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The Damascus Affair

Jewish prisoner preparing his defence, a Capuchin distant in the doorway. Painting by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim.

The Damascus affair of 1840 refers to the arrest of several notable members of the Jewish community in Damascus on the accusation of murdering Father Thomas, a Christian monk, and his servant for the purpose of using their blood to bake matzo, an anti-semitic accusation also known as the blood libel. The accused were imprisoned and interrogated under torture by the Egyptian governor of Damascus, after which they confessed to the murder. In the aftermath of the incident, Christian and Muslim violence against the Jewish population increased. The affair drew widespread international attention, especially among European Jewry. After receiving a request from Sir Moses Montefiore and Adolphe Crémieux, Muhammed 'Ali released the remaining prisoners but without officially acquitting them. In November 1840, after the restoration of Ottoman rule over Syria, Sultan Abdülmecid I issued a firmān (edict) that denounced the blood libel charges.

Background

In 1840 Damascus blonged to the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922). Under Ottoman rule, the society was organized by the so-called millet system, which divided the Ottoman subjects into different millets based on their religious affiliation. This system guaranteed considerable autonomy to the different millets as long as its members remained loyal to the sultan. The Muslim millet was by far the biggest since Islam was the most dominant religion in the area. Christians and Jews were considered dhimmis—a class of non-Muslims possessing some limited rights under Muslim rule—and allowed to practice their own religion. In return, the Christians and the Jews had to pay jizya (a special tax imposed on non-Muslim subjects), and they possessed a lower legal and social status than their fellow Muslim citizens. Under the pressure of European powers, who sought to establish a better status for the Christian communitites in the Ottoman Empire, sultan Abdülmecid decreed in 1839 that all subjects, regardless of their religion, were equal before the law. This edict of Gülhane signalled the start of almost three decades of modernization, known as the Tanzimat period, which was aimed at a reorganization of the Empire.

Since the beginning of the sixteenth century, Syria had been part of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922). However, in 1831, eight years before the Tanzimat reforms, Ottoman Syria had come under the control of the Egyptian Muhammad Ali, the viceroy of Ottoman Egypt who had turned against the sultan. Muhammad Ali was said to have been influenced by European powers, particularly by France, which often attempted to safeguard and ameliorate the position of members of Catholic orders in the region. Under the rule of Muhammed Ali, the rights afforded to the Christian population increased and, like the Muslim inhabitants of the region, they were conscripted into the army. These new rights strained the relationship between the Muslim majority and their non-Muslim counterparts. However, the relationship between other non-Muslim groups could become tense as well. The relation between Jewish and Christian communities was tense as the result of economic rivalry between both communitites in which the Jewish merchants often acquired the most economic prosperity. In this economic struggle, both groups sought the support of the Muslim majority. In general, the relationship between Jewish and Muslim communities was better than the relation between Muslim and Christian communities, which was partially caused by Muslims' resentment at the new rights afforded to the Christians under the rule of Muhammad Ali.

The disappearance and the accusation

Contemporary drawing of Father Thomas and his servant Ibrahim Amara

On February 5, 1840, Father Thomas, an Italian monk belonging to a Franciscan Capuchin friar from the Island of Sardinia, and his Muslim servant, Ibrahim Amrah, dissapeared in Damascus. Soon after their disappearance the Jewish community was accused by the Christians of murdering Father Thomas and his servant, and to have extracted their blood in order to bake matzo. The accusation that the blood of Christians was used by Jewish people for their Passover bread is commonly known as the blood libel which has its roots in medieval Europe. In 1840 Damascus, the Christians were supported in their accusation by the French consul at Damascus, Ulysse de Ratti-Menton, an antisemite who was known to favour Christian merchants and advisers over their Jewish counterparts. Upon Father Thomas' disappearance, Ratti-Menton ordered that an investigation be carried out in the Jewish quarter where both men had last been seen. Because French officials had underheld a good relationship with Muhammad 'Ali, who then controlled Ottoman Syria, Ratti-Menton got the support of Sharif Pasha, the Egyptian governor (wali) of the city and the son-in-law of Muhammad 'Ali.

Under torture a confession was extracted from a Jewish barber called Negrin who told the persecutors that he, together with seven other notable Jewish men (including members of the influential Farḥī family), had killed Father Thomas on the night of his disappearance. These other men were interrogated under torture as well, during which five of the seven prisoners confessed to the murder of the Father and his servant. Although there is no consensus among scholars about the number, it is certain that some prisoners died during their interrogation. When bones were discovered in a Jewish quarter, Ratti-Menton and Sharif Pasha considered this discovery as a confirmation of the confession extracted from the imprisoned Jews. More Jews were accused and arrested on charges of involvement in the murder of Father Thomas. In the direct aftermath of the blood libel and the arrests, the Christians and Muslims of Damascus commited violence against the Jewish population. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906) the synagogue in the suburb Jobar was pillaged by a mob in a reaction to the blood libel and the scrolls of the Law were destroyed.

The release of the prisoners

The Damascus Affair increased the concern of European Jews about the situation of their Arab co-religionists. The Austrian Consul in Aleppo Eliahu Picciotto reported the incident to the Jewish communities in Europe, and made representations to Ibrahim Pasha, Muhammad Ali's son in Egypt, who then ordered an investigation into the matter. Sir Moses Montefiore, a British politician and leader of the British Jewish community, and the French lawyer Adolphe Crémieux, called on Muhammed 'Ali to release the Jewish prisoners. Negotations about their release lasted from 4 to 28 August. In the end, Muhammed 'Ali released the prisoners who had remained alive, but without officially acquitting the prisoners of the charged brought against them. Only in November 1840, when Syria fell under Ottoman rule again, Sultan Abdülmecid I issued a firmān (edict) denouncing the blood libel of Damascus. The edict declared that blood libel accusations are a slander against Jews and are prohibited throughout the Ottoman Empire. A part of the edict reads:

"... and for the love we bear to our subjects, we cannot permit the Jewish nation, whose innocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worried and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have not the least foundation in truth...".

The Damascus Affair is illustrative for the tensions that existed between the Jewish and Christian populations of Syria. The incident is also notable for being an exception to the rule of Jewish-Muslim relations. During the Tanzimat period, Jewish-Muslim relations were generally much better than Christian-Muslim relations, which had gotten strained by the economic ascendancy afforded to the Christian community with the relaxation and the eventual elimination of the dhimmi status rules in the 1850s. While occasional outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence erupted during this time, far more serious outbreaks of violence occurred between Muslims and Christians and between Christians and Druzes.

In the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th century, there were many instances of the blood libel in Ottoman lands. These instances most often came from Christian communities, sometimes with the connivance of Greek or French diplomats. The Jews could usually count on the goodwill of the Ottoman authorities and increasingly on the support of British, Prussian and Austrian representatives.