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

aware of Jewish law and sometimes took it into account in their decisions. There is even
evidence to suggest that Makhzan courts—though not necessarily sharī‘a courts—at times
disregarded the invalidity of Jewish legal documents and in fact accepted them as evidence.
Similar observations have been made concerning sharī‘a courts in the Ottoman Empire, though
more research remains to be done on this question. 85 Certainly, the extent to which Islamic legal
institutions knew about and even recognized Jewish law as valid is vital to understanding the
intersecting and overlapping nature of Jewish and Islamic law in Morocco.
It is not surprising that some qāḍīs were aware of the existence of a parallel Jewish legal
system and even referred to it in their judgments concerning Jews. Yet the extent of this
awareness and how it affected the application of Islamic law in Morocco remains unclear. One
case, from the spring of 1856, demonstrates that Muslim legal authorities knew about the
existence of ḥazaqot in Jewish law. 86 The resulting legal document—notarized by ‘udūl—
records a sale of part of a house in Tetuan by a Jew, Shū‘a (Yeshu‘a) b. Yūdhā (Yehudah) Lībī
(Levi) to a Muslim, Aḥmad b. Aḥmad al-Razīnī. 87 The sale included the following clause:
The seller, the aforementioned Yeshu‘a, excepted the buyer from the ḥazāqah practiced
by the dhimmīs, such that the aforementioned sale does not include it [the ḥazaqah] for
him who was mentioned [ie the buyer], and does not apply to him; rather, it remains his
[the seller’s] property, which he rightfully owns, part of his property, according to the
custom (‘urf) of the dhimmīs, as a complete exception. 88
In other words, although Yeshu‘a sold Aḥmad part of a house in Tetuan, he did not sell him the
ḥazaqah on the house. One would not expect ownership of the ḥazaqah to be mentioned in an
85
Cohen, Jewish Life under Islam, 124. Cohen notes that most of the Jewish documents accepted as evidence in
sharī‘a courts were marriage contracts, but that at times bills of debt and other commercial contracts were also
accepted.
86
PD, 2 Rajab 1272.
87
On the al-Razīnī family, see Ḥajjī, Ma‘lamāt al-Maghrib, v. 13, 4326-8. On Aḥmad al-Razīnī, see ibid., 4328.
88
Wa-istathnā al-bā‘i Shū‘a [sic] al-madhkūru min mabī‘ihi al-madhkūri al-ḥazāqa al-ma‘rūfata ‘inda ahli aldhimmati
bi-ḥaythu lā yashmaluhā al-bay‘u al-madhkūru li-man dhukira wa-lā yansaḥibu ‘alayhā bal lā zālat [sic]
fī mulkihi mālan min mālihi wa-mulkan ṣaḥīḥan khāliṭan min jumlati amlākihi ‘alā ‘urfi ahli al-dhimmati istithnā’an
tāmman.
143