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

ented a third of the room for nine francs and four centimes per month, and Muḥammad b.
Muḥammad al-Qārī rented the remaining two-thirds of the same room for eighteen francs and
three centimes per month. 21 The two Muslim tenants would pay their rent at the beginning of
each Jewish month, starting in Iyar of that year (which fell in April).
Similarly, Jews continued to appear in sharī‘a courts for intra-Jewish commercial
transactions. For instance, on March 16, 1920, a Jew named David b. Ḥaim bout a house in the
millāḥ of Marrakesh from three of his coreligionists through his agent Yehudah b. Menaḥem al-
Sharfā. Three weeks later, David b. Ḥaim sold half of this house to Yitzḥaq b. Moshe b.
Ohayon. Both of these transactions were recorded in Arabic and signed by two ‘udūl and a
qāḍī. 22 Again, these were deeds that, according to the new laws governing jurisdiction in
Morocco, should not have been recorded in a sharī‘a court in the first place. The fact that David
b. Ḥaim made sure his real estate transactions were notarized by ‘udūl further suggests that he
thought his claim to the property might be challenged in a sharī‘a court—which also should not
have been possible according to the new French laws.
Preliminary research suggests that the French eventually succeeded in imposing a more
rigid demarcation of jurisdictional boundaries separating Jewish and Muslim courts. The
frequency with which Muslims elected to appear in Jewish courts seems to have petered off, if
not stopped entirely, by the 1930s. An examination of about 150 documents entered in a register
of the beit din of Fez covering the year 1934 did not yield a single case involving Muslims. 23 It
is likely that a study of sharī ‘a court registers would similarly reveal that Jews brought their
21
PD, register of the beit din of Fez 1920-2, #35 and #36, 23 July 1920.
22
Yale, MS. 1825.1333, 25 Jumādā II 1338 and 17 Rajab 1338. I am grateful to Aomar Boum for bringing this
document to my attention.
23
PD, register of the beit din of Fez 1934.
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