Abdullah Pasha ibn Ali (commonly referred to simply as Abdullah Pasha; 1801–unknown) was the Ottoman governor (wali) of Sidon Eyalet between May 1820 and May 1832, with a nine-month interruption in 1822–23. Like his predecessors Jazzar Pasha and Sulayman Pasha, Abdullah Pasha ruled from the port city of Acre. During his reign, all of Palestine and the Syrian coastline came under his jurisdiction. Among his major military victories was his survival of an imperial-backed siege of Acre in 1822 instigated by the Farhi family in retaliation for Abdullah's execution of his mentor Haim Farhi, the suppression of revolts in Mount Lebanon and Jerusalem in 1824 and 1826, respectively, and the 1831 capture of the Sanur fortress.
While Abdullah oversaw a period of relative stability in Syria, during his reign the region also experienced economic reversals and increasing poverty, while Acre's key role as an export center of Levantine cotton and olive oil increasingly diminished. Abdullah was the last governor of Sidon to rule from Acre and his defeat to the forces of Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1832 marked the end of Acre as a political and economic power. Following his defeat, he lived in exile in Egypt and then the Hejaz, where he died.
Early life and career Abdullah Bey (as he was known before becoming governor) was born in Acre in 1801 to Ali Pasha Khazindar, a Circassian Muslim mamluk of Jazzar Pasha (r. 1776–1804) and later the katkhuda (deputy) of Sulayman Pasha al-Adil (1805–1819). Abdullah's mother was from the coastal city of Jableh and belonged to a family of ashraf (descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad). Ali Pasha died in 1814, but while on his deathbed he asked Haim Farhi, Sulayman's chief adviser, to look after Abdullah, then 13. Farhi gladly accepted the responsibility and from then on lobbied for Abdullah to succeed Sulayman, who had no male heirs. Abdullah's mother also played a role in lobbying both Farhi and Sulayman to elevate her son.
Farhi sought to groom Abdullah for leadership and had him educated in Islamic law. According to Druze sheikh Bashir Jumblatt, Farhi "turned him over for his education to the fanatical shaykhs" and Abdullah "turned out more fanatical than they".Mishaqah, 1988, p. 125. Farhi, who contemporaries described as Sulayman's unofficial "partner in power", did not view young Abdullah as a threat to his influence and sought to promote him over more powerful potential successors to Sulayman such as the latter's nephew Mustafa Bey or Muhammad Abu-Nabbut of Jaffa.Philipp, 2013, p. 86.
Sulayman looked favourably to Abdullah's potential succession and appointed him katkhuda in his father's place, an appointment which surprised many in Sulayman's administration due to Abdullah's young age. Nonetheless, Sulayman sought to publicly downplay Abdullah's political rise by imposing certain rules on him. Among these were that Abdullah was to sit among government employees and administrators instead of having his own office like Ali Pasha had. He was forbidden from eating or drinking coffee with Sulayman and his hand was not to be kissed by anyone.
Rule
Appointment Sulayman died in August 1819. The principal domestic obstacle to Abdullah's succession had been the original mamluks of Jazzar Pasha, chief among them Abu-Nabbut. However, under Farhi's direction, Abu-Nabbut was ousted from Jaffa in 1818.Philipp, 2013, p. 88. According to historian Mikhail Mishaqah, "those who had loved Sulayman" beckoned Farhi to lobby the Sublime Porte (imperial Ottoman government) to appoint Mustafa Bey as successor, but Farhi retorted that Abdullah "was born in this country and we took great pains to teach him Arabic, nice handwriting and the legal sciences" and that as katkhuda he gained "experience in governing" and it would not be "right to promote over him someone whose Arabic is weak and who neither knows the legal system nor has experience in governing."Mishaqah, 1988, p. 105.
Through his Constantinople-based contact Hesekiel al-Baghdadi, a fellow Jew and a banker with close ties to the powerful Janissary corps, Farhi lobbied the Sublime Porte for five months before it agreed to appoint Abdullah Pasha as Wali of Sidon and assign him the rank of vizier. Bribes to various imperial officials and influential figures in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, amounted to about 11 million piastres. On 27 January 1820, Abdullah was confirmed as governor of Sidon. In the interim period, Emir Bashir Shihab II of Mount Lebanon maintained order throughout the province.
The jurisdiction of the Sidon Eyalet at the time of Abdullah Pasha's appointment included the districts of Sidon, Tripoli, Latakia, Gaza, Ramla and Jaffa (essentially the Galilee, the coastal areas of Syria and Mount Lebanon.Philipp, 2013, p. 90. People in the province welcomed Abdullah's succession because of the perception that he would follow Sulayman's model, which had been generally positive for both the inhabitants and local leaders.Mishaqah, 1988, p. 106.
Tensions with Farhi Abdullah continued to maintain his trustful relationship with Farhi, to the point where he stored the treasury in Farhi's home. Farhi continued to wield great influence over Acre-based administration. According to Mishaqah, Abdullah often spent his time with local, lower-class Muslims and joined them in dhikr sessions (Sufi ritual of remembrance involving dancing). Farhi disapproved of Abdullah's behavior and advised him to instead participate in dhikrs with men of higher social rank, such as the qadi, the mufti, the naqib al-ashraf or members of the ulema.
Abdullah ignored Farhi's advice and informed his friends of Farhi's statements. His friends included Sheikh Mas'ud al-Madi, the Arab mutasallim (tax enforcer) of the Atlit coast who had a sour relationship with Farhi, Sheikh Mustafa, Abdullah's personal imam, Muhammad Effendi Abu al-Huda, Acre's newly appointed qadi.Philipp, 2013, p. 89. They feared Farhi could displace them from their new-found positions of influence with the governor. According to Mishaqah, They accused Farhi of being an "arrogant Jew" who manipulated his way into power, controlled the province's wealth from his own home, and questioned how a Jew could be allowed to govern in the interests of Muslims. Moreover, they told Abdullah that Sulayman could be forgiven for allowing Farhi to become influential because Sulayman was not versed in Islamic law, but that Abdullah did not have that excuse, claiming that the imams of Islam's four main schools of jurisprudence forbade a Jew from holding office in charge of Muslims.
Abdullah Pasha adhered to the concerns of his newly formed inner circle and subsequently ordered Farhi to move the treasury into Acre's government house, which Farhi did. He then dismissed Farhi as chief scribe and appointed Yusuf Qardahi, a Maronite from Sidon, in his place.Mishaqah, 1988, p. 107. After these demotions, Farhi requested to retire to Damascus, but Abdullah did not allow it, viewing Farhi's presence in Damascus as a potential threat to his rule. Al-Madi and Umar Effendi al-Baghdadi, a local official, convinced Abdullah that as long as Farhi was alive he would pose a threat to Abdullah's rule through the same influential Jewish contacts with the Sublime Porte that got Abdullah appointed in the first place.
According to the French consul in Acre, Abdullah and Farhi entered into a scathing argument in which Farhi reminded Abdullah that he was the reason Abdullah was appointed governor. According to historian Thomas Philipp, the argument was "the final straw" which pushed Abdullah to have Farhi executed. On that same night, 8 August 1820, Abdullah ordered his brother-in-law Ibrahim Bey al-Jarkasi and a few of his soldiers to kill Farhi. Al-Jarkasi's men entered Farhi's home, strangled him to death and threw his body into the Mediterranean Sea. According to Mishaqah, Farhi's death was mourned by "all intelligent people in the province, regardless of their religion", as they viewed him to be "a wise administrator". Qardahi, another non-Muslim, assumed Farhi's duties, after Musa Farhi refused Abdullah's offer of succeeding his brother. According to Philipp, this confirmed that Farhi's elimination was the result of a power struggle rather than religious reasons.
Relations with Emir Bashir
Early in his rule, Abdullah made frequent demands from Emir Bashir II to pay tribute in the form of cash, jewellery or horses, to which Bashir II initially complied. However, within a short time Bashir II became either unable or unwilling to make the payments. In order to maintain cordial and stable relations with Acre, Bashir II dispatched one of his Melkite advisers, Butrus Karami, to smooth over ties with Abdullah, who was suspicious of Bashir's loyalties i.e. whether he was a Muslim or a Christian.Mishaqah, 1988, p. 108. Abdullah ultimately deposed Bashir for his failure to pay tribute and the latter exiled himself to the Hauran region south of Damascus. Two other, apparently Muslim, emirs from the Shihab dynasty, Emir Hasan ibn Ali and Emir Salman ibn Sayyid-Ahmad, were appointed to replace Bashir II in Mount Lebanon, although Abdullah detached the areas of Tuffah, Kharrub, Jezzine, Byblos and Jabal al-Rihan from the latter.Mishaqah, 1988, pp. 111–112.
Bashir's successors proved less capable of paying tribute than Bashir. From the Hauran, Emir Bashir issued a request to Abdullah for intervention or assistance regarding a payment of 5,000 piastres imposed on him by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, Darwish Pasha.Mishaqah, 1988, p. 124. Abdullah responded favourably, writing that Bashir "will not see from me other than what will gladden him" and summoned him to Shefa-'Amr, a village in Acre's vicinity. Soon after, Abdullah restored the Mount Lebanon Emirate, including the detached areas (except for Byblos), to Bashir.Mishaqah, 1988, p. 126. The two formed a military alliance in 1821 against Darwish Pasha.Harris, 2012, p. 135.
Conflict with Damascus In retaliation against Farhi's execution, influential members of the Farhi family in Damascus and Istanbul, instigated the Ottoman authorities against Abdullah Pasha. In early 1822, armed confrontations between the forces of the Damascus Eyalet under governor Darwish Pasha and Abdullah's forces over territorial claims in the Golan Heights, Nablus and the Beqaa Valley occurred frequently. Darwish Pasha's actions were being instigated by the Farhi family and Abdullah sought support from Emir Bashir, writing to him that "the Jews have conspired with the Empire against him" and that the imperial authorities were attempting to dismiss Abdullah from the governorship of Sidon, which would then be annexed by Damascus Eyalet.Mishaqah, 1988, p. 131. Emir Bashir answered his summons to Acre, where Abdullah's mother told him "My son is your lord by virtue of his rank, but in view of age and your efforts on his behalf you are his son" and proceeded to concede that Abdullah had acted rashly with Bashir in the past and that he erred in having Farhi killed. Bashir replied that he would continue to serve Abdullah and fight in his service.Mishaqah, 1988, pp. 132–133.