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

(azraqu al-‘aynayn)—a trait for which the Assarrafs of Fez are known until today. 42 Shalom,
like his son Ya‘aqov, was most likely only literate in Judeo-Arabic, though we know nothing
about his education. 43 At some point in the late nineteenth century, Shalom acquired American
protection; the fact that he was a protégé is further indication of his elite status. 44
Shalom’s main occupation, and that of Ya‘aqov after him, was as a middleman selling
goods bought in bulk to individuals in Fez and the surrounding area. The family specialized in
the textile trade; the Assarrafs bought foreign textiles and sold them on credit, mostly to
Muslims. 45 They also sold other goods, such as wheat, olive oil, silk, and wool, though there are
far fewer documents attesting to trade in these items than in foreign textiles.
The nature of these foreign textiles merits further discussion. The textiles are described
in the documents as kattān, kattān marikān (American kattān), or simply marikān. “Kattān”
means “flax” or “linen” in classical Arabic. 46 However, it is almost impossible that kattān could
have referred to flax in the context of late nineteenth-century Morocco. It is much more likely
that kattān, as used in Morocco, was an adaptation of the English and/or French “cotton/coton,”
42 TC, File #7, 11 Rabī‘ II 1302. Concerning the Assarrafs’ reputation for blue eyes, I spoke with a descendant of
the Assarraf family who explained that “les Assarrafs sont les blonds avec les yeux bleus” (conversation with Alice
Oliel, née Hatchuel, 21 July 2011).
43 I surmise Shalom’s level of literacy from the fact that he wrote summaries in Judeo-Arabic on the back of most of
his Islamic legal documents, explaining what the document was for and whom it concerned. This was a common
practice among Jews which allowed them to remind themselves of the contents of their legal archives without
resorting to a translator each time they needed to interpret a document.
44 I discuss Shalom’s protection further in Chapter Seven.
45 Yehoshoua Frenkel is, I believe, mistaken in asserting that the bills of debt concerning textiles all refer to
partnerships for “the manufacture of cloth in Fez” (Frenkel, “Jewish-Muslim Relations in Fez,” 75). Frenkel seems
to think that the bills of debt in which the Assarrafs sold Muslims foreign textiles on credit are, in fact, agreements
in which a Muslim who possessed raw materials agreed to process these materials into finished cloth. The vast
majority of documents in the Assarraf collection do not provide any evidence that Muslims agreed to process raw
materials into finished textiles; it is possible that Frenkel based his observations on one or two documents which did
not prove to be representative of the entire collection (since he consulted only a small number of documents). Nor
does Frenkel account for the fact that the textiles are described as “American,” as I discuss below.
46 Frenkel simply translated kattān as “flax,” which, given the context, is clearly a mistake (ibid., 73).
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