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

made an honest mistake, the effect of their error is to create the impression that the sultan’s
minister was intent on executing the two Jewish suspects. In reality, however, much of the letter
revolves around the Spanish ambassador’s demand that all four Jews be executed. The Jews’
complaints about the Spanish minister are entirely lost in Fenton and Littman’s rendering;
instead, they depict the Makhzan as ruthlessly intent on executing two innocent Jews. The clear
message in this recent historiography is that the Safi case was an example of the oppression of
Jews by a regime that dispensed an arbitrary form of justice and was largely motivated by anti-
Jewish sentiment.
It is worthwhile examining the case in some detail. The first mention of the incident in
the Moroccan archives is from August 10, 1863, when the sultan, Mawlāy Muḥammad, wrote to
Muḥammad Bargāsh, minister of foreign affairs. 65 Mawlāy Muḥammad explained the basic
facts of the case to Bargāsh, who would shortly be meeting with the Spanish ambassador to
discuss the trial. He explained that two Jews from Essaouira had poisoned a Spanish customs
official named Montilla in Safi, who subsequently died. 66 The two Jews “confessed that [they
had been helped by] two other Jews, one from our territory [that is, a Moroccan subject] and the
other who purports to be from the territory of the Turks.” 67 The sultan explained that all four
were currently in prison. The two who were Moroccan subjects and who had “confessed”
(aqarrū) would be killed; the Turkish subject fell under the jurisdiction of the English consul, 68
but the English consul had surrendered the suspect to be imprisoned by the Moroccan authorities;
the fourth suspect (also a Moroccan subject) would not be killed because he “had not confessed
65
DAR, Safi, 4722, Mawlāy Muḥammad to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 24 Ṣafar 1280.
66
Miège gives the Spaniard’s name, which is absent from the Moroccan documents: Miège, Le Maroc et l’Europe,
v. 2, 564.
67
Wa-aqarra bi-yahūdīyayn ākharayn ma‘ahu fī dhālika aḥaduhumā min iyālatinā wa-’l-ākharu muḍāfun li-iyālati
al-Turk (DAR, Safi, 4722, Mawlāy Muḥammad to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 24 Ṣafar 1280).
68
Fa-amruhum ilā qunṣū al-injalīzi.
349