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Yet murder cases were not the only ones which spurred Jews to collectively appeal to the
Makhzan on behalf of crimes against individual Jews. In December 1905, a group of Jews wrote
to ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ, the governor of Marrakesh (and future sultan) about the abuse of a Jew by a
government official. 89 The petitioners reported that Ḥaim b. Susan, a Jew from Marrakesh, was
in the Tuesday market in Misfīwa and bought two chickens. No sooner had he paid his two
pesetas than a local Muslim objected and started beating Ḥaim, eventually bringing him to the
local governor’s khalīfa. The khalīfa summarily imprisoned Ḥaim, put him in chains, and took
all his money (a total of 169 riyāls)—for no apparent reason whatsoever. Ḥaim was only
released two days later when another Jew from Marrakesh came to Misfīwa and paid the khalīfa
to let him go. 90 The Marrakshī Jews who complained to ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ wanted the khalīfa in
Misfīwa to restore Ḥaim’s money and, presumably, to be admonished not to repeat such actions.
In response, ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ wrote to the governor of Misfīwa asking him to investigate the matter
and, if the Jews’ claims proved true, to force the khalīfa to reach a settlement. 91
Finally, some collective petitions concerned cases in which Jews were the suspects
instead of the victims. In the summer of 1891, the Jews of Safi submitted a petition regarding a
Jewish couple who rented a house from a Muslim and who had become suspects in their
landlord’s murder. 92 The husband took refuge in the sanctuary (ribāṭ) of Abū Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ,
the city—a period during which he would not have had time for such matters—and when he finally did manage to
investigate, he found that the Jew had died naturally (on al-Swīsī, see Ḥajjī, Ma‘lamāt al-Maghrib, v. 15, 5198)).
89
DAR, Yahūd, ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ to Ibn al-Madanī al-Ajlāwī, 6 Shawwāl 1323.
90
Ḥaim’s savior was named Hananiah b. al-Dayyan. Hananiah paid five riyāls to get Ḥaim out of prison and two
riyāls and six gurush for the chain.
91
For a similar case involving theft, see DAR, Yahūd, Jews of Debdou to Mawlāy ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, 15 Jumādā II
1314. In this letter the Jews of Debdou complained that three of their coreligionists had been robbed of thousands of
riyāls by the Awlād ‘Abdallah. The sultan had sent al-Yazīd, the qā’id of Taza, to settle their claims, but he only
returned a small fraction of the stolen money to one of the Jews and then left Debdou without resolving the case.
The Jews asked that the sultan appoint a governor over them to deal with issues like this; they also noted that they
appealed only to the sultan for such matters—no doubt implying that they did not seek the aid of foreigners, as did
some of their coreligionists.
92
BH, K 181, p. 16, 5 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1308.
253