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international press. Demnat might seem an unlikely place for Jews to receive so much attention
from the Makhzan as well as from foreign diplomats and Jewish organizations given its
relatively small size and lack of political importance. The fact that Demnat was one of the few
towns in Morocco where the Jewish population equaled or exceeded the Muslim population
helps explain the considerable stir caused by Jews’ complaints. 10
Most of the scholarship on relations between Demnati Jews and the Makhzan emphasizes
the role of European diplomats and Jewish organizations such as the AIU and the Anglo-Jewish
Association (the AJA, based in London) in convincing the Makhzan to intervene on the Jews’
behalf. For instance, in Paul Fenton and David Littman’s recent book on Jews in the Maghrib,
the authors reprint a royal decree (ẓahīr) from July 7, 1864, in which the sultan, Mawlāy
11
Muḥammad, ruled that the governor of Demnat must treat the Jews of his city justly.P1152F
P This
ẓahīr was printed on November 14, 1884 in The Jewish Chronicle, a Jewish newspaper published
in London. The Chronicle wrote that Mawlāy Muḥammad proclaimed the ẓahīr in response to
Moses Montefiore’s intercession on behalf of Moroccan Jews during his visit to Morocco in
1883-4. Fenton and Littman do not contradict the Chronicle’s claim, nor do they offer any other
contextualization for this source, suggesting that they also believe the ẓahīr was solely a response
to Montefiore’s visit.P1153F
12
P In
337
order to fully understand Mawlāy Muḥammad’s ẓahīr, however, it is
10
In 1879, Demnat’s Jewish population was estimated at 1,000 individuals: see Ben-Srhir, Britain and Morocco,
196.
11
Fenton and Littman, L’exil au Maghreb, 327-9. The ẓahīr specifically mentions that the governor should refrain
from the following abuses: throwing Jews into prison unjustly; forcing Jews to host people against their will; making
rich Jews pay the jizya for the poor (since everyone should pay equally); forcing Jews to work on the Sabbath;
subjecting Jews to corvée labor; and forcing Jews to buy things against their will. I did not find a copy of this ẓahīr
in the Moroccan archives, though this is not surprising given the incompleteness of the archives. However, there is
evidence that the sultan issued a ẓahīr to al-Jilālī: in al-Mayānī’s letter to Bargāsh of 30 Muḥarram 1281/ 5 July
1864 (in DAR, Demnat), he noted that the sultan ordered the governor of Demnat “not to intervene in [the Jews’]
religion or their law (an lā yadkhula fī umūri dīnihim wa-shar‘ihim).”
12
See also Littman’s discussion of the events in Demnat in which he only addresses Jews’ appeals to foreigners:
Littman, “Mission to Morocco,” 197. Bashan makes the same argument: Eliezer Bashan, Moshe Montefiore ve-