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

Following this escalation of violence, the sultan’s intervention was requested—most
likely by the Jewish leaders of Marrakesh. Mawlāy Ḥasan sent his representative Muḥammad al-
Hādī b. ‘Abd al-Nabī al-Fāsī to Marrakesh, armed with letters and instructions to investigate the
matter and settle the various claims. 63 Two months after the incident occurred, al-Fāsī wrote to
the sultan from Marrakesh explaining that he had successfully brokered a settlement among the
Jews and the pasha Amālik. The Jews agreed to sign releases retracting their complaint against
the three Aḥmarīs and testified accordingly before Amālik and the qā’id Ibn Dawūd. Then they
presented documents signed by sofrim and translated into Arabic, saying they would settle the
claims of the seven Jews arrested with their own Jewish judges (yet another instance of Jewish
legal documents being accepted as evidence in Makhzan courts). 64 Al-Fāsī kept everyone—
Zaydān, the three Aḥmarīs, and the seven Jews—in prison until further orders from the sultan,
though this was a formality; in essence, the claims had been addressed.
Yet the sultan decided that some cases could not be left to Makhzan officials to resolve
on site and required him to personally settle the matter. In these instances the sultan had the
individuals involved sent to him. In order to resolve complaints about the brawl in Casablanca
with which this chapter began, Mawlāy Ḥasan ordered the qā’id ‘Abdallāh al-Ḥaṣār to send the
Jewish prisoners to him for questioning. 65
Despite the centrality of the sultan to the system of judicial appeals, the sultan’s direct
intervention was not always necessary. For instance, in 1890 a petition from the Jews of Ūrīka,
near Marrakesh, reached the Ministry of Complaints. 66 The Jews claimed that their khalīfa had
63
It is not clear exactly what position Muḥammad al-Hādī held; he is not found in Ma‘lamāt al-Maghrib.
64
Al-Fāsī referred to the sofrim as “their ‘udūl” (DAR, Marrakesh, 24807, Muḥammad al-Hādī b. ‘Abd al-Nabī al-
Fāsī to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 20 Ṣafar 1309).
65
DAR, Yahūd, 34155, Ḥājj ‘Abdallāh Ḥaṣār to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 16 Jumādā I 1294.
66
BH, K 171, p. 115, 1 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1307. It is not clear whether this petition came from the town of Ūrika or the
region of the same name (in which the largest Jewish population resided in a town called Amizmiz); see Daniel J.
245