The Jews of the Petite Côte were protected from representatives of the Inquisition by the local Wolof and Sereer elite who were, in large part, Muslims. The historical context of Jewish-Muslim relations in the century following the expulsion or forced conversion of Iberian Jews sheds light on the relations that developed between the Jews of Senegal's Petite Côte, and the neighboring Muslim rulers. The long passage written around 1608 by Sebastião Fernandes Cação, cited in Chapter 1, clearly indicates that the Jews of Porto d'Ale enjoyed a measure of protection against Portuguese Christians.

The Senegalese ruler who took the side of the Jews was the Teigne, or Teeñ, the Wolof leader of the state known as Baol. He was a Muslim. It was clearly in his economic self-interest to welcome the newly established Jewish merchants. With their ties to Holland, these men provided competition for the Portuguese and Luso-African merchants based in the Cape Verde Islands and at Cacheu, located in northern present-day Guinea-Bissau about 200 kilometers south of the Petite Côte, and also for the English and the French who, sometimes with the help of the lançados and Luso-Africans, traded in the king's land. Nevertheless, one wonders whether something more was at issue. Was this ruler consciously following Muslim law, by extending protected or dhimmi status to the Jews who had settled on or adjacent to his territory?