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

Muslim that in your law one does not buy a ḥazaqah, and thus the ḥazaqah is still in the
hands of [the] Jew, and he has usufruct rights, [such that] it is found, God forbid, that
Jewish courts deceive Muslims by writing them false bills of sale that do not have any
legal value…. God forbid that Jewish judges should elicit such words from their mouths.
Rather, on the contrary, we are obligated to uphold the claim of the Muslim [literally,
strengthen his hand] who bought [the ḥazaqah] and to uphold his transaction in order to
strengthen the great religion [Judaism] and exalt it, such that all the nations will know
that “the Remnant of Israel do not commit any wrong,” 75 and this is not out of [fear of]
the Muslims’ violence but rather so that, God forbid, the Holy Name will not be
defamed. 76
In other words, Qoriat ruled that batei din must recognize sales of ḥazaqot to Muslims even
though such sales were illegitimate according to Jewish law. This was in order to prevent the
bad image of Jewish courts which would result from having Muslims think that they wrote “false
bills of sale.” Althgouh Qoriat claims that his ruling has nothing to do with fear of “the
Muslims’ violence,” I suspect that this actually did factor into his decision. Jews in Morocco
were in a weak position relative to their Muslim rulers, and risked retaliation or worse if they
were perceived to be deceiving Muslims. Although it is not clear to what extent Qoriat’s view of
the situation was shared by other Moroccan jurists, this teshuvah demonstrates how Jewish legal
authorities faced the realities of being a minority and administering batei din in the context of an
Islamic society. 77
Indeed, we find legal documents showing that Muslims did successfully buy ḥazaqot
from Jews. Abū Bakr al-Ghanjāwī, whom we encountered earlier buying real estate in a Jewish
court, also invested in ḥazaqot on properties in the millāḥ of Fez. 78 We also find the same
Muḥammad b. Ḥamū we encountered earlier buying the ḥazaqot on three upper rooms (‘aliyot)
75
She’erit Yisrael lo ya‘asu ‘avlah (Zephaniah 3:13).
76
Qoriaṭ, Zekhut Avot, 48a.
77
More research on the teshuvot literature from nineteenth-century Morocco, while beyond the scope of this
dissertation, might help determine how other rabbinic authorities viewed this question.
78
DAR, Yahūd, no date. (This document, in Hebrew and signed by sofrim, attests to the fact that David al-Falatz
sold a ḥazaqah on a courtyard to al-Ghanjāwī; the portion preserved in the DAR is clearly part of a longer document,
as the date given is “the above date,” but unfortunately the first part of the document is not preserved.)
140