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“there was no basis to this claim” (lā aṣla lihādhihi al-da‘wā). 24 Two opposing camps had
developed among Demnat’s Jews, one that felt they were being oppressed by their governor and
appealed to the Makhzan and foreigners to gain redress, and another that disapproved of their
coreligionists’ actions and appealed to the sultan to stop them. 25
The acrimonious relationship among Demnati Jews and their governor was not resolved
in 1884 and Jews continued to appeal to the Makhzan and foreigners for redress. 26 In 1887,
Mawlāy Ḥasan made a personal visit to Demnat and ordered the building of a new millāḥ at the
request of the city’s Muslim and Jewish notables. 27 This episode is also of interest in that it
indicates that walled Jewish quarters were at times perceived by Jews as advantageous to their
security—especially in light of an earlier petition in which Demnati Jews complained to the
sultan that the lack of walls separating them from Muslims made them fear for their safety. 28
Needless to say, the story of Demnat’s Jews and their relationship with al-Jilālī was far more
complex than one in which foreign intervention protected them from the abuses of their
governor. Demnati Jews maximized their chances of gaining redress by appealing to both
foreigners and the Makhzan.
24
Ibid.
25
See also a legal document from 3 Ṣafar 1302/ 22 November 1884 (DAR, Yahūd, 15599), in which a group of
Jews testified concerning their coreligionists who, seeing that Jews in other towns were not punished for attacking
Muslims, had thrown stones at Muslims and attacked them. The Jews testifying in this document clearly
disapproved of their coreligionists’ actions.
26
For petitions to the Makhzan, see BH, K 157, p. 35, 22 Ramaḍān 1306 and p. 44, 12 Shawwāl 1306. For petitions
to the AIU, see AIU, Maroc III C10 E2, Elihu Moshe Panisel to AIU, Av 5645 (received 28 August 1895).
27
See the legal document from 17 Sha‘bān 1304/ 11 May 1887 with lists of Muslim and Jewish notables noted on
the side of the document. Although the document was framed in terms of the annoyances caused to Muslims by the
mingling of Jews and Muslims, the Jews present declared that they accepted the place assigned for the new millāḥ
and pledge to move their cemetery and to leave their present houses once the new millāḥ was constructed (in
Flamand, Un mellah en pays berbère, 161-4). See also the ẓahīr from the same date (in ibid., 159-60) in which the
sultan ordered the construction of the new millāḥ. Of course, this did not prevent at least some of the Jews from
refusing to move to the new millāḥ: see DAR, Yahūd, 27937, al-Ṭayyib (al-Yamanī?) to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 8 Rabī‘ I
1308. On the sultan’s visit to Demnat, see also Berque, L’intérieur du Maghreb, 477.
28
DAR, Demnat, Mawlāy Ḥasan to al-Jilālī al-Dimnātī, 30 Rabī‘ I 1296. See also Flamand, Un mellah en pays
berbère, 20. Flamand claimed that the new millāḥ was completed in 1894, though he does not cite a source for this
date.
340