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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Complaints registers for murder cases relatively more frequently than for debt or theft cases. This is not surprising given that many women depended on their husbands or male relatives to support them, and thus would be faced with poverty without the payment of blood money. 50 Instructions to Local Officials The Ministry of Complaints registers reveal three major ways in which the Makhzan responded to petitions concerning cases of unpaid debts, theft, and murder. The most common was to order the local official to “settle” (yufāṣil) the case at hand—that is, by bringing about some sort of payment, either through mediation or force. The second procedure was to instruct the local Makhzan official to send the individuals involved to the sultan, who would personally settle the case. Finally, the third option was to refer cases to a sharī‘a court, after which the Makhzan official would presumably enforce the qāḍī’s ruling. The Ministry of Complaints most commonly ordered local officials to settle cases themselves. 51 For instance, an entry from March 22, 1890, reads: “Bū Garīr concerning the complaint of the dhimmi Ibn al-Ṣabākh who was robbed [literally, cut off, al-maqṭū‘ ‘alayhi] in Umm Janība, and the command that he [Bū Garīr] investigate and settle [the case].” 52 Some 50 Two entries specify that the mother of a murdered Jew complained about not having received any compensation: BH, K 174, p. 30, 23 Rabī‘ I 1308 and BH, K 181, p. 57, 20 Rabī‘ II 1309. 51 On the whole, the Ministry of Complaints charged local Makhzan officials with resolving about 84% (303) of the cases concerning unpaid debts which were reported to the Ministry. 52 BH, K 171, p. 19, 30 Rajab 1307. For similar entries see BH, K 174, p. 79, 29 Rajab 1308; BH, K 181, p. 183, 20 Shawwāl 1309. Although the registers themselves do not preserve the text of the letters from the ministry (sent in the sultan’s name), we do have examples of these from other collections. See, for instance, MAE Nantes, Tanger A 161, Mawlāy Ḥasan to Laḥsan b. al-‘Arabī, 4 Rabī‘ II 1301. There are also a number of cases in which the local official reported that he had settled, or was in the process of settling, a case, which suggests that the sultan sometimes ordered settlement even when the entry does not record the sultan’s command to settle in so many words. For examples of entries in which the official had clearly received orders to settle a case and was reporting on his progress in doing so, see: BH, K 157, p. 113, 3 Rabī‘ II 1307; BH, K 171, p. 14, 26 Rajab 1307; p. 26, 6 Sha‘bān 1307 (second and third entries); p. 104, 7 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1307; BH, K 174, p. 13, 5 Ṣafar 1308; BH, K 181, p. 12, 25 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1308; 34, 4 Ṣafar 1309; p. 65, 2 Jumādā I 1309; p. 108, 5 Rajab 1309; p. 121, 19 Rajab 1309; p. 123, 29 Rajab 1309 (fifth and seventh entries); p. 133, 16 Sha‘bān 1309; p. 163, 26 Ramaḍān 1309; p. 219, 9 Dhū al-Ḥijja 196
cases which were ultimately settled by local Makhzan officials were nonetheless considered important enough for the sultan to send officials to investigate the case in person or, more often in cases of debt, to make sure the debtors actually paid. 53 For instance, when Ya‘aqov Assarraf claimed he was owed 300 riyāls by three Muslims, the sultan sent soldiers to ensure compliance with his command that the debtors pay. 54 Less commonly, the sultan instructed the local Makhzan official to send some or all of those involved in a case to him to resolve the dispute himself. 55 In some debt cases, sending debtors to the sultan seemed to be a sort of last resort to force them to pay their outstanding debts. 56 An entry from January 16, 1893, notes that Ḥam al-Yāzighī was commanded to settle the debts owed to the dhimmī Sam‘ūn Furiyāṭ [sic: should be Qoriat] from Sefrou. 57 Al-Yāzighī 1309; loose sheet, 9 Jumādā I 1310; p. 313, 27 Jumādā I 1310; p. 314, 27 Jumādā I 1310; p. 340, 23 Rajab 1310; p. 352, 22 Sha‘bān 1310; p. 352, 23 Sha‘bān 1310. See also DAR, Fez, Mawlāy Ḥasan to ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad, 20 Muḥarram 1303; DAR, Yahūd, al-Rajrājī al-Dūbālī to Muḥammad b. ‘Alī b. al-Shabānī, 8 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1310. 53 See BH, K 171, p. 61, 17 Ramaḍān 1307; BH, K 181, p. 179, 16 Shawwāl; p. 82, 23 Jumādā I 1309; p. 231, 30 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1309. See also DAR, Fez, 35356, Idrīs b. Muḥammad to Muḥammad b. al-Madanī Banīs, 8 Dhū al- Qa‘da 1289: in this case the author of the letter was sent to settle a debt owed to a Jewish creditor. 54 BH, K 181, p. 351, 18 Sha‘bān 1310. The Makhzan official charged with settling the case said that one of the debtors had driven away the Makhzan soldiers (al-makhāzinīya), and “requests permission to attack them and to confiscate their possessions” (ṭāliban al-idhna fī al-ḥarakati lahu wa-’l-akli li-matā‘ihi). 55 For murder cases, see: BH, K 171, p. 9, 23 Rajab 1307; BH, K 181, p. 102, 28 Jumādā II 1309; p. 186, 27 Shawwāl 1309. For theft cases, see: BH 157 p131, 9 Jumādā I 1307; p. 171, 1 Rajab 1307; BH, K 171, p. 107, 11 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1307. For debt cases, see BH, K 157, p. 171, 1 Rajab 1307; BH, K 181, p. 91, 11 Jumādā II 1309; p. 187, 27 Shawwāl 1309. See also DAR, Fez, Mawlāy Ḥasan to Sa‘īd b. Farajī, 6 Jumādā I 1298, in which the sultan ordered Sa‘īd either to settle the debts of the Jewish creditor Moshe ‘Amūr himself, or to send the debtors to settle with Moshe in the sultan’s presence. The Ottoman sultan similarly ordered that some cases be sent to him to resolve (Ginio, “Coping with the State’s Agents”). 56 BH, K 171, p. 51, 8 Ramaḍān 1307; BH, K 174, p. i, 27 Jumādā II 1308; BH, K 181, p. 83, 25 Jumādā II 1309; p. 131, 13 Sha‘bān 1309; p. 255, 13 Ṣafar 1310; p. 270, 12 Rabi‘ I 1310. I found two cases in which the Makhzan official was given the choice of sending the debtors to the sultan or settling the debt in some other way: BH, K 181, p. 119, 21 Rajab 1309; p. 219, 9 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1309. In the second case, the sultan specified that the Makhzan official should either settle the case himself or send it to the sultan so that it could be settled by a sharī‘a court; this formulation is rather unusual, since most cases that were settled in a sharī‘a court went to the local qāḍī, rather than first being sent to the sultan. See also DAR, Fez, Mawlāy Ḥasan to ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad, 13 Shawwāl 1296, in which the sultan reprimanded ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad, writing that he had ordered ‘Abdallāh to settle a Jewish creditor’s debts numerous times; he concluded by saying that either ‘Abdallāh should finally settle the debts or send the debtors to him. For similar instructions from the sultan, see DAR, Fez, Mawlāy Ḥasan to Sa‘īd b. al-Farajī, 9 Muḥarram 1301; 730, Mawlāy Ḥasan to ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad, 26 Rajab 1301; 6037, Mawlāy Ḥasan to ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad, 29 Rajab 1301. 57 BH, K 181, p. 326, 27 Jumādā II 1310. Furiyāṭ might be a misspelling of Quriyāṭ, since Qoriat was a prominent Jewish family in nineteenth-century Morocco (and the difference between fā and qāf is only a matter of writing the 197
Page 1 and 2:
IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS: JEWS,
Page 3 and 4:
Abstract This dissertation examines
Page 5 and 6:
Table of Contents Abstract………
Page 7 and 8:
throughout the process was vital to
Page 9 and 10:
and Arielle Rubenstein, Stephanie S
Page 11 and 12:
Introduction This dissertation exam
Page 13 and 14:
on the internal history of the Jewi
Page 15 and 16:
cases they made up close to half of
Page 17 and 18:
study of law in the Islamic world w
Page 19 and 20:
of these institutions remain opaque
Page 21 and 22:
and, for some individuals, appealin
Page 23 and 24:
actors with agency and to understan
Page 25 and 26:
many of those who espouse the neo-l
Page 27 and 28:
In recent years, the neo-lachrymose
Page 29 and 30:
alternative framework to that of au
Page 31 and 32:
including courts—which were of pr
Page 33 and 34:
Recently scholars working on the me
Page 35 and 36:
We are left with two models of Jewi
Page 37 and 38:
Legal pluralism is an approach to u
Page 39 and 40:
orders. I also turn the focus from
Page 41 and 42:
Nonetheless, the tendency of forum
Page 43 and 44:
Legal pluralism does not explain wh
Page 45 and 46:
Jewish communities were no less var
Page 47 and 48:
is perhaps best attested by the fac
Page 49 and 50:
To help remind readers that the thr
Page 51 and 52:
abusive Makhzan officials, infringe
Page 53 and 54:
Chapter One: Between Batei Din and
Page 55 and 56:
went to batei din and sharī‘a co
Page 57 and 58:
school relevant for our purposes is
Page 59 and 60:
Jewish and Islamic legal systems re
Page 61 and 62:
ehind, a large number were undoubte
Page 63 and 64:
atei din generally, it does reflect
Page 65 and 66:
Jews used batei din not only as not
Page 67 and 68:
Jerusalem. 33 The collection consis
Page 69 and 70:
(azraqu al-‘aynayn)—a trait for
Page 71 and 72:
undoubtedly made much of their mone
Page 73 and 74:
preventing members of the community
Page 75 and 76:
‘udūl. 76 These ‘udūl, whose
Page 77 and 78:
Eliyahu b. Ya'aqov Zohra bat Ya‘a
Page 79 and 80:
and Muḥammad would return the mon
Page 81 and 82:
Table 2.1 Types of Entries 2% 2% 2%
Page 83 and 84:
allegation or deposition in a case
Page 85 and 86:
court approximately once a week, ei
Page 87 and 88:
The introduction of the “protecti
Page 89 and 90:
ule; the ‘udūl almost always too
Page 91 and 92:
documents would stand up as evidenc
Page 93 and 94:
Empire. 49 A document in the Assarr
Page 95 and 96:
legal procedure was relatively mino
Page 97 and 98:
een optional as not all bills of de
Page 99 and 100:
Qa‘da 1309 (June 12, 1892), two
Page 101 and 102:
mostly meant extending credit on go
Page 103 and 104:
Other release documents specify tha
Page 105 and 106:
al-faqīh Aḥmad al-Filālī al-Ma
Page 107 and 108:
Lease contracts, on the other hand,
Page 109 and 110:
which was operated by Muslims durin
Page 111 and 112:
Shalom’s knowledge of Islamic law
Page 113 and 114:
elow). Although the majority of law
Page 115 and 116:
weeks after the plaintiff filed the
Page 117 and 118:
gathered twelve men who testified t
Page 119 and 120:
whether the qāḍī accepted al-
Page 121 and 122:
in the Assarraf collection indicate
Page 123 and 124:
(ittifāqīyan) and were testifying
Page 125 and 126:
In another instance of oath avoidan
Page 127 and 128:
Sharī‘a courts provided a crucia
Page 129 and 130:
agreement notarized according to Is
Page 131 and 132:
ability and desire to move among di
Page 133 and 134:
‘udūl. 14 Most real estate trans
Page 135 and 136:
equire or benefit from adjudication
Page 137 and 138:
Simultaneous Use of Jewish and Isla
Page 139 and 140:
evidence from the nineteenth centur
Page 141 and 142:
to sue other Jews in sharī‘a cou
Page 143 and 144:
But what about intra-Jewish lawsuit
Page 145 and 146:
ut for the most part this is a here
Page 147 and 148:
the sum of three duoros per month.
Page 149 and 150:
only in Jewish law. This happened i
Page 151 and 152:
in the millāḥ of Marrakesh on Ap
Page 153 and 154:
aware of Jewish law and sometimes t
Page 155 and 156: of a rabbi to determine the proper
Page 157 and 158: ‘Aṭṭār, in order to find out
Page 159 and 160: Muslims’ jurisdictional boundary
Page 161 and 162: that they had successfully done so.
Page 163 and 164: the Moroccan legal system more broa
Page 165 and 166: translated as the territories under
Page 167 and 168: elatively scant work on the legal h
Page 169 and 170: law, even if they did not consisten
Page 171 and 172: abrupt end after his death, as the
Page 173 and 174: put it, “in all medieval Muslim s
Page 175 and 176: about its image in the eyes of fore
Page 177 and 178: an injustice or an act of oppressio
Page 179 and 180: In designing its new army, the Makh
Page 181 and 182: The Ministry itself, although in co
Page 183 and 184: Minister of Complaints, a man about
Page 185 and 186: It is not entirely clear whether th
Page 187 and 188: initial letters. 102 The convention
Page 189 and 190: whether the sultan simply failed to
Page 191 and 192: Chapter Five: Appeals to the Minist
Page 193 and 194: Jews and the Ministry of Complaints
Page 195 and 196: The nature of these sources prevent
Page 197 and 198: Causes for Complaint Most of the ap
Page 199 and 200: products (such as barley). 23 This,
Page 201 and 202: appears numerous times). 29 While t
Page 203 and 204: matter what their religious backgro
Page 205: when amounts are specified they ten
Page 209 and 210: Jews who had been robbed. 62 The su
Page 211 and 212: from July 28, 1892, a group of Jews
Page 213 and 214: nature of sharī‘a courts. 83 In
Page 215 and 216: legal proof of his claim. 91 It is
Page 217 and 218: the Jewish victims were compensated
Page 219 and 220: central government could only do so
Page 221 and 222: and Muslim was responsible for arra
Page 223 and 224: sometimes the Makhzan officials’
Page 225 and 226: A more formidable obstacle to settl
Page 227 and 228: The Jewish creditor, however, reque
Page 229 and 230: The practice of exaggerating the va
Page 231 and 232: official accused a Jew of falsifyin
Page 233 and 234: esolve disputes with their Jewish d
Page 235 and 236: property. 178 In this case, the Mak
Page 237 and 238: Chapter Six: Collective Appeals to
Page 239 and 240: frequency of Jews’ petitions acro
Page 241 and 242: The concentration of petitions duri
Page 243 and 244: “right”—as in, the rights to
Page 245 and 246: merchants serve as judges on a rota
Page 247 and 248: Makhzan officials at times evoked t
Page 249 and 250: The evidence of Jews’ appeals to
Page 251 and 252: governor). 46 The next winter the J
Page 253 and 254: along with a legal document contain
Page 255 and 256: Following this escalation of violen
Page 257 and 258:
The governor of Debdou similarly pr
Page 259 and 260:
custom and the sultan’s command.
Page 261 and 262:
minister of foreign affairs, receiv
Page 263 and 264:
Yet murder cases were not the only
Page 265 and 266:
Moroccan legal system. On the one h
Page 267 and 268:
In 1884 the Jews of Fez appealed to
Page 269 and 270:
Although at first these appeals mig
Page 271 and 272:
The Jews of Meknes appealed to the
Page 273 and 274:
In other instances, Makhzan officia
Page 275 and 276:
about their own coreligionists. The
Page 277 and 278:
Europeans—a sentiment that at oth
Page 279 and 280:
complain about their muḥtasib, em
Page 281 and 282:
Chapter Seven: Foreign Protection a
Page 283 and 284:
Perhaps most important, however, is
Page 285 and 286:
of consular courts functioned throu
Page 287 and 288:
of Muslims from becoming protégés
Page 289 and 290:
cases between its own nationals or
Page 291 and 292:
of consular courts by specifying th
Page 293 and 294:
an important moment in the history
Page 295 and 296:
were required to notify their consu
Page 297 and 298:
dealt with cases by means other tha
Page 299 and 300:
In other instances, consuls wrote t
Page 301 and 302:
qāḍī” attesting a debt owed t
Page 303 and 304:
The following two chapters examine
Page 305 and 306:
clarify when and why he had taken t
Page 307 and 308:
Even scholars who argue against see
Page 309 and 310:
ecognize their contract since “th
Page 311 and 312:
of the individuals concerned. 31 Pr
Page 313 and 314:
concerning the incident, which they
Page 315 and 316:
speculated that the reluctance of t
Page 317 and 318:
protection) of Yitzḥaq b. Nissim
Page 319 and 320:
cooperate with foreigners’ reques
Page 321 and 322:
Dinar Ohana), an American protégé
Page 323 and 324:
Jews tried to ensure a fortuitous o
Page 325 and 326:
ordered Assayag to stop paying Zagu
Page 327 and 328:
efused. 100 Faced with this dead en
Page 329 and 330:
claimed that Emsellem had no right
Page 331 and 332:
number of foreign subjects and prot
Page 333 and 334:
By subjecting the suit to Moroccan
Page 335 and 336:
sued Mas‘ūd al-Shayẓamī (Meso
Page 337 and 338:
Foreign subjects and protégés wer
Page 339 and 340:
confirmed that this meant the Jews
Page 341 and 342:
AIU’s attention either through pe
Page 343 and 344:
A competing narrative of Moroccan J
Page 345 and 346:
non-Jewish Westerners alike, I argu
Page 347 and 348:
international press. Demnat might s
Page 349 and 350:
attribute the Makhzan’s efforts t
Page 351 and 352:
The events in Demnat were not the o
Page 353 and 354:
finally wrote to Muḥammad Bargās
Page 355 and 356:
wearing Muslim clothing and told hi
Page 357 and 358:
of 1863. Four Jews were accused of
Page 359 and 360:
made an honest mistake, the effect
Page 361 and 362:
etracted his initial testimony clai
Page 363 and 364:
the remaining two subjects. Only af
Page 365 and 366:
organizations, and the foreign pres
Page 367 and 368:
Marseillais, The Times, The Pall Ma
Page 369 and 370:
coreligionists’ position. 112 Avn
Page 371 and 372:
had been following the standard pra
Page 373 and 374:
did not declare that Jews and Musli
Page 375 and 376:
under the jurisdiction of Makhzan o
Page 377 and 378:
tolerance. 142 Such a policy would
Page 379 and 380:
concede to the American ambassador
Page 381 and 382:
Epilogue On March 30, 1912, France
Page 383 and 384:
courts to matters of personal statu
Page 385 and 386:
This sort of continuity in legal pr
Page 387 and 388:
intra-Jewish cases to these courts
Page 389 and 390:
Glossary of Arabic and Hebrew Terms
Page 391 and 392:
Ẓahīr: Royal decree (spelled “
Page 393 and 394:
United States: United States Nation
Page 395 and 396:
———. Kitāb al-istiqṣā li-
Page 397 and 398:
Becker, Jerónimo. España y Marrue
Page 399 and 400:
Chetrit, Joseph. Diglossie, hybrida
Page 401 and 402:
Ennaji, Mohammed. Expansion europé
Page 403 and 404:
Gotzmann, Andreas. “At Home in Ma
Page 405 and 406:
———. Les protégés : contrib
Page 407 and 408:
Marcus, Abraham. The Middle East on
Page 409 and 410:
Perron, M. Précis de jurisprudence
Page 411 and 412:
———. “Forum Shopping Among
Page 413:
Cultural Dimensions, edited by Mich
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?