Table Of ContentO T T O M A N REFO RM
IN SYR IA
AN D P A L E S T IN E
1840-1861
OTTOMAN REFORM
IN SYRIA
AND PALESTINE
1840-1861
The Impact of the Tanzimat
on Politics and Society
BY
M OSH E M A 'O Z
*
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1968
Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W. i
oumeow nw tomb Toronto huoom i wrlldsotow
CAPS TOWN SALISBURY IBADAN NAIROBI LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA
BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LABORS DACCA
KOALA LUMPUR BONO BOND TOKYO
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1968
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
FOR MY MOTHER
PREFACE
Anumber of scholarly works published in recent years have
greatly contributed to the study of the Tanzimat period—
that critical era of attempted reform and modernization in
the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire.1 Yet these works deal
mainly with the heart of the Empire—Turkey—and with the
Balkans, while the Arab provinces have largely been neglected.
The aim of the present study, consequently, is to fill this gap to
a certain extent by reconstructing the evolution of the Tanzimat
reforms in the Syrian provinces during the years 1840-61, and
tracing their impact on government and administration, on social
and economic developments, and on the position of the non-
Muslim subjects.
The study opens with the year 1840, at which time the Syrian
provinces were reconquered from the Egyptians and the Tanzimat
reforms first introduced in them; it closes with the death of Sultan
Abdülmecid in 1861, a year which both marked the end of the first
stage in Ottoman Tanzimat and—following the events of i860
in Damascus (and Lebanon)—the conclusion of an era in Syrian
history. This era of transition, with some of its roots in the shor£
period of Egyptian rule during the 1830s, was unique in the
modem history of the area. It brought about an end to centuries of
confusion and backwardness and opened a new age of stability
and modernization. During these years local forces were destroyed,
regional autonomies undermined, and a solid foundation of Otto
man direct rule was established. The old struggle for power in the
Syrian cities was deprived of its violent nature and concentrated
in the newly established local councils—the meclises—institutions
which provided the basis for self-rule and municipal life in the area.
The years of the early Tanzimat also put an end to the long period
of tyranny and oppression by the Turkish Pashas and introduced
a milder and more liberal public atmosphere. During this era,
i
• 1 See the works by Bernard Lewis, Roderic Davison, Çerif Mardin, and
Robert Devereux cited in the bibliography.
vi Preface
moreover, although grave outbreaks of religio-political hostilities
took place, the seeds of political equality and of patriotic concep
tions were for the first time sown in Syrian society.
The scope of this work covers the provinces of Aleppo, Damas
cus, and Sidon—commonly known as Syria and Palestine; it
excludes the district of Mount Lebanon which, in many respects,
underwent a separate development and thus deserves special
I attention. These provinces, which were of great importance to the
Ottoman Empire due to their religious and commercial centres and
strategic position, were inhabited by a very heterogeneous popula
tion. According to some estimates it amounted in the 1850s to more
I than a million and a half persons. The majority—over a million
—were Muslims. These were mostly Sunni-Arabs; but among
them there were also substantial numbers of non-Sunni Arabs
— 'Alawis, Druzes, and Mutawalis, and non-Arab Sunnis—Kurds
and Turkomans. The second big religious group was the Christian
population, which numbered about half a million (including some
200,000 Maronites in Lebanon) and consisted of Greek Catholics,
Greek Orthodox, Armenians, and other small communities. The
number of Jews in Syria and Palestine was only about 25,000.
The present study is divided into five parts. Part one contains a
brief survey of the development of reform in the Ottoman Empire
from the rise to power of Sultan Mahmud II in 1808, to the death
of Sultan Abdiilmecid in 1861 ; it also deals with the state of affairs
in Syria and Palestine during the reign of Mahmud II, including
the term of the Egyptian occupation. In part two an attempt is
made to analyse some aspects of the new Ottoman administrative
policy in the Syrian provinces and to examine the instruments with
^ which this policy was carried out. Part three „contains a description
of the struggle for power between the Ottoman authorities on the
I
one hand, and urban leaders, mountain chiefs and Bedouin tribes
' on the other. Part four seeks to consider the extent to which the
social and economic reforms of the Tanzimat were carried out in
the Syrian provinces and the strength of their impact on various
spheres of life. Finally, part five analyses the state of Syrian non-
Muslims in the light of the Tanzimat pledges to them; it also
endeavours to examine the new attitudes of Muslims towards
Preface vii
Christians and Jews which emerged under the impact of die Otto
man reforms. '
This work is based on a variety of sources, both published and
unpublished. They include, firstly, both orders and firmans from
the central government in Istanbul to the Turkish Pashas in
Syria, and reports from the local authorities to the Porte. Secondly,
use has been made of the available Arabic sources—manuscripts,
records, and other contemporary material—among them testi
monials from both Muslim and Christian quarters. The Jewish
point of view is derived from a number of contemporary Hebrew
documents and travellers’ accounts. No less valuable and, in fact,
indispensable have been the European consular reports, notably
the detailed and informative dispatches of the British consuls. Other
unpublished materials from English sources include missionary
records and some private papers. Among the published sources in
European languages, of considerable use have been the memoirs
of European consuls and some contemporary observers.
I would like to express here my deep gratitude to persons and
institutions who have helped me with preparing this study, which
originally was written as a D.Phil. thesis submitted to Oxford
University. My greatest debt is to Professor Albert Hourani, who
has unfailingly directed me in all the stages of my work and whose
great scholarship and sense of history have been a constant guide
to my research. I owe a special debt to Professor David Ayalon,
who introduced me to the study of Arab history and paved the way
for my present research. I am deeply grateful also to St. Antony’s
College, Oxford, which in every way made it possible for me to
prepare my thesis. I should like to thank as well Miss Elizabeth
Monroe, Professor Uriel Heyd, Professor Peter Holt, and Dr.
Shimon Shamir for their careful reading of my manuscript and for
their many useful suggestions; and Professor Stanford Shaw for
helping me to locate Ottoman archival materials.
The staffs of many libraries have been very helpful, particularly
those of the Baçvekâlet Arçivi in Istanbul, the National Library
in Sofia, and the Muslim Shari'a Court in Jaffa. The Faculty of
Humanities, Tel-Aviv University, and the General Federation of
Labour in Israel, provided me with financial assistance during
viii Preface
various stages of my research. The Editorial Board of the BSOAS
were kind enough to allow me to reprint fictions of an article
which I had published in their journal. I also wish to thank
Mrs. Hillary Bullard, Dr. Derek Hopwood, and Mr. Brian Knap-
heis for their painstaking help in various ways. To my wife, Rivka,
who has devotedly encouraged and helped me throughout my
work, I owe more than I could properly express in words.
M. MA*OZ
Department of Middle
Eastern History
Tel-Aviv University
November 1967
