Encyclopaedia Judaica
Jews in the
Ottoman Empire 10: Blood libels
Blood libel cases in the Ottoman Empire and the
protection of the Jews by the Ottoman governments
from: Ottoman Empire; In:
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 16
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
[Blood libel cases and
protection of the Jews]
Until the *Damascus Affair of 1840 accusations of ritual
murder were very rare in the Ottoman Empire. It seems clear
that they were caused by the blood libels in Christian
countries. Such an accusation first took place in Christian
Obuda (Budapest) in the beginning of the 16th century (see
R. Meir of Padua, Responsa no. 87; Moses Isserlein, Responsa
no. 41). In addition, old Ottoman documents also dealt with
such accusations.
A firman was issued in the time of Muhammad II (d. 1489)
which mentions an unfounded blood libel. Orders were given
that henceforth such cases should only be brought before the
imperial diwan in Constantinople. During the reign of
Suleiman I such an accusation was again made and the firman
to hear such cases in the diwan only was renewed. The order
was renewed by Selim II and Murad III. It seems that
Suleiman's decree was obtained by the sultan's chief
physician, Moses Hamon.
In or about 1592, there was a ritual murder accusation in
the province of Bursa. The ill-famed blood libel was uttered
against *Damascus Jewry (1840) and a similar charge was made
on the island of *Rhodes. In order to protect the Jews from
slanderous accusations Moses *Montefiore, A. *Crémieux, and
the well-known orientalist S. *Munk traveled to
Constantinople, and in October 1840, after an audience with
the sultan, obtained a firman which could be regarded as a
bill of rights for the Jews. The most positive orders were
given for the protection of the Jewish nation living in all
parts of the empire.
In 1844 a blood libel occurred in Egypt. The Jews of Cairo
were accused of the murder of a Christian. Only the firmness
of Muhammad Ali prevented the outbreak of violence. In 1860
a new blood libel occurred in Damascus. The Maronite
Christians murdered a number of Druze and claimed that the
Jews were responsible for these acts. In 1864 the Jews of
Izmir were accused of kidnapping Christian children before
Passover. There were similar conspiracies in Constantinople
in 1868 and 1870. In 1872 there were libels in Adrianople,
Izmir, Marmara, Ioannina, and La Canée claiming that
Christian children had disappeared. All these cases required
the intervention of the hakham
bashis R. Yakkir Gueron and R. Moses ha-Levi, as
well as that of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. The
Alliance in Constantinople or its headquarters in Paris
called upon the Turkish government to investigate this
affair and punish the rioters.
Blood libels also occurred in 1880 in Mytilene (near Izmir)
and Costanil (near Salonika). In 1884 there was a blood
libel in a village located near the Dardanelles, where about
40 Jewish families lived. When a non-Jewish boy servant was
sent to fetch something and failed to return, it was rumored
that the Jews had murdered him. The Jews were fortunate that
the boy reappeared once the riots broke out.
In 1887 the municipality of Salonika accused the Jews of
ritual murder. The representative of the government
condemned the libel and mentioned the firman of the sultans,
according to which the propagators of such rumors would be
prosecuted. There (col. 1543)
were further libels in Syria. The sudden death of a Greek
child was transformed into a blood libel and the Jews were
attacked. In Beirut, Jews were molested by Christian youths
but the Turkish authorities punished the assailants.
Other blood libels occurred in Aleppo (1891), Damascus
()1892), Manisa (1893), *Kavalla, and Gallipoli (1894). In
1890 two Greeks visited R. Hayyim Pallagi of Izmir and
offered to sell him a Christian child so that its blood
could be employed for the forthcoming Passover. There were
also blood libels in Jimlitoh near Bursa (1899), in Monastir
(1900), and in Izmir (1901). All these blood libels were
based on the disappearance of a child who was subsequently
found. In general, the Turkish government officials
defended the Jews.
In Egypt.
[The Jews and the Greeks]
In Alexandria an elderly Jew named Sasson was arrested in
1870. He was imprisoned for a month, during which period the
press emphasized his Jewish identity in an attempt to have
him accused of having sought to kidnap a child to strangle
and to utilize his blood for the baking of the Passover mazzot [[unleavened
bread]].
The fall of a Christian child (1880) from a balcony into the
courtyard of a synagogue in Alexandria served as a pretext
for the Greeks to accuse the Jews of ritual murder. The
Greeks, with the assistance of the Arabs who had joined
them, attacked the Jews in spite of the fact that the
doctors who had examined the child testified that he did not
bear any wounds.
In 1880 the Jews were accused of having raped a local girl.
In 1881, again in Alexandria, it was rumored that they had
employed the blood of a ten-year-old Greek child who had
disappeared from his home. The Greek mob threatened to
attack the Jewish quarter and burn it down. The British
consul then called on the governor of Alexandria to
intervene on behalf of the Jews. During the same year a
nine-year-old child of Cretan origin disappeared there. The
corpse of the child was retrieved from the sea and no wounds
were found on it. Many Jews, however, were injured as a
result of the clashes between Jews and Greeks.
In Port Said a girl disappeared in 1882. She was found dead
in the Arab quarter but rumors were immediately circulated
that the Jews had assassinated her in order to employ her
blood for the preparation of mazzot. The Jews were the victims of many
attacks and the French consul was influential in the calming
of passions. During the same year the Jews of Cairo were
accused of having killed a girl in the city. There were
anti-Semitic slurs in the Arabic newspapers, and the
newspapers of the Syrian Christians played a prominent role
in this campaign of agitation; they claimed that the Jews
lent money for interest and were thus usurers. The foreign
consuls assisted the Jews by intervening with the Turkish
authorities.
The libels in Egypt, and throughout the empire, were largely
due to the commercial rivalry which prevailed between the
Greeks and the Jews. In every place the Greeks were the
foremost agitators. The Jews were also hated by the
Christian Syrians, the Christian Arabs, and the Armenians
for religious reasons - a religious hatred which was deeply
implanted in their hearts - and out of jealousy for the
general competition of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire.
In Egypt there were also local circumstances: there was a
period of extreme tension as a result of the deposing of the
governor of the country, Ismail, by the Turkish sultan
(1870) and the accession of his son Taufik to the throne;
the inhabitants of Egypt were also embittered against
foreigners. Many articles imbued with hatred and defamation
of foreigners appeared in the local press; the Jews were
thus also accused and they became the scapegoat for the
hostility of the masses. With the establishment of British
rule in Egypt (July 1882) the Jews there lived in greater
security.
[[Supplement: This hatred against foreigners has its clear
reasons: The foreigners had built the Suez Canal and by this
all intermediary trade collapsed and the whole Middle East
impoverished. This hatred was a reaction of helplessness
because the Muslim populations were not at all prepared for
a change of industrialization, and the Muslim regimes were
working with the Europeans because e.g. Egypt or Turkey went
bankrupt...]]
In Palestine.
[The affair about a bullet
and a camel owner]
During the lifetime of the rishon le-Zion, hakham bashi [[chief rabbi]] Elijah Meir
*Panigel, there was a blood libel in Palestine. In 1890 two
Jews of Gaza were brought to Jerusalem and accused of ritual
murder. These men employed an Arab lad as a servant. The lad
went to play with another Arab who owned a camel and as he
toyed with a rifle, a bullet was fired from it and the camel
owner was killed. The next-of-kin seized the lad and
slaughtered him. The Jews then informed the tribunal of the
details of the murder but the Muslims accused the Jews of
the murder. They were arrested by the police, imprisoned in
Jerusalem, and after an interrogation were set free as they
were foreign subjects.
[Anti-Jewish book "The
Sounding of the Horn" - a converted rabbi confirms the use
of Christian blood - measures by the pasha]
In 1892, Palestine was stirred up by the publication of a
work entitled "The Sounding of the Horn of Liberty by the
Innocent" which was circulated in Egypt in Arabic and French
and which propagated anti-Jewish hatred and fanaticism. This
book described how a Jewish rabbi was about to slaughter a
Christian child to take (col. 1544)
his blood, which was to be employed for the kneading of the
Passover mazzot.
The pamphlet was also widely circulated in Palestine and
came into the hands of many government officers and
officials in Jerusalem. The hakham bashi [[chief rabbi]] R. Elijah M.
Panigel, accompanied by a delegation, intervened with the
pasha; the pasha ordered the immediate destruction of the
pamphlet and prohibited the reading of it and the spreading
of such rumors, as it was claimed that a child had also
disappeared in Jaffa and his blood was to be employed for
religious requirements.
A Catholic publicly proclaimed that a famous rabbi who
converted had confirmed that Jews indeed employed Christian
blood for the Passover ceremonies. The pasha immediately
sent out orders to every town that this report was to be
suppressed so as to prevent the outbreak of riots and
disorders. The Turkish sultan also ordered his minister of
education to extirpate this evil, as he was shocked that in
his empire, a land of peace and tranquility, there were
conspirators who incited the Greek citizens against the Jews
who enjoyed his protection and published slanderous
pamphlets whose contents were unfounded. All the pamphlets
that were subsequently found were burned.> (col. 1545)
