(The Pashaliks All Over The Turkish Dominions
Are Given For The Term Of One Year Only, And At The Beginning Of The
Mohammedan Year, The Pashas Receive [P.649] Their Confirmation Or
Dismissal) The Agas Of Aintab, Antakia, Alexandretta, Edlip, And Shogre,
Pay Also For The Renewal Of Their Offices.
There are a few chiefs who
have completely thrown off the mask of subjection; Kutshuk Ali, the Lord
of
Badjazze openly declares his contempt of all orders from the Porte,
plunders and insults the Sultan’s officers, as well as all strangers
passing through his mountains, and with a force of less than two hundred
men, and a territory confined to the half ruined town of Badjazze, in
the gulf of Alexandretta, and a few miles of the surrounding mountains,
his father and himself have for the last thirty years defied all the
attempts of the neighbouring Pashas to subdue them.
The inhabitants of Aleppo have been for several years past divided into
two parties; the Sherifs (the real or pretended descendants of the
Prophet), and the Janissaries. The former distinguish themselves by
twisting a green turban round a small red cap, the latter wear high
Barbary caps, with a turban of shawl, or white muslin, and a Khandjar,
or long crooked knife in their girdles. There are few Turks in the city
who have been able to keep aloof from both parties.
The Sherifs first showed their strength about forty years ago, during a
tumult excited by their chiefs in consequence of a supposed insult
received by Mr. Clarke, the then British Consul. Aleppo was governed by
them in a disorderly manner for several years without a Pasha, until the
Bey of Alexandretta, being appointed to the Pashalik, surprised the town
and ordered all the chief Sherifs to be strangled[.] The Pasha however,
found his authority greatly limited by the influence which Tshelebi
Effendi, an independent Aleppine grandee, had gained over his
countrymen. The immense property of Tshelebi’s family added to his
personal qualities, rendered his influence and power so great that
during twenty years he obliged several Pashas who would not yield to his
counsels and designs to quit the town. He never would accept of the
repeated offers made by the Porte to raise him to the Pashalik. His
interests were in some measure supported by the corps of Janissaries;
who in Aleppo, as in other Turkish towns, constitute the regular
military force of the Porte; but until that period their chiefs had been
without the smallest weight in the management of public affairs. One of
Tshelebi’s household officers, Ibrahim Beg, had meanwhile been promoted,
through the friends of his patron at Constantinople, to the first
dignities in the town. He was made Mutsellim (vice governor), and
Mohassel (chief custom house officer), and after the death of Tshelebi,
his power devolved upon Ibrahim. This was in 1786.
Kussa Pasha, a man of probity and talents, was sent at that time as
Pasha to Aleppo. Being naturally jealous of Ibrahim Beg’s influence, he
endeavoured to get possession of his person, by ordering him to be
detained during a visit, made by Ibrahim to compliment the Pasha [p.650]
upon his arrival, for a debt which Ibrahim owed to a foreign merchant,
who had preferred his complaints to the Pasha’s tribunal.
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