rights of justice and humanity. You do not go to wage war with any one, neither to conquer the country but to assist the Sultān against unjust and wicked people. And upon you [rests the duty] in that distant country, rich in sacred reminiscences, to do what is needful to be done; and to show yourselves the proper men [for that task] because you are the sons of the heroes who displayed the banner of the Savior on those shores. It is true, you do not go in a numerous host and a large multitude, but your daring and gallantry (P. 213) in battle make up for abundance of men because everybody knows that in whatever part of the world the French flag is seen to pass, important business lies before it and behind it [stands] a nation of indomitable prowess. Finis.220 And when [the soldiers] heard this speech from him [his lips], the courage of heroes was stirred in their heads and they rose with hearts [elated] as if they were mountains. And at their appointed time they were transported, following their destination to Syrian climes. And they were in the highest state of self-exaltation and enthusiasm. And on the sixteenth day of the month of August, the French ships arrived at Bayrut with the troops and munitions of war. And their commander was the General Būfür,221 famous for his gallantry. (P. 214) And most of the men [of the town] went out to meet them with a ceremonious welcome. And many of them [the townspeople] carried for them [the soldiers] their stores and luggage. And their officers alighted [were lodged] around [in different parts of] the city, and the soldiers camped in its neighborhood, in the Pine Grove,222 where they pitched their tents like the stars of heaven and dug pits from which 220 The Emperor's address to the 5th regiment of the Line, Colonel Canbert, the 13th regiment of the Line, Colonel Darricau, and the first squadron of the 1st regiment of Hussars, Captain Stockley, when reviewing them before their departure for Syria, is given as follows in the Moniteur of August 8, 1860: "Soldats! Vous partez pour la Syrie et la France salue avec bonheur une expédition qui n'a qu'un but, celui de faire triompher les droits de la justice et de l'humanité. Vous n'allez pas en effet, faire la guerre à une Puissance quelconque, mais vous allez aider le Sultan à faire rentrer dans l'obéissance des sujets aveuglés par un fanatisme d'un autre siècle. Sur cette terre lointaine, riche en grands souvenirs, vous ferez votre devoir et vous vous montrerez les dignes enfants de ces héros qui ont porté glorieusement dans ce pays la bannière du Christ. Vous ne partez pas en grand nombre mais votre courage et votre prestige y suppléeront, car partout aujourd'hui où l'on voit passer le drapeau de la France les nations savent qu'il y a une grande cause qui le précède, un grand peuple qui le suit." 221 Beaufort d'Hautpoul; see Note 79 to the Introduction. 222 See Note 81. they obtained their water. And they turned [their attention] to the improvement of the roads in every locality, and constructed six ovens for the [baking of] bread for the army. And there were about eight thousand privates of the troops [of the line] and zouaves, and about two thousand [attendants] belonging to the commissariat and the administration and other branches of the service, and servants specially employed for the carrying of burdens and the lifting of heavy loads.223 And they said: We do not On the contrary, place where he has committed And as regards Fu'ād Pasha, on his arrival in Damascus he lost no time (P. 215) in putting the affairs [of the town] in a better condition. So he seized its governor, Aḥmad Pasha, and took from him his sword and the badges of his official dignity, and sent him to Bayrūt and thence with Khurshid Pasha to Constantinople in order that they might be tried at the capital of the Illustrious Empire. And when [tidings of] this reached the ambassadors of the [European] governments, that action displeased them. accept this and do not approve of it. procedure is to try each of the two in the his offence.224 So they were sent back to Bayrut where Khurshid Pasha was kept in custody while Aḥmad Pasha had to proceed on his return voyage to Damascus, being held there until sentence would be pronounced either to absolve or condemn him. And at that juncture Fuad Pasha ordered the imprisonment of Khurshid Pasha's steward225 and Aḥmad Effendy as-Saleḥ226 (P. 216) and him who was in command at Bayt ad-Din, and the governor of Dayr al-Qamar. And all of 223 For the composition of the French expeditionary corps, see Note 80 to the Introduction. 224 From a Reuter telegram, dated Constantinople, August 8, in the London Times of August 14, 1860, it appears that the Marquis de Lavalette, French Ambassador to the Porte, was the leading spirit in the protest followed by this suggestion, immediately acted upon. 225 Cf Note 218. 226 Both Aḥmad Effendy and Wasfy Effendy showed in their defence that their mutual accord and understanding was of a private character and that they did not interfere in any affair which was not within their official jurisdiction or meddle in the least in matters properly belonging to the Government, and denied the truth of all that was reported of them. "Yet and although no personal and specific charge was brought forward against them, or personal delinquency was proved," they were condemned to the penalty next to that of death and imprisonment for life in a fortress, namely, the punishment of temporary confinement in a fortress, with perpetual deprivation of their rank and offices, because they had "intermeddled in the action and measures of the administration and occupied themselves reprehensibly in matters which were not within their legitimate cognizance." Correspondence relating to the Affairs of Syria, p. 300. them were put under arrest at Bayrut and confined in the barracks of the army. And as regards the Moslim mob in Damascus, the arrival of Fu'ad Pasha227 inspired them with fear and they began to clear out, most of the fugitives reaching Ḥauran and Jabal 'Ajlūn.228 But he [Fuad Pasha] barred all the gates and roads against them and arrested up to a thousand persons whom he threw into prison to have them cited before the council for an official inquest. And he had also ordered the imprisonment of 'Uthman Bey, governor229 of Ḥaşbayyā; and Muḥammad Agha, governor229 of Rashayya; and Colonel 'Aly Bey,2 ,230 whom Aḥmad Pasha had appointed guardian of the Christian quarter in the town [Damascus]; and the joint officers and men [soldiers] who had associated with him in this manifest perfidy. (P. 217) And he commanded the execution of Aḥmad Pasha and the execution of them [the other officers found guilty] with bullets in the 227 The special correspondent of the London Times at Bayrūt wrote under the date of August 8, issue of August 23, 1860, that Fu'ad Pasha awaited at Damascus "the arrival of two battalions which he had asked from the military commander at Beyrout, Ismail Pasha, better known in England as General Kmety..... Having received these re-enforcements, he commenced acting with extraordinary vigor: "In his first interview with the Great Medjlis, Fuad made a hasty salute in return for salam, etc., and did not invite any one to sit down. He then addressed them to the following effect: By this affair you have done three things-you have violated the religious law; you have trampled under foot the civil law of the Empire; you have placed the Sultan and his ministers in a position from which they do not see how to extricate themselves. Now, let each of you bring me a list of the guilty parties-authors, leaders and actors in the affair; and any one who does not bring such a list I shall count one of the authors of the massacre. You may go." The Levant Herald of August 4, 1860, says, regarding the arrival of Fu'ād Pasha at Damascus, that "in anticipation of it, some tents had been pitched on the plain near Nicea, where the governor of the town and the principal citizens were to receive the imperial deputy. But Fuad, having pushed on before the column of troops, arrived before he was expected. He found however the civil and military pashas, and all leading men of the place, together with Abd-el-Kader, in attendance. He brusquely dismissed the civilians and said he wished only to speak with the military men and the Emir ['Abd'alQădir]." 228 The Jabal 'Ajlūn corresponds with the biblical Gilead and is now a caza of the sanjaq of Haurān. 229 These are slips of the pen: 'Uthman Bey and Muḥammad 'Aly were not the mutasallims respectively of Ḥāṣbayyā and Rāshayyā but the commanders of the Turkish troops detached for the protection of those cities. They were condemned to death and executed in Damascus, as already stated. 230 Colonel 'Aly Bey was also condemned to death and shot together with Aḥmad Pasha, who had put him in charge of the police in the Christian quarter of Damascus, with 'Uthman Bey and Muhammad 'Aly Agha, on the same day and in the same place. citadel of Damascus.231 And he [ordered to be] executed by hanging those of the inhabitants of whom it was proved that they were guilty. And the number of the soldiers [who met that fate] was one hundred and twelve, and of the civilians one hundred and fifty-seven; and some say more than that.232 And as regards the Christians, since no houses were left to them [they were homeless], they asked Fu'ād Pasha's permission to move to Bayrut. And he granted them [that permission] and many families of them went at the expense of the 231 Though Aḥmad Pasha, like Khurshid Pasha, belonged to the party of the Old Turks, he was a personal friend of Fu'ad Pasha, for whom it was a hard duty publicly to degrade him before the execution. But, says the special correspondent of the London Times, issue of October 3, 1860, he [Fu'ad Pasha] "told me the day sentence of death had been pronounced that, had the ex-governor of Damascus been his own brother, he would inflict upon him the extreme punishment pronounced. And I never witnessed so much mental suffering in any one as Fuad Pasha exhibited while his former friend was shot to death Many go so far as to assert that some unfortunate wretch was shot in the place of Ahmed Agha, who had offered, it is said, Fuad Pasha 40.000 £ for the preservation of his life. A greater calumny, I believe, was never invented. ..... ..[Aḥmad Agha] was tried by a military tribunal and when the evidence was collected, Fuad Pasha summoned, including General Gescer [Gessler], a Prussian, 40 officers, selected from the different corps and of various ranks, to whom he confided the duty of pronouncing sentence. His Excellency first compelled them to swear the usual Moslem oath to give a just and true verdict. He next explained the nature of the case and of their duties before giving them the minutes of evidence. The result of the deliberation was a verdict of death. One member of the Court voted for hard labour for life as being a more severe and degrading punishment than death for a person in the position of the ex-Muchir....... [When the sentence had been read] Ahmed Agha [who said, during the trial, that he had feared to provoke the populace, remembering how they had torn Salim Pasha to pieces about twenty years earlier] spoke a few words to the effect that he was condemned for a crime of which his own conscience acquitted him; that if there were any among the soldiers to whom he had done wrong, he prayed them to forgive him; and that he trusted that the Sultan would not forget his four children... Returning to the story that some one else was executed for Aḥmad Agha, once Ahmad Pasha, the correspondent adds, referring to other fantastic tales of the kind: "What possible good can result from circulating such untruths as an officer of the French army did [not to speak of some consular officials), that in the first execution the men shot were Christians disguised as Bashi Bazouks and that those who were hanged, were previously dead, when their widows and relatives were seen in the streets wailing their fate?" 232 The special correspondent of the London Times at Bayrūt wrote under the date of September 24, issue of October 6, 1860: "The number of persons who have suffered punishment in Damascus up to the present date is 70 hanged, 115 shot, 147 sentenced to hard labour for life, 248 banished, 186 sentenced to hard labour for a term, making a total of 766, besides 83 condemned to death by default, liable to be killed without further trial, and those who are in prison." An official telegram, dated Damascus, August 20, published in the London Times of September 3, says that those condemned to the rope were hanged in the most popular parts of the city and that among them "were brothers, sons and parents of the first men in the country. No attention was paid to their rank or dignity." Illustrious Empire. And after their arrival [at Bayrūt] some of them were lodged in barracks and caravansaries, and to some lodgings were let in the houses of the non-Moslim townspeople. And to every one on every third day five piastres were allotted and moreover some meat, necessary [for their subsistence], was distributed among them. And a superintendent was appointed over them of the possessors of human instincts, named (P. 218) 'Abd'al-Qadir Effendy al-Inja233 of Tripoli, a man of gentle character, distinguished by reason of his culture and pleasant disposition. And he was kind and gracious to them, looking after their wants and watching over the satisfaction of their needs with the most complete solicitude. And all these expenses [connected with the providing for the destitute Christians] were charged in full upon [as an item of] the expenditure of the imperial treasury. [Besides that] much money and clothes had come in from England and France and America and Russia and Austria and the Greek countries, and were distributed among them and the other victims of pillage without distinction being made between Christian nations [sects]. And as regards the rest of the prisoners at Damascus, whose guilt was not proved with evident clearness, Fu'ad Pasha sent them in numerous batches to Constantinople and they arrived (P. 219) in Bayrūt Jon their way thither] loaded with chains in the stocks.234 And most of them were of the refuse of men [the scum of the people], not of the possessors of rank [better classes]. And many of the Christians of Damascus recognised many of those who had killed their relatives and friends, and who had abused their women and carried off their possessions and burnt down their houses. And lifting up [their voices], they denounced them to Aḥmad Pasha al-Qayṣarly, who at that time had arrived from Constantinople as governor of Bayrūt.23 235 And acceding to their demand [that the guilty should be punished], he ordered the immediate imprisonment of the defendants [those denounced]. And then he sent all of them, batch after batch, to 233 The smitten with the evil eye. 234 That is, to prevent their escape they had been put into the portable stocks which the Turkish and Syrian police use in some localities when conveying prisoners. By this method the hands, one palm turned up and the other turned down, are firmly clamped between two pieces of wood, hollowed out to fit the wrists. The more or less tight tying, or sometimes nailing together of the clamps, provides a means for punishing the recalcitrant and extorting money from those provided with that commodity. 235 Aḥmad Pasha al-Qayṣarly had, namely, been appointed to succeed Khurshid Pasha as Governor-General of Saydā, including Phoenicia and Palestine, of which pashalie Bayrût was the capital. |