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

made to swear the oath of payment despite the fact that the defendant pleaded guilty to owing the
outstanding debt, even though this went against all apparent rules of Islamic legal procedure. 180
Studies of law in pre-colonial and colonial North Africa noted the extent to which
Muslims generally sought to avoid swearing oaths, 181 an observation that held just as true for
Jews. 182 Lawrence Rosen’s account of the reluctance to take oaths in twentieth-century Morocco
may shed some light on the considerations shaping the decisions of actors in the nineteenth
century. Rosen notes that in addition to the simple fear of divine judgment should one swear
falsely, Moroccans are wary to take oaths because even appearing to swear falsely could reduce a
man’s social capital and “risk his overall attractiveness as a partner” in future commercial
relations. 183 There is evidence in the Assarraf collection that oaths were more often threatened
than actually required. For instance, on January 31, 1880, Zaynab b. Mulūk al-Qamrī sued
Shalom, claiming that she had given him two silver bracelets as security for her husband’s
presence in court. 184 At first Shalom denied that he had the bracelets; Zaynab responded by
threatening to make him take an oath in support of his plea. Three weeks later, Shalom admitted
that he had the bracelets after all and that he was keeping them until he settled with Zaynab’s
husband—and thus avoided having to take an oath. 185
180 File #5, 15 Rajab 1296.
181 See, e.g., Maeterlinck, “Les institutions juridiques au Maroc,” 479; Kellal, “Le serment,” 19-20. Maeterlinck and
Kellal both observe that the oath became a tool for blackmail since individuals were so eager to avoid it.
182 See, for instance, DNA, 2.05.15.15.81, George P. Hunos to John Drummond Hay, 25 July 1877, in which Humos
observed that forcing a certain Jew from Safi to take an oath “is considered prejudicial to his social position, for he
is considered one of the influential elders of the Jewish community of this town.” See also Goitein’s discussion of
Jews’ reluctance to take oaths during the medieval period: Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, v. 2, 340.
183 Rosen, The Anthropology of Justice, 34-5.
184 TC, File #1, 18 Ṣafar 1297. Shalom sued Zaynab’s husband, Aḥmad b. ‘Abd al-Jalīl al-Qamrī al-Bashīmī, on
February 9 of the same year (TC, File #5, 27 Ṣafar 1297) about a loan that he had guaranteed for Zaynab, which she
in turn had guaranteed for her brothers Idrīs and Bū Shitta. However, it is likely that Zaynab had guaranteed
Aḥmad’s presence in court for yet an earlier case (one not preserved in the Assarraf collection), since usually
guarantees for the presence of the defendant in court were made in the midst of a trial. Thus, Zaynab would have
given Shalom the bracelets as security long before the court case of February 9.
185 This was recorded in an entry of 10 Rabī‘ I 1297, under the initial maqāl.
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