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important to note that Jews had earlier petitioned the Makhzan directly, in addition to appealing
to foreign consuls and the AIU. 13 It is also pertinent that the Makhzan issued a warning to al-
Jilālī despite the fact that Makhzan officials concluded that the Jews did not have enough
evidence to support their claims of abuse. 14 In agreeing to address the Jews’ claims, it is not
clear whether the Makhzan was responding to pressure instigated by Montefiore’s visit or
whether the Jews’ direct appeals had more influence on the final resolution of the matter. 15
Similar patterns are found in the second major confrontation between Demnati Jews and
their governor twenty years later. 16 The incidents in 1884 were something of a cause célèbre,
and the Moroccan and European press reported on the purported abuses which al-Jilālī levied
against Jews. 17 The Demnati Jews’ complaints resulted in a ẓahīr from Mawlāy Ḥasan (issued
on September 14, 1884) ordering al-Jilālī to cease his abuses of the Jews. 18 Many accounts
yehudei Maroko: ‘al pi te‘udot ḥadashot min ha-shanim 1845-1885 (Jerusalem: Makhon Yad Ben Zvi, 2008), 123-
9.
13
See DAR, Demnat, al-Ṭayyib al-Mayānī to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 24 Muḥarram 1281 and 30 Muḥarram 1281. In
both these letters, al-Mayānī referred to Demnati Jews’ earlier appeals to the Makhzan about their governor. In the
letter from 30 Muḥarram 1281, al-Mayānī instructed Bargāsh to inform the British ambassador and the other consuls
about the measures being taken on behalf of Jews, indicating that the Demnati Jews had appealed to both foreign
consuls and the Makhzan. On the Demnati Jews’ petitions to the AIU, see AIU, Maroc III C 10 E5, Jews of Demnat
to AIU, 25 May 1864 and Maroc III C10, E25.05, Rabbi Mimon Ifran (representative of the Jewish Community of
Demnat) to the Junta of Tangier, 25 May 1864.
14
See DAR, Demnat, al-Ṭayyib al-Mayānī to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 30 Muḥarram 1281 and Muḥammad Bargāsh to
Mawlāy Muḥammad, 27 Rabī‘ I 1281.
15
The representatives of the Jews of Demnat signed a statement attesting the fact that their complaints had been
addressed: DAR, Demnat, Muḥammad Bargāsh to Mawlāy Muḥammad, 27 Rabī‘ I 1281.
16
In fact, the Jews of Demnat petitioned the Makhzan twice more between 1864 and 1884, though the lack of
documentation about these petitions suggests that they concerned more minor incidents. See DAR, Demnat,
Mawlāy Muḥammad to Sīdī Ḥasan, 14 Ramaḍān 1282 (concerning a disagreement among the Muslim cobblers and
the Jewish tanners of Demnat) and DAR, Demnat, Mawlāy Ḥasan to al-Jilālī al-Dimnātī, 30 Rabī‘ I 1296
(concerning the Jews’ complaint that they were afraid because there were no walls separating their quarter from that
of the Muslims; Mawlāy Ḥasan instructed al-Jilālī to post guards in the Jewish quarter to assuage the Jews’ fears).
17
The 14 November 1884 article from The Jewish Chronicle cited above (and found in Fenton and Littman, L’exil
au Maghreb, 327-9), in which the ẓahīr of 1281 was reprinted, was primarily about the events of 1884. See also
“Horrible Persecution of Jews,” The Times of Morocco, 18 December 1884 and articles in Jewish Intelligence,
March 1885, in ibid., 336-40.
18
DAR, Demnat, 15598, ẓahīr from Mawlāy Ḥasan, 23 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1301. See also DAR, Demnat, Mawlāy Ḥasan
to al-Ḥajj al-Jilālī al-Dimnātī, 1 Sha‘bān 1302 (in which Mawlāy Ḥasan essentially repeated his earlier instructions).
Mawlāy Ḥasan eventually relieved al-Jilālī of his authority over the Jews of Demnat, transferring this responsibility
338