The Moroccan Mellāḥ: Governing Jewish Spaces and the Islamic Secular

Abstract

This article examines the Moroccan institution of the mellāḥ—the walled Jewish quarters established in Fez, Marrakesh, Meknes, and Tetouan from 1438 onward—as a case study for testing Sherman Jackson's distinction between the sharʿī and non-sharʿī ("Islamic Secular") realms in Islamic governance. Tracing the mellāḥ's historical development through themes of protection, surveillance and control, communal autonomy, and spatial separation, the article argues that while the mellāḥ's establishment reflected pragmatic, non-sharʿī governmental decisions rather than explicit sharʿīa mandates, its underlying logic remained inseparable from sharʿī concepts of dhimma, jizya, and the power differential embedded in the protection-for-submission arrangement. The article contends that this entanglement complicates Jackson's claim that a clear boundary can be drawn between sharʿī and non-sharʿī domains, since institutions like the mellāḥ emerge from the interaction of both. Extending this analysis to Jackson's proposal for a future Islamic political order based on empire-state pluralism and communal autonomy, the article raises questions about how such autonomy would be concretely implemented, particularly regarding the scope of non-Muslim communal jurisdiction and the tension between communal authority and individual members' appeals to state law, using contemporary Coptic Christian and historical Jewish Moroccan experiences as illustrative parallels.

Keywords

• Islamic Secular
• Mellāḥ
• Dhimma
• Jewish-Muslim relations
• Morocco
• Communal autonomy

References

1. Ahmed, Leila, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.