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last year, give an interesting account of the general condition of Palestine. There is,he says, a thinly scattered population, nl-most ontirdy engaged in rural occupations, without education or even a decent sense of any religion whatever, ignorant of every* thing hub the use of very clumsy firearms,and actuated by no conscientious feeling beyond the requirements of thoir clan. The intention is to reform these by means of Tanzimat or supplementary regulation*?, as modifications upon the laws of the Koran and its traditions; but the rural population know nothing even of Koran laws.— Justice is administered to them by their village Sheiks according to oral traditions, which they proudly denominate ” God’s laws/’ in contradistinction from (he city laws of the Cadi and his books, which theydenominate 4* Mohamed’s laws.” The massof the people are thus alienated from thejurisprudence of their conquerors. ThePashas, when this has been forced upon their notice, have been obliged to ignore it; and, having no strength to keep them otherwise in subjection, they have resorted to the device, as there are several clans in each district, of repressing their independence by alternately elevating and depressing them with regard to district governments, and keeping up a rivalry for office, so that sometimes one family may be in the ascendant and sometimes another. Of course, there car. not he much vigor in such a rule. The Arabs have a poverb that the Divine Government nets upon the two motives of reward and punishment, but that in Turkish rule it is all Heaven—there is no penalty for transgression. In May last the Pasha of Jerusalem sent Hussein Aga-el-Tuza. his beat Bashi-Bazouk officer, with a few men, to join the local Aga in an expedition for taming ^heik Deab Ad wan. who was creating much disorder on the plains of the Jordan. The Sheik invited them to a conference and drew them and the men Into an ambush, and they wore stripped of their clothes and arms, and their horses taken from them, and the Arabs then plundered the \illnge where the conference took place. What the Pasha did in the way of redressing this outrage was to send an officer to the Arab chief, with presents of fine clothing, to induce him to restore what plunder he still retained. The officer went accordingly and said, “ Deab, you have been doing wrong.” “ Yes, 1 have done very wrong,” was the reply, as he per. ceived the presents; “and I will returnWhnt I have taken,”—which lie did, and the presents were delivered. This Pasha is considered a prodigy of energy in ruling. Mo-hamedan immigrants from Barbary have formed a small colony north of Lake Tiberias; they are a fanatical, anti-Christian people; they correspond with friends in Africa, and invite them to come and reside in Palestine, where they may plunder as they like, pay taxes when they like, grow abundant provisions, and get fine horses.— ^ome Jews at Safed have applied to Abd-el-Kader for justice in matters of injury received from these Africans, and have obtained redress by his direct adjudication.— In his report at the close of the year before last we find Consul Finn noticing with regret that Christian and Jewish testimony is still not received in the Cadi’s Count or in the Medjlis of the Tanzimat; if Moslems arc ever punished for offending Christians, it is in a summary way, without the formality of a trial or the Christian’s evidence being placed on record, and, in fact, done after the fashion wo read of in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. In reviewing the year 1S59, of course before the massacres in Syria, the Consul writes more cheerfully, lie notices with satisfaction the greater protection afforded by the laws and authorities to native Christians in Jcrq^alem, comparing their condition with what it was 20 years before, when they could not with impunity ride on horseback, or take the wall of a Moslem, or pass on his right hand, nor-a Jew dare to wear a dress of the sacred shade of green. He considered that tho Turkish Government had acquired, upon the whole, a firmer nerve and tone than, during any previous year since the restoration in 1841, and that the centralization of dominion was making progress. In the provincial councils the non-Moslems meet their formerly dominant fellow subjects, face to face, though not yet on equal terms, for they stand, in awe of the Moslems; but Mr. Finn adds that the Mohamedan population is dying out, ho can scarcely say slowly, and'the-form of centralized government requires an extension of Turkish administration into places formerly unknown, and. hence, for the present, low-bred ignorant Turks arc sent to reign in small, towns or rural districts, and farm taxes. But there arc great European Powers ready to pour a fresh population, into the country. The French and Austrians do all they can to. get up large caravans of pilgrims to the-Holy Sepulchne. The Russians far surpass, them, and Jews from. Russia come also in la*go numbers and settle in* Jerusalem and
Newspaper Details
Cincinnati Israelite
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Fri, Oct 12, 1860
Page 5
Full Page
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Anonymous
GB 12 Jun 2021
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