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

confirmed that this meant the Jews would not be charged interest. While we do not know if their
strategy worked, the Jews’ motives were clear enough; they preferred a sharī‘a court over a
consular court because they knew that Islamic law would not require them to pay interest.
* * *
While the spread of consular protection certainly changed Morocco’s legal system, Jews
with foreign protection or nationality did not cease to interact with the courts which existed in
Morocco prior to the capitulation treaties. On the one hand, consular officials increasingly
recognized Islamic legal procedure—especially notarization by ‘udūl—as the gold standard of
evidence in their courts. On the other, Jews sometimes chose to adjudicate their disputes in
sharī‘a courts or before Makhzan authorities when they felt that doing so would prove
advantageous. This does not mean that foreign protection was not a valuable asset in nineteenth-
century Morocco; on the contrary, its value arguably increased as the century progressed.
Rather, foreign protection was not exactly the kind of asset historians have thought it to be.
Obtaining a patent of protection or foreign nationality was useful in legal pursuits not so much
because it definitively moved individuals from one jurisdiction to another, but rather because it
added yet another set of legal institutions in which Moroccans could adjudicate their disputes.
Jews who obtained foreign protection thus expanded their legal options; besides batei din, sharī‘a
courts, and Makhzan courts, they now also had access to the consular courts of their protecting
nation. Although the acquisition of foreign nationality or protection changed their legal status, it
did not radically change the nature of their legal strategies. Jews continued to make every effort
to pick and choose the legal forums to which they appealed according to what they thought
would best serve their interests.
the dhimmīs requested Islamic law, they must be given their choice. For a summary of these issues, see Fattal,
Statut légal, 351-8.
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