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Europeans—a sentiment that at other times caused Jews to challenge their position in the Islamic
social order. 125
In a different kind of case, Jews appealed to the Makhzan acusing other Jews of breaking
Jewish law. In the summer of 1895, the rabbi Shalom b. al-Wīrī petitioned the sultan on behalf
of the Jews of Meknes; he claimed that his coreligionist Ya‘aqov Ohana (Uḥanā) refused to hand
over the tax on meat (known as the gabella) to the Jewish communal leaders so that it could be
re-distributed to the poor. 126 Mawlāy ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ordered the qā’id of Meknes to make sure
that Ohana no longer kept the tax for himself, “like the other Jewish butcher shops.” 127 While
Jews in similar circumstances might have attempted to discipline Ohana through the intervention
of Jewish officials, the Jews of Meknes in this instance chose instead to ask the Makhzan to
bring Ohana in line.
The Question of Anti-Jewish Sentiment
After reading such a long litany of petitions, one might get the impression that Jews
constantly suffered from the prejudice and persecution of their local officials even if they were
able to appeal to the central government for redress. There is little question that at times
125
For instance, when Moses Montefiore came to Morocco in 1864 to appeal to the sultan to improve his treatment
of Moroccan Jews, a number of Jews took the resulting ẓahīr, which essentially reiterated the terms of the dhimma
pact, as license to abuse their Muslim neighbors (discussed in Chapter Nine). For another example of a collective
complaint against Jews whose association with Christians had caused harm to the community, see BH, K 181, p.
340, 25 Rajab 1310. In this case, the Jews of Marrakesh petitioned the local qā’id Muḥammad Wīda concerning a
Jew named Qurqūz (Corcos—most likely either Ḥaim or his son Yeshu‘a). Corcos had rented a house in the millāḥ
to a Christian for an exorbitant price (twenty riyals instead of the usual two); now the Christian wanted to set up a
machine for grinding olives in the house. The Jews argued that the Christian came with the intention of being a
guest only; presumably his desire to introduce a mechanical olive press threatened the livelihood of those Jews
involved in the old method of olive oil production.
126
10 Rabī‘ I 1313, Mawlāy ‘Abd al-‘Azīz to Ḥammu b. al-Jīlālī (in Ibn Zaydān, Al-‘Izz wa-’l-ṣawla, v. 2, 141-2).
127
For another case of petitions concerning other Jews, see DAR, Yahūd, ?? to Mawlāy ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, 2 Rabī‘ II
1312.
267