With the Turks in Palestine - A Robber Baron of Palestine

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter nine of With the Turks and Palestine. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Anne Boulat. With the Turks and Palestine by
Alexander Aaronson, Chapter nine, A Robber Baron of Palestine. Beirut

(00:26):
is a city of about two hundred thousand inhabitants, half
of whom are Christians and the rest are Mohammedans and Jews.
The pinch of hunger was already felt there. Bread was
to be had only on tickets issued by the government,
and prices in general were extremely high. The population was
discontented and turbulent, and every day thousands of women came

(00:48):
before the governor's residence to cry and protest against the
scarcity of bread. The Allies warships often passed near the town,
but the people were not afraid of them, for it
was known that the Allies had no intention of bombarding
the cities. Only once had a bombardment taken place. Toward
the end of March nineteen fifteen, a French warship approached

(01:11):
the Bay of Haifa and landed an officer with a
letter to the commandant of that town giving notice of
his intention to bombard the German consulate at three p m. Sharp.
This was in retaliation for the propaganda carried on by
the consul Luthweilt Bonhardeg and chiefly because of his desecration
of the grave of Bonaparte's soldiers. The consul had time

(01:35):
to pack up his archives and valuables, and he left
his house before three. The bombardment began exactly at three fifteen.
Shells were fired with a wonderful precision. Not one house
in the neighborhood of the consulate was touched, but the
consulate itself was a heap of ruins after a few
shells had struck it. The population was exceedingly calm. Only

(01:57):
the German colony was panic stricken, and on every German
house an American flag was raised. It was rather humorous
to see all the Germans, who were active in the
Turkish army in one capacity or another, seek safety by
means of this trick. This bombardment had a sobering effect
on the Mohammedan population. They saw that the Allies were

(02:18):
not wholly ignorant of what was going on in the country,
and that they could retaliate, and safety for the non
Mohammedans increased accordingly. In general, Beirut was a rather quiet
and safe place. The presence of an American cruiser in
the port had much to do with that. The American
sailors were allowed to come ashore three times a week,

(02:39):
and they spent their money lavishly. It was estimated that
Beirut was getting more than five thousand dollars a week
out of them. But the natives were especially impressed by
the manliness and quick action of the American boys. Frequently
a few sailors were involved in a street fight with
scores of Arabs, and they always held their own. In
a short time, the Americans became feared, which in the

(03:01):
Orient is equivalent to saying they were respected. The Beairu
people are famous for their fighting spirit, but this spirit
was not manifested. After a few weeks of intimate acquaintance
with the American Blue Jackets, my inspection of the devastation
caused by the locusts completed. I returned home. The news
that greeted me there was alarming. I must narrate with

(03:22):
some detail the events which finally decided me to leave
the country. About one hour's ride on horseback from our
village lives a family of Turkish nobles, the head of
which was Sadik Pasha, the brother of the famous Kaimil Pasha,
several times grand This year of the Empire, Sadik, who
had been exiled from Constantinople, came to Palestine and bought

(03:45):
great tracts of land near my people. After his death,
his sons, good for nothing wild fellows, were forced to
sell most of the estate, all except one Fuzi Bay,
who retained his part of the land and lived on it.
Here he collected a band of friends as worthless as himself,
and gradually commenced a career of plundering and frightfulness, much

(04:07):
like that of the robber barons of medieval Germany. Before
the outbreak of the war, he confined his attentions chiefly
to the Arabs, whom he treated shamefully. He raided cattle
and crops, and carried off girls and women in broad daylight.
On one occasion, he stopped a wedding procession and carried
off the young bride. Then he seized the bridegroom, against

(04:28):
whom he bore a grudge and subjected the poor Bedowin
to the bastinado until he consented to divorce his wife
by pronouncing the words I divorce thee three times in
the presence of witnesses. According to the Mohammedan custom, this
Bedouin was the grandson of the Sheikh Hilou, a holy
man of the region, upon whose grave the Arabs are

(04:49):
accustomed to make their prayers. But we villagers of zurkhon
Jacob had never submitted to Fusi bay In any way.
Our young men were organized and armed, and after a
few encounters he left us alone. After the mobilization, however,
and the taking away of our arms, this outlaw saw
that his chance had come. He began to send his

(05:11):
men and his camels into our fields to harvest our
crops and carry them off. This pillage continued until the
locusts came. Fuzi In the meanwhile becoming so bold that
he would gallop through the streets of our village with
his horsemen, shooting right and left into the air, and
insulting old men and women. He boasted, apparently with reason,

(05:32):
that the authorities in Haifa were powerless to touch him.
There was one hope left. Jamal Pasha had boasted that
he had introduced law and order the country was under
military rule. It remained to see what he would say
and do when the crimes of Fuzi Bay were brought
to his notice. Accordingly, armed with my beauyeux roultan or

(05:54):
passport of a locust inspector, I rode to Jerusalem, where
I procured through my brother, who was then in favor,
an interview with Jamal Pasha. He received me on the
very day of my arrival and listened attentively while for
a whole hour I poured out the story of Fusibay's outrages.
I put my whole heart into the plea, and wound

(06:15):
up by asking if it was to the credit of
the progressive young Turks to shelter feudal abuses of a
bygone age. Jamal seemed to be impressed. He sprang from
his chair, began walking up and down the room. Then,
with a dramatic gesture, he exclaimed justice shall be rendered
and assured me that a commission of army officers would

(06:36):
be sent at once to start an investigation. I returned
to zurkon Jacob with high hopes. Sure enough, a few
days later, Fusibay was summoned to Jerusalem. At the same time,
the commission, which had dwindled to one single officer on
a secret mission, put in an appearance and began to
make inquiries among the natives. He got little satisfaction at first,

(06:59):
for they lived in mortal terror of the outlaw. They
grew bolder, however, when they learned his purpose, Complaints and
testimony came pouring in, and in four days the officer
had the names of hundreds of witnesses, establishing no less
than fifty two crimes of the most serious nature. Fusei's
friends and relatives in the meanwhile were doing their utmost

(07:21):
to stem the tide of accusations. The Kaimacon, lieutenant governor
of Haifa, came in person to our village and threatened
the elders with all sorts of severities if they did
not retract the charges they had made. But they stood firm.
Had not Jamal Pasha, commander in chief of the armies
in Palestine, given his word of honor that we should

(07:42):
have redress, We were soon shown the depth of our
naivete in fancying that justice could be done in Turkey
by a Turk. Fuzibai came back from Jerusalem not in
convicts clothes, but in the uniform of a Turkish officer.
Jamal Pasha had commissioned him commandant the Mohajja Deen or
religious militia of the entire region. It was bad enough

(08:05):
to stand him as an outlaw. Now we had to
submit to him as an officer. He came riding into
our village daily, ordering everybody about and picking me out
for distinguished spitefulness. My position soon became unbearable. I was,
of course known as the organizer of the young Men's Union,
which for so long had put up a spirited resistance

(08:26):
to Fusei. I was still looked upon as a leader
of the younger spirits, and I knew that sooner or
later Fusei would try to make good his threat. Often
repeated that he would shoot me like a dog. It
was hardly likely that an open attempt on my life
would be made. When Ambassador Morgenthal visited Palestine, he had

(08:47):
stayed in our village and given my family the evidence
of his sincere friendship. These things count in the East,
and I soon got the reputation of having influential friends. However,
there were other ways of disposing of me. One evening,
about sunset, while I was riding through a valley near
our village, my horse shied violently in passing a clump

(09:08):
of bushes. I gave him the spur and turned and
rode toward the bushes, just in time to see a
horseman dash out wildly with a rifle across his saddle.
I kept the incident to myself, but I was more
cautious and kept my eyes open wherever I went. One afternoon,
a fortnight later, I was riding to Hedeira, another Jewish village.

(09:28):
Two hours ride away. A shot was fired from behind
a sand dune. The bullet burned a hole in the
lapel of my coat. That night I had a long
talk with my brother. There was no doubt whatever in
his mind that I should try to leave the country,
while I, on the contrary, could not bear to think
of deserting my people at the crisis of their fortunes.

(09:50):
It was a beautiful night, such a night, I think,
as only Palestine can show, a white, serene, moon bathed night.
The roar of the Mediterranean came out of the stone,
as if to remind us that help and salvation could
come only from the sea, the sea upon which scores
of the warships of the Allies were sailing back and forth.

(10:10):
We had argued into the small hours before I yielded
to his persuasion. End of Chapter nine