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

state as a legal arbiter, I pay particular attention to how the Makhzan relied on sharī‘a courts to
resolve certain kinds of disputes. Finally, in my study of the functioning of consular courts, I
argue that diplomatic officials adapted to and even drew on Islamic legal practices in their
administration of consular courts. While my specific conclusions are not necessarily applicable
to other parts of the Islamic Mediterranean, my methodology is relevant to understanding the
complex nature of law in Islamic societies more generally.
Beyond tolerance and persecution
In addition to offering a new approach to the history of law in the Islamic world, I use
legal history as a particularly fruitful lens onto the daily lives of Jews and the ways they were
integrated into the Moroccan society in which they lived. By “integrated,” I do not mean to say
that Jews were always well treated by Muslims. On the contrary, the legal history of Jews in
nineteenth-century Morocco points to many instances of discrimination. Rather, I mean that
Jews were able and willing to use Islamic legal institutions more or less in the same ways that
their Muslim counterparts used them. In fact, Jews often turned to Islamic legal venues in order
to address instances of anti-Jewish bias. Jews’ regular use of Islamic courts integrated them into
the Moroccan legal system, and it was an important ingredient in the glue which bound them to
the broader non-Jewish society.
In looking at how Jews’ experiences in Moroccan legal institutions can inform us about
their integration into Moroccan society, I seek to move away from the dominant paradigms
shaping how historians have viewed Jews living under Islamic rule. Rather than attempting to
answer whether or not Jews were well treated, I seek to shift the focus back to Jews as legal
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