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

debtors, thieves, or murderers to pay up. 94 Often this method was successful in ensuring that the
petitioner’s request was granted. 95
Yet imprisonment did not always produce such positive results. Some debtors who paid
their debts were still not allowed to leave prison. 96 In one case recorded on April 26, 1892, a
man named ‘Abd al-Qādir was imprisoned for debts he and some of his tribesmen (ikhwānuhu)
owed to Jewish creditors. 97 ‘Abd al-Qādir claimed that he and the other debtors had already
paid, and that the creditors refused to give them a release. “When the Jews wanted to go away
for their holiday,” the creditors promised to come back “when their holiday was over” 98 and
settle with them—that is, give them a release so they could be freed from prison. Yet the
holiday had passed and the Jews had still failed to return to release their debtors, leaving these
unfortunate men to remain in prison even after fulfilling their financial obligations. On the other
hand, in some theft cases the perpetrators were imprisoned and then released before a settlement
was reached. Although the sultan could then subsequently order the thieves re-imprisoned until
94
This was also the case in the Ottoman Empire where imprisonment was not typically considered a method of
punishment; there recalcitrant debtors were imprisoned, presumably until they paid: Heyd, Studies in Old Ottoman
Criminal Law, 301.
95
For cases of imprisoned debtors who paid, see: BH, K 157, p. 155, 10 Jumādā II 1307; p. 172, 4 Rajab 1307; BH,
K 181, p. 133, 17 Sha‘bān 1309; p. 165, 28 Ramaḍān 1309. See also DAR, Marrakesh, Aḥmad Amālik to Mawlāy
Ḥasan, 4 Shawwāl 1301 and DAR, Yahūd, Bū Bakr b. Bū Zayd to Muḥammad Tūrīs, 18 and 25 Muharram 1325.
The latter two letters discuss a case in which a man was only imprisoned for about a week. For cases of imprisoned
thieves who returned the stolen goods, see BH, K 174, p. 80, 2 Sha‘bān 1308; BH, K 181, p. 300, 2 Jumādā I 1310.
96
See, for instance, BH, K 157, p. 31, 15 Ramaḍān 1306; BH, K 171, p. 121, 14 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1307; p. 129, 27 Dhū
al-Ḥijja 1307; BH, K 174, p. 89, 23 Sha‘bān 1308. This seems also to have been the case with murderers: in one
instance the local Makhzan official asked for permission to release the suspects who had been imprisoned because of
the murder of a Jew. This might suggest that the case had been settled but the prisoners had not yet been released, as
with certain debt cases in which prisoners languished in jail even after their debts were paid (BH, K 157, p. 37, 29
Ramaḍān 1306).
97
BH, K 181, p. 165, 28 Ramaḍān 1309.
98
Lammā arāda ahlu al-dhimmati al-dhahāba li-‘īdihim…‘inda muḍiyy ‘īdihim. Given that this entry was recorded
a week after the Jewish holiday Passover ended, there is little doubt that this was the holiday the Jews wanted to go
home to celebrate.
206