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

Chapter One: Between Batei Din and Sharī‘a Courts
In early 1907, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Fatḥan al-Mīshūrī owed his landlord rent. The
landlord was none other than Ya‘aqov Assarraf, son of the prominent merchant Shalom Assarraf
and one of the most influential (and wealthy) Jews of Fez. 1 On February 25, 1907, the two went
to a sharī‘a court where they recorded that Muḥammad had sold two silver bracelets which he
had given Ya‘aqov as surety, and had handed over the proceeds in order to pay the overdue rent. 2
Seventeen days later, on March 14, Ya‘aqov went to court again. This time, though, he appeared
before Jewish notaries to draw up a bill of sale according to Jewish law. He sold a donkey
(described as green!) to a fellow Jew named Yehudah b. Eliyahu Agiri. 3 The following month,
Ya‘aqov was back in a sharī‘a court twice for more contracts with Muslims. On April 10 he had
‘udūl notarize a bill of debt which testified to money he was owed by a Muslim. 4 On April 15 he
went back to notarize a lease for the usufruct rights of a store in the millāḥ (the Jewish quarter);
he rented the property to Muḥammad b. Laḥsan al-Filālī and his son Idrīs for two riyāls a
month. 5
1
The previous spring, Muḥammad had rented the usufruct rights to a store in the millāḥ from Ya‘aqov, agreeing to
pay a monthly rent of one riyāl and three dirhams (TC, File #1, 1 Rabī‘ I 1324/ 8 May 1906). The store itself was
owned by a ḥubs (pious endowment), but the usufruct rights could be bought, sold, and leased much like normal
property; see the discussion in Chapter Two.
2
This is written on the back of the above-cited rental document, dated 12 Muḥarram 1325. Muḥammad sold the
bracelets for ten riyāls, six mithqāls, and one dirham, which amounted to at least ten months’ rent. Riyāls were
actually a separate currency from mithqāls and dirhams, made of silver. The riyāl referred to here probably
corresponded to the French riyāl; one French riyāl equaled five francs (this was the riyāl more commonly used after
1896, as opposed to the Spanish riyāl: see Thomas Kerlin Park, “Inflation and Economic Policy in 19th Century
Morocco: The Compromise Solution,” The Maghreb Review 10, no. 2-3 (1985): 54). There were ten dirhams in a
mithqāl. The relationship between riyāls and dirhams changed quite a bit over the course of the second half of the
nineteenth century, so it is difficult to say precisely how much 10 riyāls, 6 mithqāls and one dirham were worth. In
1863, one riyāl equaled 32.5 dirhams, though undoubtedly this had changed by 1906. See Germain Ayache, Etudes
d’histoire marocaine (Rabat: Société Marocaine des Editeurs Réunis, 1979), 128-31.
3
JTS, Box 5, Folder #2, 28 Adar 5667.
4
TC, File #9, 26 Ṣafar 1325.
5
TC, File #5, 2 Rabī‘ I 1325.
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