After Several Months Daily Fighting In The Streets, In Which
The Pasha’S Troops Had Thrown Up Entrenchments, Want Of Food Began To Be
Sensibly Felt In The Part Of The City Which His Adherents Occupied Near
The Serai, A Very Spacious Building Now In Ruins.
He came therefore to
the resolution of abandoning the city.
At Mohammed’s request a Tartar
was sent, from Constantinople, with orders enjoining him to march
against Berber, governor of Tripoli, who had been declared a rebel.
Having thus covered the disgrace of his defeat, he marched out of Aleppo
in the end of 1804, but instead of proceeding to Tripoli, he established
his head quarters at Sheikh Abou Beker, a monastery of Derwishes
situated upon an elevation only at one mile’s distance from Aleppo,
where he recruited his troops and prepared himself to besiege the town.
His affairs, however, took a more favourable turn upon the arrival of a
Kapidgi Bashi or officer of the Porte from Constantinople, who carried
with him the most positive orders that Mohammed Pasha should remain
governor of Aleppo, and be acknowledged as such by the inhabitants, The
Kapidgi’s persuasions, as well as the Sultan’s commands, which the
Janissaries did not dare openly to disobey, brought on a compromise, in
consequence of which the Pasha re-entered the city. So far he had gained
his point, but he soon found himself in his palace without friends or
influence; the Janissaries were heard to declare that every body who
should visit him would be looked upon as a spy; on Fridays alone, the
great people paid him their visit in a body. The place meanwhile was
governed by the chiefs of the Janissaries and the Sherifs. At length the
Pasha succeeded, by a secret nightly correspondence, to detach the
latter from the Janissaries, who were gaining the ascendancy. The
Sherifs are the natural supporters [p.652] of government in this
country; most of the villages round Aleppo were then in their
possession, they command the landed interests, all the Aleppo grandees
of ancient families, and all the Ulemas and Effendis belong to their
body, and the generality of them have received some education, while out
of one hundred Janissaries, there are scarcely five who know how to read
or to write their own names. The civil war now broke out afresh, and
Mohammed had again the worst of it. After remaining three months in the
town, he returned to his former encampment at Sheikh Abou Beker, from
whence he assisted his party in the town who had taken possession of the
castle and several mosques. This warfare lasted nearly two years without
any considerable losses on either side. The Sherifs were driven out of
the mosques, but defended themselves in the castle.
Generally, the people of Aleppo, Janissaries as well as Sherifs, are a
cowardly race. The former never ventured to meet the Pasha’s troops on
the outside of their walls, the latter did not once sally forth from the
castle, but contented themselves with firing into the town, and
principally against Bankousa, a quarter exclusively inhabited by
Janissaries. The Pasha on his side would have ordered his Arnaouts to
take the town by assault, had not his own party been jealous of his
military power, and apprehensive of the fury of an assaulting army, for
which reason they constantly endeavoured to prevent any vigorous attack,
promising that they would alone bring the enemy to terms. After nearly
two years fighting, during which time a considerable part of the town
was laid in ruins, the Pasha with the Sherifs were on the point of
succeeding, and compelling the Janissaries to surrender. The chiefs of
the Janissaries had applied to the European Consuls for their mediation
between them and the Pasha, the conditions of their surrender were
already drawn up, and in a few days more their power in Aleppo would
probably have been for ever annihilated by a treacherous infraction of
the capitulation, when, by a fortunate mistake, a Tartar, sent from
Constantinople to Mohammed, entered the town, instead of taking his
packet to Sheikh Abou Beker; the Janissaries opened the dispatches, and
found them to contain a Firmahn, by which Mohammed Pasha was recalled
from his Pashalik of Aleppo. This put an end to the war; Mohammed
dismissed the greater part of his troops and retired: the Janissaries
came to a compromise with the Sherifs in the castle, and have since that
time been absolute masters of the city.
I cannot omit mentioning that during the whole of the civil war, the
persons and property of the Franks were rigidly respected. It sometimes
happened that parties of Sherifs and Janissaries skirmishing in the
Bazars, left off firing by common consent, when a Frank was seen
passing, and that the firing from the Minarets ceased, when Franks
passed over their flat roofs from one house to another. The Janissaries
have this virtue in the eyes of the Franks, that they are not in the
smallest degree fanatical; the character of a Sherif is quite the
contrary, and whenever religious disputes happen, they are always
excited and supported by some greenhead.
Since the removal of Mohammed Pasha the Porte has continued to nominate
his successors; but the name of Pasha of Aleppo is now nothing more than
a vain title. His first successor was Alla eddin Pasha, a near relation
of Sultan Selim: then Waledin Pasha, Othman [p.653] Pasha Darukly,
Ibrahim Pasha, a third time, and the present governor Seruri Mohammed
Pasha. Except the last, who is now in the Grand Vizir’s camp near
Constantinople they have all resided at Aleppo, but they occupied the
Serai more like state prisoners than governors. They never were able to
carry the most trifling orders into effect, without feeing in some way
or other the chiefs of the Ja[n]issaries to grant their consent.
The corps of Janissaries, or the Odjak of Aleppo, was formerly divided,
as in other Turkish towns, into companies or Ortas, but since the time
of their getting into power, they have ceased to submit to any regular
discipline:
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