March 2016

Whilst living in Cairo I always assumed that my surname was

only used by Jews in Egypt and in Tetouan (in the old Spanish
Morocco) where my paternal grandparents came from; our name
could not be found anywhere else.
Since then I have realised that this assumption is erroneous. At
the origin it was possibly only used by Jews but obviously the
spread of the Islamic faith in North Africa and the coercive power
of the Inquisition in Spain changed this situation. I now
frequently receive e-mails in Arabic; this is probably because the
first syllable of my name is not only a Hebrew word, meaning
son, but also its Arabic equivalent. It now appears that many,
perhaps the majority of the Bentata are Islamic or Christians.
With the help of the internet it becomes simple to refute my
early believes. I have trawled the internet and assembled a
number of notes showing the geographical spread of people with
the Bentata name.

P.S. the name Tetouan can be spelt differently

.

BENTATA : name used by Jews from Morocco and Algeria : it means the son of Tata, a
name that appears to be from a place name: a Berber village in southern Morocco
called Tata (Agadir region); tata can also mean in Berber: black slave.

Tata, Morocco

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

Tata (in Berber : aa) is a town in

south-western Morocco with a population
of 15,192 according to the country's 2004
census. It is the largest town in Tata
Province.[1] It is situated on a desert plain
of the Sahara Desert, southeast of Agadir
and Taroudannt, close to
the Algerian border and the mountain
range Anti-Atlas at the foot of Jebel Bani.
Tourists use the town as a base for
excursions in the area. Tata lies on the
N12 highway between to the north-east of
the regional capital Guelmim and to the
south of the neighbouring region of DraTafilalet. It is also near to Algeria, although
due to the remoteness of the area there is
no border crossing.

Djebel Bentata = Bentata Mountain

2

Dar Bentata = Bentata Gate

Written on the road panel in Arabic as Bentatah, whilst we wrote it in Arabic script
without the final h

Tetouan
It is interesting to note that although Tetouan is in Morocco, Dar Bentata is in
Algeria.

Street plaque in Tetuan, possibly at the residence of Abraham Bentata He was our
direct ancestor, born in 1821 and died in 1892, and was the president of the Jewish
community for much of the second half of the 19th century. His grandchildren,
Issakhar, Jacob and Simy (by his son Moshe) migrated to Egypt in the late 19th
century.

Soldiers who died during World War l & ll

with the Bentata name in the French army
The vast majority of the first names suggest they are Muslims.
Rsultat de la recherche (Base des Morts pour la France de la Premire Guerre mondiale)
Nom

Prnom(s)

Date de naissance Dpartement/Pays de naissance

BENTATA
BENTATA

Abdallah
Abraham

15-05-1898
26-03-1868

Algrie
Algrie

BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA AHMED
BENTATA OULD ALI

Adda Ould Kaddour

Ahmed ould Abdelkader
Ahmed Ould Boubekeur
Amram
David
Maurice
Maurice Messaoud
Miloud Ould Abdelkader
Miloud Ould Mostefa
Mohamed ould Miloud
Mostefa
Mostefa Ould Ahmed Bentata
Tayeb ould Mustefa ould Bentata
Tayeb ould Mustefa ould Bentata
Ould Abdelkader

1876
1897
1886
12-04-1885
19-10-1896
17-12-1897
04-03-1894
1893
1890
1881
1897
1880
1881
1881
1897
1874

Algrie (dpartement d'Oran)

Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie
Algrie (dpartement d'Oran)
Algrie

Rsultat de la recherche (Base des militaires dcds pendant la Seconde Guerre

mondiale) Tous
Nom

Prnom(s)

Date de naissance Dpartement/Pays de naissance

BENTATA
BENTATA
BENTATA TAYEB

Djilali
Jacques Maurice Eugne Albert

1913
15-07-1910
1917

Algrie (dpartement d'Oran)

36 - Indre
Algrie (dpartement d'Oran)

A check of the White pages telephone directory in France reveals that in the Ile de France region
(including Paris) 45 numbers are for people with the Bentata name (including two Claude).
The Muslim first name in very frequent outside of Paris.

Internet References
The following are but a selection

My fist cousin who changed his name to Bar Av

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Interesting to note that migrating from Tetuan many are doing so as Catholics

17

18

19

20