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coreligionists’ position. 112 Avner related that at first he had received a report from a group of
Demnati Jews outlining the events as they were transmitted to foreign consuls—that is, that al-
Ntīfī had murdered Jacob Dahan. However, more recently Avner had received a second letter
from Demnati Jews with a different version of the story. This letter described al-Ntīfī as:
…one skilled in affairs [and] of good conduct. He only arrested the aforementioned Jew
[Dahan] after he was suspected of [having sexual relations with] the aforementioned
Muslim woman; and he only gave him 100 lashes, and [Dahan] did not die until he
became sick in his house after being released. 113
Avner went on to say that the Jews of Demnat did not want al-Ntīfī’s dismissal, since this would
have harmed both Jews and Muslims. Avner asked al-Mukhtār to transmit the Demnati Jews’
request to the sultan and to intercede with him on behalf of Ntifa’s governor.
In the end, al-Ntīfī was not dismissed from his post, although the sultan allocated Jacob
Dahan’s son 5,000 riyāls (not a paltry sum at the time). 114 The Makhzan justified itself to the
foreign consular officials who had lobbied to have al-Ntīfī fired by invoking the rule of law. In a
letter to John Drummond Hay, the British ambassador, a Makhzan official explained that the
Jews had been insolent towards their local governor. 115 The Makhzan official did not claim that
Dahan had died of natural causes, perhaps suggesting that this was a weak argument and difficult
or impossible to uphold. Instead, the Makhzan official chose clarified the drawbacks of firing al-
Ntīfī. 116 Were al-Ntīfī to be dismissed, “governors will cease to pass sentence against [Jews] for
fear of their evil and their lies, the Jews will come out on top and violators of the law will be
112
DAR, Yahūd, 32511, al-ḥazān Abnīr to Muḥammad b. al-‘Arabī b. al-Mukhtār, 28 Shawwāl 1297.
113
Wa-huwa sadīdu [sic; should be shadīdu] al-ra’yi ḥasanu al-sīrati wa-lā qabaḍa al-dhimmīya al-madhkūra ḥattā
ittahamūhu bi-’l-muslimati al-madhkūrati wa-a‘ṭāhu mī’atan min al-‘aṣā faqaṭ wa-lā māta ḥatā maraḍa bimanzilihi
ba‘da tasrīḥihi (ibid.).
114
DAR, Yahūd, 15589, Muḥammad Bargāsh to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 7 Jumādā II 1298.
115
Ben-Srhir, Britain and Morocco, 194.
116
One reason that the author of this letter might not have even attempted proving al-Ntīfī’s innocence is that,
according to Bargāsh, the version of events which claimed that Dahan had died of the blows which al-Ntīfī
administered had by this point been accepted by all the foreign consuls (see DAR, Yahūd, 32715, Muḥammad
Bargāsh to Mawlāy Ḥasan, 8 Dhū al-Qa‘da 1297).
359