Naqib al-Ashraf revolt

Last updated
Naqib al-Ashraf revolt
DateMay 1703–October 1705
Location
Jerusalem, Jerusalem Sanjak, Damascus Eyalet, Ottoman Empire
Result
  • Revolt suppressed
  • Centralized Ottoman rule reasserted in Jerusalem
  • Capture and execution of revolt leadership
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Local ulama , Janissaries and inhabitants of Jerusalem and its vicinity
Commanders and leaders
Mehmed Pasha Kurd-Bayram
Arslan Mehmed Pasha 		Muhammad ibn Mustafa al-Husayni al-Wafa'i   Skull and Crossbones.svg
Strength
N/A N/A
Casualties and losses
N/A N/A

The Naqib al-Ashraf revolt (also known as the Naqib al-Ashraf uprising) was a popular uprising in Jerusalem against the Ottoman authorities between May 1703 and October 1705. [1] [2] [3] It was led by the city's naqib al-ashraf (local head of the order of Muhammad's descendants), Muhammad ibn Mustafa al-Husayni al-Wafa'i, and the rebels consisted of townspeople, peasants from nearby villages, local Bedouins, and religious notables ( ulama ). For over two years the rebels engaged in virtual self-rule in the city. However, divisions emerged within rebel ranks, and following an Ottoman siege, the rebel camp led by al-Husayni fled the city and were later captured and executed.

Contents

Background

In the mid-17th century, the Sublime Porte (Ottoman imperial government) launched a centralization effort in the empire's provinces guided by the policies of the Köprülü Grand Viziers. [4] In Palestine, these policies manifested in the gradual elimination of local hereditary dynasties, namely the Ridwans, Farrukhs and Turabays. [4] These families traditionally provided the governors for the sanjaks (districts) of Jerusalem, Gaza, Lajjun and Nablus. [4] They generally maintained close alliances with the notables of Palestine's major towns and with the Bedouin tribes. [4]

Towards the end of the 17th century, the local governors had been replaced by Ottoman officials who discontinued the local relationships their predecessors had cultivated. [4] Under the new governors, the exploitation of the local population by Janissaries, timariots (fief holders) and subashis continued unabated. [4] The governors could not bring order to the Jerusalem Sanjak, with the main roads from Jerusalem to Jaffa and from Nablus to Hebron facing frequent assaults by Bedouin tribesmen and instability remaining rampant in the countryside and major towns such as Hebron. [5] Many peasants left their villages to avoid heavy taxation by the governors or exploitation by junior officials. [4] The dignitaries of Jerusalem often served as mediators of disputes in the district in place of government officials. [5] The dignitaries' loss of privileges previously enjoyed under the local governors brought them closer with the lower, dispossessed classes due to their shared frustrations with the changing order. [4] Moreover, acts by the Janissaries, namely the desecration of mosques and religious sites, including the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem, further incensed the population. [4]

In 1701 Mehmed Pasha Kurd Bayram was appointed governor of the Jerusalem, Gaza and Nablus sanjaks. [5] During his term, he launched repeated punitive expeditions against the peasantry and Bedouin tribesmen for rebelling against his authority, refusing to pay his increased taxes (Mehmed Pasha doubled the tax rate after entering into office) or, in the specific case of the Bedouin, for taking over local highways and imposing tolls on travelers. [5] The campaigns were often brutal. [5] In 1702, his campaign against the Bedouin and peasants in the Gaza and Jerusalem sanjaks resulted in 200 deaths among the Bedouin and peasants. [6] In early 1703, he besieged the fortress town of Bayt Jibrin where rebels from the vicinity had barricaded themselves. [6] Several villages were destroyed before Mehmed Pasha gained control of the town. [6] Following the siege, the ulama of Jerusalem requested that Mehmed Pasha ease his stringent taxation policies and militarism, but their requests were ignored. [6]

Revolt

In May 1703, during Friday prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque, and while Mehmed Pasha was leading a punitive expedition around Nablus, a rebellion against the government was announced. The mutasallim appointed by Mehmed Pasha and the small number of troops who had been left to govern the city were apprehended by the Jerusalemite rebels with key assistance from the local sipahi and Janissary units. The rebels also freed the inmates of the city's prison. Once word of the ulama's call for revolt spread, the urban Jerusalemites were joined by peasants from the villages in the countryside. The rebels prepared Jerusalem's defenses to counter an assault by Mehmed Pasha and his troops. [6]

The rebels appointed Muhammad ibn Mustafa al-Wafa'i al-Husayni, the city's naqib al-ashraf (head of the order of the Muhammad's descendants), as their leader and the sheikh (chief) of Jerusalem, hence the modern name of the revolt. The sheikhs of the various city quarters were appointed to assist Muhammad ibn Mustafa to administer Jerusalem's governmental and economic affairs. [4] [6] With the rebels in firm control of the city, [6] popular support from its inhabitants, [4] and the establishment of a governing administration, [6] the people of Jerusalem effectively began an over two-year-long period of self-rule in Jerusalem. [4] [6] The central government's preoccupation with more pressing matters in the capital during the Edirne revolt forced it to tolerate the state of affairs in Jerusalem. [4]

Mehmed Pasha and Arslan Mehmed Pasha, the governor of the Damascus Eyalet (to whose jurisdiction Jerusalem belonged) and his successors, attempted to retake the city from the rebels during the siege that ensued. However, the rebels utilized Jerusalem's sacredness to Muslims to prevent serious bombardment of the city by Ottoman forces, while opening fire against the latter upon their approach. [6]

In 1704, upon hearing that Sultan Ahmed III was dispatching a large army to take control of Jerusalem, a loyalist camp emerged that was content with Mehmed Pasha's dismissal and putting an end to the revolt. [7] [8] However, Muhammad ibn Mustafa did not trust imperial overtures and demanded stronger guarantees before ending the revolt. [8] The population was split between the two camps, and the rivalry turned violent when Muhammad ibn Mustafa waged an armed campaign against the loyalists. The clashes peaked with a major battle in the narrow alleyways around the Bab al-Huta gate in the northern part of the city. The battle ended with dozens of fatalities and mass defections from Muhammad ibn Mustafa's camp. The loyalist camp was barricaded in the citadel with the qadi , awaiting the intervention of the imperial army. [7]

Clashes between the rival camps began anew in late 1705, around the time that the imperial army was departing from Damascus. The imperial army met generally ineffective resistance in the hinterland of Nablus, where peasant irregulars harried them along the way to Jerusalem. Once the Ottomans reached Jerusalem's environs in October, [8] Muhammad ibn Mustafa decided to escape from the city with dozens of his followers through the Damascus Gate and the Moroccan Gate on 28 October, [2] [8] during the evening. [8] Muhammad ibn Mustafa was captured by the Ottoman authorities, sent to Istanbul, and was executed there in 1707. [2]

Aftermath and legacy

The flight of the naqib al-ashraf brought an end to the al-Wafa'iya al-Husayni family's influence in Jerusalem and paved the way for the al-Ghudayya clan, an ashraf family with a lower profile than the al-Wafi'a al-Husayni, to assume the post of naqib al-ashraf. A branch of the Ghudayyas became known as the al-Husayni family in the mid-18th century, [2] [9] and played a highly influentially role in Jerusalem's affairs during the remaining decades of Ottoman rule and whose members were leaders of the Palestinian national movement in the post-World War I period. [2] Along with al-Wafa'iya al-Husayni, several other ulama and ashraf families lost the Ottomans' favor, although some later regained local administrative clout in later decades. Following the city's capitulation, thousands of Ottoman troops were garrisoned in Jerusalem under the command of a new governor. The large military presence led to a decline in Jerusalem's economy. [10]

According to Ilan Pappe, the Naqib al-Ashraf Revolt was "unique in the history of the district of Jerusalem in that it allied peasants and Bedouins with dignitaries and notables. [7] Historian Adel Manna called it the "First popular uprising in Palestine", [2] while also noting that the revolt was geographically limited to Jerusalem and its immediate environs. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidon Eyalet</span> Administrative division of the Ottoman Empire from 1660 to 1864

The Eyalet of Sidon was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, the eyalet extended from the border with Egypt to the Bay of Kisrawan, including parts of modern Israel and Lebanon.

The Peasants' Revolt was a rebellion against Egyptian conscription and taxation policies in Palestine. While rebel ranks consisted mostly of the local peasantry, urban notables and Bedouin tribes also formed an integral part of the revolt. This was a collective reaction to Egypt's gradual elimination of the unofficial rights and privileges previously enjoyed by the various classes of society in the Levant under Ottoman rule.

The Tuqan clan is a prominent Palestinian and Jordanian political and business family. During the Ottoman era, they dominated the political and socio-economic spheres in Nablus and extended their influence to al-Salt. During that era, they were the only household that came close to establishing centralized rule over Jabal Nablus. Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries the Tuqan family held the title of mutasallim of Nablus longer than any other local family.

Ahmad ibn Ridwan, better known as Ahmad Pasha, was the governor of the Damascus Eyalet in the early 17th century. Before that, he was governor of the Gaza Sanjak, a subprovince of Damascus, for nearly 30 years.

Ḥusayn Pasha ibn Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Riḍwān ibn Muṣṭafā ibn ʿAbd al-Muʿīn Pasha was the Ottoman governor of Gaza Sanjak, a district which extended from Jaffa and Ramla in the north to Bayt Jibrin in the southeast and Rafah in the south, with Gaza as its capital. Husayn belonged to the Ridwan family, who long held the governorship of Gaza. Husayn Pasha became governor in 1644 after succeeding his father 'Arab Hasan Pasha. He served, with a brief interruption by his son Ibrahim in 1660, until his imprisonment in 1662. Husayn Pasha also served intermittent terms as governor of Nablus and Jerusalem and as amir al-hajj. Gaza prospered under Husayn Pasha and its political importance rose so much so that the French consul considered it to be the virtual capital of Palestine. Husayn Pasha maintained friendly relations with the Bedouin tribes of the region, local Christian communities and the French. In 1662, Husayn Pasha was imprisoned by the Ottoman imperial authorities and executed in Damascus later that year or in Constantinople in 1663.

The Battle of Hebron and 1834 Hebron massacre occurred in early August 1834, when the forces of Ibrahim Pasha launched an assault against Hebron to crush the last pocket of significant resistance in Palestine during the Peasants' revolt in Palestine. After heavy street battles, the Egyptian Army defeated the rebels of Hebron, and afterward subjected Hebron's inhabitants to violence following the fall of the city. About 500 civilians and rebels were killed, while the Egyptian Army experienced 260 casualties.

The Ridwan dynasty was the most prominent pasha family in Palestine, ruling the southwestern districts of the Damascus Eyalet in the 16th and 17th centuries under Ottoman rule. The dynasty was based in Gaza, where its members continuously served as the hereditary sanjak-beys of the sanjak for over a century. Members also ruled different provinces and districts throughout the Ottoman Empire and held additional titles at different times. The Ridwan period in Gaza was considered the city's last golden age.

Qasim Pasha al-Ahmad was the chief of the Jamma'in subdistrict of Jabal Nablus during the Ottoman and Egyptian periods in Palestine in the mid-19th century. He also served as the mutassalim of Jerusalem between 1832 and 1833. Qasim headed the Qasim clan, a prominent rural family of Jabal Nablus. He led the peasants of Palestine in their revolt against the Egyptian rule of Ibrahim Pasha in 1834. Following the revolt's suppression, he was captured and executed by the authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amir al-hajj</span> Islamic historical title for leader of the pilgrimage

Amir al-hajj was the position and title given to the commander of the annual Hajj pilgrim caravan by successive Muslim empires, from the 7th century until the 20th century. Since the Abbasid period, there were two main caravans, one departing from Damascus and the other from Cairo. Each of the two annual caravans was assigned an amir al-hajj whose main duties were securing funds and provisions for the caravan, and protecting it along the desert route to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the Hejaz.

Çeteci Abdullah Pasha ibn Ibrahim al-Husayni al-Jarmaki was an Ottoman statesman of Kurdish origin. He served terms as the governor of Sivas, Diyarbekir, Rakka, Adana, Van, Erzurum, Kütahya, Aleppo and Damascus. Çeteci was born in 1703 in the village of Çermik, hence his surname "al-Jarmaki".

Farrukh Pasha ibn Abdullah was the Ottoman governor of Nablus and Jerusalem in the early 17th century, and founder of the Farrukh dynasty, which held the governorship of Nablus and other posts for much of the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safed Sanjak</span> Subdivision of the Ottoman Empire

Safed Sanjak was a sanjak (district) of Damascus Eyalet in 1517–1660, after which it became part of the Sidon Eyalet. The sanjak was centered in Safed and spanned the Galilee, Jabal Amil and the coastal cities of Acre and Tyre. The city of Safed was made up of Muslim and Jewish townspeople, while the rest of the sanjak was populated by Sunni Muslims, Jewish peasants, Bedouin tribesmen, Shia Muslims/Mitwali, and Druze peasants.

Naqib al-ashraf was a governmental post in various Muslim empires denoting the head or supervisor of the descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The descendants of Muhammad were known as ashraf and throughout Islamic history, the ashraf organized themselves into large groups, akin to corporations, throughout the various Muslim territories. This was done to ensure their special place in Muslim society and thus maintain their socio-political privileges.

Mehmed Pasha Kurd Bayram-zade, also known as Çerkes Mehmed Pasha was an Ottoman statesman. He served as the district governor of Jerusalem, Gaza and Nablus in 1701–1703 and the provincial governor of Damascus in 1702–1703 and 1705–1706.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mehmed Rashid Pasha</span> Ottoman statesman (ca. 1825–1876)

Mehmed Rashid Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who served as the vali (governor) of Syria Vilayet in 1866–1871 and as minister of foreign affairs of the Ottoman government in 1873–1874 and 1875 until his death. Rashid Pasha was raised in Egypt where his father was an aide of the governor Muhammad Ali and was educated in Paris before joining government service in Istanbul in 1851. There he became a protege of the grand vizier Ali Pasha, a key figure in the empire-wide Tanzimat reforms. After the latter was reappointed grand vizier in 1866, Rashid Pasha was appointed governor of the Damascus-centered Syria Vilayet which extended from Tripoli and Hama in the north to Palestine and Transjordan in the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Al-Karak (1834)</span>

Siege of Al-Karak was a 17-day siege imposed by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt on the Transjordanian town of Al-Karak in 1834. The Pasha laid the siege on the town in pursuit of Qasim al-Ahmad, the leader of the Peasants' revolt in Palestine, who had fled from Nablus to take shelter in Al-Karak.

Turabay ibn Qaraja was the chieftain of the Banu Haritha tribesmen in northern Palestine and an Ottoman governor and tax farmer in the Marj Ibn Amer plain. His career began under the Mamluks in the late 15th century and continued under the Ottomans who kept him in his post as commander of the roads connecting Damascus with Cairo and Jerusalem in 1516 and soon after appointed him governor of Safad. By 1538, he had been granted tax farms in Marj Ibn Amer, Qaqun and in the Ajlun region east of the Jordan River. Turabay's descendants, the Turabay dynasty, continued to hold influence in Marj Ibn Amer as the hereditary governors of Lajjun until 1677.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syrian Peasant Revolt (1834–1835)</span>

The Syrian Peasant Revolt was an armed uprising of Levantine peasant classes against the rule of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt in 1834–35. The revolt took place in areas of Ottoman Syria, at the time, ruled by the semi-independent ruler of Egypt, who conquered the region from loyal Ottoman forces in 1831.

The Turabay dynasty was a family of Bedouin emirs in northern Palestine who served as the multazims and sanjak-beys of Lajjun Sanjak during Ottoman rule in the 16th–17th centuries. The sanjak (district) spanned the towns of Lajjun, Jenin, Haifa and Atlit and the surrounding countryside. The progenitors of the family had served as chiefs of Marj Bani Amir under the Mamluks in the late 15th century.

References

  1. ↑ Masters, Bruce (2013). The Arabs of the Ottoman Empire, 1516-1918: A Social and Cultural History. Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN   9781107033634.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Manna, ed. Mattar 2000 p. 341.
  3. ↑ Manna, ed. Mansur, p. 87.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Ze'evi 1996, pp. 59-60.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Manna 1994, p. 53.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Manna 1994, p. 54.
  7. 1 2 3 Pappe, Ilan (2010). "Prologue". The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty: The Husaynis 1700-1948. Saqi Books. ISBN   9780863568015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Manna, p. 56.
  9. ↑ Ze'evi 1996, p. 75.
  10. ↑ Ze'evi 1996, p. 84.
  11. ↑ Manna, ed. Mansur and Fawaz, p. 87.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.