Haim Zafrani
Encyclopedia
Haim Zafrani was a Moroccan scholar and writer.

Zafrani is particularly noted for having collected and preserved much or the music and oral poetry of the Jews of Morocco. He recorded, and thereby preserved, the melodies of Rabbi David Buzaglo (1903–1975), widely acclaimed as the greatest paytan of his time.

Zafrani, was also a leading scholar on the history of the Jews of Morocco. His best-known book is 2000 Years of Jewish Life in Morocco (translated and published in an English edition).

Zafrani began his career as a teacher and became a school inspector in charge of the teaching of Arabic in the Alliance Israélite Universelle
Alliance Israélite Universelle
The Alliance Israélite Universelle is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 by the French statesman Adolphe Crémieux to safeguard the human rights of Jews around the world...

 schools in Morocco. Later, Zafrani moved to Paris, France, where he was a professor and head of the Department of Hebrew language and Jewish civilization at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

. He was member of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Semitiques of College de France, a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, and a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...

, Israel. He was awarded the Irving and Bertha Neuman Distinguished Scholar Award, (1982–1983), the Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi prize (1985), the Grand Atlas prize (1999), and the Prize of Maghreb (2001).

Haim Zafrani wrote fifteen books and more than a hundred articles covering Jewish culture, languages, and literature in the Muslim countries of North Africa, especially Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, as well as the history of the Jews in Muslim Spain
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...

.
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