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Number of Entries Concerning Shalom 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Table 2.2 0 Shalom Assaraf in the Sharī'a Court Islamic Year Table 2.2 illustrates the distribution of documents concerning Shalom by year. The earliest document is from December 16, 1854 (25 Rabī‘ I 1271), and the latest is from April 15, 1892 (17 Ramaḍān 1309). The number of entries per year which concerned Shalom increased steadily until about 1864-5 (1281 AH). After 1864-5, Shalom’s appearances in court remained relatively consistent until 1882-3(1300 AH), at which point the number of entries per year dropped significantly. 17 Aside from a few markedly low years (from 1868-9/1285, 1872-5/1289- 91, 1876/1293, and 1881-2/1299), between 1864 and 1883 Shalom averaged about 49 visits to a sharī‘a court per year. 18 In other words, during the height of his commercial activity, he was in 17 At this point, the number of entries for Ya‘aqov increases, making it clear that Shalom ceded much of his commercial activity to his son. 18 Including the remarkably low years, Shalom averaged 39 entries per year between 1281 and 1300 AH. 74
court approximately once a week, either to have a legal document drawn up and notarized by ‘udūl or to pursue a lawsuit in which he was involved. 19 Let us follow Shalom through a few months at the local sharī‘a court to get a sense of how these averages played out in reality. In the year 1283 AH (1866-7), Shalom appeared before ‘udūl—and occasionally before a qāḍī as well—a total of 42 times. Most of these appearances were in order to notarize bills of debt. For instance, he went before ‘udūl to testify that a Muslim owed him money—and receive a legal document attesting this—on Wednesday, May 16, 1866; again on Friday, June 1; twice on Wednesday, June 20; 20 again on Thursday, July 19; again on Thursday, August 9; and once again on Wednesday, August 15. Then, on August 29, Shalom sued Ibn al-Dīn (?) b. ‘Āmir al-Ḥasāwī al-‘Agabī in the sharī‘a court, claiming that al-Ḥasāwī owed him 125 mithqāls. 21 On Thursday, September 13, a Muslim guaranteed the appearance of another Muslim in court with Shalom—presumably one against whom Shalom had a claim of some sort. Before May 4, 1867 (the last day of 1283 AH), Shalom would return to the court 33 more times—for debts, lawsuits, guarantees, and once to release a Muslim associate from further claims (though I will not bore readers with the details of each of these appearances). The fact that Shalom Assarraf appeared before ‘udūl or a qāḍī on average once a week during his most active years as a businessman should not be surprising given that scholars have long noted that Jews used sharī‘a courts for commercial transactions involving Muslims. 19 Of course, it is also possible that Shalom went to a sharī‘a court even more often than these documents show, since this collection may be incomplete (perhaps because Shalom did not always conserve a paper record of his activities in court and/or because some of these documents have subsequently been lost). 20 I did not record the names of the debtors for these particular documents, thus there is no way to know whether both bills of debt were for the same person. Although I found some instances in the Assarraf collection in which a Jewish creditor drew up multiple bills of debt for the same debtor on a single day, I also found many cases in which the creditor appeared before ‘udūl to notarize debts owed by different debtors on a single day. 21 In fact, Shalom claimed that al-Ḥasāwī owed him the money for a debt originally owed by al-Sahalī b. ‘Abdallāh al-Ḥimyānī; presumably al-Ḥasāwī had agreed to guarantee the debt, although this was not specified in the document itself. 75
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IN THE COURTS OF THE NATIONS: JEWS,
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Abstract This dissertation examines
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Table of Contents Abstract………
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throughout the process was vital to
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and Arielle Rubenstein, Stephanie S
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Introduction This dissertation exam
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on the internal history of the Jewi
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cases they made up close to half of
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study of law in the Islamic world w
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of these institutions remain opaque
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and, for some individuals, appealin
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actors with agency and to understan
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many of those who espouse the neo-l
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In recent years, the neo-lachrymose
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alternative framework to that of au
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including courts—which were of pr
Page 33 and 34: Recently scholars working on the me
Page 35 and 36: We are left with two models of Jewi
Page 37 and 38: Legal pluralism is an approach to u
Page 39 and 40: orders. I also turn the focus from
Page 41 and 42: Nonetheless, the tendency of forum
Page 43 and 44: Legal pluralism does not explain wh
Page 45 and 46: Jewish communities were no less var
Page 47 and 48: is perhaps best attested by the fac
Page 49 and 50: To help remind readers that the thr
Page 51 and 52: abusive Makhzan officials, infringe
Page 53 and 54: Chapter One: Between Batei Din and
Page 55 and 56: went to batei din and sharī‘a co
Page 57 and 58: school relevant for our purposes is
Page 59 and 60: Jewish and Islamic legal systems re
Page 61 and 62: ehind, a large number were undoubte
Page 63 and 64: atei din generally, it does reflect
Page 65 and 66: Jews used batei din not only as not
Page 67 and 68: Jerusalem. 33 The collection consis
Page 69 and 70: (azraqu al-‘aynayn)—a trait for
Page 71 and 72: undoubtedly made much of their mone
Page 73 and 74: preventing members of the community
Page 75 and 76: ‘udūl. 76 These ‘udūl, whose
Page 77 and 78: Eliyahu b. Ya'aqov Zohra bat Ya‘a
Page 79 and 80: and Muḥammad would return the mon
Page 81 and 82: Table 2.1 Types of Entries 2% 2% 2%
Page 83: allegation or deposition in a case
Page 87 and 88: The introduction of the “protecti
Page 89 and 90: ule; the ‘udūl almost always too
Page 91 and 92: documents would stand up as evidenc
Page 93 and 94: Empire. 49 A document in the Assarr
Page 95 and 96: legal procedure was relatively mino
Page 97 and 98: een optional as not all bills of de
Page 99 and 100: Qa‘da 1309 (June 12, 1892), two
Page 101 and 102: mostly meant extending credit on go
Page 103 and 104: Other release documents specify tha
Page 105 and 106: al-faqīh Aḥmad al-Filālī al-Ma
Page 107 and 108: Lease contracts, on the other hand,
Page 109 and 110: which was operated by Muslims durin
Page 111 and 112: Shalom’s knowledge of Islamic law
Page 113 and 114: elow). Although the majority of law
Page 115 and 116: weeks after the plaintiff filed the
Page 117 and 118: gathered twelve men who testified t
Page 119 and 120: whether the qāḍī accepted al-
Page 121 and 122: in the Assarraf collection indicate
Page 123 and 124: (ittifāqīyan) and were testifying
Page 125 and 126: In another instance of oath avoidan
Page 127 and 128: Sharī‘a courts provided a crucia
Page 129 and 130: agreement notarized according to Is
Page 131 and 132: ability and desire to move among di
Page 133 and 134: ‘udūl. 14 Most real estate trans
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equire or benefit from adjudication
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Simultaneous Use of Jewish and Isla
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evidence from the nineteenth centur
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to sue other Jews in sharī‘a cou
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But what about intra-Jewish lawsuit
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ut for the most part this is a here
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the sum of three duoros per month.
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only in Jewish law. This happened i
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in the millāḥ of Marrakesh on Ap
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aware of Jewish law and sometimes t
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of a rabbi to determine the proper
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‘Aṭṭār, in order to find out
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Muslims’ jurisdictional boundary
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that they had successfully done so.
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the Moroccan legal system more broa
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translated as the territories under
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elatively scant work on the legal h
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law, even if they did not consisten
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abrupt end after his death, as the
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put it, “in all medieval Muslim s
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about its image in the eyes of fore
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an injustice or an act of oppressio
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In designing its new army, the Makh
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The Ministry itself, although in co
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Minister of Complaints, a man about
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It is not entirely clear whether th
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initial letters. 102 The convention
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whether the sultan simply failed to
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Chapter Five: Appeals to the Minist
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Jews and the Ministry of Complaints
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The nature of these sources prevent
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Causes for Complaint Most of the ap
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products (such as barley). 23 This,
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appears numerous times). 29 While t
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matter what their religious backgro
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when amounts are specified they ten
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cases which were ultimately settled
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Jews who had been robbed. 62 The su
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from July 28, 1892, a group of Jews
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nature of sharī‘a courts. 83 In
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legal proof of his claim. 91 It is
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the Jewish victims were compensated
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central government could only do so
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and Muslim was responsible for arra
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sometimes the Makhzan officials’
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A more formidable obstacle to settl
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The Jewish creditor, however, reque
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The practice of exaggerating the va
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official accused a Jew of falsifyin
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esolve disputes with their Jewish d
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property. 178 In this case, the Mak
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Chapter Six: Collective Appeals to
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frequency of Jews’ petitions acro
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The concentration of petitions duri
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“right”—as in, the rights to
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merchants serve as judges on a rota
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Makhzan officials at times evoked t
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The evidence of Jews’ appeals to
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governor). 46 The next winter the J
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along with a legal document contain
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Following this escalation of violen
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The governor of Debdou similarly pr
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custom and the sultan’s command.
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minister of foreign affairs, receiv
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Yet murder cases were not the only
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Moroccan legal system. On the one h
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In 1884 the Jews of Fez appealed to
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Although at first these appeals mig
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The Jews of Meknes appealed to the
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In other instances, Makhzan officia
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about their own coreligionists. The
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Europeans—a sentiment that at oth
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complain about their muḥtasib, em
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Chapter Seven: Foreign Protection a
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Perhaps most important, however, is
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of consular courts functioned throu
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of Muslims from becoming protégés
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cases between its own nationals or
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of consular courts by specifying th
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an important moment in the history
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were required to notify their consu
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dealt with cases by means other tha
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In other instances, consuls wrote t
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qāḍī” attesting a debt owed t
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The following two chapters examine
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clarify when and why he had taken t
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Even scholars who argue against see
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ecognize their contract since “th
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of the individuals concerned. 31 Pr
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concerning the incident, which they
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speculated that the reluctance of t
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protection) of Yitzḥaq b. Nissim
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cooperate with foreigners’ reques
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Dinar Ohana), an American protégé
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Jews tried to ensure a fortuitous o
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ordered Assayag to stop paying Zagu
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efused. 100 Faced with this dead en
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claimed that Emsellem had no right
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number of foreign subjects and prot
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By subjecting the suit to Moroccan
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sued Mas‘ūd al-Shayẓamī (Meso
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Foreign subjects and protégés wer
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confirmed that this meant the Jews
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AIU’s attention either through pe
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A competing narrative of Moroccan J
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non-Jewish Westerners alike, I argu
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international press. Demnat might s
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attribute the Makhzan’s efforts t
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The events in Demnat were not the o
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finally wrote to Muḥammad Bargās
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wearing Muslim clothing and told hi
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of 1863. Four Jews were accused of
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made an honest mistake, the effect
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etracted his initial testimony clai
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the remaining two subjects. Only af
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organizations, and the foreign pres
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Marseillais, The Times, The Pall Ma
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coreligionists’ position. 112 Avn
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had been following the standard pra
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did not declare that Jews and Musli
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under the jurisdiction of Makhzan o
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tolerance. 142 Such a policy would
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concede to the American ambassador
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Epilogue On March 30, 1912, France
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courts to matters of personal statu
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This sort of continuity in legal pr
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intra-Jewish cases to these courts
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Glossary of Arabic and Hebrew Terms
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Ẓahīr: Royal decree (spelled “
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United States: United States Nation
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———. Kitāb al-istiqṣā li-
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Becker, Jerónimo. España y Marrue
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Chetrit, Joseph. Diglossie, hybrida
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Ennaji, Mohammed. Expansion europé
Page 403 and 404:
Gotzmann, Andreas. “At Home in Ma
Page 405 and 406:
———. Les protégés : contrib
Page 407 and 408:
Marcus, Abraham. The Middle East on
Page 409 and 410:
Perron, M. Précis de jurisprudence
Page 411 and 412:
———. “Forum Shopping Among
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Cultural Dimensions, edited by Mich
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