Haim Farhi

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Haim Farhi
חיים פרחי حيم فارحي
Ahmad al-Jazzar
Old Yishuv
A sepia photograph shows three elderly Jewish men sporting beards and holding open books, posing for the camera. Against a backdrop of leafy vegetation, the man in the centre sits, wearing a black hat and caftan, while the two others stand, wearing lighter clothes and turbans.
Jewish community in the Land of Israel under Ottoman rule
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Haim Farhi (

Arabic: المعلم lit. "The Teacher"), (1760 – August 21, 1820) was a Jewish adviser to the governors of the Galilee in the days of the Ottoman Empire, until his assassination in 1820.[1]

Farhi was a chief advisor to Jazzar Pasha, an Ottoman governor based in Acre, whose whims included blinding Farhi and leaving him physically scarred. Until his assassination in 1820, instigated by Farhi's own protege Abdullah Pasha, Farhi was the financial vizier and de facto ruler of Acre. After the murder, Abdullah Pasha ordered Farhi's body cast into the sea and confiscated all his property.[2] Two of Farhi's brothers, Soliman and Rafael, living in Damascus, organized a siege against Abdullah Pasha in Acre to exact revenge.[2]

Revered among Jews as Hakham Haim due to his extensive Talmudic knowledge,[3] Farhi hailed from a prominent family of traders and bankers in Damascus.[1] He extended his protection to the Jewish communities of Palestine, especially those of Tiberias and Safed, who were under the jurisdiction of the governors of the Sidon Vilayet. Revered for his power and wealth, both Jews and European Christians recounted tales of his wealth and influence.[1]

Historical background

After the Ottoman conquest of the Levant from the

Southeastern Europe were ruled almost autonomously by local governors. The Levant in particular, split into numerous feuding power centers.[4]

Rule over the 'Sanjak of Acre' (roughly present-day northern Israel) was supposed to derive from the authority of the Damascus governorate and its Walis. In the 18th century, a powerful local leader, Zahir al-Umar, effectively severed ties with the empire and initiated widespread reforms, improving road infrastructure and security, and encouraging Christian and Jewish merchants to settle in the area and revive commerce.

After the

Ahmad al-Jazzar took over, and the Turks regained control over the northern areas of the land.[5]

Zahir al-Umar actively encouraged Jewish resettlement and personally invited

Shefa-'Amr, and Kafr Yasif. These policies continued under Ahmad al-Jazzar.[5]

The existence of a strong local authority enforced the law and prevented Bedouin banditry on the roads. Zahir was one of the most tolerant and efficient local leaders and meted out justice equally to Muslim, Christian and Jew.[5] This was the case in the days of Zahir and al-Jazzar who transformed the Galilee into a region that attracted both Arabs from Syria and Lebanon, and Jews from the east and west.

Adviser to al-Jazzar

"Jezzar Pacha Condemning a Criminal". Farhi is pictured standing with paper in hand.

Haim Farhi was born to a respected and ancient Jewish family in Damascus. His father Saul had established a banking business that flourished to the extent that it expanded to control Syria's finances, banking and foreign trade for nearly a century.[6][7] Together with other family members, Farhi worked as a financial agent in the Damascus district.[8] Contemporary sources often mention the family as being the "real rulers of Syria".[9]

They may also have mediated between the Jewish community and the authorities, trying to alleviate the tax burden placed on the Jews of

Shefa-'Amr.[10]

Al-Jazzar was a violent and cruel ruler, which is evidenced from his title 'al-Jazzar' meaning 'The Butcher'. He would often find pretext to lash out in savage assaults. At different times he had Farhi's right eye plucked out, cut off his nose, and severed his right ear.

eye patch
.

Defeating Napoleon's siege

See also: Siege of Acre (1799)
19th-century cannon, set in the wall of Acre near a sign commemorating Farhi. The Hebrew inscription on the sign reads: Farhi vs. Napoleon. Jezzar's right hand in resisting Napoleon's harsh siege was the Jewish Haim Farhi, senior adviser and minister of finance
The remains of the internal fortification line erected by Farhi and De-Phelipoux within the walls of Acre, during Napoleon's siege, May 1799.

It was during the reign of al-Jazzar, in 1799, that the French general and future Emperor

Admiral Sidney Smith came to the town's defense, and an artillery
expert from the fleet, Antoine DePhelipoux, redeployed against Napoleon's forces artillery pieces which the British had intercepted from the French at sea.

Farhi played a key role in the city's defense. As al-Jazzar's adviser and right-hand man, he directly supervised how the battle against the siege was run. At the culmination of the assault, the besieging forces managed to make a breach in the walls. After suffering many casualties to open an entry-point, Napoleon's soldiers found, on trying to penetrate the city, that Farhi and DePhelipoux had, in the meantime, built a second wall, several feet deeper within the city where al-Jazzar's garden was.

Discovery of this new construction convinced Napoleon and his men that the probability of their taking the city was minimal. The siege was raised and Napoleon withdrew to Egypt.

Some hold that a statement attributed to Napoleon during the war, according to which he promised to return the land to the Jews if he were to succeed in his conquest of Palestine (Southern Syria), was meant to capture Farhi's attention and betray his master by switching his support to the French. However, Napoleon never showed any particular interest in winning over the Jews of Ottoman Syria during his campaign there,

Solomon's temple.[13]

Involvement in Jewish matters

Farhi provided support for Jewish immigrants who made

Hassidim, Perushim, and Ma'aravim, offering assistance with their tax burdens. During his tenure, the Jewish population in Acre grew to 800 individuals. The Jewish neighborhood in Tiberias also grew significantly as Rabbi Yitzhak Aboulafia, appointed by Farhi as governor and secretary of Safed and Tiberias, expanded its boundaries through the acquisition of a significant tract from Suleiman Pasha in 1805.[1]

Murder

After the death of al-Jazzar in 1804, his mamluk

Pashalik of Akko. Under him, the Jews enjoyed, according to one traveller, 'perfect religious freedom', and were relieved of the substantial fines they were frequently compelled to pay under al-Jazzar, and were obliged to pay only the customary kharadj.[14] Sulayman continued working with Farhi and employed him much as his own father had. Sulayman held sway over the region until his death in 1819, when he bequeathed his power to Farhi's adopted son, Abdullah Pasha ibn Ali, the orphan of a bey who had died prematurely.[15]
However, Abdullah determined to rid himself of his foster-father, Farhi. When Farhi got word of the decision, he refused to flee, believing such an action would imperil his fellow Jews in the kingdom.

On 21 August 1820, soldiers appeared at Farhi's residence in Acre, denouncing him as a traitor. They seized and strangled him to death, and ransacked his house. His family was denied permission to bury his body. The family assets were expropriated and Farhi's body was cast into the sea. The family escaped to Damascus; Farhi's wife, unable to withstand the rigours of the journey, died on the way, in Safed.

Abdullah then compelled the Jews of Acre and Safed to pay in full all the back taxes they would have owed had they not been exempted, through Farhi's good offices, from paying over the years.[15]

Farhi's murder precipitated what one recent historian of the city called "the first, serious ... existential crisis" for Acre.[16]

Retaliation

When word of Farhi's murder reached Damascus, his brothers, Salomon, Raphael, and Moise, swore to avenge him. They hired Turkish officers in Damascus and

Sheikh ul-Islam, the supreme religious authority of the Ottoman Empire, a firman requiring the governors of Damascus, Aleppo and two other pashas to lend their troops to the three brothers in their pursuance of justice against Abdullah.[15]

In April 1821 the Farhi brothers arrived with a large army in the Akko Sanjak. They first conquered the Galilee, defeating the armies Abdullah sent to meet them, and appointing new rulers to take away his authority in every region they conquered. When they finally reached Acre, they besieged it for 14 months. During the siege, the eldest brother, Salomon, was poisoned (according to some sources, stabbed) by Abdullah's emissaries, and the surviving brothers, despairing of the siege, withdrew with their troops to Damascus.

Legacy

Farhi's residence still stands today in Acre, but it is not open to visitors.[17] Acre also has a square in his honour in the old sector of the city.

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 1565-0774
    .
  2. ^ a b "Farhi Org Main Page".
  3. ^ Mikhayil Mishaqa, Murder, Mayhem, Pillage, and Plunder: The History of the Lebanon in the 18th and 19th Centuries, tr. W.M.Thackston, Jr. SUNY, Albany New York, 1988 p.49
  4. ^ Efraim Karsh Islamic Imperialism: A History, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2007 p.95
  5. ^ a b c Isaiah Friedman, Germany, Turkey , Zionism 1897–1918, Transaction Publishers,New Brunswick, New Jersey (1977) 1998 p.26
  6. ^ Lucien Gubbay, Sunlight and Shadow:The Jewish Experience of Islam, Other Press, New York (1999) 2000 p.130
  7. Middle Eastern Studies
    No. 20, October, 1984, pp.37-52 passim
  8. ^ Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Eretz-Israel under Ottoman Rule, 2nd ed. Jerusalem (Heb)1966 pp.319-22,339-43, cited Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book, The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia 1979 p.338 n.7. [The main job of a financial agent or sarraf was to lend money or to play the role of guarantor in financial and commercial operations within the Ottoman economy. They acted as ordinary merchant bankers in any kind of economy. The position was dominated by non-Muslims, mainly Armenians, Jews, and Catholics. (Yavuz Cesar, The role of the Sarrafi in Ottoman Finance and Economy in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Colin Imber and Keiko Kiyotaki (eds.) Frontiers of Ottoman Studies: State, Province, and the West, vol. 1, 2005. I.B. Tauris, London and New York pp.61-76, p.66.)]
  9. ^ Isaiah Friedman, Germany, Turkey , Zionism 1897–1918, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey (1977) 1998 p.26.
  10. ^ Thomas Philipp, Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730–1831, Columbia University Press, New York 2002 p. 161
  11. ISBN 1438421990
    . Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  12. ^ Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine: L'invention de la terre sainte, 1799–1922, Fayard, Paris 1999 p.18
  13. ^ Franz Kobler, Napoleon and the Jews, Masada Press, Jerusalem,1975 p.51
  14. John Lewis Burckhardt
    , Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, London 1822 pp.327-8, reprinted in Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book, The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia 1979 pp.338-9.
  15. ^ a b c Franco, Moise (1973) [1897]. Essai Sur L'histoire Des Israélites De L'empire Ottoman Depuis Les Origines Jusqu'à Nos Jours (in French). Hildesheim: G. Olms. pp. 130–131.
  16. ^ Thomas Philipp, Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730–1831, Columbia University Press, New York 2002 p. 90
  17. ^ "בית חיים פרחי - עכו העתיקה". www.oldakko.co.il. Retrieved 2024-05-17.

Further reading

  • Avraham Yeari, "Memories of the land of Israel" (זכרונות ארץ ישראל), published by the department of youth matters of the Zionist Histadrut, 1947.
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