Samuel Pallache

Samuel Pallache
"Man in Oriental Costume" by Rembrandt ca. 1633-1634, thought to be Samuel Pallache
Born	circa 1550 Fez, Morocco
Died	February 4, 1616 The Hague, Netherlands
Burial place	Beth Haim of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel
Other names	alternative spellings of surname: Palache, Palacio, Palatio, Palachio, Palazzo
Years active	1580s - 1616 (death)
Known for	Moroccan-Dutch trade agreement (1608)
Notable work	first Portuguese minyan Amsterdam
Criminal charge	Piracy
Criminal penalty	Case dismissed
Spouse(s)	Reina (Hebrew Malca)
Children	Isaac (and Jacob/Carlos)
Parent(s)	Isaac Pallache, rabbi
Relatives	Joseph Pallache (brother) and nephews Isaac, Joshua, David, Moses, Abraham
Family	Pallache family

Samuel Pallache (Hebrew: 'שמואל פאלאץ, Shmuel Palach) (c. 1550 – February 4, 1616), was a Jewish-Moroccan-born merchant, diplomat and pirate of the Pallache family, who, as envoy, concluded a treaty with the Dutch Republic in 1608. He is likely an ancestor of Haim Palachi of 19th-Century Izmir.

Pallache was born in Fez, Morocco. His father, Isaac Pallache, was a rabbi there, first mentioned in takkanot (Jewish community statutes) in 1588. His brother was Joseph Pallache. His uncle was Fez's grand rabbi, Judah Uziel; his 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 Reconquista), 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 nel 1588" (translation: "The Pallache family also emigrated to the Netherlands, perhaps from Portugal or Spain, or, according to another hypothesis, they emigrated [directly] from their native Spain to Fez, where one Isaac Pallache was rabbi in 1588.")

(The surname is spelled "Palache" on his death certificate. He signed his name also as "Palacio" and "Palatio"; other Dutch records show "Palatio," "Palachio," and "Palazzo." As the family spread out of the Iberian peninsula, so did the spellings, which include: de Palatio, al-Palas, Pallas, Palaggi, Balyash, as well as Palacci, Palaty, Palatie, and Paliache There are also Tunisian Jews with the surnames "Palatgi" and "Paligi." Palacci is listed as a Spanish Sephardic name: Pallache is listed as a Portuguese Sephardic name.)