Through the primitive but excellent channels of information of the Eastern caravans, Bedouins and Dervishes, Bonaparte must have heard of this treatment of the Jewish minister by the “Butcher,” and of the other atrocities committed by him. The expulsion of the French from Acre, Sidon and Beyrout by this Pasha in 1791 was still fresh in his memory as an insult to France.
Haim Farhi continued his services; his popularity suffered no diminution, and it was evidently he who provided Acre with the necessary supplies, kept communications open with the hinterland, and made it possible to offer the stoutest resistance ever recorded in history. Great Britain helped, the Turks and Arabs were brave, and Jazzár with all his savage caprices possessed, no doubt, remarkable abilities as a general; but the soul of the entire organization was Haim. Winning him over would have meant breaking down the defence; but it was impossible to win him over.
Under such conditions Bonaparte approached Jerusalem. He had reached Ramleh (between Jaffa and Jerusalem) and intended to besiege the Holy City, but he changed his mind and turned to Acre. Meanwhile rumours spread that the Jews were helping the French as spies, and that they sympathized in their hearts with Bonaparte. This is the familiar story which hatred and calumny set on foot whenever people are excited, and there is any opportunity of stirring up thoughtless credulity and brutal instincts against a weak and defenceless minority. Bonaparte captured Gaza on the 25th December, 1799. The Jews of that place had to endure brutal treatment at the hands of Bonaparte’s soldiers, so that many seized the opportunity of escaping. The Jews of Jerusalem were, meanwhile, in the greatest danger of being massacred by the Mohammedan inhabitants, who accused them of being in secret communication with Bonaparte with a view to the surrender of the city. The Mohammedans actually believed that all the Jews of Jerusalem were spies and traitors, and they secretly resolved among themselves to kill all the Jewish inhabitants as soon as Napoleon marched on Jerusalem. This resolution, however, got abroad and was communicated by a Mohammedan, a confidant and friend of the Jews, to two Rabbis named Algazi and Meyuchas, who saved Palestinian Jewry, and particularly the Jerusalem Jews, by their presence of mind and wise precautions, such as arranging public prayers, helping to fortify the city, etc. The sight of the venerable, grey-headed Haham Meyuchas standing with a spade in his hand did not fail to impress the Mohammedans. The Jewish community was thus saved; still at Tiberias and Safed the Jews were savagely treated by Bonaparte’s soldiers.
It is impossible to know who circulated the accusation against the Jews. Such accusations are like proverbs; nobody knows their author, they are in the air, they appeal to the imagination, gain currency and subsequently become dogmas; nobody has examined their soundness, there is no evidence, no reason, there is merely a vague generalization, and yet people believe in them. We cannot know what some Jews may have thought of Bonaparte’s attempt: oppressed, persecuted, insulted as they were by the Jazzárs, some of them may have thought that Bonaparte’s victory would be their salvation, although, on the other hand, the behaviour of his soldiers caused great suffering. But in practice the Jews were most loyally devoted to the Ottoman cause.
The Jews were saved, and the outraged Farhi remained in service. According to the testimony of all his Christian contemporaries, this Jew, like a real Christian, “loved his enemy.” When Jazzár died, in 1808, he arranged the ceremonies of the funeral with remarkable devotion. Jazzár was succeeded by Suleiman Pasha, who confirmed Haim in his dignity. Suleiman, an ex-mameluk, ruled with Farhi sixteen years, and this was the happiest period for Palestine. Suleiman died in 1824, and Abdallah, the son of Ali Pasha of Tripoli (ob. 1815 at Acre), who was educated and looked after with great care by Farhi, was appointed Pasha of Acre. Very soon after the appointment of Abdallah Pasha the Jewish minister came to a tragic end. Abdallah showed himself not an impetuous barbarian of the Jazzár type, but a miserable and treacherous murderer. Jealous of his benefactor’s popularity, and seeing that it was impossible to disfigure him further, he ordered his Kiaja (minister of the police) to assassinate the old and venerable statesman, and to throw his body into the sea. The implacable tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the dead man’s family and friends, who implored him to allow the body to be buried. It is said that the body was left floating for several days near the harbour, and that the Pasha ordered his servants to attach heavy stones to it and then to throw it into the sea. Farhi’s property, the personal fortune which he had acquired not as the result of his official occupation but as a member of an old and wealthy family, was ransacked and confiscated. His family escaped, and his widow died, in consequence of hardships, on her way to Damascus. As to the pretext for the murder of Farhi there are various accounts. According to Damoiseau, a French renegade, Abdallah (in whose service he was) proposed the building of some new fortifications. There was no practical reason for the fortifications; relations with the European powers being friendly, the measure could only stimulate the suspicions of the Porte. Moved by these reasons and by considerations of economy, Farhi objected. He was sentenced to death, and the Kiaja was authorized to carry out the execution. This he did by attacking the old man suddenly in his house, and murdering him in the night. But Abdallah never thought afterwards of building any new fortification. The version given by Rabbi Joseph Schwarz (1804–1860) in his T’buoth Ha’arez (Jerusalem, 1845) is somewhat different in details, but the facts are essentially the same. Another traveller, Professor J. M. A. Scholz (1794–1852), happened to be at that time in the neighbourhood of Acre, and he confirms the first version. He gives also the precise date of the assassination: the 24th August, 1824.
Peaceful and loyal as the Jews in the East were, this monstrous crime seems to have put an end to their great patience. The brothers of Haim in Damascus arranged to send an expedition of revenge. This was the first time for several centuries that Jews had gone forth as fighters in their own cause. The Pashas of Aleppo and Damascus concluded a treaty, and supported the expedition arranged by the Farhis. They besieged Acre, and had it not been for a spy sent to the camp of the Farhis, who succeeded in treacherously poisoning Solomon Farhi, the expedition would have had an excellent chance of success. The death of Solomon, however, put an end to the expedition, of which he was the organizer and leader. The last survivor of Haim’s brothers was Raphael. He also was a distinguished statesman. He was Minister at Damascus in 1820, and after the restoration of Ottoman rule in Syria was elected to the Council of that town.
Rev. John Wilson[¹] gives a further account of his visits to Damascus in 1843. “6th June.—Mr. Graham and I visited the house of the chief Rabbi, Haim Maimon Tobhi. He had been eighteen years resident at Damascus, but is a native of Gibraltar. He had obtained, he said, an English passport, entitling him to British protection, from Lord Palmerston (1784–1865); and he had been elected to office on account of the privilege which he thus enjoyed, it having been conceived by the Jews, that the name of an English subject, borne by him, would give weight to his dealings with the Turkish Government” (Ib. 330). “On the second day of our excursions among the Jews we visited one of the princely mansions of the Farhis, the richest bankers and merchants of Damascus.” In a footnote Wilson quotes [Sir John] Bowring’s [F.R.S.] (1792–1872) Report on Syria, p. 94: “As a class, the Jewish foreign merchants of Damascus are the most wealthy.... The two most opulent are believed to be Mourad Farhi and (Raphael) Nassim Farhi, whose wealth in trade exceeds one and a half millions each. Most of the Jewish foreign houses trade with Great Britain.” In the first of these mansions Wilson admired the library, containing nearly the whole of Jewish literature, to which Jewish students had free access for purposes of study. He met there some of the Rabbis, who told him that the Jews of Damascus were supposed to number 5000 souls, and those of Aleppo 6000. He and Mr. Graham, who accompanied him, were then introduced to the female members of the household, who “deported themselves with a dignity and grace which would have done credit to the nobility of Europe.” “On the 8th of June we visited the mansion of Raphael, the chief of the Farhis. On our arrival we were received by a Jew, who humbly described himself to us as the ‘worthless Jacob Peretz,’ a quondam tutor to the children of the great man, and who in acknowledgment of his services is, with his whole family, retained as part of his household, which, he informed us, consists of from between sixty to seventy souls.” This establishment was even grander than that which we visited yesterday.... Mr. Graham expressed his doubts whether those in our own Royal palaces are superior to them. He then gives particulars of the principal apartments and reproduces a Hebrew inscription with an English translation (of his own). Of special interest is Mr. Wilson’s description of the head of the family, Raphael, the Nasi of the Damascus Jews, an old man who was at that time seriously indisposed, but received him and his friend with great kindness, and took them to his library, which was very large.
[¹] Land of the Bible. Ibid., pp. 330–341.
In 1840, during the riots following the accusation against the Jews, Raphael and his sons suffered very severely. Raphael died very soon after Wilson’s visit. This was the end of this Jewish family, whose history is bound up with the history of Palestine and Bonaparte’s expedition. They have a twofold claim upon our attention, first as eminent Jewish statesmen, and secondly as Palestinian martyrs.