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

Zarārī had). In the case of debtors who passed away, Ya‘aqov was probably unable to confirm
whether his debtors were alive without the Makhzan’s help; once he knew they had died, he
could pursue their heirs for the outstanding debts. In a rather extreme case, the Makhzan official
reported that one of Ya‘aqov’s debtors, one Shaykh al-Ḥilāqī Ibn al-Balāḥ, not only refused to
pay, but was harboring other recalcitrant debtors and had driven away the Makhzan’s soldiers
who were sent to collect payment. 8 The Makhzan official requested permission to attack the
shaykh and to confiscate his goods, presumably in the hopes of recovering the money owed to
Ya‘aqov. 9 It is hard to imagine that Ya‘aqov would have been able to convince this shaykh to
pay him without the Makhzan’s intervention; while Ya‘aqov may have been a successful
businessman and well-versed in the workings of the sharī‘a court, he did not have soldiers and
the use of force at his beck and call. 10
Ya‘aqov Assarraf’s appeals to the Makhzan and Makhzan officials’ resulting efforts to
help him collect his unpaid debts demonstrate an important way in which Moroccan Jews—and
Moroccans more generally—engaged the central government in their attempts to resolve legal
disputes. This section looks at the Makhzan as a legal actor, especially in its role in responding
to petitions by Jews regarding their unresolved legal affairs. Historians have yet to address the
ways in which Moroccan Jews petitioned the government for redress when they felt that their
rights had been violated. 11 Yet before delving into the nature of these petitions and the
Makhzan’s response, the present chapter explains the role of the Makhzan in the functioning of
8
BH, K 181, p. 351, 18 Sha‘bān 1310: yarṣulu ba‘ḍa al-ghuramā’i wa-yunazziluhum ma‘ahu wa-ṭarada almakhāzanīya
al-ladhīna wajjahahum ilayhi.
9
Ṭāliban al-idhna bi-’l-ḥarakati lahu wa-’l-akli li-mutā‘ihi [sic].
10
For the remaining correspondence about Ya‘aqov’s complaints, see BH, K 181, p. 108, 5 Rajab 1309; p. 133, 16
Sha‘bān 1309; p. 150, 9 Ramaḍān 1309; p. 200, 15 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1309; p. 304, 9 Jumādā I 1310; loose sheet, 10
Jumādā I 1310; and p. 352, 23 Sha‘bān 1310.
11
Although Bensoussan does not discuss Jews’ petitions to the government in Morocco in particular, he does briefly
address Jews’ petitions elsewhere in the nineteenth-century Arab world. However, he dismisses Jews’ appeals as
falling on deaf ears (Bensoussan, Juifs en pays arabes, 35).
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