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(li-‘adami iqrārihi).” Although the Makhzan correspondence did not name the Jewish suspects,
we learn from elsewhere that they were Jacob (Akkan) Ben Yehudah (or Benhuda), Makhluf
Aflalo, Sa‘diah Ben Moyal (Saïdo, Shido)—all Moroccan subjects—and Eliyahu Lalouche (or
Elias Beneluz), an Ottoman subject probably from Tunisia. 69
It soon became clear, however, that capital punishment had in fact been demanded by the
Spanish authorities: “The Spanish ambassador requested that the two dhimmīs who are
imprisoned in Safi be killed, just as their [the Spanish] official who was poisoned [was killed].” 70
The Spanish had even threatened the Makhzan with attack should the sultan fail to execute the
Jewish suspects. 71 This explanation makes sense given that Moroccan courts rarely sentenced
murderers to death. Rather, as discussed in Chapter Five, the normal punishment for murder was
the payment of blood money to the heirs of the deceased. Some of the foreign newspapers
reporting on the affair even noted that the Spanish were in this instance more bloodthirsty than
the Moroccans. 72
Before the Makhzan authorities could fully comply with the Spanish ambassador’s
request, a complication arose concerning the validity of the Jews’ confessions. One of the Jews
69
Littman, “Mission to Morocco,” 178-9; Kenbib, Juifs et musulmans, 124; Fenton and Littman, L’exil au Maghreb,
397. Kenbib gives the names of two more Jews (Chalom el-Qaïm and Jacob Benharroche) who were also
implicated but, it seems, imprisoned only briefly. Lalouche is described as a Turkish subject in the Moroccan
sources. His father apparently had a passport issued in Gibraltar by Cardoza, the Tunisian consul there (Littman,
“Mission to Morocco,” 181). However, Littman seems to think that Lalouche had been granted protection by
Frederick Carstensen, the British consul in Safi. The Moroccan sources, on the other hand, clearly indicate that the
British consular authorities were involved because they had agreed to look after the interests of Ottoman subjects in
Morocco: see especially DAR, Safi, 4718, al-Ṭayyib b. Hīma to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 25 Rabī‘ I 1280.
70
Mā ṭalabahu bāshadūr al-ṣbanyūl [sic] min qatli al-dhimmīyayn al-maḥbūsayn bi-sijni Asafī fī mithli [sic] qatli
amīnihim alladhī summima (DAR, Safi, 4713, al-Ṭayyib b. al-Yamānī to Muḥammad Bargāsh, 11 Rabī‘ I 1280).
See also DAR, Safi, Muḥammad Bargāsh to al-Ṭayyib b. al-Yamānī, 27 Ṣafar 1280.
71
Kenbib, Juifs et musulmans, 126. Littman reports that Merry y Colom, the Spanish ambassador, sent a warship to
Safi to demand Akkan’s execution; however, he does not come to the conclusion that the pressure to execute the
Jews came primarily from Spain: Littman, “Mission to Morocco,” 188.
72
See, for instance, the article in The Jewish Chronicle, 6 November 1863, p. 6 (cited in Littman, “Mission to
Morocco,” 180). Yet before Kenbib’s discussion of the Safi affair, historians tended to ignore this observation made
by contemporaries in favor of an explanation that blamed the Moroccan authorities.
350