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

minister of foreign affairs, received a complaint from the Jews of Marrakesh. 84 The petitioners
reported that two of their coreligionists were murdered while collecting debts in the Sunday
market of Akantarn. 85 The murderers also made away with the victims’ money and the legal
documents in their possession attesting debts they were owed. The Jews had appealed to their
pasha, Aḥmad Amālik, over the course of seven months, but all he had done was to arrest five
suspects in the murder and then release three of them. The victims’ relatives had not received an
indemnity, nor had any of the stolen goods been returned. Bargāsh asked the sultan to send two
or three of his representatives to Amālik to force him to investigate the case and settle with the
Jewish victims.
In early 1885, the Jews of Safi wrote to Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtarī, one of the sultan’s
viziers, about the murder of Am‘amar b. Yaḥyā, a Jew who had been selling merchandise in the
country market of the Awlād ‘Imrān. 86 Am‘amar left the market with four Muslims who then
killed him and stole the goods in his possession. The Jews initially wrote to their qā’id al-Ḥājj
al-Jilālī about the lack of action on the part of Sīdī al-Ṭayyib, qā’id of the region where the
murder took place (and the official responsible for prosecuting the murderers). Al-Jilālī had to
write to al-Ṭayyib twice; only after the second time did al-Ṭayyib respond that the murderers
were absent (and thus that he was unable to punish them). However, the Jews claimed
the victim); BH, K 181, p. 36, 11 Ṣafar 1309 (in which the Jews of Fez complained about the case of two Jews who
were murdered in the region of (the qā’id?) al-Ḥibāsī); BH, K 181, p. 137, 21 Sha‘bān 1309 (in this case the Jews of
Meknes complained that their coreligionist was murdered in the Duwār al-Tafāwatiyya; al-Ḥibāsī, the Makhzan
official responsible for this region, arrested a group of suspects, and although they denied the murder, he imprisoned
them all—except for one who escaped and another who claimed to be a French protégé).
84
DAR, Yahūd, 24355, Muḥammad Bargāsh to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 15 Ramaḍān 1297. Mawlāy Ḥasan had recently
appointed Bargāsh as the official intermediary for the complaints of Jews about mistreatment by Makhzan officials,
although not all subsequent complaints went directly to Bargāsh. In this case, the Jews went to the Italian consul
first, but he responded that the matter was under Bargāsh’s jurisdiction.
85
Bargāsh noted that Akantarn (possibly Akantarf) is between Tansaghart and Ayt ‘Alī, that is, to the south of
Marrakesh near Asni.
86
DAR, Safi, 5020, Jews of Safi to Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtarī, 12 Rabī‘ II 1302. See also DAR, Safi, 31539, 3
Jews of Safi to Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtarī, Sha‘bān 1302: this is the same letter as the one from 12 Rabī‘ II,
indicating perhaps that the initial letter did not reach al-Mukhtarī.
251