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

There are other ways in which the observations of Europeans have colored our
understanding of the Makhzan’s role in the judicial system to this day. Many foreigners
denounced the Makhzan courts as arbitrary, corrupt, and devoid of any semblance of true justice.
Péretié described the nature of Makhzan tribunals thus: “The justice of the governor is very
simple. If someone is accused, he is seized without worrying about whether he is guilty or not,
because one must always pay a certain sum to get out of prison.” He concluded that “cupidity,
injustice, exactions, and theft are the basis of this organization.” 28 Budgett Meakin concurred
with Péretié’s observations, and noted that Jews especially suffered from the injustice of their
governors. Meakin began his chapter, ironically entitled “Justice for the Jew,” with a witty quip:
“The kaïd sat in his seat of office, or one might rather say reclined, for Moorish officials have a
habit of lying in two ways at once when they are supposed to be doing justice.” 29 Péretié
explained that the Makhzan courts were “arbitrary by nature, since they did not follow the
Quranic law.” 30
Although these observations were clearly informed by considerable prejudice against
Muslims and Islam itself, one cannot ignore entirely the repeated accusations of arbitrariness
leveled at Makhzan courts. Unlike qāḍīs, who theoretically at least ruled according to the
elaborate rules of Islamic law, Makhzan officials dispensed a more informal kind of justice. 31
Nonetheless, there were instances in which Makhzan officials invoked the standards of Islamic
28
Péretié, “L’organisation judiciaire au Maroc,” 525.
29
Budgett Meakin, Life in Morocco, and Glimpses Beyond (London: Chatto and Windus, 1905), 252. On the
injustice of qā’ids more generally, see p. 242-6.
30
“…arbitraire par essence, puisqu’étrangère à la loi coranique” (Péretié, “L’organisation judiciaire au Maroc,”
524). See also Rober-Raynaud, “La justice indigène au Maroc,” 582, where Rober-Raynaud noted that the
Makhzan’s incursions into the jurisdiction of the qāḍīs were against Islam.
31
In eighteenth-century Aleppo, at least, governors were often accused of corrupting justice by their subjects,
making it likely that at times they, too, failed to follow formal procedures in their courts: Marcus, The Middle East
on the Eve of Modernity, 114-15.
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