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

theoretical jurisdictions to hear commercial and civil affairs that did not fall under the category
of personal status law. 11 Jews continued to go to the beit din to register their commercial
deeds—transactions which did not fall under the competence of the batei din as it was envisioned
by the French. Once again, the Assarraf family serves as our guide through the workings of the
Moroccan legal system. The Assarrafs continued to use the beit din to notarize their commercial
transactions even after 1912. For instance, on July 23, 1920, Ḥaim Yosef b. Mordekhai Assarraf
(Shalom’s nephew) and Makhluf b. Mas‘ūd Ḥamu registered their commercial partnership in the
beit din of Fez. 12 On August 11 of the same year, Ya‘aqov Assarraf rented a funduq to Moshe
Aharon b. Mas‘ūd Buṭbol for 125 francs per month. 13 More than a decade later, on June 25,
1934, David b. Ya‘aqov Assarraf and his wife Hanah bat ‘Ayush ‘Atiya sold three portions of a
mortgage on a room they owned to Moshe b. Avraham Qadosh for 1,125 francs. 14 Similarly,
sharī‘a courts—which were also limited in theory to personal status law—continued to hear
cases involving civil and commercial affairs. 15 Nor does this continuity seem to have been
limited to cities like Fez; as Daniel Schroeter has observed about Ighil n’Ogho, a small town in
southern Morocco, the notarial practices of Jews and Muslims changed little after the French
established colonial rule there in the 1930s. 16 Although much research remains to be conducted
on the Moroccan legal system during the Protectorate, there is little question that Moroccans
continued to use their local legal institutions in much the same ways as before 1912 despite the
French authorities’ efforts to rationalize law in Morocco.
11
Schroeter and Chetrit, “Emancipation and its Discontents,” 195. The evidence I found in the registers of batei din
contradicts Chouraqui’s observation that Jewish courts did not deal with civil and commercial cases, even while
sharī‘a courts did (Chouraqui, Condition juridique, 129).
12
PD, register of the beit din of Fez 1920-2, #28, 23 July 1920.
13
PD, register of the beit din of Fez 1920-2, #58, 27 Av 5680.
14
PD, register of the beit din of Fez 1934, #7, 12 Tammuz 5694/ 25 June 1934.
15
Chouraqui, Condition juridique, 129.
16
Schroeter, “Views from the Edge,” 183-4.
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