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Jeddah massacre of 1858

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Jeddah massacre of 1858
LocationJeddah, Ottoman Empire
(Present-day Saudi Arabia)
Date15 June 1858
TargetChristians
Attack type
Massacre
Deaths21 Christian residents
Injured24 mostly Greeks
PerpetratorsHadhramites
HMS Cyclops (1839), which rescued some survivors of the massacre

The Jeddah massacre of 1858 as a massacre that took place in Jeddah in the then Ottoman Province of Hejaz on 15 June 1858. The massacre targeted Christians and resulted in the death of 21 people.

Background

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The Province of Hejaz had been in a tense situation since the Hejaz rebellion of 1855-1856, during which the sharif and ulema of Mecca had opposed the new anti-slave decree of 1854 proclaimed by of the Ottoman Governor as influenced by Westerners and contrary to Islamic law. [1] When the Firman of 1857 against the trade in African slaves was introduced, affecting the Red Sea slave trade, Hijaz was again disturbed by violent opposition, which caused the Hijaz Province to be excluded from obeying the law.[2] The anti-slavery policy, which had been introduced after Western pressure, caused hostility toward Westerners in Hejaz, and during the rebellion houses belonging to French and British proteges had been attacked during riots in Jeddah and Mecca. [3]

Events

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On 15 June 1858, 21 Christian residents of Jeddah, which was then an Ottoman town of 5,000 predominantly Muslim inhabitants, were massacred, including the French consul M. Eveillard and his wife, and the British vice-consul Stephen Page, by "some hundreds of Hadramites, inhabitants of Southern Arabia". 24 others, mostly Greeks, some "under British protection" plus the daughter of the French consul Elise Eveillard and the French interpreter M. Emerat, both badly wounded, escaped and took refuge, some by swimming to it, in the steam paddle wheel frigate HMS Cyclops.[4][5][6][7]

Aftermath

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Whereas The Church of England quarterly review (1858) suggested there could be a vague connection to the British suppression of the Indian Rebellion of 1857–1859, and The Spectator wrote that "A Sheik from Delhi is said to have instigated the massacre",[8] the Perth Gazette of 22 October 1858 extensively quoted an interview in the Moniteur of M. Emerat, the French dragoman (interpreter) and chancellor. According to him, the events were provoked by a commercial dispute which ended by the rehoisting of the British flag on an Indian ship and the hauling down of the Ottoman one, which provoked a riot. He added that the "agitators" actually resented the presence of non-Muslims "whose presence, in their eyes, defiled the sacred soil of the Hejaz".[4][9]

The massacre was discussed in the British House of Commons on 12 and 22 July 1858.[10][11]

According to The Church Review (1859), the Jeddah population of about 5,000 was "often much increased by the influx of strangers", "the inhabitants are nearly all foreigners, or settlers from other parts of Arabia".[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Badem, C. (2010). The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856). Tyskland: Brill. p356
  2. ^ Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. USA: AltaMira Press.17
  3. ^ Badem, C. (2010). The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856). Tyskland: Brill. p357
  4. ^ a b The Church of England quarterly review, 1858 p.218-219
  5. ^ a b John McDowell Leavitt, Nathaniel Smith Richardson, Henry Mason Baum G.B. Bassett, The Church Review, Volume 11, 1859 p.527
  6. ^ The Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review, and Church Register, Volume 5, H. Dyer, 1858 p.560-561
  7. ^ "Details of the Jeddah Massacre", Taranaki Herald, Volume VII, Issue 331, 4 December 1858, Supplement
  8. ^ "Jeddah", The Spectator, 18 July 1858
  9. ^ "The Massacre at Jeddah", The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 22 October 1858
  10. ^ "The Massacre at Jeddah – Question", Hansard, Commons Sitting, 12 July 1858
  11. ^ "The Outrage at Jeddah – Question", Hansard, Commons Sitting, 22 July 1858

Bibliography

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