Justice Served or Justice Subverted? Two Muslim Women sue a local ‘Mudéjar’ Official in fourteenth-century Aragon

Abstract

In 1300 two Muslim women sued a local aljama official in Daroca, claiming he had unlawfully evicted them from their houses, and physically mistreated them, all without due legal process. In the trial, after witnesses corroborated the womens’ claims, the defendant accused them of being unreliable. These objections were not admitted by the magistrate, who found in the women’s favor, and punished the official. A close reading of the process reveals that, far from being a straightforward case of abuse of power, the defendant may well have been in the right. If so, the framing of Ali Dexadet, the lieutenant alamín of Daroca, exemplifies the debilities of Islamic justice in mudéjar Aragón, and reveals the depth of the factionalism which often characterized minority communities.