Damascus Affair

From JudaismWiki

DAMASCUS AFFAIR. In 1840, while Syria was under Egyptian rule, the Jewish community in Damascus was accused of killing a Franciscan friar, Father Tomaso, in order to use his blood for ritual purposes. Influenced by the French consul Ratti Menton, an inquiry was undertaken by the local governor. Jewish leaders of the community were arrested and tortured. One died in prison, and eight others were condemned to death. Isaac Adolphe Cremieux of France and Sir Moses Montefiore of England came to Alexandria to plead with the ruler Mehemet Ali. They succeeded in obtaining the release of the prisoners as well as an expression of Mehemet Ali’s disbelief in the charge against them. Meanwhile, Turkey had recovered control of Syria, and Crémieux and Montefiore proceeded to Constantinople, obtaining from the Sultan Abd al Majid a document denouncing the blood accusation as a base falsehood. The same document, the Hatti Humayun, removed some of the disabilities governing Turkish Jews.