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their legal disputes. Jews petitioned the Makhzan collectively when they believed that the misbehavior of local officials endangered the entire community, when local Islamic legal institutions denied them justice, or when their legal independence was threatened. The fact that Jews protested when they were mistreated in local Islamic legal institutions shows the importance of Islamic law to the functioning of their daily lives. Jews’ readiness to petition the state when they believed their legal autonomy was threatened demonstrates the extent to which the Moroccan government was responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of even Jewish legal institutions. It is difficult to say whether Halévy was correct in saying that Jews’ ability to “address their complaints” to the central government was their most important recourse against suffering, since as we have seen sending collective petitions to the Makhzan was just one tactic among many. Nonetheless, Halévy clearly understood that petitioning the state was a key strategy upon which Jews relied to resolve their legal disputes. 270
Chapter Seven: Foreign Protection and Consular Jurisdiction Shalom Assarraf had been active as a businessman since the 1850s; by the following decade his business was growing rapidly and he was well on his way to building the modest commercial empire which helped earn him a prominent role as a leader of his community. 1 In 1871, Shalom took a step that increasing numbers of his fellow Moroccans were taking; he acquired a patent of foreign protection. This patent gave him a degree of extraterritoriality; he was no longer required to pay taxes to the Makhzan, and, in theory at least, he could not be prosecuted in a Moroccan court of law (including both sharī‘a and Makhzan courts). Shalom’s patent of protection came from the United States of America, where a relative of his (described as a Mr. Azeraf of New York) was living and had appointed him as his agent. 2 Shalom leveraged his status as a foreign protégé to have the American ambassador, Felix A. Mathews, intervene on his behalf with the Makhzan concerning legal disputes in which he was involved. In one incident, Shalom was attacked by some soldiers as he arrived at his store in Fās al-Jadīd. 3 The soldiers “arrested him, beat him, and were about to kill him; were it not for the Muslims who removed him and took him to his house, they would have killed him.” 4 Mathews wrote to the sultan demanding that he order his officials to make sure that Shalom “got his due,” by which he presumably meant that Shalom wanted to be compensated financially for 1 I have in mind Shalom’s election as nagid of the Jewish community of Fez in 1873: see Chapter One. 2 USNA, reg. 84, v. 48, “List of Individuals (not citizens of the US) under the jurisdiction or protection of the U.S. Consulate in the Empire of Morocco according to ancient custom and treaty stipulations” (p. 81). I have not yet been able to locate any information about Mr. Azeraf of New York, but presumably he was a relative of Shalom who had moved to the United States. 3 USNA, reg. 84, v. 141A, Felix A. Mathews to Mawlāy Ḥasan (letter #26), 26 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1301. 4 Qabaḍūhu ba‘ḍu al-‘askari wa-ẓarabūhu wa-kādū an yaqtalūhu wa-law lā āl al-muslimīn naza‘ūhu wa-ḥamalūhu li-dārihi la-qatalūhu. 271
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IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS: JEWS,
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Abstract This dissertation examines
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Table of Contents Abstract………
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throughout the process was vital to
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and Arielle Rubenstein, Stephanie S
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Introduction This dissertation exam
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on the internal history of the Jewi
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cases they made up close to half of
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study of law in the Islamic world w
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of these institutions remain opaque
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and, for some individuals, appealin
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actors with agency and to understan
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many of those who espouse the neo-l
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In recent years, the neo-lachrymose
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alternative framework to that of au
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including courts—which were of pr
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Recently scholars working on the me
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We are left with two models of Jewi
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Legal pluralism is an approach to u
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orders. I also turn the focus from
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Nonetheless, the tendency of forum
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Legal pluralism does not explain wh
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Jewish communities were no less var
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is perhaps best attested by the fac
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To help remind readers that the thr
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abusive Makhzan officials, infringe
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Chapter One: Between Batei Din and
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went to batei din and sharī‘a co
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school relevant for our purposes is
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Jewish and Islamic legal systems re
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ehind, a large number were undoubte
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atei din generally, it does reflect
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Jews used batei din not only as not
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Jerusalem. 33 The collection consis
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(azraqu al-‘aynayn)—a trait for
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undoubtedly made much of their mone
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preventing members of the community
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‘udūl. 76 These ‘udūl, whose
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Eliyahu b. Ya'aqov Zohra bat Ya‘a
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and Muḥammad would return the mon
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Table 2.1 Types of Entries 2% 2% 2%
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allegation or deposition in a case
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court approximately once a week, ei
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The introduction of the “protecti
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ule; the ‘udūl almost always too
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documents would stand up as evidenc
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Empire. 49 A document in the Assarr
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legal procedure was relatively mino
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een optional as not all bills of de
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Qa‘da 1309 (June 12, 1892), two
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mostly meant extending credit on go
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Other release documents specify tha
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al-faqīh Aḥmad al-Filālī al-Ma
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Lease contracts, on the other hand,
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which was operated by Muslims durin
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Shalom’s knowledge of Islamic law
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elow). Although the majority of law
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weeks after the plaintiff filed the
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gathered twelve men who testified t
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whether the qāḍī accepted al-
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in the Assarraf collection indicate
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(ittifāqīyan) and were testifying
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In another instance of oath avoidan
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Sharī‘a courts provided a crucia
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agreement notarized according to Is
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ability and desire to move among di
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‘udūl. 14 Most real estate trans
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equire or benefit from adjudication
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Simultaneous Use of Jewish and Isla
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evidence from the nineteenth centur
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to sue other Jews in sharī‘a cou
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But what about intra-Jewish lawsuit
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ut for the most part this is a here
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the sum of three duoros per month.
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only in Jewish law. This happened i
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in the millāḥ of Marrakesh on Ap
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aware of Jewish law and sometimes t
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of a rabbi to determine the proper
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‘Aṭṭār, in order to find out
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Muslims’ jurisdictional boundary
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that they had successfully done so.
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the Moroccan legal system more broa
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translated as the territories under
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elatively scant work on the legal h
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law, even if they did not consisten
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abrupt end after his death, as the
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put it, “in all medieval Muslim s
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about its image in the eyes of fore
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an injustice or an act of oppressio
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In designing its new army, the Makh
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The Ministry itself, although in co
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Minister of Complaints, a man about
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It is not entirely clear whether th
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initial letters. 102 The convention
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whether the sultan simply failed to
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Chapter Five: Appeals to the Minist
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Jews and the Ministry of Complaints
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The nature of these sources prevent
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Causes for Complaint Most of the ap
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products (such as barley). 23 This,
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appears numerous times). 29 While t
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matter what their religious backgro
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when amounts are specified they ten
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cases which were ultimately settled
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Jews who had been robbed. 62 The su
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from July 28, 1892, a group of Jews
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nature of sharī‘a courts. 83 In
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legal proof of his claim. 91 It is
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the Jewish victims were compensated
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central government could only do so
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and Muslim was responsible for arra
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sometimes the Makhzan officials’
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A more formidable obstacle to settl
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The Jewish creditor, however, reque
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Page 231 and 232: official accused a Jew of falsifyin
Page 233 and 234: esolve disputes with their Jewish d
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Page 237 and 238: Chapter Six: Collective Appeals to
Page 239 and 240: frequency of Jews’ petitions acro
Page 241 and 242: The concentration of petitions duri
Page 243 and 244: “right”—as in, the rights to
Page 245 and 246: merchants serve as judges on a rota
Page 247 and 248: Makhzan officials at times evoked t
Page 249 and 250: The evidence of Jews’ appeals to
Page 251 and 252: governor). 46 The next winter the J
Page 253 and 254: along with a legal document contain
Page 255 and 256: Following this escalation of violen
Page 257 and 258: The governor of Debdou similarly pr
Page 259 and 260: custom and the sultan’s command.
Page 261 and 262: minister of foreign affairs, receiv
Page 263 and 264: Yet murder cases were not the only
Page 265 and 266: Moroccan legal system. On the one h
Page 267 and 268: In 1884 the Jews of Fez appealed to
Page 269 and 270: Although at first these appeals mig
Page 271 and 272: The Jews of Meknes appealed to the
Page 273 and 274: In other instances, Makhzan officia
Page 275 and 276: about their own coreligionists. The
Page 277 and 278: Europeans—a sentiment that at oth
Page 279: complain about their muḥtasib, em
Page 283 and 284: Perhaps most important, however, is
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Page 287 and 288: of Muslims from becoming protégés
Page 289 and 290: cases between its own nationals or
Page 291 and 292: of consular courts by specifying th
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Page 299 and 300: In other instances, consuls wrote t
Page 301 and 302: qāḍī” attesting a debt owed t
Page 303 and 304: The following two chapters examine
Page 305 and 306: clarify when and why he had taken t
Page 307 and 308: Even scholars who argue against see
Page 309 and 310: ecognize their contract since “th
Page 311 and 312: of the individuals concerned. 31 Pr
Page 313 and 314: concerning the incident, which they
Page 315 and 316: speculated that the reluctance of t
Page 317 and 318: protection) of Yitzḥaq b. Nissim
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Page 321 and 322: Dinar Ohana), an American protégé
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Page 325 and 326: ordered Assayag to stop paying Zagu
Page 327 and 328: efused. 100 Faced with this dead en
Page 329 and 330: claimed that Emsellem had no right
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number of foreign subjects and prot
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By subjecting the suit to Moroccan
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sued Mas‘ūd al-Shayẓamī (Meso
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Foreign subjects and protégés wer
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confirmed that this meant the Jews
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AIU’s attention either through pe
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A competing narrative of Moroccan J
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non-Jewish Westerners alike, I argu
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international press. Demnat might s
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attribute the Makhzan’s efforts t
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The events in Demnat were not the o
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finally wrote to Muḥammad Bargās
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wearing Muslim clothing and told hi
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of 1863. Four Jews were accused of
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made an honest mistake, the effect
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etracted his initial testimony clai
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the remaining two subjects. Only af
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organizations, and the foreign pres
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Marseillais, The Times, The Pall Ma
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coreligionists’ position. 112 Avn
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had been following the standard pra
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did not declare that Jews and Musli
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under the jurisdiction of Makhzan o
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tolerance. 142 Such a policy would
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concede to the American ambassador
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Epilogue On March 30, 1912, France
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courts to matters of personal statu
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This sort of continuity in legal pr
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intra-Jewish cases to these courts
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Glossary of Arabic and Hebrew Terms
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Ẓahīr: Royal decree (spelled “
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United States: United States Nation
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———. Kitāb al-istiqṣā li-
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Becker, Jerónimo. España y Marrue
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Chetrit, Joseph. Diglossie, hybrida
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Ennaji, Mohammed. Expansion europé
Page 403 and 404:
Gotzmann, Andreas. “At Home in Ma
Page 405 and 406:
———. Les protégés : contrib
Page 407 and 408:
Marcus, Abraham. The Middle East on
Page 409 and 410:
Perron, M. Précis de jurisprudence
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———. “Forum Shopping Among
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Cultural Dimensions, edited by Mich
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