IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS - DataSpace - Princeton ...

Other release documents specify that a Jew had held some object of value—usually jewelry—as
security or mortgage for a loan, and that upon payment the Jewish creditor had returned the
mortgaged item. 86 For instance, the mu‘allim Bū Shitta b. al-Mādī borrowed twenty mithqals
from Shalom Assarraf. As surety for this loan, Bū Shitta gave Shalom a bracelet (dumlūj [sic]).
After Bū Shitta had repaid Shalom the twenty mithqals and Shalom had returned the bracelet, Bū
Shitta released Shalom from the obligation to give back the bracelet. 87
These kinds of releases do not give any indication that they were drawn up after a lawsuit
was heard in court. Rather, it seems that in these cases parties involved in business dealings
would take the precaution of drawing up a release to prove that they had fulfilled all their
obligations to one another, thereby preventing future lawsuits. Releases proved crucial when one
party contested the financial obligations in a given relationship. For instance, if a creditor
claimed that his debtor had yet to pay him, the debtor could refute the suit by producing a release
proving that he had no further financial obligations towards the creditor. 88
Yet some releases were clearly drawn up after a case was heard in court and constitute
the notarization of the settlement reached. For instance, a release of March 1, 1909, records a
86
A few documents exist in the Assarraf collection which simply record this type of mortgage arrangement: for
instance, on 28 Rabī‘ I 1293 (TC, File #4), Avraham b. Shalom Marsiano testified that he had received jewelry as
security (‘alā wajhi al-ḥifẓi wa-’l-amāni) from a Muslim.
87
TC, File #7, 10 Jumādā I 1280. For similar releases from goods held as surety, see TC, File #10, 3 Ṣafar 1280;
File #7, 10 Jumādā I 1280; File #3, 18 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1284; File #5, 2 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1284; File #8, 21 Dhū al-Ḥijja
1284; File #6, 7 Muḥarram 1285; File #5, 22 Muḥarram 1285; File #9, 12 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1287 and 22 Dhū al-Ḥijja
1287 (both these documents are releases from Manṣūr b. Aḥmad al-Sharādī al-Dūblālī al-‘Alāwī for Shalom after
Shalom returned Manṣūr’s silver bracelets; it is not clear whether they represent two different loans made ten days
apart, or whether the two separate documents refer to the same transaction); File #2, 14 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1299; File #7,
17 Shawwāl 1305 (this is the only such release in which two titles to real estate were mortgaged instead of jewelry).
For examples of such release documents from other collection, see UL, Or.26.543 (1), 4 Sha‘bān 1288 (for Yeshu‘a
Corcos from Marrakesh).
88
See, for instance, the case of Joseph Suiry vs. Menahem Nahon and Judah Benguigui (in MAE Nantes, Tanger A
159), in which Suiry sued Nahon and Benguigui for money they supposedly owed him. Nahon and Benguigui
produced what they claimed was a release which Suiry had signed confirming that Nahon and Benguigui had
fulfilled all their financial obligations. The qāḍī of Tangier ruled in Nahon and Benguigui’s favor (on the basis of
this release), though Suiry subsequently brought the matter to the French consul. (See Chapter Eight for further
discussion of this case.)
93