his grave spells his name as "Palache."
Both Les noms des juifs du Maroc and A Man of Three Worlds describe several generations of Pallache family members, which forms the basis of the family descent shown below. He had five sons: Isaac, Joshua, David, Moses, and Abraham, among whom Moses were more influential person after Samuel's death and than their own father Joseph.
Portuguese-Spanish Sephardic intermarriage
Although the authors of A Man of Three Worlds clearly state that neither Samuel and Joseph's generation nor their children's married into the Portuguese Sephardic community of Amsterdam, documents in Amsterdam show otherwise. There exist two 1643 marriage certificates for David Pallache and Judith Lindo of Antwerp, daughter of Ester Lindo plus the death details for David. Three years later, in 1646, Samuel Pallache, nephew of David, then marries Abigail, sister of Judith Lindo.
