Father Thomas, a French citizen originally from…

February 1840 CE

Father Thomas, a French citizen originally from Sardinia, and the superior of a Franciscan convent at Damascus, disappears along with his servant on February 5, 1840.

The French consul at Damascus, Ulysse de Ratti-Menton, who supports Christian merchants and advisers over Jewish ones, and Christian families seeking economic ascendancy over the formerly empowered Farhi family, institutes investigations in the Jewish quarter giving rise to the suspicion that Jews are behind the priest's disappearance.

The Egyptian governor of Syria, Sherif Pasha, wishing to court French sympathies engendered by relations between the French government and the Egyptian pasha, Muhammad Ali, allows the accusations to take root.

A confession is extorted by torture from a Jewish barber named Negrin, and eight of the most notable Jews, among them Joseph Lañado, Moses Abulafia, Rabi Jacob Antebi, and a member of the Farḥi family.

In spite of the stoic courage displayed by the sufferers, Sherif Pasha and Ratti-Menton agree to the trumped up charges.

In the meantime the populace falls upon the synagogue in the suburb of Jobar, pillages it, and destroys the scrolls of the Law.

This incident, which illustrates the tensions that exist between the Jewish and Christian populations of Syria, is notable for being an exception to the rule of Jewish-Muslim relations that during the Tanzimat era in the Ottoman Empire (1839–1920) will generally be much better than Christian-Muslim relations, due particularly to the economic ascendancy afforded to the Christian community with the relaxation and eventual elimination of the dhimmi status rules in the 1850s.

While occasional outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence will erupt during this time, far more serious outbreaks of violence will occur between Muslims and Christians and Christians and Druze.

Locations
Damascus > Dimashq Dimashq Syria View →

People
Abdulmejid I View → Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston View → Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt View → Martin Van Buren View → Moses Montefiore View → Muhammad Ali of Egypt View →

Groups
Jews View → Islam View → Syrian people View → Druze, or Druse, the View → Christians, Roman Catholic View → Franciscans, or Order of St. Francis View → Ottoman Empire View → Damascus Eyalet View → Capuchin, Order of Friars Minor View → United States of America (US, USA) (Washington DC) View → Britain (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) View → Egypt, (Ottoman) Viceroyalty of View → France, constitutional monarchy of View →

Topics
Tanzimat View → Egyptian–Ottoman War, Second View → Damascus affair View →

Subjects
Mayhem View → Faith View → Government View → Custom and Law View →

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