Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T02:37:28.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Jewish–Christian Relations in Aleppo as Background for the Jewish Response to the Events of October 1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Yaron Harel
Yaron Harel
Affiliation:
Department of Jewish History, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

On Wednesday evening, 17 October 1850, at the height of ʿId al-adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, riots broke out in Aleppo in northern Syria, starting with Muslim riots in the Christian quarters of Judayda and Saliba. For two days, Muslim rioters looted homes and churches in these and other Christian quarters in the city, killing and wounding a number of the inhabitants. Only on Friday did the riots cease, but the insurgents then presented a list of demands to the authorities as a pre-condition for the restoration of order to the city. Their principal demands were that the authorities‧ intention to impose military conscription on Muslims be revoked, that the ringing of church bells and the carrying of crosses in public religious processions be banned; and that the owning of Muslim slaves by Christians be prohibited. The Ottoman governor, Mustafa Zarif Pasha, at first consented to the demands of the rioters, and even took certain steps to restore calm to the ruffled atmosphere, such as declaring that the firda head tax, one of the inflammatory factors that had contributed to the riots, would be transformed into a property tax.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , February 1998 , pp. 77 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

Author's note: My thanks to Prof. Moshe Maʾoz, who read the manuscript and gave me some invaluable suggestions. This article was translated from Hebrew by Sara Friedman.

1 Several sources and studies describe the chain of events. See, for instance, Barker, E., Syria and Egypt under the Last Five Sultans of Turkey (London, 1876), 287–96Google Scholar; al-Ghazzī, Kāmil, Nahr al-dhahab fī taʿrīkh Ḥalab (Aleppo, 1926), 3:366–82Google Scholar; Qaraʾlī, BṴlus, Ahamm ḥawādith Ḥalab (Egypt, n.d.), 79 ff.Google Scholar; al-Ṭabbākh, Moḥammad Rāghib, Iʿlām al-mubalāʾ bi-taʾrīkh Ḥalab al-shahbāʾ (Aleppo, 1924), 3:438–440Google Scholar; “The Diary of NaʿʿṴm Bakhkhāsh,” in al-Yasuʿ, Al-Ab Firdinan TṴtal ī, Wathāʾiq taʾrīkhiyya ʿan Ḥalab (Beirut, 1962), 3:140–43Google Scholar; Maʾoz, M., Ottoman Reform in Syria and Palestine 1840–1860 (Oxford, 1968), 102–7Google Scholar.

2 The most recent study in this field is Bruce Masters, “The 1850 Events in Aleppo: An Aftershock of Syria's Incorporation into the Capitalist World System,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 22 (1990): 3–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 This theory was recently discussed at length in Kasaba, Reşat, The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy—The Nineteenth Century(Albany, 1988)Google Scholar. See also Sunar, Ilkay, “State and Economy in the Ottoman Empire,” in The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy, ed. Inan, Huri IslamoĞlu (Cambridge, 1987), 63–87Google Scholar. See also in the same volume, Wallerstein, Immanuel, Decdeli, Hale, and Kasaba, ReŞat, “The Incorporation of the Ottoman Empire into the World Economy,” 88“97Google Scholar. On the European economic influence on the economy of the Ottoman Empire in detail, see Pamuk, Şevket, The Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism, 1820–1913 (Cambridge, 1987)Google Scholar.

4 Masters, , “Events,” 5Google Scholar.

5 Labaton, M., “Nokhah ha-Shulhan” (Responsa) (Izmir, 5622/1862), 28Google Scholar. About the literature written by the rabbis of Aleppo in the 19th century, see Harel, Y., Sifrei Evets: The Rabbinic Literature of the Scholars of Aleppo (Jerusalem, 1997)Google Scholar. It is also puzzling that the Syrian Muslim sources throughout the 19th century generally make no reference to Jews. For attempts to explain this, see Almaleh, A., “Mekorot Hadashim al Gedulatam ve-Hashpaʾatam ha-Medinit veha-Khalkhalit shel ha-Sarim le-mishpahat Farhi be-Suria,” in Zikhron Yosef ed. Almaleh, A. (Jerusalem, 5708/1948), 40–51Google Scholar; Landau, Y. M. and Maʾoz, M., “Yehudim ve-lo Yehudim ba-Mitzraim uve-Suria ba-Meʾa ha-Tesha Esre,” Peʾamim 8 (1981): 4–13Google Scholar.

6 The Damascus Affair has been discussed in many articles and studies. The most recent are: Parfitt, Tudor, “The Year of the Pride of Israel: Montefiore and the Damascus Blood Libel of 1840,” in The Century of Moses Montefiore, ed. Sonia, and Lipman, V. D. (Oxford, 1985), 131–48;Google ScholarFrankel, J., “A Histographical Oversight: The Austrian Consul-General and the Damascus Blood Libel,” in Jewish History, Essays in Honor of Chimen Abramsky, ed. Rapoport-Albert, A. and Zipperstein, S. J. (London, 1988), 285–318;Google ScholarHarel, Y., “Ratti Menton ve-Alilat Damesek le-Or Teudot Hadashot,” in Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, div. B, vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1994), 143–50;Google ScholarFrankel, J., The Damascus Affair (New York, 1997)Google Scholar.

7 Jewish Chronicle (hereafter JC), 27 12 1850, 95Google Scholar.

8 British Library, Gaster Collection, or. 10709, 933, Tov, Shelomo Ben Yom (scribe?), “Tefila u-piyutim” (manuscript), 39.Google Scholar

9 Marcus, A., The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity: Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1989), 39–42Google Scholar.

10 For such traditions, see, for instance, Dayan, A., Holekh Tamim u-Foʾel Tzedek (Livorno, 5610/1850), Chapter Helek Zikhron Divrei Eretz, 66Google Scholar; Public Record Office, Foreign Office Archives (hereafter FO) 195/1305, Henderson, Explanatory Memorandum to accompany approximate return of population of Vilayet of Aleppo, Aleppo, 28 August 1880.

11 On the arrival of the exiles and their rise in the community, see al-Ghazzī, , Nahr al-dhahab, 1:212–13Google Scholar; Dayan, M., Yashir Moshe (Livorno, 5639/1879)Google Scholar, Hakdamat Yihus Bet David.

12 JC, 28 01 1848, 409Google Scholar; Binyamin, Y., Masʾey Yisrael (Lyck, 5619/1859), 12–17Google Scholar. For demographic figures about the Jewish communities in Syria in 1841–81, see Harel, Y., “Changes in Syrian Jewry 1840–1880” (Ph.D. diss., Bar-Ilan University, 1992), 25–27Google Scholar.

13 Ankori, Z.,, Yahadut ve-Yevanut Notzrit (Tel Aviv, 5744/1984), 189;Google ScholarBarnai, J., “Alilot Dam ba-Imperia ha-Othmanit ba-Meʾot ha-15–19,” in Sinat Yisrael le-Doroteha, ed. Almog, S. (Jerusalem, 5740/1980), 213Google Scholar. On the early arrival of European Christian orders in Aleppo, see al-Yasuʾi, Al-Ab Firdinan TṴtal, Wathāʾiq taʾrīkhiyya ʿan Ḥalab (Beirut, 1958), 1:9–10Google Scholar.

14 There are reasonable grounds for assuming that this is what motivated Rabbi Y. Lopez of Aleppo to compose his book Kur Metzaerf ha-Emuna u-Marʾe ha-Emet in 1695, which sets out to refute Christian allegations against Judaism and to prove the eternity and truth of Judaism. In his introduction, the author describes the background in the literary fashion of a dispute in which an honored, wise priest, a philosopher rich in experience, assails the author with questions of faith. Even if no such a dispute ever took place publicly the way the author describes it, we may assume that the description reflects the reality in which newly arrived members of Christian missionary orders in Aleppo presented a certain threat and challenge to the local Jewish community, which until then had not had to contend with such issues. See the extensive study of Lopez, Y., Kur Mezaert ha-Emuna u-Marʾe ha-Emet (Metz, 5607/1847)Google Scholar, introduction.

15 Marcus, , Modernity, 47;Google ScholarParis, R., Le Levant, vol. 5, in Histoire du Commerce de Marseille, ed. Rambert, G. (Paris, 1957), 247–54Google Scholar.

16 There is, for instance, evidence that the most insulting curse in Syria in the mid-19th century, much worse than “ass,” “dog,” or “pig,” was to call someone “Jew.” See Jessup, H. H., Fifty Three Years in Syria (London, 1910), 2:424Google Scholar. Brant, the British consul serving in Damascus in 1855–69, would insult a Christian or a Muslim by calling him “Jew.” See Burton, R. F., The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam (London, 1898), 39Google Scholar.

17 On the circumstances of his appointment, see Calloc'h, B. Le, “La Dynastie Consulaire des Piccioto,” Revue d'histoire diplomatique, no. 1–2 (1991), 141–44Google Scholar.

18 Braver, A. Y., “Homer Hadash li-Yediat Alilat Damesek,” in Sefer ha-Yovel le-Professor S. Krois (Jerusalem, 5697/1937), 263Google Scholar.

19 On such disputes and the involvement of the Picciotos, see extended discussion by Marcus, , Modernity, 47–48Google Scholar: Calloc'h, Le, “La Dynastie Consulaire,” 151–52Google Scholar; Braver, , “Homer Hadash,” 264–65Google Scholar.

20 On the relations between members of the French consulate and the Piccioto consuls, see extensive discussion in Harel, Y., “Maʾamadam ve-tadmitam shel Benei Piccioto be-Eney ha-Moshava ha-Tzarfatit be-Halab 1884–1950,” Michael XIV (1997): 171–86Google Scholar.

21 Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres (hereafter AE), Correspondance Consulaire et Commerciale (hereafter CCC), Alep, vol. 23, Corancez, Alep, le 2 Fructidor, an 13. On additional disputes during the 1850s, see extensive discussion in Harel, , “Changes,” 272–73Google Scholar.

22 On the integration of Jews in key administrative positions in the Ottoman and Egyptian rule in Aleppo, see, for instance, Labaton, , “Nokhah ha-Shulhan,” 112.Google Scholar

23 AE, CCC, Alep, vol. 25; Description Succincte du Pachalīk d'Alep 1812, 9. On the history of the al-Safra synagogue in Aleppo, see Dotan, A., “le-Toldot Bet ha-Kneset ha-Kadmon be-Halab,” Sfunot 1 (5717/1957): 25–61Google Scholar.

24 Dayan, A., Holekh Tamim, 67Google Scholar.

25 AE, CCC, Alep, vol. 33, Bertrand, Alep, 21 March 1865.

26 Braver, , “Homer Hadash,” 265Google Scholar.

27 Kafusi, H., be-Or ha-Haim (Jerusalem, 5729/1969), 104Google Scholar.

28 Emphasis in the original.

29 AE, Correspondance Politique du Consul (hereafter CPC), Turquie, Alep, vol. 1, Guys, Alep, 16 March 1841.

30 AE, CCC, Alep, vol. 33, Guys, Alep, 10 May 1841. On the firman issued by the Ottoman sultan canceling blood libels against Jews, see Kushner, D., “Firman Meʾet ha-Sultan ha-Othmani ha-Mafrikh Alilot Dam Neged ha-Yehudim,” Peʾamim 20 (5744/1984): 37–45Google Scholar.

31 AE, CP, Turquie, vol. 257, De Lesseps, Alep, 12 October 1826. On a visit of another kind, see Calloc'h, Le, “La Dynastie Consulate,” 152–53Google Scholar.

32 Neale, F. A., Eight Years in Syria, Palestine and Asia Minor (London, 1852), 2:96–98Google Scholar.

33 Paris, R., Le Levant, in Histoire du Commerce, 98–101Google Scholar.

34 Rozen, Mina, Be-Netivei ha-Yam ha-Tikhon (Tel Aviv, 5753/1993), 54Google Scholar; Masters, B., The Origin of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East (New York, 1988), 90Google Scholar.

35 Schwarzfuchs, S., La [Nazione Ebrea] livornaise au Levant, Rassegna Mensile di Israel 50, 9–12 (1984): 811–12Google Scholar; Lutzki, A., “Ha-Frankos be-Halab ve-Hashpaʾat ha-Kapitulaziot al Toshaveha ha-Yehudim,” Zion 8 (5701/1941): 50, 80–83Google Scholar.

36 Marcus, , Modernity, 46Google Scholar. The employment of local subjects created a problem in the community over the issue of whether the workers, like their employers, were exempt from communal taxes. See Laniado, S. R., Bet Dino shel Shelomo (Responsa) (Constantinople, 5535/1775), 34–38Google Scholar. Local Christians also served in these positions in the service of Christian European merchants. See Masters, , “Events,” 18Google Scholar.

37 Masson, P., Histoire du commerce français dans le Levant au XIIIe siecle (New York, 1967), 135Google Scholar.

38 Ibid., 134–35.

39 For the influence of the French Revolution on French trade in Aleppo, see AE, CCC, Alep, vol. 30, Deval, Alep, 25 February 1838; Lutzki, , “Ha-Frankos,” 63–64Google Scholar; Calloc'h, Le, “La Dynastie Consulaire,” 144Google Scholar. On the influence of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt on this trade, see AE, CCC, Alep, vol. 30, Deval, Alep, 25 February 1838.

40 AE, CCC, Alep, vol. 30, Deval, Alep, 25 February 1838.

41 Ibid. On the decline of Aleppo as mediator between East and West and on its new role, see extensive discussion in Masson, , Histoire du commerce français, 522–24Google Scholar.

42 On famine, epidemics, earthquake, and political instability seen through Jewish eyes, see Dayan, A., Holek Tamim, 69–81Google Scholar; Masters, , “Events,” 12–13Google Scholar.

43 Guys, H., Voyage en Syrie (Paris, 1855), 288Google Scholar.

44 Ibid., 278–79.

45 Paton, A. A., The Modern Syrians (London, 1844), 200Google Scholar.

46 Marcus, , Modernity, 159Google Scholar, claims that in the 18th century, only the Jewish ritual slaughterers formed a special guild of their own, since they were limited to kosher meat. It seems, however, that in the 19th century, Jews in Aleppo and Damascus belonged to the general slaughterers' guild. Moreover, Jewish slaughterers slaughtered animals for Muslims, and kosher meat for Jews was sold in Muslim-owned butcher shops. See extensive discussion in Harel, , “Changes,” 232–33Google Scholar.

47 Zenner, W. P., “Syrian Jewish Identification in Israel” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 1965), 57Google Scholar.

48 Paton, , Modern Syrians, 201Google Scholar; FO, 78/579, Wood to Stratford de Redcliffe, Damascus, 21 02 1844.Google Scholar

49 On the decline of the guilds and the reasons therefor, see Masters, , “Events,” 14–15Google Scholar.

50 See Antebi, A., Hokhma u-Musar (Livorno, 5610/1850), 36Google Scholar.

51 Ben Zvi Institute, ms. no. 3724, the notebook of Rabbi Moshe Setton, 157.

52 Paton, , Modem Syrians, 33Google Scholar.

53 Shamir, S., Toldot ha-Arvim ba-Mizrakh ha-tikhon ba-Et ha-Hadasha (Tel Aviv, 5747/1987), 223Google Scholar; Maʾoz, , Ottoman Reform, 187Google Scholar.

54 The Jewish society in Aleppo also debated whether Mohammad Ali's rule and his decrees and taxes were “the law of the land” or “legalized government theft,” as his rule was a rebellion against the sultan. See Antebi, A., More ve-Aholot (Livorno, 5602/1842), 98Google Scholar.

55 Maʾoz, , Ottoman Reform, 208Google Scholar; Masters, , “Events,” 16Google Scholar.

56 AE, CPC, Turquie, Damas, Ratti Menton, Damas, 6 January 1841.

57 See extensive discussion in Thomas, P., “Bet Farhi veha-Temurot be-Maʾamadam shel Yehudey Suria ve-Eretz Yisrael 1750–1880,” Cathedra 34 (1985): 112Google Scholar.

58 On the behavior and provocation of the patriarch and on Muslim sentiment as early as the time of Mohammad AH, see Masters, , “Events,” 17Google Scholar; al-Gazzī, , Nahr al-dhahab, 3:375Google Scholar.

59 Paton, , Modern Syrians, 35Google Scholar.

60 Surton, Isabel, The Inner Life of Syria, Palestine and the Holy Land (London, 1875), 1:105–6Google Scholar.

61 Dayan, A., Vayosef Avraham (Livorno, 5624/1864), 217Google Scholar. There are, of course, references to halakhic problems raised by the Tanzimat reforms but no reference to them as a single positive or negative unit. On the responses of Syrian rabbis to such problems, see Zohar, Z., Masoret u-Temura(Jerusalem, 5753/1993), 143–93Google Scholar.

62 Duekh, S., Emet me-Eretz (Responser) (Jerusalem, 5670/1910), 11–12Google Scholar.

63 For an in-depth discussion of this phenomenon, see Harel, , “Changes,” 250–52Google Scholar. My hope is that with the advent of peace, I shall be able to confirm this statement from a first-hand examination of court documents of the courts in Syria.

64 Ben Zvi Institute, ms. no. 3724, from the writings of Rabbi Moshe Setton, 20.

65 Labaton, , “Nokhah ha-Shulhan,” 28Google Scholar.

66 Maʾoz, , Ottoman Reform, 104Google Scholar.

67 Masters, , “Events,” 4Google Scholar.

68 Qaraʾli, , Ahamm ḥawādith, 81Google Scholar; al-Ghazzī, , Nahr al-dhahab, 3:375Google Scholar; FO 185/1153, Skene to Eliot, Aleppo, 9 January 1877. The latter evidence dates from thirty years after the events. However, since several of the people involved were still alive and the writer is speaking in all sincerity, there are reasonable grounds to assume that the fact of paying the money is true, though the sum itself might not be precise. We shall note that this method of acquiring security for money was later adopted also by the Christians in Aleppo, who would collect funds prior to a Muslim festival and distribute them among the inhabitants of the Muslim quarter in order to instil a positive atmosphere in the city, as such times of festivals were prone to religious fanaticism. See, for instance, PRO 78/1538, Skene to Bulwer, Aleppo, 30 August 1880.

69 Masters, , “Events,” 11Google Scholar.

70 JC 29 09 1850, 63Google Scholar; Qaraʾlī, , Ahmamm ḥawādith, 85, 88Google Scholar, app.

71 FO 78/836, Werry to Rose, Aleppo, 24 October 1850.

72 JC, 18 01 1852, 119–20.Google Scholar

73 See appendix.

74 Neale, , Eight Years in Syria, 2:120Google Scholar. Quoted also in al-Yasuʿi, Al-Ab Firdinan TṴtal, Wathāʾiq taʾrīkhiyya ʿan Ḥalab, 2:69Google Scholar. We should note here that a similar phenomenon of refraining from attacking the Jewish quarter, or accusing the Jews of inciting the Muslims to attack Christians or of collaborating with them, occurred once again ten years later at the time of the Muslim massacre in the Christian quarter of Damascus. On the massacre and for an extensive discussion of this phenomenon, see Harel, , “Changes,” 258–70Google Scholar; Fawaz, Leila Tarazi, An Occasion for War (London, New York, 1994), 159.Google Scholar