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

In other instances, consuls wrote to Makhzan officials with specific requests that a trial
be initiated; this was especially common in criminal cases. 75 For instance, in 1879, Muḥammad
b. Aḥmad al-Khaḍir, a Makhzan official in Tetuan, wrote to Muḥammad Bargāsh concerning the
theft of property belonging to a Spanish protégé, Shalom b. Harūsh. 76 Shalom had sent some
gold thread (ṣqalī) to Fez through a messenger (raqāṣ 77 ), but later learned that the messenger had
instead sold the gold thread for his own profit in al-Kasr al-Kabir, a city in northern Morocco.
Shalom’s consul pressed the local officials to produce compensation for the stolen goods. 78
Khaḍir convinced the governor of al-Kasr to bring the seller (presumably the messenger) and the
buyer of the thread to court; the governor ruled that they must return the thread to Harūsh. The
Spanish consul was mollified once assured that his protégé would be compensated for his loss. 79
In 1871-2, consular and Makhzan officials experimented with a new type of legal
institution with jurisdiction over foreign nationals and protégés. They convened a “mixed court”
to examine and judge claims made by foreign subjects and protégés concerning unpaid debts that
they were owed by “shaykhs and governors,” that is, Makhzan officials and rural
administrators. 80 This mixed court, which has yet to be discussed by scholars, was largely an
75
However, for an instance in which the consul requested a trial for a civil case (a matter of unpaid debts), see
USNA, Register 84, v. 29, Corcos to al-‘Arabī Faraj, 28 Rajab 1300/ 4 June 1883.
76
DAR, Tetuan, 1215, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Khaḍir to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 29 Rabī‘ II 1296.
77
See Sinaceur, Dictionnaire Colin, v. 3, 651.
78
In fact, originally the Spanish consul suggested that the amīn al-raqāṣ (postmaster) should pay the indemnity, but
al-Khaḍir’s representative explained that the messenger’s only responsibility was to carry letters, and thus that the
postmaster could not be held responsible since Shalom had asked the messenger to transport goods.
79
It seems that when this letter was written the thread had still not been returned to Shalom, as Khaḍir asked
Bargāsh to make sure that Shalom received the compensation due to him. For more such cases, see DAR, Fez,
33858, Mawlāy Ḥasan to Sa‘īd b. Farajī, 9 Muḥarram 1300; DAR, Ḥimāyāt, Muḥammad al-Ṭūris to Mawlāy Ḥasan,
10 Shawwāl 1301; DAR, Yahūd, 8539, Muḥammad al-Ṭūris to Ḥammu b. al-Jilālī, 15 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1311.
80
The main documentation for this mixed court comes from the court’s records, found in AGA, Caja M 9, Exp. no.
1 (81/9), Diario de los Sesiones de la Comisión Mixta Internacional (libro primero y segundo), and the record book
of the Tribunal Marroquí, 1871-2.
289