Notes from “Gaza a History” by Jean-Pierre Filiu
Part 7
“In 1453 the Ottoman sultans, already the masters of Anatolia, captured the capital of the Byzantine Empire, transforming the erstwhile Constantinople into Istanbul, which they in turn made their capital. However, as their attention was focused on Europe and the West, it was two generations before they consolidated their hold of the Middle East. Turning eastwards at last Sultan Selim I (1467-1520) went on the offensive, first against the Persian Empire, where the Ottomans emerged victorious from the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and then against the Mamluk armies in the Levant, whom the Ottomans vanquished in August 1516 at the Battle of Marj Dabiq in northern Syria. This opened the gates of Greater Syria to the Ottoman forces, who took Aleppo, Damascus and Jerusalem. Their next objective was to take Cairo itself and bring about the downfall of the Mamluk regime. Khan Yunis was taken by storm, but only a small contingent was sent to Gaza, which was regarded as of lesser military value.”
“The notables of Gaza, more so than its ordinary population, were initially confident that the Mamluk government could hold its own, seeing their destiny as linked to that of Cairo, even though Palestine, immediately to the north, had already fallen under Ottoman domination. Rumours circulated in Gaza that Selim I had been defeated on the road to Egypt, causing the city to rise up in revolt, slaughtering the Ottoman garrison. This led the sultan, who had in fact been victorious both in Egypt and in Mecca, to return to the rebellious city in rage, carrying out massacres there that were only too appropriate for his nickname ‘The Grim’ (Yavuz). The four subsequent centuries of the Ottoman presence in Gaza were consequently inaugurated by an act of pitiless butchery. By 1525 the population had fallen to less than 1,000 families.”
“Gaza, humiliated by the vengeance of the Sublime Porte, as the Ottoman government was known, discovered that its strategic position as a little between north and south was of no value within the new empire, whose grip over Egypt was as firm as its hold over Greater Syria. The days of playing the Levant off against the Nile Valley were at an end under the Ottoman dispensation. To this difficulty was added the development of the sea route by way of the Cape of Good Hope, which diverted many of the trade routes that had formerly reached the Mediterranean by way of Gaza. The make-up of the city’s population also began to change during this period. According to tax registers, religious minorities came to make up at least a fifth and perhaps a quarter of the people of Gaza…The decline of the city was palpable throughout the sixteenth century, but later the growing independence of one of Gaza’s governing families, the Radwan, led to the reversal of this tendency. In 1570 Radwan Pasha was granted the hereditary governorship of Gaza, which then passed for three generations from father to son, first to Ahmed Pasha (1572-1600), then to Hassan Pasha (1600-44) and finally to Hussein Pasha (1644-62).”
“In the reign of Louis XIV, France, which was seeking to develop its influence in the ports of the Levant, offered its assistance to Gaza and to support its governor, Hussein Pasha. Hussein enjoyed a significant amount of local popularity for having re-established order throughout the region, suppressing the Bedouin tribes and the assorted footpads who preyed upon the highways. According to Laurent d’Arvieux, who travelled to Gaza in 1659 with the French consul appointed to serve in Saida, Hussein Pasha took on the role of protector of the ‘Fathers of the Holy Land’, allowing them to settle in Gaza on the supposed site of the temple pulled down by Samson, and even guaranteeing their supplies of fish during Lent. Laurent d’Arvieux described Gaza as a ‘very cheerful and agreeable place’…He compared the bazaars of Gaza to Parisian fairs and noted ‘the constant passing through of caravans from Syria to Egypt and from Egypt to Syria.’”
“Hussein Pasha was to pay dearly for his special relationship with the Christians. He became a victim of the intrigues of the Turkish Court, and in 1662, accused of treason, he was executed in the citadel in Damascus. The Radwan family recovered from the setback, however, and contrived to placate the Ottoman authorities. In 1662, Musa Pasha Radwan succeeded his late brother as governor of Gaza (1662-79), but the Radwan family had now lost some of its local influence due to the bad reputation Hussein had acquired. Disputes between the leaders of Muslim factions were observed minutely and with trepidation by the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Christian minorities, who feared the consequences of those quarrels on their own fate.”
“The small Jewish community, meanwhile, made up of around 100 families, was concerned by other issues, in 1663 a rabbi named Nathan Ashkenazi left Jerusalem and settled with his wife’s family in Gaza. He began to assert that he was receiving Messianic visions, linking the salvation of the Jewish people to the career of a notorious Kabbalist from Smyrna, Sabbatai Zvi. From 1665, Nathan of Gaza began to campaign publicly in favour of Sabbatai Zvi, embarking on preaching missions to his co-religionists. In reaction to the furore aroused in Jerusalem by his prophetic pretensions, he proclaimed Gaza to be the new holy city for modern times, declaring that the new messiah would in due course physically take possession of the crown of the sultan himself in Istanbul. In 1666, however, when Sabbatai Zvi presented himself to Sultan Mehmet IV, he made a public conversion to Islam.”[1]
[1] pp.26-28 Gaza A History, Jean-Pierre Filou