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

chamber (known as a maqṣūra) adjacent to the mosque, near the row of shops belonging to ‘udūl
(known as smat al-‘udūl). 70 Mawlāy Ḥasan (reigned from 1873-94) appointed a second qāḍī
whose court was located near the Raṣīf mosque (usually spelled Rcif in transliteration), near the
Bāb al-Raṣīf (Rcif gate) on the other side of the river known as the Wādī Fās which bisects Fās
al-Bālī. 71 The third court was located in Fās al-Jadīd, a smaller walled city nearly a kilometer
away from Fās al-Bālī; Fās al-Jadīd housed the grounds of the palace, the military barracks, and
the millāḥ. 72 A qāḍī known as qāḍī al-jaysh (the military judge, although the court’s jurisdiction
was not limited to the army alone) presided over this court, which was located at the entrance to
the administrative quarters of the palace (dār al-makhzan). 73 Courts were normally in session
during the early afternoon, though exceptionally they could remain open until the evening
prayer. 74
In addition to Fez’s three qāḍīs, approximately three hundred ‘udūl served the legal needs
of the city’s inhabitants. The qāḍī al-quḍā was responsible for appointing ‘udūl, who were
usually locals with a modest level of education. 75 Some ‘udūl were mobile (known as sāriḥūn),
working either in their own homes or in those of their clients. Others, working in pairs, occupied
one of about twenty stores that “crowd[ed] round the Karaouiyin” in the area known as smat al-
Editions La Porte, 1987), 453-71. The qāḍī al-quḍā was also responsible for appointing qāḍīs throughout Morocco,
directing the madrasa of the Qarawīyīn mosque, and administering the ḥubūs of Fez (ibid., 214).
70 Eugène Aubin, Morocco of To-Day (London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1906), 220; Le Tourneau, Fès avant le
protectorat, 216. On the meaning of smat in colloquial Moroccan Arabic, see Reinhart Pieter Anne Dozy,
Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1881), v. 1, 684.
71 Aubin, Morocco of To-Day, 220; Le Tourneau, Fès avant le protectorat, 216. The second qāḍī was appointed at
the request of the qāḍī al-quḍā, Mawlāy Muḥammad al-Filālī al-‘Alawī, though exactly when is unclear (ibid., 214
and Péretié, “Les medrasas de Fès,” 315).
72 On Fās al-Jadīd, see Le Tourneau, Fès avant le protectorat, 264-7.
73 Ibid., 266. For reasons I do not understand, Yehoshoua Frenkel claims that the qāḍī of Fās al-Jadīd and the qāḍī
of al-Raṣīf were the same (Frenkel, “Jewish-Muslim Relations in Fez,” 72). Both Le Tourneau and Péretié assert
that the qāḍī of Fās al-Jadīd had a third court, separate from that of the two qāḍīs presiding in Fās al-Bālī.
74 Audiences occurred between ẓuhr (noon, the second prayer of the day) and ‘aṣr (mid-afternoon, the third prayer
of the day). If necessary, sessions were extended until maghrib (after sunset, the fourth prayer of the day): Le
Tourneau, Fès avant le protectorat, 216.
75 Ibid., 215.
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