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

approached an incident which took place in Marrakesh on Friday July 24, 1891. 58 The matter
began when a group of Jews accused Zaydān, a deaf man from the Sūs region, of trying to
kidnap a young Jewish boy. 59 The Jews were heading to the pasha Aḥmad Amālik with Zaydān
in tow, attempting to bring him to justice, when they were intercepted by three men from the
Aḥmar (or Ḥmar) tribe who attempted to stop them from prosecuting Zaydān. 60 A brawl ensued;
in one version of the story the Aḥmarīs wounded seven Jews, and in another the Jews wounded
two of the Aḥmarīs. Both versions agree that the third Aḥmarī fell off his horse, causing the
nearby Jews to burst into laughter. Despite all the commotion, the Jews would have reached the
pasha without incident had not Muslim passers-by noticed the Aḥmarī man who had fallen from
his horse lying on the ground and presumed that the Jews had killed him. In retaliation, a
number of Muslim onlookers began to call for an attack on the millāḥ, but the pasha Amālik was
able to close the gates of the Jewish quarter before anyone was seriously hurt. 61 In the
meantime, Amālik arrested the seven Jews involved in the brawl, as well as the three Aḥmarīs
and Zaydān. 62
58
Corresponding to 17 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1308. My account of this incident draws on the following four letters: DAR,
Marrakesh, 24807, Muḥammad al-Hādī b. ‘Abd al-Nabī al-Fāsī to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 20 Ṣafar 1309; 20266,
Muḥammad al-Hādī b. ‘Abd al-Nabī al-Fāsī to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 20 Ṣafar 1309; 20268, Muḥammad al-Hādī b. ‘Abd
al-Nabī al-Fāsī to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 24 Ṣafar 1309; Aḥmad Amālik to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 24 Ṣafar 1309. See also a
discussion in Gottreich, The Mellah of Marrakesh, 108-11.
59
It is not clear what Zaydān was planning to do with the boy, though it is possible that he wanted to convert him to
Islam.
60
The Aḥmar tribe is located between Safi and Marrakesh; see Ḥajjī, Ma‘lamāt al-Maghrib, v. 1, 177-78.
61
The Jews claimed that their coreligionists who were still in the madīna when the attack on the millāḥ was
announced had to run back to their quarter while being pelted by stones (DAR, Marrakesh, 20268, Muḥammad al-
Hādī b. ‘Abd al-Nabī al-Fāsī to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 24 Ṣafar 1309). Al-Fāsī accused the Jews of exaggerating and said
that no Jews were wounded on their way back to the millāḥ (DAR, Marrakesh, 20266, Muḥammad al-Hādī b. ‘Abd
al-Nabī al-Fāsī to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 20 Ṣafar 1309).
62
Yet another man from the Sūs was arrested at the same time; it seems that he was accused of stealing a Jewish boy
some days earlier, though he does not seem to have been directly involved in this particular incident. Interestingly,
the sultan’s representative Muḥammad noted that Zaydān had letters with him attesting to his identity and his sound
character—presumably because he was unable to speak for himself (DAR, Marrakesh, 20268, Muḥammad al-Hādī
b. ‘Abd al-Nabī al-Fāsī to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 24 Ṣafar 1309).
244