1840.
AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING THE ACCUSATIONS
AGAINST THE JEWS--TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF THE ACCUSED--EVIDENCE OF
THEIR INNOCENCE--WITNESSES IN THEIR FAVOUR BASTINADOED TO DEATH.
_Copy of a Letter from the Rev. Joseph Marshall, Chaplain of H.M.S.
"Castor."_
Sir,--In reference to the enquiries you make concerning your brethren
in Damascus, I have much pleasure in informing you, that when I
visited that city about the middle of last August, I took considerable
pains in making myself acquainted with the nature of the charge
preferred against them, the evidence on which it rested, the treatment
to which they were exposed. The result of my enquiries I will briefly
submit to you.
That two men, the Padre Tommaso and his servant, are missing, is
beyond dispute. There is not the least reason to believe that the
servant is murdered or dead; there is but little evidence that the
Padre has been murdered, and not the slightest that he was murdered by
Jews; on the contrary, evidence _a priori_ is entirely in their
favour, and that extorted by torture, if fairly considered, is equally
so. However, as some others who have visited Damascus have expressed a
contrary opinion, I think it necessary to state, in a few words, some
of the grounds upon which I establish mine.
I need not allude to their ceremonial and moral law; both are equally
abhorrent of the act imputed to them; but perhaps they were fanatics
influenced by an inward light stronger than their law. Fanaticism is
not usually found among such men as Soloman Murad and Meyer Farki,
with their compeers, the leading men of a highly respectable and
wealthy community, as was evident from the appearance of their
families even in distress. Indeed I was answered by both Moslem and
Franks, that the higher order of Jews at Damascus were less to be
remarked for enthusiasm than coldness in religion. I have the same
authority for believing that worldly competitions and commercial
jealousy made it very improbable that they would unite so closely as
the commission of such a crime would imply.
What testimony is there then to overcome these probabilities?
Confession wrung from mortal agony and unsupported by circumstantial
evidence. Their enemies do, to be sure, appeal to certain
circumstances, such as the identity of the extorted confession itself:
true, I believe it to be so perfectly identical as to lose all
character of independence. But there were other circumstances. There
were animal remains found twenty-five days after the Friar had
disappeared, in a running sewer in closer proximity to a butcher's
stall than to David Arari's house. There was said also to be the mark
of fire on the white marble pavement of the same gentleman's court. I
saw it not, though the stone was pointed out. This mark, which did not
exist, was supposed to be caused by the burning of the Padre's
clothes, but there were certain stains on a wall which might be blood;
I thought they might be anything else rather. Again, with the
aforesaid animal remains there was found a piece of cloth such as
might identify it with part of the Friar's cap. Is this circumstance
consistent with the burning of his apparel, or did they spare that
part only, which would most easily lead to detection?
But there was another circumstance much dwelt on, viz., the posting of
a notice at the barber's door, at too great a height for the Friar's
stature; therefore, evidently the work of a Jew. I can positively say,
it was at the natural height for such fixtures, within the reach of
any middle-sized person, and with the slightest trouble might be
placed there by anyone. But what was the object of the gigantic Jew in
posting the advertisement at all? He had taken it, it was _supposed_,
from the Synagogue door, where it was _supposed_ the Friar had posted
it. And for the purpose of destroying all trace of the Friar having
been in the Jews' quarter, he transferred it to the barber's door,
which was actually within the Jews' quarter. He might, to be sure,
have destroyed it and all trace of the Padre at once; but this would
have been an expedient too simple for the sagacity of this Hebrew,
which appears to have been in an inverse ratio to his bulk.
The dulness of such reasoning defeats its malice. And this is all the
evidence for the charge procured by the bastinadoing of one hundred
and twenty persons, in several instances to death. I think its
meagreness proves the negative, viz., that the poor victims had
nothing really to confess; and this in addition to the positive
evidence of those who died under the torture, sealing their testimony
with their blood.
But might not the accused have brought forward positive evidence in
their favour? One person did come forward to prove that he had seen
the Friar in another part of the town subsequently to the date of the
supposed murder. He was bastinadoed to death--a consummation not
likely to encourage other witnesses to come forward; and indeed the
Jews assert that Moslems of the first rank in Damascus, if they dared
speak, could have established an _alibi_ for them in many cases.
To have anything like an adequate idea of what these unfortunate
people suffered, after the heads of their families had been thrown
into prison, you must be on the spot to hear, as one of themselves
expressed it, "their hearts speaking." Insults of all kinds heaped
upon them by the refuse of mankind, their houses broken into and
plundered with impunity, jewels torn from the persons of their female
relatives, young children imprisoned and tortured with starvation, the
son bastinadoed before the mother's eyes to make her betray her
husband's place of concealment, the most exorbitant bribes demanded to
permit the common necessaries of life to pass the gates of the prison
for its bruised and wretched inhabitants. These, sir, were some of
their sufferings, and of these I had undoubted evidence.
Surely the correspondent of the _Times_, to whom you allude, if he had
not confined himself while in Damascus to Frank society, and that,
too, of a particular caste, would have seen and heard enough to make
him hesitate before he declared his belief in the guilt of the Jews,
the mildness of their sufferings, and the mercy of their persecutors!
Had he gone to the house of David Arari, he would have learned that
_women_ had been tortured, and in vain. He might have seen with his
own eyes the heroic conduct of the poor negro girl, a Moslem and a
slave, whom the torture could not force to bear false witness against
the Jew, her master. He might there also have learned that if Madame
Arari had consented to sacrifice her daughter's virtue, she might have
preserved her husband's person from violence, his property from
plunder, and her people from slander. He might have ascertained the
amount of sympathy and mercy which Madame Lagnado received at the
hands of a European functionary, when she visited him on behalf of her
husband, who died under the torture. Had he visited Signor Merlato,
the Austrian Consul, a man whom all Christendom must respect, he might
have satisfied his eyes respecting the barbarity of the torture, and
that the sufferers had not at that time recovered from its effects.
Long after that period I saw men who, after the lapse of five months
from the infliction of the bastinado, had their feet and legs swelled
to a form as if produced by elephantiasis. The correspondent of the
_Times_, whose very just description of the state of Syria and
Palestine lends an undue importance to his opinion on the case of the
Jews, would have been persuaded that there were cases in which foreign
influence was used with the Pasha to encourage the application of the
torture when some old men, too feeble to survive for a moment the
infliction of the bastinado, were subjected a second time to the
torment of sleeplessness, under the bayonets of the Egyptian soldiers.
But it is indeed too unreasonable and unjust to lay on the Pasha of
Damascus the whole blame of these proceedings, unequalled in atrocity
since the days of the fourth Antiochus. The guilt must be equally
shared by those who delivered up an innocent people into his hands;
indeed, their share is greater. He may plead that he was obliged to do
these things by the nature of his office. The persecutors of the Jews
cannot even shelter themselves under such a plea as that. Indeed, if
they be blameless, then is the Spanish Inquisition blameless also; the
Auto-da-Fe being, in the last result, certainly the result of the
civil power. In short, the charges and recommendations of the Jews
against their persecutors are of such enormity as to make them, it is
to be hoped, if they be conscious of their innocence, anxious that the
whole matter should be sifted to the bottom by a process more rational
than the bastinado, and before a judge less suspected of foreign
influence than Sheriff Pasha. Although I trust you will persevere in
your meritorious exertions for the sake of humanity and truth, yet,
as you ask my opinion as to the practicability or prudence of
proceeding at once to Damascus, I must say that I do not think it
advisable. Though Damascus may have submitted to the Sultan, and the
Emir Beshir would be happy to grant you, if necessary, an escort
through the mountains, yet I am afraid a short time must elapse before
the people of Damascus can be made aware of the important changes in
their social condition, when the Hatti Sherif of Gulhane shall be no
longer to them a dead letter, when violence shall no longer usurp the
place of justice, nor men endanger their lives by bearing witness to
the truth. You will be able to return to Syria in a few months under
better auspices, and cover the slanderers of your people with
confusion.
The example of Rhodes should give you encouragement. I was there last
summer when the atrocious charge of the same malignity which was made
against the Jews of that place, resulted in like violence, and which,
if tried by a similar process, would have led to the same results as
at Damascus.
Justice was done to them at Constantinople, and they triumphed. In the
same way will you find the cloud clearing away from Damascus. Indeed,
there exists not at present the shadow of evidence against them,
except you so call a most unnatural and suspicious identity of
confession, to be found in all false accusations where torture has
been applied, such as in trials for witchcraft. A remarkable instance
of this you may have seen recorded in _Chambers' Journal_ a few months
ago. It happened in the reign of James I. of England. The accused, if
I rightly remember, was the "wise wife of Kent." In the meantime, if
this testimony of mine can be of any service in comforting your
distressed people, I shall not consider I have visited Damascus in
vain.
Accept, Sir, my best wishes and esteem, and believe me to be
your very obedient servant,
Joseph Marshall.
To Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart, &c., &c., &c.
_Copy of a Letter addressed to Sir Moses Montefiore by Lieutenant
Shadwell of H.M.S. "Castor."_
H.M.S. _Castor_, Malta, _December 5th, 1840_.
Sir,--In compliance with your request, I beg leave to
submit to you some observations relative to the affairs
of the Jews at Damascus, which I was enabled to make in
my recent visit to that city, and also to lay before you
the general impression on my mind at that time, as to
the weight and credibility of the evidence addressed in
support of the charges which have been advanced against
them.
My visit to Damascus took place in the early part of the
month of August of the present year, my
fellow-travellers being the Rev. Mr Marshall, Chaplain
of H.M.S. _Castor_, and the Rev. Mr Schlientz, of Malta,
and his lady.
On the 10th of August, soon after my arrival at
Damascus, accompanied by Mr Marshall, I went to the
Jewish quarter of that city, and proceeded in the first
instance to the house of David Arari, one of the accused
persons, who was then in confinement, and at whose house
the Father Tommaso is said to have been murdered. We
were shown into an apartment where the atrocious deed is
said to have been committed. It is a small room to the
left of the Divan, with windows in front looking into
the interior court, and high windows behind looking into
the street. The latter circumstance is important as
tending to throw doubts on the credibility of the
accusation, as it is scarcely possible to conceive that
any person could submit quietly to the pains of death
without uttering cries for assistance, and that, if
those cries had been uttered, they should not have been
heard in the street outside.
In the corresponding apartment on the other side of the
Divan, we were shown a stain of dirt upon the wall,
which the zeal of the accusers branded with the
imputation of being blood. This room was in a dismantled
state, all the furniture having been removed, and the
marble flooring torn up in order to search for bones or
other remains of the supposed crime.
We afterwards visited the house of Mourad Farki, Mayer
Farki, and Solomon Farki. The two former, being accused
of participating in the murder, were in confinement. We
were shown the room where the murder of Tommaso's
servant is said to have been perpetrated, and saw the
privy and the sewer in the street where the remains of
the two are alleged to have been thrown.
We also went to the house of Halil Said Naivi, one of
the accusers, and saw that individual. He is the keeper
of a low grog-shop of disreputable character. It must be
admitted that the nature of the man's calling does not
afford any guarantee for the credibility of his
testimony.
On the following day, August 11, we went to visit the
Latin Convent of the Capuchins, of which Father Tommaso
was an inmate. In the chapel is a tomb with an
inscription to the following effect:--
"Qui reposano le ossa de Pre. Tommaso da Sardegna
Missionano Cappuccino assassinato dagli Ebrei il giorno
5 di Febrajo 1840."
I will not be exactly certain whether the above is a
literal copy of the inscription, having written it down
from memory after my return home, but I can confidently
state that it is substantially correct, especially in so
far as concerns the use of the obnoxious word
"assassinato."
By this it will be seen that these enlightened
Capuchins, following the example of popular credulity,
assume the murder of their colleague as a fact before it
has been proved judicially.
On the same day, in company with Mr and Mrs Schlientz,
we repeated our visit to the Jewish quarter, and
afterwards, having obtained permission from Sheriff
Pasha through the British Consul, Mr Werry, went to the
Seraglio to see the Jewish prisoners.
Sixteen individuals were implicated in the charge of
murder; of these, two had died under torture, four had
absconded. One, Mr Picchioto, being, fortunately for
himself, an Austrian subject, was under the protection
of the Imperial Consulate, the remaining nine were then
in prison, and also a venerable Rabbi.
We were accompanied on our visit by the British Consul's
dragoman and a writer in the service of the Pasha. The
rooms in which the prisoners were confined were in the
second floor of a large exterior building attached to
the Pasha's palace, principally used as a barrack.
The apartment opened into a covered corridor or gallery
running round the whole length of the building. None of
the doors were closed, but sentries were planted at
intervals along the gallery. The prisoners were almost
all of them elderly men, and seemed very unhappy. Mr
Schlientz, who is both an Arabic and a Hebrew scholar,
spoke to several of them on the subject of religion,
pointing out to them, in their affliction, the
consolations of Scriptures, which appeared greatly to
excite the mirth of our attendants and other bystanders.
The prisoners confined here were either six or seven in
number, the remainder, amongst whom was the Rabbi, were
in custody in another part of the Seraglio, in
apartments on the ground floor.
The chambers in which the prisoners were lodged were
tolerably comfortable, and spacious enough to afford
them the means of taking partial exercise. An obvious
desire existed on the part of our attendants to
represent matters in the most favourable light, and to
convince us that the prisoners, in their confinement,
were treated with the greatest leniency.
I have been particular, at the risk of being thought
tedious, in giving a circumstantial detail of our
various visits, as it will impress upon this statement
the stamp of authenticity, and at least serve to show
that we were anxious by all the means in our power to
arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
In the course of these visits we had a great deal of
conversation with the families and friends of the
accused, persons who, far from appearing desirous of
concealing anything, seemed on the contrary anxious to
have everything fairly enquired into, and submitted to
the most ample investigation. We saw several people who
had been subjected to torture, amongst whom was one
woman, a female servant of David Arari; we saw their
wounds yet unhealed, and heard from their own lips the
description of the sufferings they had endured. The
tortures to which they had been subjected were of the
most cruel and disgraceful nature, and some of them even
too disgusting to be mentioned with propriety. We also
had, during our stay at Damascus, many opportunities of
discussing the question with various people with various
shades of opinion, and of canvassing the evidence
adduced in support of the charges.
My own opinion, in which I may, I believe, also safely
state my fellow-travellers fully concur, is that the
Jews of Damascus are NOT GUILTY of the atrocious charges
which have been preferred against them.
My grounds for this opinion are simply this, that there
is no admissible evidence to support the charge.
I at once reject _in limine_, as repulsive to every
principle of reason and equity, and as unworthy to be
considered as legal evidence, all the admissions and
confessions of the witnesses and accused persons which
were extorted by torture or the fear of torture, however
plausible they may seem, or however compatible with one
another they may appear, particularly when I find them
at variance with conflicting testimony on the one hand,
and inconsistent with the general probabilities on the
other.
Any absurdities, as the annals of witchcraft fully show,
might be proved by the agency of torture. It was through
fear of the application of this beauteous engine for the
elucidation of the truth, that the Inquisition extorted
from Galileo the admission that the doctrine of the
earth's motion was heretical; yet, notwithstanding this
confession, as that illustrious man observed on rising
from his knees, "e pur si muove." So also might the
unhappy Jews of Damascus, whilst yielding to bodily
suffering and confessing their guilt, exclaim the moment
afterwards, "but yet we are innocent."
The whole of the pretended evidence against the
prisoners was obtained either by torture or fear of
torture, and the alleged agreement between the
statements of the different witnesses, on which great
stress has been laid, may easily be accounted for when
it is considered how impossible it would be for people
writhing under agonies of intense bodily suffering to
give their evidence in a clear and connected manner, and
how absolutely necessary it would be to extract their
confession from them word by word, affirmatively or
negatively--yes or no--through the agency of leading
questions.
On the other hand, the only two witnesses who appeared
in favour of the Jews were conveniently disposed of by
being bastinadoed to death. These were a young man, who
deposed to having spoken to Tommaso and his servant on
the evening of the alleged murder as they were
proceeding from the Jewish quarter, and the porter of
the gate near the house of David Arari, who stated that
he had heard or seen nothing of the priest's remains
being thrown into the sewer.
The evidence was awkward, and not at all suited to the
wishes of the prosecutors; and it proved fatal to the
witnesses who gave it.
But, exclaim those who argue in favour of the guilt of
the Jews, even although there is not sufficient legal
evidence to convict them of the crimes laid to their
charge, surely you must admit that, morally speaking,
there can be no doubt that they are actually guilty.
Far from it. Every reasonable consideration appears to
my mind to throw discredit on the statements of their
accusers, while the whole of the evidence teems with
obvious and palpable improbabilities.
For instance, to say nothing of the absence of any
rational assignable motive which could induce frontier
merchants--men of rank and influence among their own
people--men of wealth and consideration among their
neighbours--with everything to lose and nothing to gain,
to conspire together to commit two such atrocious
murders, is it likely for one moment, even if they did
so, that they should be so utterly devoid of all common
prudence, and so grossly infatuated, as to place
themselves in the power of two such inferior persons as
a barber and a servant as accomplices?
And again, even on the hypothesis that they had been
actuated by some such fanatical motive as has been
imputed to them, is it at all probable that they would
have selected for their victim an individual so certain
to be missed as the Father Tommaso? From his long
residence at Damascus, and the nature of his calling,
his absence was sure to be noticed. Why not have
selected for their victim some more obscure individual,
on whom their barbarous fanaticism might have exercised
their impious rites with impunity? Bah! why waste time
by pursuing the ridiculous absurdities of these
suppositions any further?
Then, again, all the accusers, with Halil Said Naivi at
their head, were persons of low degree and disreputable
character, whose testimony on any ordinary occasion
would have been received with extreme caution; while the
recollection of the pillaging and extortions to which
the Jewish families have been subjected, affords a clue
to the motives which have instigated the persecutors.
Considerable importance has been attached to the finding
of the bones, but it should be remembered that they were
not discovered till twenty-five days after the
disappearance of Father Tomasso; that the sewer where
the bones were found was the common receptacle of all
the filth and offal of the neighbourhood, and that
considerable difference of opinion existed among the
medical men by whom they were examined as to the fact of
their being human bones at all; while there are strong
grounds for believing in the existence of the most
fraudulent collusion with reference to their discovery.
In conclusion, to the reiteration of my already
expressed opinion, I can merely add that I conceive the
whole charge to be a base and odious calumny,
unsupported by any credible testimony; a mere renewal of
those disgusting persecutions which disgraced the annals
of the dark ages, and one which would not for one moment
be tolerated in the present day among a civilised and
enlightened people.
It is much to be regretted that the disturbed condition
of the East at the period of your Mission to Alexandria
prevented Mohhammad Ali from ordering a full and fair
judicial enquiry into the whole of the proceedings of
the Damascus affair, as there is no doubt that the
enemies of the Jews will not be slow to represent the
edict which Mohhammad Ali has accorded to your requests,
as granted more through pressure of external political
embarrassments than freely given as a mere matter of
justice and righteous dealing; more as a political
compromise of a difficult and troublesome question than
as the solemn act of the Government of the country,
vindicating the Jews from the aspersions which had been
foully cast upon them, and branding with the stamp of
official disapprobation those who had dared to utter
them.
You have, however, done all that circumstances permitted
you to accomplish. In the present excited condition of
these countries, your attempting to reach Damascus would
be highly dangerous, if not altogether impracticable;
and even if you got there, I do not see how you could
accomplish any good while the Government is yet
unsettled, and in the absence of any constituted
authority to aid your efforts with the influence of the
British Government.
"Magna est veritas et praevalebit." Go on and prosper in
your righteous endeavours to protect the cause of
innocence and truth. Let us hope for better times, when
the advancing tide of knowledge and civilisation will
sweep away the last remains of ignorance and fanaticism,
and the vindictive spirit of persecution flee at the
scowl of the genius of truth.
Trusting you will excuse my having so long trespassed on
your attention, I have the honour to be, Sir, your
obedient servant,
Charles F. A. Shadwell.
The evidence of two such witnesses, given in an English Court of
Justice, would surely have been considered decisive.