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

settlement among Ya‘aqov Assarraf, his business associate Eliyahu b. ‘Azūz Kohen, and the
Muslim Idrīs b. Ya‘īsh al-Najjārī. 89 Ya‘aqov and Eliyahu claimed that Idrīs owed them 6,945
riyāls—a large sum—for debts which Idrīs had guaranteed to the two Jews. 90 Idrīs’s sons came
to court and demanded that “the dhimmīs take an oath (yamīn al-qaḍā’ wa-ṣiḥḥat al-mu‘āmalāt)
concerning the signature of their father that they [the two dhimmīs] presented.” Instead, two
Jewish mediators (man aṣlaḥa baynahum), al-ḥazān Wīdāl b. al-ḥazān Abnīr al-Sal‘ātī al-Fāsī,
and the merchant Zūbīl b. Ya‘aqov b. Samḥūn al-Fāsī, arrived in court. With the mediators’
help, Ya‘aqov and Eliyahu agreed to a reduced payment of 4,000 riyals and “forgave” (yusāmiḥ)
the remaining 2,945 riyals. The resulting release attested that the two Jews received the 4,000
riyals settled upon and that they had no further claims on their debtor. 91 It is significant that the
mediators among Jewish and Muslim disputants were both Jewish; given Jews’ lower social
status, one might expect Muslims to be called upon to mediate. Perhaps these two Jews had
relationships with the Muslim debtors. In any case, this particular release was clearly arrived at
only after some disagreement, an appearance in court, and engaging outside parties to help
resolve the dispute.
In a few instances, releases specified that the Jewish creditor not only released his debtor
from any further claims, but also authorized the debtor’s physical release from prison. For
instance, in a document from February 5, 1885, Shalom Assarraf released al-Ḥājj Muḥammad b.
89
TC, File #6, 8 Ṣafar 1327.
90
In fact, Idrīs had guaranteed a total of 8,000 riyals but had already paid 1,055 riyals in four separate payments.
91
For another case in which a release was made after appearances in court, see the release from 30 Muḥarram 1309
(TC, File #3), in which two dhimmīs, Mas‘ūd b. Shlomoh Shīnīgū and Ḥaim b. Ya‘aqov b. Harosh released al-Mu‘ṭī
b. al-Bashīr al-Jāmi‘ī al-Ma‘īshī, the brother of the late Idrīs b. al-Bashīr al-Jāmi‘ī al-Ma‘īshī. Mas‘ūd and Ḥaim
sued al-Mu‘ṭī in court (majālis al-aḥkām) claiming that he had taken bills of debt which were owed to his late
brother Idrīs; the two Jews wanted al-Mu‘ṭī to return the documents to Idrīs’s heirs so that they could be paid
(presumably for debts which Idrīs had owed to them at the time of his death). The release document specifies that
the two Jews and al-Mu‘ṭī settled for approximately half of the amount the creditors originally demanded (111 riyals
out of 218). See also the releases from TC, File #5, 16 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1292 and 27 Sha‘bān 1309 (both of these are
written on the same physical document as the lawsuits which they resolved); File #5, 9 Shawwāl 1332.
94