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JewishHistoryעברית

Damascus Affair

Date
5 February 1840 – 28 August 1840Hebrew date: 1st of Adar I, 5600 – 29th of Av, 5600
Location
DamascusSyria
Then part of
Ottoman Syria under Muhammad Ali of Egypt
Perpetrators
  • Sherif Pasha, Egyptian governor of Damascus (State)
  • Count Ratti-Menton, French consul in Damascus (Individual)
  • Local crowd that attacked the Jobar synagogue (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
1 – 4[1]Jews who died in custody. The Jewish Encyclopedia names Joseph Lanado as dying under torture and states that nine of thirteen imprisoned Jews remained alive when released on 28 August 1840. The World Jewish Congress states that two of the men implicated died during torture.
Locality

0.01% – 0.1% of the Jewish population of Damascus[4]

Worldwide

0.00003% – 0.00012% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1825)[15]

Category
Blood libel, Persecution
Confidence
DisputedThe Jewish Encyclopedia states that nine of thirteen imprisoned Jews remained alive at the August release, which implies up to four deaths in custody, and names Joseph Lanado as dying under torture. The World Jewish Congress states that two of the implicated men died during torture. The World Jewish Congress also records the arrest of more than 60 Jewish children, a figure not given in the Jewish Encyclopedia entries fetched.

Summary

On 5 February 1840 the Capuchin friar Father Thomas and his servant disappeared in Damascus, then under the Egyptian governor Sherif Pasha for Muhammad Ali. A ritual-murder accusation was brought against local Jews. The French consul Ratti-Menton and Sherif Pasha had Jews arrested and tortured, including the barber Negrin and notable Jews such as Joseph Lanado, Moses Abulafia and Farhi. Lanado died under torture; Abulafia converted to Islam to escape it. A crowd pillaged the synagogue in the suburb of Jobar and destroyed Torah scrolls. After meetings in London and elsewhere, Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Cremieux and Solomon Munk obtained from Muhammad Ali on 28 August 1840 the release and recognition of the innocence of the nine remaining prisoners. They then secured a firman from Sultan Abdulmejid I declaring ritual-murder accusations against Jews to be false.

Sources

  1. Gotthard Deutsch / M. Franco, Damascus Affair. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  2. This week in Jewish history | The Damascus Blood Libel accusation begins. World Jewish Congress (2022)
  3. Damascus. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  4. A. K. J. M. Massot, Socio-political changes, confessionalization, and inter-confessional relations in Ottoman Damascus from 1760 to 1860. Leiden University (2021)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 3,281,000[15]c. 1825DellaPergola's Fundamentals Table 2 gives 3,281,000 Jews worldwide in 1825.
  • Damascus: 4,000 – 10,000[4]Jews in Damascus in the 19th century. Massot states that estimates for that century vary from 4,000 to 10,000. The Jewish Encyclopedia, citing Alfred von Kremer (1853) and Benjamin II, gives 4,000 in 1853, thirteen years after the affair. No opened page gives a count for February 1840.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
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  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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