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

elow). Although the majority of lawsuits in the Assarraf collection are among men only, the
Assarrafs’ commercial relations with Muslim men often involved these men’s female relatives as
well.
80% of the lawsuits concern Jews suing Muslims for unpaid debts—either for debts the
defendants themselves had contracted or for ones they had guaranteed for other Muslims (or
both). 128 The amounts of the unpaid debts varied widely, from four mithqāls (which, in 1908,
could buy approximately thirteen grams of raw wool) to 3,000 riyāls (worth approximately
seventy-six kilos of raw wool), though most were for amounts in the hundreds of riyāls. 129 In
addition to claiming unpaid debts, Shalom sued Muslims for three other kinds of claims: in one,
he sued a Muslim debtor who had said he was bankrupt, but who Shalom later learned had a
servant (waṣīf) and a slave girl (ama) in his possession; 130 in a second, he sued a Muslim who
had sold his nephew what he said were gold earrings but which turned out to be made of copper
(the case with which this chapter began); 131 and in a third, Shalom sued a Muslim who allegedly
had a mule in his possession which belonged to one of Shalom’s debtors (and which Shalom
presumably wanted as payment for the debt). 132
Muslims, on the other hand, sued Shalom and his associates for a wide variety of matters.
On December 7, 1875, a Muslim named al-Taraghī b. al-Ghazwānī al-Faqālī sued Shalom for
128
56 out of 70 concerned unpaid debts. Two of these were lawsuits against the heirs of deceased debtors (TC, File
#5, 14 Muḥarram 1315 and File #3, 21 Rajab 1329).
129
See TC, File #6, 12 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1291 (in which Shalom Assarraf claimed four mithqāls from al-Ḥilālī b. Ḥamm
al-Ḥayānī al-‘Imrānī al-‘Isāwī, who had guaranteed a debt owed by his relative Mas‘ūd b. Aḥmad); File #6, 19 Rabī‘
II 1292 (in which Shalom Assarraf claimed 3,000 riyāls from al-‘Arabī b. Laḥsan al-Dūblālī al-Ya‘qūbī, who had
guaranteed them for al-Mu‘ṭī b. Ḥamm al-Dublālī al-‘Ajīwī and al-Ḥājj ‘Abdallah b. Muḥammad al-Shayẓamī).
The value of these sums in terms of amounts of wool is, I admit, extremely approximate. I base my estimations on
Le Tourneau’s valuation of raw wool before 1912, which he valued at twenty-five riyāls for 632.5 grams: the
mithqāl in 1908 was worth between 8 and 14 riyals. See Le Tourneau, Fès avant le protectorat, 279-80, 84.
130
TC, File #8, 8 Jumādā I 1297.
131
TC, File #4, 10 Jumādā II 1297; in the ensuing settlement, Shalom agreed to return the earrings to the Muslim,
and the Muslim returned Shalom’s money.
132
TC, File #8, 18 Muḥarram 1302. The other lawsuit in which a Jew was a plaintiff was brought by Ḥaim b.
Ya‘aqov Harosh (File #9, 1 Rabī‘ I 1301), discussed below.
103