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:
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