Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
There are many old people now in Acre who tell thrilling stories of the
episodes which occurred here during the years when it was occupied by
the Egyptians, between 1830 and 1840, and when it became necessary not
merely to conciliate the conquerors, but to play a double game of
keeping on good terms with the Turks, to whom it was ultimately, and, as
it now turns out, foolishly, restored by the British; but none so
thrilling as those which they have heard from their fathers, of the
incidents which marked the reigns of Jezzar and Abdullah Pacha,
especially the former. The following story was told me by the son of the
man who was the confidential secretary of this fiend in human shape, who
gloried in the name of “The Butcher.” In youth he sold himself to a
slave-merchant in Constantinople, and, being purchased by Ali Bey of
Egypt, he rose from the humble station of a mameluke to be Governor of
Cairo. In 1773 he was placed by the Emir of the Druses in command at
Beyrout. There his first act was to seize 50,000 piastres, the property
of the emir, and the second to declare that he acknowledged no superior
but the sultan. The emir, by the aid of a Russian fleet, drove Jezzar
from Beyrout, but he was soon after made Pacha of Acre and Sidon. Under
his vigorous rule the pachalik extended from Baalbec on the north to
Jerusalem on the south. My informant told me that he was not originally
a cruel man, but that one day he was playing with a little daughter who
pulled his beard. “This is very wrong,” he said; “how did you learn to
play with men's beards?” “Oh,” she replied, “I always play with the
beards of the mamelukes when they visit the ladies of the harem in your
absence.” This excited a fit of frenzied jealousy. Taking an escort, he
announced that he was going on an official visit to a distant part of
his pachalik. When he was a stage out of Acre, he told his escort to
remain where they were, disguised himself, and returned rapidly and
secretly to his harem. Here he found all his favourite wives disporting
themselves with his mamelukes or military body-guard. Instantly he drew
his cimeter and fell, not upon the men, but upon the women. Fifteen of
these he is said to have killed with his own hand, and then, growing
tired of the effort, he called in some soldiers to complete the
massacre, not leaving one alive. My informant did not remember the total
number slain. The mamelukes rushed to the great magazines, and swore
they would blow themselves up and the whole town if a hair of their
heads was touched. They were allowed, therefore, to saddle their horses
and ride of in peace; but from that day the whole character of Jezzar
Pacha was changed, and he made it a rule never to allow a week to pass
without executions. His Jew banker was a handsome man. One day Jezzar
complimented him on his looks, and then, calling a servant, ordered him
to put out one of the Jew's eyes. Some time after Jezzar observed that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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