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

To help remind readers that the three legal orders existed in parallel to one another, I
weave the story of one family, the Assarrafs, through all three parts of the dissertation. The
Assarrafs were Jews living in Fez at the end of the nineteenth century. I glean most of my
information about them from their archive of sharī‘a court documents—now in private hands—
which traces their presence in the sharī‘a courts of Fez from about 1850 to 1912 (I introduce the
family and their archive at greater length in Chapter One). Part One, which examines sharī‘a
courts, draws most heavily on the Assarraf collection and thus focuses more on the Assarrafs
themselves. Yet the family’s history runs throughout the dissertation as an example of how
individuals moved among the three legal systems I discuss. Although this dissertation is not a
micro-history of the Assarrafs’ legal lives, I use elements of micro-history to tie its different
sections together.
I begin with the legal orders which operated at the local level, that is, the courts of first
instance where individuals fulfilled most of their quotidian legal needs. Part One thus examines
sharī‘a courts and, to a lesser extent, batei din. Chapter One sets the stage; I orient readers to the
jurisdictional rules which theoretically governed the respective spheres of authority of batei din
and sharī‘a courts. I briefly look at the functioning of batei din in order to contextualize Jews’
use of sharī‘a courts in the array of legal options available to them. Finally, I introduce the
sources and especially the Assarraf family.
The following two chapters in Part One look more closely at Jews’ use of sharī‘a courts.
Chapter Two asks how Jews used sharī‘a courts for cases involving Muslims—that is, according
to the jurisdictional guidelines outlined by Islamic law. I discuss how Jews were treated in
sharī‘a courts, arguing that their experience did not differ greatly from that of Muslims. Drawing
mainly on the Assarraf collection, I trace which matters brought the Assarrafs and their Jewish
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