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

merchants serve as judges on a rotating basis (changing monthly). The sultan asked for advice
about whether this new law broke the conditions of the dhimma contract. 25 In their reply, which
was a resounding “yes,” the scholars cited the Pact of ‘Umar in its entirety as the legal
framework governing Jews’ rights. The text of the Pact cited in the letter from the Fāsī scholars
is extremely close to that of al-Ṭurṭūshī (d. 1126) in his Sirāj al-Mulūk—the most widely-cited
version. 26 The differences are slight—mostly without consequence for the meaning, but
occasionally demonstrating an adaptation of the text to the Moroccan context. For instance,
instead of “We shall not display our crosses or our books anywhere in the Muslims’ streets or
markets,” our text reads “We shall not display our prayer (ṣalātanā)….” 27 Indigenous Christians
had not lived in North Africa since the medieval period, so the restriction on displaying crosses
was irrelevant for Morocco’s Jewish population.
Ultimately, this exchange demonstrates that the dhimma contract was in full force in
nineteenth-century Morocco. It is thus unsurprising that petitions and decrees relating to the
treatment of Jews often used the language of the dhimma contract. Letters by Jews explicitly
mentioned that they were under the dhimma of the sultan or even of the Prophet. For instance, in
November 1847, the Jews of an unspecified town complained to Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Raḥmān
(reigned 1822-59) about their mistreatment at the hands of two sharīfs (descendents of the
Prophet Muḥammad). In their closing plea for the sultan’s help, they invoked his protection
(ḥuram) and the protection (dhimma) of the Prophet. 28
25
“Give the matter its due consideration, contemplation, and investigation, and check if they [the Jews] are allowed
to do this according their pact of dhimma,” (wa-tu‘ṭūhā ḥaqqahā min al-naẓari wa-’l-ta’ammuli wa-’l-baḥthi wamurāja‘ati
‘aqd dhimmatihim hal hum mu‘āhidūna fīhi bi-dhālika am lā).
26
al-Ṭurṭūshī, Sirāj al-Mulūk, v. 2, 542-44.
27
Ibid., v. 2, 543.
28
DAR, Yahūd, 19415, Jews of unnamed city to Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, Dhū al-Ḥijja 1262. For the meaning of
ḥuram see Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, 555, in which he notes that ḥuram can be a synonym of dhimma.
235