Cezzâr Ahmed Pasha

Cezzâr Ahmed Pascha, oil painting by Thomas Aldridge

Ahmad (Basha) al-Jazzar ( Arabic أحمد باشا الجزار Ahmad Bāschā al-Jazzār , DMG Aḥmad Bāšā al-Ǧazzār , Turkish Cezzār Ahmed Paşa ; born around 1722 in Bosnia ; died 1804 ) was Ottoman governor of Sidon from 1775 until his death, where he was able to rule largely independently of the Ottoman central government. He was alsoentrusted withthe Eyâlet Damascus in 1785, 1790, 1799 and 1803.

Life

There are few reliable facts about al-Jazzar's origins and childhood. He was from Bosnia. Some sources claim that his parents were Christian. At the age of 16 he joined the Ottoman Grand Vizier Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha as a soldier . In 1756 he accompanied Ali Pasha to Egypt, who took over the governorship there. There Ahmed joined the household of Abdallah Bey. After Abdallah was killed as governor ( kaschif ) of the Buhaira district by Bedouins , he was appointed his successor by Sheikh al-Balad Ali Bey and raised to the Beylikat . Probably because of his brutal actions against the Bedouins in revenge for the death of his patron, he was nicknamed al-Jazzar ( the butcher ). He became a supporter of Ali Bey, who from 1763 tried to expand his power over other households. Ahmed accompanied Ali Bey in 1766 when he was forced to flee to Syria. With the support of Salih Bey al-Qasimi , Ali managed to regain his old position of power in Egypt a year later. Ahmed Salih Bey joined in the power struggle between the former allies. When he was murdered, he fled to Syria in 1768 and built his own household there.

During the Russo-Turkish War, in July 1770, a Russian fleet destroyed almost the entire Ottoman navy ( naval battle of Çeşme ) and stayed in the eastern Mediterranean to use agents to incite local rulers against the Ottoman Empire and, if necessary, to support them. This led to an alliance between Ali Bey, who had openly revolted against the Ottoman Empire since 1769, and Dhaher al-Omar , who had been tolerated as a usurper by the Ottoman central government as ruler of Galilee since the 1730s , against the Ottoman Empire. Another local ruler, the Emir of the Druze Yusuf Schihab , initially remained loyal to the Ottoman Sultan and in 1772 commissioned Ahmed to defend Beirut against the Russians and their allies. When Ahmed publicly declared not Yusuf, but only recognizing the Ottoman Sultan as ruler, Yusuf allied himself with Dhaher. Beirut was bombed by the Russian fleet in 1773 and besieged with the help of Dhaher and Yusuf. After four months of siege, Ahmed accepted Dhaher's offer to surrender the city and put his troops in his service, but fled at the first opportunity. For his loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan, he was made pasha in 1775 and, after the final victory over Dhaher, appointed governor of the province of Sidon in 1777. In 1779 he chose Dhahers Citadel in fortified Acre as his seat of government .

The province of Sidon expanded Ahmad to his personal rule, ruled there despotic , but remained loyal to the Ottoman Empire and was regularly confirmed as governor. Ahmad Pascha lacked economic expertise, friendly and, as a Bosniak, family relationships within his sphere of influence and the ability to win over local and regional potentates who conflicted with his power through concessions and agreements. Instead, he relied on force to eliminate alleged and actual opponents and to deter potential adversaries. This violence, excessive and brutal, and also often targeting the wrong people, frightened and incited many to resist, which in turn led al-Jazzār Pasha to suspect alleged conspirators everywhere and then to persecute them.

To this end, Jazzār Pasha maintained a powerful repression apparatus made up of expensive foreign mercenaries with no ties to the local population who were stationed in the Acre citadel. The citadel was now also a retreat from rebellions from the midst of the population. When Jazzār Pasha learned that some of his Egyptian Mamluk mercenaries had relationships with ladies of his harem, he took draconian action against the suspects, which sparked a rebellion of these mercenaries, who holed up in the Burǧ al-Chazna , northeast tower of the citadel, where he entrenched them besieged with the help of Bosniak mercenaries in May 1789. The Mamluks turned the cannons on the tower towards the Altes Serail and threatened to destroy it, successfully extorting their free withdrawal.

Ahmad al-Jazzār Pasha (seated) condemns a kneeling man, next to him Ḥāyīm Farḥī (with file in hand), 1819

Ahmad al-Jazzār won the Damascus merchant Ḥāyīm Farḥī 'al-Muʿallim' (حاييم فرحي; 1760–1820) for his administration as a financial vizier , whereby as a Jewish Ḏimmi he was completely dependent on the goodwill of al-Jazzār. As a representative of the Pasha, who made a pilgrimage to Mecca, Farḥī was targeted by his opponents in 1794, who threw Farḥī in the prison on the citadel, where they mutilated his eye, nose and auricle before the Pasha saved him. Shortly before al-Jazzār's death, which ended his term in office, Farḥī was arrested again before al-Jazzār rehabilitated him.

Increasing expenditure required higher tax claims and revenues. B. should bring in a new government monopoly in the grain trade. The number of farmers fell, partly by fleeing reprisals or tax enforcement and finally as a result of death from the bubonic plague in 1786. Acre and Galileans emigrated and more and more agricultural land was fallow. Correspondingly, harvests, agricultural exports and the income from tariffs on them fell, while discontent among the remaining population increased.

In the 1750s, France, at that time the market leader in calico, still obtained half of its cotton imports in the Mediterranean via Akko from its Galilean hinterland.In 1789, imports from Smyrna and Thessalonike predominated, but these were already more than doubled by US deliveries . The US production of cotton ended up growing faster than the ever-growing French demand for cotton. Jazzār's attempt to prevent French buyers from buying directly from farmers in 1790, with which they wanted to avoid export taxes, caused them to move on to Beirut.

The next few years of his rule were marked by attempts to expand his influence over the areas of northern Lebanon . To do this, he took advantage of the rivalries between the influential clans to play them off against each other. Although these areas belonged to the province of Sidon, they were, except in financial matters, under the autonomous administration of the Druze ( Emirate of the Druze ). Emir was Yusuf Schihab since 1770 . In 1789, after a victorious battle, Ahmad forced Yusuf to abdicate. The Lebanese leaders elected Bashir Shihab II as his successor. In 1790 Yusuf was blamed for a revolt in Lebanon and was executed by Bashir II at Ahmed's instigation.

After his Hajj in 1791, Jazzār believed he could recognize prospective rebels by a sign on his forehead, which is why he had the entire workforce of his port company, the state building yard and the workshops, around 200 people, line up. All those on whose foreheads he thought he recognized the said sign, he had initially locked up and murdered outside the city the next day.

Defense of Acre

Ahmad is best known for defending Acre against Napoleon Bonaparte during the siege of 1799 . After Napoleon's conquest of Turkish-ruled Egypt , the French army also intended to conquer Syria and Palestine. Although the French were victorious in the siege of al-Arish , the siege of Jaffa, and all the fighting against the Ottomans in the open field, they were unable to break through the fortifications of Acre. Their army was weakened by the plague and cut off from supplies. The success came due to the English commodore William Sidney Smith and Antoine Le Picard de Phélippeaux , who sailed to Acre and helped the Turkish commander to reinstate the defenses and the old walls, and equipped him with additional cannons manned by soldiers and marines from his ships . Smith also used his naval command to capture the French siege artillery sent by ships from Egypt and to prevent the French army from using the Jaffa coastal road by bombing the troops from the sea.

Although both Napoleon and Ahmad requested assistance from Bashir Shihab II (1767-1850), who as the leader of the Shihab dynasty ruled most of what is now Lebanon , Bashir remained neutral. After several months of attacks, Napoleon was forced to withdraw. His attempt to conquer Egypt and the Orient failed.

Northwest tower of the citadel: Ablaq style upper floor built around 1797, 2018

Construction activities

With the help of his financial advisor, Chaim Farhi, Ahmad initiated an important construction program. These included the fortification of the city walls, the rehabilitation of the aqueduct that brought water from the springs at Kabri, and the construction of a large hammam (Turkish bath). Jazzār Pasha had the north-west tower of the citadel added a representative upper floor in the Ablaq style (walls alternating in light and dark stone), which happened around 1797, as construction researchers of the Technion found out at the beginning of the 2nd millennium.

After surviving the 60-day siege by Napoléon in 1799 , Jazzār Pasha received the traveler and scholar Edward Clarke , as he described, in the new representative rooms in 1801 . In the east, Jazzār al-Pasha built the forecourt of the citadel, Thomas Philipp calls it Arsenal ( armory ) an administrative building, the Diwan-Chan (خان الديوان). It consists of three splendid rooms, one for the pasha, one for his vizier and one for general administrators. At that time the buildings around the eastern courtyard were called the seraglio.

One of the most important landmarks built by Ahmad was the Jazzar Pasha Mosque named after him . It was built in Ottoman style over former Muslim and Christian houses of prayer and is known for keeping a hair from the beard of the prophet Mohammed . Ahmed and his adopted son and successor, Suleyman Pasha el-Adil , were buried in the courtyard of the mosque.

literature

• Peter Malcolm Holt: Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1516-1922. A Political History . Longmans Green and Co. Ltd., London 1966.
• Kamal S. Salibi: (al-) Djazzar Pasha, Ahmad . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition . Vol. 12 (= supplement), Leiden 2004, pp. 268-269.
• Thomas Philipp: Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730-1831 . Columbia University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-231-50603-8 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

Commons : Jezzar Pasha  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Kamal S. Salibi: (al-) Djazzar Pasha, Ahmad . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition . Vol. 12 (= supplement), Leiden 2004, p. 268.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w} Thomas Philipp: Acre: the rise and fall of a Palestinian city, 1730–1831. Columbia University Press, New York / Chichester 2001 (= History and society of the modern Middle East series. Volume 6), ISBN 0-231-12327-2 . Page number as indicated after the footnote number.
3. ↑ It is also assumed that al-Jazzar is his original surname or a battle name that he gave himself at the beginning of his soldier career. Cf. Kamal S. Salibi: (al-) Djazzar Pasha, Ahmad . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition . Vol. 12 (= supplement), Leiden 2004, p. 268.
4. ↑ Holt: Egypt and the Fertile Cresecent 1516-1922 . P. 129.
5. ↑ Holt: Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1516-1922. P. 97 and 125-128.
6. ^ William Persen: The Russian occupations of Beirut, 1772–74 . In: Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society, Volume 42, 1955 - Issue 3-4, pp. 275-286.
7. ↑ Paul du QUENOY: Arabs under Tsarist rule. The Russian Occupation of Beirut, 1773-1774 . In: Russian History 41 (2014), pp. 128–141.
8. ↑ Avraham Lewensohn, Travel Guide Israel with road maps and city maps [Israel Tourguide, 1979; dt.], Miriam Magal (ex.), Tel Aviv-Yapho: Tourguide, 1982, p. 45.
9. ↑ Holt: Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1516-1922. Pp. 130-132.
10. ^ The Ottoman Centuries: Peace and Stagnation in the Google Book Search
11. ↑ “Holy place restored and open to pilgrims” (November 24, 2004), in: Bahá'í World News Service: The official news source of the worldwide Bahá'í community , accessed on June 12, 2018.
12. ^ Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa. Part 2nd, section 1st, Greece, Egypt and the Holy Land , London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812, pp. 362-382. Here after Bernhard Dichter with Salman Coton (arrangement ), Alex Carmel ( arrangement ) and Ejal Jakob Eisler ( arrangement ), עַכּוֹ - אֲתָרִים מִיָּמֵי הַתּוּרְכִּים /عكا: مواقع من العهد التركي(Additional title: Akko, buildings from the Turkish period / Akko, sites from the Turkish period ), University of Haifa / הַמָּכוֹן עַל שֵׁם גֹוֹטְלִיבּ שׁוּמַכֶר לְחֵקֶר פְּעִילוּת הָעֹולָם הַנּוֹצְרִי בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּמֵּאָה הַ -19 (Gottlieb Schumacher Institute for Research into the Christian Contribution to the Reconstruction of Palestine in the 19th Century; Ed.), Haifa: הַמָּכוֹן עַל שֵׁם גּוֹטְלִיבּ שׁוּמַכֶר לְחֵקֶר פְּעִילוּת הָעֹולָם הַנּוֹצְרִי בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּמֵּאָה הַ -19, 2000, pp. 52 and 54, footnote 7.
13. ↑ ^{a b} Bernhard Dichter with Salman Cotton (arrangement), Alex Carmel ( arrangement ) and Ejal Jakob Eisler ( arrangement ), עַכּוֹ - אֲתָרִים מִיָּמֵי הַתּוּרְכִּים /عكا: مواقع من العهد التركي(Additional title: Akko, buildings from the Turkish period / Akko, sites from the Turkish period ), University of Haifa /הַמָּכוֹן עַל שֵׁם גֹוֹטְלִיבּ שׁוּמַכֶר לְחֵקֶר פְּעִילוּת הָעֹולָם הַנּוֹצְרִי בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּמֵּאָה הַ -19 (Gottlieb Schumacher Institute for Research into the Christian Contribution to the Reconstruction of Palestine in the 19th Century; Ed.), Haifa: הַמָּכוֹן עַל שֵׁם גּוֹטְלִיבּ שׁוּמַכֶר לְחֵקֶר פְּעִילוּת הָעֹולָם הַנּוֹצְרִי בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּמֵּאָה הַ -19, 2000, p. 52.
14. ↑ Bernhard Dichter with Salman cotton (arrangement), Alex Carmel ( arrangement ) and Ejal Jakob Eisler ( arrangement ), עַכּוֹ - אֲתָרִים מִיָּמֵי הַתּוּרְכִּים /عكا: مواقع من العهد التركي(Additional title: Akko, buildings from the Turkish period / Akko, sites from the Turkish period ), University of Haifa /הַמָּכוֹן עַל שֵׁם גֹוֹטְלִיבּ שׁוּמַכֶר לְחֵקֶר פְּעִילוּת הָעֹולָם הַנּוֹצְרִי בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּמֵּאָה הַ -19 (Gottlieb Schumacher Institute for Research into the Christian Contribution to the Reconstruction of Palestine in the 19th Century; Ed.), Haifa: הַמָּכוֹן עַל שֵׁם גּוֹטְלִיבּ שׁוּמַכֶר לְחֵקֶר פְּעִילוּת הָעֹולָם הַנּוֹצְרִי בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּמֵּאָה הַ -19, 2000, p. 53.
15. ↑ Jami 'al-Jazzar. Archnet, accessed December 29, 2016 .