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The 1850 Events In Aleppo: An Aftershock Of Syria's Incorporation Into The Capitalist World System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Bruce Masters
Bruce Masters
Affiliation:
History Department Wesleyan University
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Extract

The events of Aleppo have caused amongst all classes of all nationalities a sensation such as I have never witnessed here before. The population of Aleppo is the wealthiest, best conducted community in Syria. That such a body of people in a time of profound peace, living under the protection of an organized government of two pashas and a garrison of regular troops of all arms should find themselves, without the slightest provocation on their part, or a moment's warning, the victims of atrocities which are rarely practiced on a town taken by storm, is a consideration which has, I regret to say, produced a feeling most unfavorable to the responsible government.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 1990 , pp. 3 - 20
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

NOTES

1 Public Record Office, London, Foreign Office (FO) 226/107.

2 The highest figure given for Christians murdered was 18, reported by Consul Werry in a letter to Rose, (Beirut), 2 11 1850, FO 226/107. Bishop Bulus Arutin recorded that 7 people died during the rioting itself and 300 were wounded. Of those, 70 later died.Google ScholarBūlus, Qara⊃lī, Ahamm Hawādith Halab (Cairo, n.d.), p. 85.Google Scholar

3 The standard work on the politics of the notables is Albert, Hourani's “Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables,” in William, Polk and Richard, Chambers, eds., Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East (Chicago, 1968), pp. 41–68.Google Scholar See also Halil, Inalcik, “Centralization and Decentralization in Ottoman Administration,” in Thomas, Naff and Roger, Owen, eds., Studies in Eighteenth-Century Islamic History (Carbondale, Ill., 1977), pp. 27–52.Google Scholar

4 There are two contemporary Christian accounts of the Events: one attributed to the Maronite Bishop Bulus Arutin and contained in Būlus Qara⊃lī's Ahamm Hawādith Halab, the other a diary of a Syrian Catholic schoolteacher, Na⊂⊂ūm, Bakhkhāsh, Akhbār Halab, ed. Fr, Yūsuf Qūshāqjī, 2 vols. (Aleppo, 1985–1987).Google Scholar Two English accounts have also been preserved: the letters of Consul Werry in the British Foreign Office Archives and the description by Edward, Barker, the honorary consul in Antioch, in Syria and Egypt under the Last Five Sultans of Turkey (London, 1876; reprinted, New York, 1973).Google Scholar In addition, the Events of Aleppo have been discussed extensively by Moshe, Ma⊂oz in his “Syrian Urban Politics in the Tanzimat Period between 1840 and 1861,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 29, 2 (1966). 277–301;Google ScholarOttoman Reform in Syria and Palestine 1840–1861 (Oxford, 1968), pp. 101–7. They are also covered in the two traditionally written chronicles of Aleppo published in the 1920s: Kāmil, al-Ghazzī, Nahr al-dhahab fī ta⊃rīkh Halab, 3 vols. (Aleppo, 1923–1926);Google ScholarMuhammad, Rāghib al-Tabbākh, l⊂lām al-nubalā⊃ bi-ta⊃rīkh Halab al-shahbā⊃, 7 vols. (Aleppo, 1923–1926).Google Scholar

5 Huri, İslamoğlu-İnan, “Introduction: ‘Oriental Despotism’,” in Huri, İslamoğlu-İnan, ed., The Ottoman Empire and she World Economy (Cambridge, 1987), p. 22;Google Scholar also in the same volume, Ilkay, Sunar, “State and Economy in the Ottoman Empire,” pp. 63–87;Google ScholarImmanuel, Wallerstein, Hale, Decdeli, and Resat, Kasaba, “The Incorporation of the Ottoman Empire into the World Economy,” pp. 88–97;Google Scholar finally see Faruk, Tabak, “Local Merchants in Peripheral Areas of the Empire: The Fertile Crescent during the Long Nineteenth Century,” Review, 9,2 (1988), 179–214.Google Scholar

6 Both English sources give ⊂Abdallah's family name as Babulsee, and that is the form favored by Ma⊂oz who spells it Babilsi. The contemporary Turkish and Arabic sources, however, give the name as Babinsi. This is more likely as there is a village Babnis to the north of the city of Aleppo, and it is from there that ⊂Abdallah or his ancestors most probably came. The discrepancy in the English versions of his name, no doubt, are a result of the Aleppo dialect, which often reduces the written letter n in the Arabic alphabet to the spoken sound / as in Armalī for Armanī (Armenian) and ⊂usmālī for ⊂uthmānī (Ottoman).

7 FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 19 10 1850.Google Scholar

8 Bruce, Masters, “Patterns of Migration to Ottoman Aleppo in the 17th and 18th Centuries,” international Journal of Turkish Studies, 4, 1 (1987), 84–85.Google Scholar For a discussion of the janissary and ashraf factional politics in the city see Herbert, Bodman, Political Factions in Aleppo, 1760–1826 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1963).Google Scholar

9 Qara⊃lī, , p. 64.Google Scholar

10 According to al-Tabbākh, the mob chanted to Abdallah “We don't want the vergi tax and we won't give any soldiers,” to which he replied, “You know your own work.” They then said, “We are going to plunder the government barracks and the Christians,” to which he again replied, “You know your own work.” The implication from this was that he had sanctioned the mob's action by saying that they knew best what to do; al-Tabbākh, , vol. 3, p. 439.Google Scholar

11 Qara⊃li, , pp. 81–82;Google Scholaral-Ghazzī, , vol. 3, p. 375.Google Scholar

12 Qara⊃lī, , p. 85;Google Scholaral-Ghazzī, , vol. 3, p. 375.Google Scholar In some cases, Muslims were paid to protect the Christians. FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 19 10 1850.Google Scholar

13 FO 226/107, Werry, to Rose, , 24 10 1850.Google Scholar

14 FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 26 10 1850.Google Scholar

15 Qara⊃lī, , p. 89.Google Scholar

16 FO 226/107, Werry, to Rose, , 6 11 1850;Google ScholarQara⊃lī, , pp. 90–91.Google Scholar

17 FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 8 11 1850.Google Scholar

18 Consul Werry reported that 1,000 were reputed to have been killed in the fighting and 500 wounded but he cautioned that the numbers were inflated. FO 226/107, to Consul, Rose, 6 11 1850. Volume 258 of the Aleppo Court Records, National Archives, Damascus (henceforth Aleppo Court), is an estates registry for Aleppines who died in the years 1849–1851 and contains the estates of four officers who are identified as having been killed in this operation (entries numbered 233, 234, 242, 390), but this is the only Ottoman source I have found for the casualties incurred in the fighting.Google Scholar

19 FO 26/107, Werry, to Rose, , 6 11 1850.Google Scholar

20 FO 86/2, Werry, to Canning, , 14 12 1850.Google Scholar

21 Aleppo, series al-Awāmir al-Sultāniyya (henceforth Aleppo AS), vol. 56, p. 36.

22 Ibid., pp. 25, 42, 66, 77, 123.

23 On concepts of privacy in Aleppo, see Abraham, Marcus, “Privacy in Eighteenth-Century Aleppo: The Limits of Cultural Ideas,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 18,2 (1986), 165–84.Google Scholar

24 Aleppo, Court, vol. 260, p. 49.Google Scholar

25 Aleppo, AS, vol. 56, p. 147.Google Scholar

26 FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 23 08 1850;Google ScholarIbid., 27 December 1851; Ibid., 17 January 1852.

27 Bakhkhāsh, , vol. 2, p. 217.Google Scholar

28 FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 11 01 1861;Google ScholarBakhkhāsh, , vol. 2, p. 221.Google Scholar

29 Bakhkhāsh, , vol. 2, p. 222.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 217, 232; FO 861/4, Werry, to Rose, , 10 05 1851.Google Scholar

31 Al-Ghazzī, , vol. 3, p. 382.Google Scholar

32 Aleppo AS, vol. 56, pp. 7–74; FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 5 05 1851.Google Scholar

33 Resistance was particularly heavy in the ⊂Alawi mountains. FO 861/2, Werry, to Canning, , 20 09 1851;Google ScholarIbid., 10 April 1852.

34 Ibid., Werry, to Canning, , 8 02 1851;Google Scholaribid., 11 October 1851; Bakhkhāsh, , vol. 2, p. 225.Google Scholar

35 Qara⊃lī, , p. 79.Google Scholar

36 Muhammad, Abū al-Sa⊂ūd all-Hasībī al-Dimashqī, “Mudhakkirāt,” in Suhayl, Zakkār, ed., Bilād al-Shām fī al-qarn al-tāsi⊂ ⊂ashar (Damascus, 1982), pp. 281–316.Google Scholar See also KamalSalibi, “The 1860 Upheaval in Damascus as Seen by al-Sayyid Muhammad Abu'l-Su⊂ud al-Hasibi, Notable and Later Naqib al-Ashraf of the City,” in Polk, and Chambers, , Beginnings of Modernization, pp. 185–202.Google Scholar

37 Al-Hasībī, , “Mudhakkirāt,” p. 283.Google Scholar

38 FO 406/8, Consul, Skene to Lord, J. Russell, 27 11 1860.Google Scholar

39 Al-Tabbākh, , vol. 3, p. 439.Google Scholar

40 Al-Ghazzī, , vol. 3, pp. 382–88.Google Scholar

41 Ma⊂oz, , “Syrian Urban Politics in the Tanzimat Period between 1840 and 1861,” pp. 293–95.Google Scholar

42 Barker, , p. 290.Google Scholar

43 Al-Tabbākh, , vol. 3, p. 439.Google Scholar

44 Afaf, Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali (Cambridge, 1984), p. 246.Google Scholar

45 Charles, Issawi, The Fertile Crescent, 1800–1914: A Documentary History (New York, 1988), PP. 152, 154. Also “Journal of the American Missionary, Rev. William Thomson,” dated 11 28, 1838, P. 33, contained in microfilm collection of the Papers of the American Board of Commissionersfor Foreign Missions, (ABC 16.8.1) Harvard University, Unit 5, reel 538, vol. I.Google Scholar

46 Eugen, Wirth, “Aleppo in 19. Jahrhundert: Ein Beispiel für Stabilität und Dynamik spätosmanischer Wirtschaft” (Erlangen, 1986), pp. 1–23. Corrected reprint of article with the same title published in Hans, Georg Majer, ed., Osmanistische Studien zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte (Wiesbaden, 1986), pp. 186–206.Google Scholar

47 Haim, Gerber, “The Population of Syria and Palestine in the Nineteenth Century”, Asian and African Studies, 13,1 (1979), 58–80;Google ScholarAndré, Raymond, “The Population of Aleppo in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 16(1984), 447–60.Google Scholar

48 Journal of Rev. William, Thomson, (ABC 16.8.1), p. 27.Google Scholar

49 FO 861 / 2, Werry, , 14 04 1846;Google Scholar also Norman, Lewis, Nomads and Settlers in Syria and Jordan, 1800–1980 (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 38–48.Google Scholar

50 FO 861/2, Werry, , 14 02 1846.Google Scholar

51 Al-Ghazzī, , vol. 3, pp. 365–66;Google ScholarSmilianskaya, I. M., “The Disintegration of Feudal Relations in Syria and Lebanon in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century,” in Charles, Issawi, ed., The Economic History of the Middle East (Chicago, 1966), PP. 227–47.Google Scholar

52 See for example, Aleppo, AS vol. I, PP. 28, 33, 39, 75.Google Scholar

53 The non-Muslims were assessed collectively for extraordinary taxes (⊂awārid, takālīf), see for example Aleppo, Court, vol. 23, p. 147; vol. 45, p. 75; vol. 87, Pp. 216–17, but were registered by name and individually responsible for the jizya payments; see, for example, Istanbul, Başbakanlik Arşivi, Maliyeden Müdevver, vol. 9849, dated 9 Sevval 1082/ February 8, 1672.Google Scholar

54 Al-Tabbākh, , vol. 3, P. 432.Google Scholar

55 FO 861/2, Werry, , 14 02 1846;Google Scholaral-Tabbākh, , vol. 3, p. 432.Google Scholar

56 Abraham, Marcus, “People and Property in Eighteenth-Century Aleppo,” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1979, pp. 298–311.Google Scholar

57 Barker, , p. 291.Google Scholar

58 Bruce, Masters, The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East: Mercantilism and the Islamic Economy in Aleppo. 1600–1750 (New York, 1988), pp. 43–47.Google Scholar

59 Masters, , “Patterns of Migration,” p. 85.Google Scholar

60 Bodman, , p. 138;Google Scholaral-Ghazzī, , vol. 3, pp. 351–52.Google Scholar

61 Barker, , p. 289.Google Scholar

62 Ibid., p. 288.

63 FO 86 1/2, Werry, , 16 05 1846.Google Scholar

64 FO 226/107, Werry, to Rose, , 24 10 1850.Google Scholar

65 Aleppo, Court, vol. 260, p. 47.Google Scholar

66 Masters, , The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East, pp. 204–13.Google Scholar

67 Alexander, Russell, The Natural History of Aleppo, 2 vols. (London, 1794), vol. 11, p. 29.Google Scholar

68 Bruce, Masters, “Trading Diasporas and ‘Nations’: The Genesis of National Identities in Ottoman Aleppo,” The International History Review, 9, 3 (1987), 345–67.Google Scholar

69 Masters, , The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East, pp. 62–64.Google Scholar

70 Jean-Pierre, Thieck, “Décentralisation ottomane et affirmation urbaine à Alep à la fin du XVIII⊂ siècle”, in Guy, Léonard, ed., Mouvements communauraires et espaces urbains au Machreq (Beirut, 1985), p. 163.Google Scholar

71 Bakhkhāsh, , vol. I, pp. 117, 167, 202, 250; vol. 2, pp. 168, 383.Google Scholar

72 FO 861/4, Werry, to Rose, , 26 11 1853.Google ScholarBakhkhāsh, , vol. I, p. 104; vol. 2, p. 358.Google Scholar

73 Bakhkhāsh, , vol. 2, pp. 148–49.Google Scholar

74 Aleppo, AS, vol. 55, p. 175.Google Scholar

75 Qara⊃lī, , pp. 21–29;Google Scholaral-Ghazzī, , vol. 3, p. 323.Google Scholar