IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS - DataSpace - Princeton ...
IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS - DataSpace - Princeton ... IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS - DataSpace - Princeton ...
elieved that their legal claims had not been properly addressed. These registers remain an untapped treasure trove for the history of Morocco in the nineteenth century. I draw on these rich sources to understand how Jews engaged the state when they felt they had been denied justice at the local level. The state’s responses to Jews’ complaints demonstrate that the Makhzan took Jews’ claims seriously. The Ministry of Complaints registers certainly do not paint a rosy picture of Jewish life in Morocco, since many of the records concern Jews being stolen from, murdered, or unable to collect money they were owed. Yet Jews’ ability to petition the state and their relative success in getting the state to act in response to their appeals show that Jews were not powerless victims. Moreover, while Makhzan officials often questioned the validity of Jews’ claims, they rarely did so in ways that specifically targeted Jews as untrustworthy or deceitful. In fact, the confession of the petitioner made little difference in the Makhzan’s response to complaints submitted by its subjects. The Ministry of Complaints records suggest that when it came to its responsibility to ensure justice, the Makhzan’s relationship with Jews differed little from its relationship with Muslims. In reconstructing a heretofore unknown aspect of the history of the Makhzan’s interactions with Jews, I bring to light new information about the functioning of the Moroccan state in the nineteenth century. On the one hand, the Ministry of Complaints records demonstrate that the centralizing government of Mawlāy Ḥasan (reigned 1873-94) made concerted efforts to address the claims of Moroccans who felt they had been victims of injustice. On the other hand, the persistent weakness of the central state meant that there were a number of obstacles to resolving subjects’ petitions, such as difficulty controlling individuals’ movements and the challenge of asserting the Makhzan’s authority in areas which remained beyond the reach of the state. 182
Jews and the Ministry of Complaints Between 1889 and 1893, the scribes employed at the Ministry of Complaints recorded a total of 511 cases involving individual Jews. 6 The vast majority of these cases concerned Jews who were Moroccan subjects; only seven were related to the claims of Jews under the consular protection of foreign states (I discuss Jewish protégés at length in Part Three). 7 Drawing on this discrete set of records allows me to discuss what kinds of cases and resolutions occurred most often, how the Makhzan went about responding to individual petitions, and the kinds of obstacles that Makhzan officials faced in their attempts to settle Jews’ claims. I discuss examples of similar complaints preserved in the Moroccan archives which were not included in the ministry’s registers, though for the sake of brevity I relegate most of these discussions to footnotes. 8 Nearly all claims made by Jews fall under three categories: debt, theft, and murder (see Figure 5.1). The vast majority of cases found in the registers of the Ministry of Complaints concern debts (362, or about 71%), for which Jews were almost always the creditors. Incidents in which Jews were victims of theft constitute about 15% of the total (75 cases), and those in which Jews were murdered make up about 8% (42 cases); the remaining 32 cases (6%) are either of an indeterminate nature or concern miscellaneous matters. 9 6 This number includes all claims in which a Jew (or Jews) were involved, either as complainant or as the object of a complaint. The actual number of entries is higher (541), since some cases had multiple entries devoted to them. I am not including appeals brought by groups of Jews, which I address in the next chapter. 7 As far as I can tell, the Ministry of Complaints was reserved for petitions from Moroccan subjects, since at least one register concerning appeals survives which was exclusively devoted to the petitions of foreigners and foreign subjects (BH, K 551; see the introduction to the volume on p. 4). 8 I found references to only two petitions from individual Jews before the creation of the Ministry of Complaints (DAR, Fez, 22986, al-Ḥusayn Rafrāfī to Abū ‘Abdallāh Muḥammad b. Idrīs, 28 Muḥarram 1261 and 23074, Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Raḥmān to his son Muḥammad, 2 Rabī‘ I 1261). In addition, I found two letters pertaining to complaints from the period covered by the Ministry of Complaints registers, but which did not appear in the registers (DAR, Marrakesh, Aḥmad Amālik to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 9 Sha‘bān 1307; DAR, Yahūd, ‘Abdallāh al-Bayḍāwī to Muḥammad Tūrīs, 6 Sha‘bān 1308). 9 By indeterminate, I mean that the nature of the case is not stated in the entry. It is instructive to compare these percentages to the conclusions drawn by Mansoureh Nezam-Mafi in his study of petitions to the Council for the Investigation of Grievances in nineteenth-century Iran. He found that 41% of petitions related to financial matters— 183
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elieved that their legal claims had not been properly addressed. These registers remain an<br />
untapped treasure trove for the history of Morocco in the nineteenth century. I draw on these<br />
rich sources to understand how Jews engaged the state when they felt they had been denied<br />
justice at the local level. The state’s responses to Jews’ complaints demonstrate that the<br />
Makhzan took Jews’ claims seriously. The Ministry of Complaints registers certainly do not<br />
paint a rosy picture of Jewish life in Morocco, since many of the records concern Jews being<br />
stolen from, murdered, or unable to collect money they were owed. Yet Jews’ ability to petition<br />
the state and their relative success in getting the state to act in response to their appeals show that<br />
Jews were not powerless victims. Moreover, while Makhzan officials often questioned the<br />
validity of Jews’ claims, they rarely did so in ways that specifically targeted Jews as<br />
untrustworthy or deceitful. In fact, the confession of the petitioner made little difference in the<br />
Makhzan’s response to complaints submitted by its subjects. The Ministry of Complaints<br />
records suggest that when it came to its responsibility to ensure justice, the Makhzan’s<br />
relationship with Jews differed little from its relationship with Muslims.<br />
In reconstructing a heretofore unknown aspect of the history of the Makhzan’s<br />
interactions with Jews, I bring to light new information about the functioning of the Moroccan<br />
state in the nineteenth century. On the one hand, the Ministry of Complaints records<br />
demonstrate that the centralizing government of Mawlāy Ḥasan (reigned 1873-94) made<br />
concerted efforts to address the claims of Moroccans who felt they had been victims of injustice.<br />
On the other hand, the persistent weakness of the central state meant that there were a number of<br />
obstacles to resolving subjects’ petitions, such as difficulty controlling individuals’ movements<br />
and the challenge of asserting the Makhzan’s authority in areas which remained beyond the reach<br />
of the state.<br />
182
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