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synagogue and swore an “oath of payment” (yamīn al-qaḍā’). 189 At times Muslims similarly acquiesced in Jews’ demands that they take an oath. 190 Overall, there was little difference in how Jews and Muslims used the oath as a legal tool. The litigious documents in the Assarraf collection show that Jews used the sharī‘a court not only as a notary public, but also as a tribunal. They pursued recalcitrant debtors, sued guarantors for the sums they had guaranteed, and were, in turn, sued for sums they owed others. As non-Muslims in an Islamic system of justice, Jews were in some ways disadvantaged; in Morocco, their religious identity particularly affected their ability to testify as part of a lafīf. However, most aspects their experience in a sharī‘a court were not fundamentally different from that of Muslims. Jews submitted documents signed by ‘udūl as evidence, took oaths, and even solicited muftīs for fatāwā in support of their pleas in the same ways as did Muslims. * * * Sharī‘a courts in nineteenth-century Morocco were institutions which applied Islamic law and were staffed by Muslims, but they were far from exclusively Muslim. On the contrary, Jews were habitual patrons of sharī‘a courts, availing themselves of the services of qāḍīs and ‘udūl on a regular basis. As businessmen, Jews fostered countless commercial relations with Muslims. In the case of the Assarraf family, as for many other Jewish merchants, this mostly meant selling goods on credit. It was in Jews’ interest to ensure that each of these relationships was attested by legally binding documentation—that is, notarized by ‘udūl. Producing this kind of documentation meant that Jews could rely on sharī‘a courts to enforce the contracts they signed, should they need to sue pursue litigation. 189 TC, File #1, 6 Jumādā II 1299 (on the back of a bill of debt dated 1 Rabī‘ II 1295). For an instance in which a Jew agreed to take an oath, see File #1, 6 Shawwāl 1283. 190 See, e.g., File #1, 29 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1291; File #9, 4 Ṣafar 1294 (in which Shalom demanded that a Muslim swear that Shalom had given him a mule: the Muslim swore that this was true, and that the mule had subsequently died). 116
Sharī‘a courts provided a crucial ingredient in the glue of commercial relations which bound Jews and Muslims to one another. The records produced by sharī‘a courts for Jewish businessmen like the Assarrafs preserve a slice of life in Morocco that was at the center of Jewish-Muslim encounters. They also allow us a unique view of how Jews used sharī‘a courts— a dimension of Jewish experience in the Islamic world which has hitherto received too little attention. 117
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IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS: JEWS,
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Abstract This dissertation examines
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Table of Contents Abstract………
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throughout the process was vital to
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and Arielle Rubenstein, Stephanie S
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Introduction This dissertation exam
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on the internal history of the Jewi
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cases they made up close to half of
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study of law in the Islamic world w
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of these institutions remain opaque
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and, for some individuals, appealin
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actors with agency and to understan
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many of those who espouse the neo-l
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In recent years, the neo-lachrymose
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alternative framework to that of au
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including courts—which were of pr
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Recently scholars working on the me
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We are left with two models of Jewi
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Legal pluralism is an approach to u
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orders. I also turn the focus from
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Nonetheless, the tendency of forum
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Legal pluralism does not explain wh
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Jewish communities were no less var
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is perhaps best attested by the fac
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To help remind readers that the thr
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abusive Makhzan officials, infringe
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Chapter One: Between Batei Din and
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went to batei din and sharī‘a co
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school relevant for our purposes is
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Jewish and Islamic legal systems re
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ehind, a large number were undoubte
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atei din generally, it does reflect
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Jews used batei din not only as not
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Jerusalem. 33 The collection consis
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(azraqu al-‘aynayn)—a trait for
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undoubtedly made much of their mone
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preventing members of the community
Page 75 and 76: ‘udūl. 76 These ‘udūl, whose
Page 77 and 78: Eliyahu b. Ya'aqov Zohra bat Ya‘a
Page 79 and 80: and Muḥammad would return the mon
Page 81 and 82: Table 2.1 Types of Entries 2% 2% 2%
Page 83 and 84: allegation or deposition in a case
Page 85 and 86: court approximately once a week, ei
Page 87 and 88: The introduction of the “protecti
Page 89 and 90: ule; the ‘udūl almost always too
Page 91 and 92: documents would stand up as evidenc
Page 93 and 94: Empire. 49 A document in the Assarr
Page 95 and 96: legal procedure was relatively mino
Page 97 and 98: een optional as not all bills of de
Page 99 and 100: Qa‘da 1309 (June 12, 1892), two
Page 101 and 102: mostly meant extending credit on go
Page 103 and 104: Other release documents specify tha
Page 105 and 106: al-faqīh Aḥmad al-Filālī al-Ma
Page 107 and 108: Lease contracts, on the other hand,
Page 109 and 110: which was operated by Muslims durin
Page 111 and 112: Shalom’s knowledge of Islamic law
Page 113 and 114: elow). Although the majority of law
Page 115 and 116: weeks after the plaintiff filed the
Page 117 and 118: gathered twelve men who testified t
Page 119 and 120: whether the qāḍī accepted al-
Page 121 and 122: in the Assarraf collection indicate
Page 123 and 124: (ittifāqīyan) and were testifying
Page 125: In another instance of oath avoidan
Page 129 and 130: agreement notarized according to Is
Page 131 and 132: ability and desire to move among di
Page 133 and 134: ‘udūl. 14 Most real estate trans
Page 135 and 136: equire or benefit from adjudication
Page 137 and 138: Simultaneous Use of Jewish and Isla
Page 139 and 140: evidence from the nineteenth centur
Page 141 and 142: to sue other Jews in sharī‘a cou
Page 143 and 144: But what about intra-Jewish lawsuit
Page 145 and 146: ut for the most part this is a here
Page 147 and 148: the sum of three duoros per month.
Page 149 and 150: only in Jewish law. This happened i
Page 151 and 152: in the millāḥ of Marrakesh on Ap
Page 153 and 154: aware of Jewish law and sometimes t
Page 155 and 156: of a rabbi to determine the proper
Page 157 and 158: ‘Aṭṭār, in order to find out
Page 159 and 160: Muslims’ jurisdictional boundary
Page 161 and 162: that they had successfully done so.
Page 163 and 164: the Moroccan legal system more broa
Page 165 and 166: translated as the territories under
Page 167 and 168: elatively scant work on the legal h
Page 169 and 170: law, even if they did not consisten
Page 171 and 172: abrupt end after his death, as the
Page 173 and 174: put it, “in all medieval Muslim s
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an injustice or an act of oppressio
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In designing its new army, the Makh
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The Ministry itself, although in co
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Minister of Complaints, a man about
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It is not entirely clear whether th
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initial letters. 102 The convention
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whether the sultan simply failed to
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Chapter Five: Appeals to the Minist
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Jews and the Ministry of Complaints
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The nature of these sources prevent
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Causes for Complaint Most of the ap
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products (such as barley). 23 This,
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appears numerous times). 29 While t
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matter what their religious backgro
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when amounts are specified they ten
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cases which were ultimately settled
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Jews who had been robbed. 62 The su
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from July 28, 1892, a group of Jews
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nature of sharī‘a courts. 83 In
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legal proof of his claim. 91 It is
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the Jewish victims were compensated
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central government could only do so
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and Muslim was responsible for arra
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sometimes the Makhzan officials’
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A more formidable obstacle to settl
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The Jewish creditor, however, reque
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The practice of exaggerating the va
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official accused a Jew of falsifyin
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esolve disputes with their Jewish d
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property. 178 In this case, the Mak
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Chapter Six: Collective Appeals to
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frequency of Jews’ petitions acro
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The concentration of petitions duri
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“right”—as in, the rights to
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merchants serve as judges on a rota
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Makhzan officials at times evoked t
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The evidence of Jews’ appeals to
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governor). 46 The next winter the J
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along with a legal document contain
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Following this escalation of violen
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The governor of Debdou similarly pr
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custom and the sultan’s command.
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minister of foreign affairs, receiv
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Yet murder cases were not the only
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Moroccan legal system. On the one h
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In 1884 the Jews of Fez appealed to
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Although at first these appeals mig
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The Jews of Meknes appealed to the
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In other instances, Makhzan officia
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about their own coreligionists. The
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Europeans—a sentiment that at oth
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complain about their muḥtasib, em
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Chapter Seven: Foreign Protection a
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Perhaps most important, however, is
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of consular courts functioned throu
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of Muslims from becoming protégés
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cases between its own nationals or
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of consular courts by specifying th
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an important moment in the history
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were required to notify their consu
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dealt with cases by means other tha
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In other instances, consuls wrote t
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qāḍī” attesting a debt owed t
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The following two chapters examine
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clarify when and why he had taken t
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Even scholars who argue against see
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ecognize their contract since “th
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of the individuals concerned. 31 Pr
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concerning the incident, which they
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speculated that the reluctance of t
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protection) of Yitzḥaq b. Nissim
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cooperate with foreigners’ reques
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Dinar Ohana), an American protégé
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Jews tried to ensure a fortuitous o
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ordered Assayag to stop paying Zagu
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efused. 100 Faced with this dead en
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claimed that Emsellem had no right
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number of foreign subjects and prot
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By subjecting the suit to Moroccan
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sued Mas‘ūd al-Shayẓamī (Meso
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Foreign subjects and protégés wer
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confirmed that this meant the Jews
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AIU’s attention either through pe
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A competing narrative of Moroccan J
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non-Jewish Westerners alike, I argu
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international press. Demnat might s
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attribute the Makhzan’s efforts t
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The events in Demnat were not the o
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finally wrote to Muḥammad Bargās
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wearing Muslim clothing and told hi
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of 1863. Four Jews were accused of
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made an honest mistake, the effect
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etracted his initial testimony clai
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the remaining two subjects. Only af
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organizations, and the foreign pres
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Marseillais, The Times, The Pall Ma
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coreligionists’ position. 112 Avn
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had been following the standard pra
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did not declare that Jews and Musli
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under the jurisdiction of Makhzan o
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tolerance. 142 Such a policy would
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concede to the American ambassador
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Epilogue On March 30, 1912, France
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courts to matters of personal statu
Page 385 and 386:
This sort of continuity in legal pr
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intra-Jewish cases to these courts
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Glossary of Arabic and Hebrew Terms
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Ẓahīr: Royal decree (spelled “
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United States: United States Nation
Page 395 and 396:
———. Kitāb al-istiqṣā li-
Page 397 and 398:
Becker, Jerónimo. España y Marrue
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Chetrit, Joseph. Diglossie, hybrida
Page 401 and 402:
Ennaji, Mohammed. Expansion europé
Page 403 and 404:
Gotzmann, Andreas. “At Home in Ma
Page 405 and 406:
———. Les protégés : contrib
Page 407 and 408:
Marcus, Abraham. The Middle East on
Page 409 and 410:
Perron, M. Précis de jurisprudence
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———. “Forum Shopping Among
Page 413:
Cultural Dimensions, edited by Mich
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