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

justice.” 92 (I discuss this sort of change in language in greater detail below.) Although Mawlāy
Muḥammad’s ẓahīr did little to change the status of Jews in Morocco, news of Montefiore’s
purported success travelled throughout the Jewish world. Jews from all over Europe and as far
as Iran congratulated Montefiore on his success and, through his mission, gained a new
consciousness of their connection to Jews in Morocco. 93
These events make it clear that, contrary to the claims of much of the scholarship on the
Safi Affair, Ben Yehudah and Lalouche were not put to death “without even the charade of a
trial.” 94 In fact, the sultan consulted experts in Islamic law to determine whether the confessions
of the four suspects were valid given the possibility that they been obtained under torture. Nor
was the Makhzan acting entirely freely when it decided to put Ben Yehudah and Lalouche to
death; the Spanish ambassador’s threats made it hard for the sultan to ignore his demands.
Moreover, the Jews of Tangier who spearheaded the efforts to save Lalouche, Aflalo and Ben
Moyal from meeting the same fate as Ben Yehudah did not only petition foreign diplomatic
officials. On the contrary, after Lalouche’s execution, their first appeal was to the local Makhzan
official. Whether or not Lalouche and Ben Yehudah were executed unjustly, the evidence from
the Moroccan archives suggests that this was hardly an example of the Makhzan oppressing Jews
and Europeans coming to save them.
Reexamining Cause Célèbre II: Ntifa
The Ntifa case is less widely remembered than the Safi affair, though at the time it
garnered nearly as much attention from foreign consular officials, international Jewish
92 Al-nās kulluhum ‘indanā fī al-ḥaqqi sawā’ (ibid.).
93 See Green, Moses Montefiore, 313-15.
94 Gilbert, In Ishmael’s House, 117.
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