Pp. 47–48
“[that] the Ottoman Empire didn’t exist anymore and that there is only one nation in the world (Russia), just as there is only one God in heaven.”
“whatever one says about the Ottoman Empire, it will not fall. There are powers interested in maintaining its strength and just when it is at risk of being completely beaten one will see help coming to the fore.”
P. 54
“In one of the most beautiful countries of the world the people are mean and are slaves. And such is the nature of despotic government that the one who makes the law is more of a slave than the one who has to accept it. A pasha with two thousand troops, perhaps the most despicable on earth, makes twelve hundred thousand inhabitants tremble. In turn he himself is most afraid in the middle of these miserable people who carry out his wishes, always ready to bend their knee before him or to deal him a deadly blow.”
“In regions where nothing stipulates the extent of rights of those who govern over those who are governed and where the abuse of power seems inherent, al-Jazzar has the ability to surpass all in gratuitous injustice and monomaniacal cruelties.”
P. 59
“fit in all physical exercise, he still guards all the predilections of an education he received among the Mamluks. He employs sword and rifle equally well; he mounts a dromedary and tames an impetuous horse with as much dexterity as agility.”
P. 77
“to find out whether one could hope to detach this pasha from the yoke of the Porte and create thus a diversion. Al-Jazzar was not willing to see him or to listen to him.”
P. 87
“Sulayman Pasha, or rather the Jew who rules in his name.… His lieutenant and this Jew who think of nothing else but to amass [wealth] will one day meet the fate they deserve and the weak Sulayman will become the victim of their greed.”
“A Jew who under the title of director of taxes is truly in charge of the whole Syrian coast.”
“the interests of the Pasha’s Jew who does not want the liberty of commerce; he has associates who know how to join him in order to skin the Europeans.”
P. 89
“the vows and the prayers of the dervishes and fakirs, have they not contributed to the unlimited authority granted to this Jew whom the common Muslims respect more than the governor himself?”
P. 93
“Abdallah Pasha governs as if politics advised him to surround himself with ruins, to the point that all the country under his control presents a picture of isolation and poverty.”
“next to that of the greatest commanders of the world.”
P. 97
“In the plain of Acre two to three thousand bales of raw cotton are produced which are the best and most appreciated of the whole Levant. The English and the Dutch, who produce the best uniforms, buy it from the French merchants who reside here and collect it.”
P. 98
The port of Acre was always attached and subject to the port of Sidon; if this order is changed and they are separated we will fall into a most monstrous disorder.”
P. 103
“Shaykh Ẓāhir, this man who is dangerous to all who have the misfortune to live under his dominion.”
“the commerce of this port is completely dried up.”
“without the explicit permission for the nation in Sidon.”
P. 104
“need for an extraordinary quantity of of bales [of cotton].”
“he will force us to pay the price that he himself determines.”
“he isn’t anymore what he was ten years ago; today he makes the law.”
P. 105
“a man who can do anything he wants and who sets no limits to his greed.”
P. 106
“The shaykh has today such standing that he is convinced nothing can hurt him. He governs the land like a sovereign, though he is nothing more than the tax farmer of the pasha of Sidon. In recent years we have seen as governors of Sidon most famous viziers of the Ottoman Empire to whom he [nevertheless] dictated the law.”
P. 108
“with great pain the ruination of one of the largest debtors of the nation.”
P. 109
“this merchant who controls the government of Acre and is there the absolute master.”
“The merchants of Acre are today nothing but the employees of Ibrahim al-Sabbagh, to whom they loan their names. He has seized all useful branches of trade and leaves them nothing but the sad satisfaction to go through the motions and to appear to strike many deals while, in fact, they only work for him.”
P. 110
“forms since a long time a group of mixed constitution and almost independent of the officer of the king. The merchants, republicans in their relations to France, are veritable slaves to Zahir.”
P. 113
“The country belongs to me and I chase out all who displease me.”
“it would be pretty cruel to abandon two great [commercial] establishments on the eve of an abundant harvest, the first in four years, and at a time when imports bring considerable profits.”
P. 125
“New branches of commerce have to be created which, while enriching France, offer the twofold advantage of turning the hearts and wishes of the people toward her.”
P. 126
“that there is a Jew here who in the name of Sulayman Pasha is the only owner, seller, and buyer; that he pays not the least attention to the capitulations; that Nablus and the surrounding lands do not cultivate cotton anymore because the Jew who rules here despotically prevents it from reaching the market, so that he can sell his cotton more expensively.”
P. 127
“Harvests had been more abundant and the country had enjoyed during that period a considerable surplus [production], even though the population had been more numerous. But the lands were then cultivated while today a great part lies fallow because of a lack of hands [to cultivate the fields] which diminish every day due to the vexations to which the peasant is subjected; he is left with nothing to live on and flees to Egypt.”
P. 129
The pasha of Acre has no authority. His customs official, one of his slaves, is chased out if he allows himself the least irritation. The lieutenant of the pasha is nothing, the mufti everything.
P. 140
“A group of santons and prophets ludicrously dressed, showing all the attributes of madness, wearing its masks and reflecting it in their songs, even though the latter were composed to the glory of al-Jazzar, who followed right behind them with Salīm and the high officers of his court.”
“100 cuirassed Mamluks, clad in iron, with helmets on their heads and the visors down.”
“All this apparatus had something very ridiculous about it for somebody used to the [modern] development of arms. But the locals were terrified by it. Al-Jazzar, though a good comedian himself, seemed genuinely astonished by the grandeur of the spectacle.
P. 143
“put some naval force to sea to instil some respect in the Russian corsairs [more likely Greeks under the Russian flag] and to remove them from the coast; the force consisted of one threemaster, three galiots, one kirlanquisch [?], and two Dalmatian boats. This badly equipped squadron anchored at Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli, and Latakia successively and returned without delay to Acre, where it was as quickly disarmed.”
P. 144
“their line of action does not show at all the sort of energy that announces great enterprise. These are unchained slaves preoccupied with contemplating their chains rather than with breaking them.”
P. 148
“All the Christians who turned Turks [i.e., Muslims] are admitted in this corps, which is entrusted with all tasks and functions.”
“Syria from Latakia down to Ghaza is a republic with a senate consisting of freed men who hold all the positions. It is under the control of the Jew Haim Farhi, who governs it despotically in the name of Sulayman Pasha, a Mamluk, who is its doge.”
P. 160
“though Bosnian, prefers to use the Arab language and script rather than his own.”
P. 163
“One can see him.… giving orders concerning the administration of his province, directing work on fortifications and construction of public buildings, following closely the construction of a ship, outlining plans of a campaign, raising flowers, arranging the necklaces of his wives, and designing embroidery.”
P. 168
“a stranger, tax farmer of the pasha, who has to be pleased and to whom they have to be sold.”
P. 174
“The tyrannical government to which these peoples are subjected increases these vices, makes them frequently [illegible], and destroys in them the sense of honor and probity that nature can sow in their hearts by giving them [illegible]. In one of the most beautiful countries of the world the people are mean and are slaves. And such is the nature of despotic government that the one who makes the law is more of a slave than the one who has to accept it. A pasha with two thousand troops, perhaps the most despicable on earth, makes tremble twelve hundred thousand inhabitants: In turn he himself is most afraid in the middle of these miserable people who carry out his wishes, always ready to bend their knee before him or to deal him a deadly blow. The slaves do not know anything but the inhuman extremes: patience to the point of pusillanimity and rage to the point of despair. It is on these characteristic principles that all is arranged here. The settled people are so patient, so submissive, so humble and at the same time so suspicious and fearful that, for the most part, they don’t dare to enrich themselves with anything. The cause is the tyrants who compose that chain from the despot on the throne to the last [illegible] of the empire, and who survey the raya with an insatiable greed to know whether he has more than is necessary for his life and for servicing the rights with which a cruel and active monopoly overburdens without end his poor and feeble sedulousness.”
P. 248
“Abu Marak was their [the English] man in Jaffa.… Mr. Smith had obtained for him[the rank of] horsetails. This rebel had to leave Jaffa when he no longer received the financial support of England.”
P. 254
“Sulayman Pasha doesn’t know anything. I hear from a reliable source that they abused his ignorance in order to have him sign the order for his representative in Constantinople.”
“Mr. Catafago, used to exploiting all the trade of Acre for himself, observes with greatest aggravation the return of the French”
“Acre is surrounded by a 3- to 4-hour-wide fertile but almost uncultivated plain.”
P. 256
“Diamonds, pearls, and gold pieces shone on the rich Turkish dresses of these women [i.e. the wife, daughters, and daughters-in-law of Catafago]; I believe each carried some fifty thousand piaster worth of jewlry.”
P. 258
“The pasha is under pressure. He absolutely needs money. His troops demand their pay and begin to mutter discontent.” … “His troops have already twice revolted for getting their pay, and they have threatened to hold him personally responsible and to plunder the city and our khan. On the other hand, the functionaries of the Port pursue him for payment of the miri and irritate him ceaselessly and press him, even though he does not have a penny.”
“He has put his trust in these soldiers, who, from their side, seem to be strongly attached to him. He pays them quite well, in order to inspire their gratitude.”
P. 261
“Fighting constantly against the very children of Zahir, who, in order to contact their father, have to go through him; busy creating divisiveness between them or to reconcile them; he embraces all without being embarrassed by it.”
P. 262
“a capricious and whimsical man, effeminate, passing his life with women, already old at the age of thirty-three.… his politics depend on his mood. Sometimes thrusts of European civilization overcome him: there, suddenly with a tarbush with short cloth, there drinking vine, mounting a horse in the French manner. But after a few days everything is changed again: he returns to what he just left, for leaving it yet again when some other thoughts enter his mind.” He is not really violent or evil, just a “spoiled child.”