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which seems to be the exception that proves the rule. 7 Finally, the type of evidence available for
individual and collective petitions differs; while the Ministry of Complaints registers contain
only the responses by local Makhzan officials to individual Jews’ petitions, we have the original
letters sent by groups of Jews as well as the Makhzan’s responses.
The bulk of the evidence about Jewish collective petitions comes from the late nineteenth
century, especially Mawlāy Ḥasan’s reign (1873 to 1894), although I discuss incidents from as
early as 1828 and as late as 1904. There is little indication that Jews’ appeals to the Makhzan
changed significantly over the course of the nineteenth century, despite the fact that these were
undeniably years of significant transformation in Morocco. 8 What did change was the
organization of the central government (i.e., the creation of the Ministry of Complaints,
discussed in Chapter Four) and the availability of a new avenue of appeal—that is, foreign
consular officials and international Jewish organizations (such as the Alliance Israélite
Universelle); I discuss their role in Jews’ relationship to the state in Chapter Nine.
7
DAR, Fez, 23074, Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Raḥmān to [his son] Muḥammad, 2 Rabī‘ I 1261. This letter refers to a
complaint brought by Yitzḥaq b. Makhlūf from Fez, who claimed that the Makhzan official al-Bahlūl forced him to
lend al-Bahlūl 800 mithqāls. When Yitzḥaq could not produce the money, al-Bahlūl seized money and jewelry from
his partner in Casablanca—which al-Bahlūl subsequently refused to pay back, even though he forced Yitzḥaq to sign
a release as if he had paid the debt. The sultan informed his son that he was displeased with al-Bahlūl’s actions,
instructed Muḥammad to reprimand al-Bahlūl, and ended the letter with a Quranic verse (22:41: “[Allah will
certainly help] those who, were We to bestow authority on them in the land…[will establish prayers, render zakat,
enjoin good and forbid evil. The end of all matters rests with Allah.]”). I do not discuss individual petitions
concerning abuses of minor officials, such as umanā’ (tax officials), since these are closer in nature to complaints
about debts—for instance, that the umanā’ of a particular port did not allow a Jew’s goods to pass through customs.
See DAR, Yahūd, 2250, Mawlāy ‘Abd al-‘Azīz to ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad, 28 Muḥarram 1303; Ya‘qūb b. Sa‘īd to
Muḥammad Tūrīs, 12 Ṣafar 1322; ?? to umanā’ of Casablanca, 3 Muḥarram 1329.
8
Although documents from the Moroccan archives only begin to be plentiful in the early nineteenth century, there is
some evidence that these types of collective appeals to the Makhzan were practiced even earlier: see, for instance,
Ankawa, Kerem Ḥemer, 7a, Number 39. In this taqqanah from 5361/ 1600, the rabbis of Fez appealed to the sultan
to reverse an earlier decree in which he permitted polygamy to Jews under any circumstances (the rabbis wanted to
limit the circumstances to particular cases). See also ibid., 13a, Number 77. In this taqanah from 5363/ 1603, the
authors cited a decree from the sultan that any legal matter between two Jews should be judged in a beit din. There
is little question that this decree was obtained at the request of Jews—probably the same rabbis who wrote the
taqqanah.
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