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traveled to Casablanca and “slaughtered” (dhabaḥū) an animal before the Christians there (most
likely the consular officials). Slaughtering an animal on a person’s doorstep was a way of
obligating that person to protect the one who made the sacrifice. These Demnati Jews almost
certainly performed this ritual hoping to gain European protection. 124 The document went on to
describe these rebellious Jews as being involved in issues that were none of their business,
engaging in insolent behavior, and having “transgressed the limits of the laws that had been
contracted with their ancestors permanently [regarding] their governor (ta‘addaw al-ḥudūda fī ’l-
qawānīni al-ma‘hūdati li-aslāfihim ‘alā al-dawāmi ma‘a ‘āmilihim).” It seems that these Jews
had appealed to the consular officials to intercede against their governor, even though they were
the ones guilty of transgressing the law.
The following November, the Jews of Demnat again complained about their
coreligionists, this time accusing them of having thrown stones at Muslims and attacking a
fellow Jew. The Jewish petitioners brought their story to the qā’id al-Jilālī al-Dimnātī,
explaining that these misbehaving Jews had received letters from Jews elsewhere in the country
who claimed to have done similar things without being punished. Given the short amount of
time elapsed between the two documents, it seems likely that the group of insolent Jews who
went to Casablanca were the same ones later accused of mistreating their Muslim neighbors.
These Jews might have acquired a sense of invincibility from their newfound association with
124
Slaughtering an animal at the doorstep of someone’s house was a widespread ritual which invoked ‘ār (best
translated as shame) on a given party if he did not fulfill one’s request: Kenneth Brown, “The ‘Curse’ of
Westermarck,” Acta Philosofica Fennica 34 (1982). It was not unknown for Moroccans to invoke ‘ār with
Europeans, particularly consuls, in an attempt to gain consular protection. See, e.g., FO, 174/221, Diary of the
British Consulate in Tangier, pp. 49-50, 23 August 1849.
266