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Revision as of 07:08, 26 January 2004 by Humus sapiens (talk | contribs) (see also)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)1840 February 5, Damascus: A Franciscan Capuchin friar, Father Thomas, and his servant are found dead before Jewish Passover, and the Turkish governor and the French consul believe the blood libel and ritual murder accusations. A fake investigation is staged and Solomon Negrin, a Jewish barber, confesses under torture accusing other Jews. Two die under torture, one converts to Islam to escape it. More arrests and atrocities follow, culminating in the seizure of sixty-three Jewish children held as hostages and mob attacks on Jewish communities throughout the Middle East.
Sir Moses Montefiore, backed by Western influentials (British Lord Palmerston, French lawyer Adolphe Cremieux, Austrian consul Merlatto, missonary John Nicolayson, Solomon Munk, among others), leads a delegation to the ruler of Syria Mehemet_Ali_(Egypt) in Alexandria (Aug. 4 - 28). He secures the unconditional release and recognition of the innocence of nine prisoners who still remained alive (out of thirteen). In Constantinople he pursuades Sultan Abdul Mejid to issue a firman (edict) stopping the spread of blood libels in the Ottoman Empire.
The Damascus affair prompted French Jews to establish Alliance Israelite Universelle.
The 1840 accusations reappeared as late as 1986 in a book by Syrian official: The Damascus Blood Libel (1840) as Told by Syria's Minister of Defense, Mustafa Tlass.