Haim Farhi

Haim Farhi (also Chaim, Farkhi) ( _he. חיים פרחי, _ar. حاييم فرحي, also known as Haim "El Muallim" lit. "The Teacher"), (1760 - 21 August 1820) was a Jewish adviser for rulers of the Galilee in the days of the Ottoman Empire, and during Napoleon's invasion of the southern Levant. Among his fellow Jews he was known as Hakham Haim, because of his Talmudic learning. [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]

He also played a role both in assisting students of the Baal Shem Tov to settle into the GalileeFact|date=June 2008, and in repelling Napoleon's siege of the city of Acre in 1799. He was Prime Minister, Financial Vizier and "de facto" ruler of Acre and its region from 1795 to 1820. He was assassinated in August of that year.

Historical background

After the Ottoman empire's conquest of the Levant from the Mamluks in the year 1516, Galilee became part of its empire. However, Turkish rule was weak. Throughout the empire, which extended over vast areas of Turkey, Asia, North Africa, the Balkans and Europe, there arose many local governors, who created a near-autonomous rule, and who maintained weak connections with the central government in Istanbul. The Levant in particular, was split into numerous feuding power centers. [Efraim Karsh "Islamic Imperialism: A History", Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2007 p.95]

Rule over 'Akko Sanjak' (northern Israel) was supposed to derive from the authority of the Damascus governorate, whose governor was held responsible for the area by the Ottoman throne (Turkey). During the 18th century a strong local leader by the name of Dhaher al-Omar emerged, who effectively severed ties with the empire, and undertook widespread reforms by improving road infrastructure, security, and by encouraging Christian and Jewish merchants to settle in the area and revive commerce. After the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji was signed with Russia on 21 July 1774, Sultan Abdul Hamid I moved to reassert Turkish sovereignty by attacking Dhaher and blockading the port of Acre. His troops rose in revolt and murdered their leader. In 1775 a Turkish officer, the Bosnian Mameluk Ahmad al-Jazzar took over, and the Turks thus managed to reassert their control over the northern areas of the land.Isaiah Friedman, "Germany, Turkey , Zionism 1897-1918", Trasnsaction Publishers,New Brunswick, New Jersey (1977) 1998 p.26]

Dhaher al-Omar actively encouraged Jewish resettlement, and personally invited Hayyim ben Jacob Abulafia of İzmir to settle in the Galilee. The Rabbi, originally born in Hebron, then part of the Jerusalem "Mutassariflik" (Governorate/District), arrived back in his native Palestine in 1740, was received with full honours by Dhaher, and settled in Tiberias, which was soon restored from its ruinous state. An impressive synagogue was built, roads were constructed, and Jewish agricultural settlements were founded at Pekiin, Shefa-'Amr, and Kafr Yasif. These policies continued under Ahmad al-Jazzar.

The existence of a strong local authority, enforced the law and prevented Bedouin banditry on the roads. Omar was one of the most tolerant and efficient local leaders and meted out justice equally to Muslim, Christian and Jew. This was the case in the days of Dahar and al-Jazzar who transformed the Galilee region into an attractive area for many immigrants, both Arabs from Syria and Lebanon and Jews hailing from the east and west as well.

Adviser to al-Jazzar

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. [Lucien Gubbay, "Sunlight and Shadow:The Jewish Experience of Islam", Other Press, New York (1999) 2000 p.130] [Thomas Philipp, "The Farhi Family and the Changing Position of the Jews in Syria, 1759-1860", in "Middle Eastern Studies "No. 20, October, 1984, pp.37-52 "passim"] He, and other family members worked as financial agents [ 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] (Turkish "sarraf") [’The main job of a big sarraf was to lend money or to play the role of guarantor in financial and commercial operations in the Ottoman economy. They in fact acted as ordinary merchant bankers in any kind of economy.’ Yavuz Cesar, "The role of the Sarrafi in Ottoman Finance and Economy in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries", in 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.The position was dominated by non-Muslims, mainly Armenians, Jews, and Catholics.] throughout the Damascus district, and contemporary sources often mention them as the 'real rulers of Syria'. [Isaiah Friedman, "Germany, Turkey , Zionism 1897-1918", Trasnsaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey (1977) 1998 p.26] They may also have mediated between the Jewish community and the law. They tried to alleviate the tax burden placed on the Jews of Safed. Haim Farhi succeeded his father as banker of the ruler of Damascus. He gained extensive influence with the Turkish government and became the adviser to Ahmad al-Jazzar, the ruler of Acre, probably thanks to his intrigues that led to the execution of the previous advisor, Mikhail Sakruj, a Christian merchant from Shfa'Amr. [Thomas Philipp, "Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730-1831", Columbia University Press, New York 2002 p. 161 ] Al-Jazzar recognized his administrator's talents, acted upon his counsel, and provided relief, at Farhi's request, from the heavy taxation placed on the Jewish community.

Al-Jazzar was, nonetheless, a violent and cruel individual whose title 'al-Jazzar' means 'The Butcher'. He would often find a pretext to lash out in savage assaults and harm Farhi and others. In fact, al-Jazzar had his adviser's eye plucked out, cut off the tip of his nose, and severed his left ear. [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] A famous illustration of those days shows al-Jazzar sitting in judgment in front of his Jewish adviser, who is wearing an eye patch.

During the reign of al-Jazzar, in 1799, Napoleon tried to conquer the Damascus governorate. In February Napoleon and his army arrived from the south, captured Jaffa and massacred 2,000 Turkish prisoners. They then moved north, captured Haifa and the Jezreel Valley and laid siege to Acre. Al-Jazzar's troops, refusing to surrender, withstood the siege for one and a half months. A British naval force under the command of 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, 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 Palestine during his campaign there, [Henry Laurens, "La Question de Palestine: L'invention de la terre sainte, 1799-1922", Fayard, Paris 1999 p.18] though his account of the military campaign records that a rumour among Syrian Jews had it that after Napoleon took Acre, he would go to Jerusalem and restore Solomon's temple. [Franz Kobler, "Napoleon and the Jews", Masada Press, Jerusalem,1975 p.51]

Murder

After the death of al-Jazzar in 1804, his son Sulayman Pasha succeeded to the 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". [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.] Sulayman held sway over the region until his death in 1819, when he bequeathed his power to Farhi's adopted son, Abdullah, the orphan of a bey who had died prematurely. [Moise Franco, "Essai sur l’histoire des Israélites de l’Empire Ottoman depuis les origines jusqu’à nos jours,"(1897) Georg Olms Verlag reprint, Hildesheim, New York 1973 p.130.] Farhi's murder precipitated what one recent historian of the city called the first, serious . . existential crisis' for Acre. [Thomas Philipp, "Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730-1831", Columbia University Press, New York 2002 p. 90 ]

Sulayman continued working with Farhi and employed him much as his own father had. However Abdullah, to whom Sulayman had passed his succession, 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 promptly killed him on the spot by strangulation, and ransacked his house. His family was denied permission to bury his body, and escaped to Damascus. The family assets were expropriated and Farhi's body was cast into the sea. His 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. [Moise Franco, "Essai sur l’histoire des Israélites de l’Empire Ottoman depuis les origines jusqu’à nos jours",(1897) Georg Olms Verlag reprint, Hildesheim, New York 1973 pp.130-1]

The vendetta

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 Aleppo to that purpose, wrote to Chalabi Carmona, an influential Jew of Constantinople to ask the Sultan for justice, requested a firman to that effect. Carmona did in fact obtain from the Sheikh ul-Islam, the Grand Mufti of Constantinople, 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. [Moise Franco, "Essai sur l’histoire des Israélites de l’Empire Ottoman depuis les origines jusqu’à nos jours",(1897) Georg Olms Verlag reprint, Hildesheim, New York 1973 pp.130-1]

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 their way and appointing new rulers to take away his authority in every region they conquered. When they finally reached Acre, they placed it under siege 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. Acre also has a square in his honour in the old sector of the city. In the pilgrimage from Poland of 300 Russian Hasidim [Isaiah Friedman,"Germany, Turkey , Zionism 1897-1918," Trasnsaction Publishers,New Brunswick, New Jersey (1977) 1998 p.26] , followers of the Baal Shem Tov, that took place in 1777, Farhi's role in helping them into the Galilee will always be remembered Fact|date=June 2008. This pilgrimage marked an important milestone in the Jewish resettlement of that area. [Jacob Barnay, "The Jews in Palestine in the eighteenth century", tr. Naomi Goldblum, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1992 pp.38-39]

Notes

References

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

External links

* [http://www.farhi.org/fhistory.htm FARHI Family History]
* [http://www.farhi.org/Documents/HaimFarhi.htm Haim "El Muallim" Farhi]
* [http://www.farhi.org/Documents/Loewe.htm Les Farhi de Damas]
* [http://farhi.org/Documents/Jezzar.htm Portrait of Haim Farhi]
* [http://farhi.org/wc01/wc01_363.htm Haim Genealogy]