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| 1840 |
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| The Damascus affair. The episode—the most notorious case of blood libel against Jews in the empire—began when an Italian Capuchin friar and his native servant disappeared in Damascus (Feb. 5). The local Christians, backed by the French consul, accused the Jews of having the two men murdered in order to use their blood for the rituals of the approaching Passover. Seven leading members of the Jewish community were arrested, and under torture two died, one saved himself by embracing Islam, and the others were induced to confess. The governor also took 63 Jewish children hostage in order to force their parents to reveal the whereabouts of the two men's blood. The Jewish community became the target of mob violence, and it took international pressure to rescue it from official harassment and popular attacks. The Austrian consul in Alexandria persuaded Muhammad Ali of Egypt, then still in occupation of Syria, to order his governor in Damascus to protect the Jewish community (May), and a deputation of British and French Jews obtained from him the release of the prisoners (Aug.). The same delegation then interceded with the Ottoman sultan, who issued a decree denouncing the blood libel (Nov. 6). | 1 |
| Similar accusations of ritual murder recurred many times in the 19th century, coming almost invariably from the Christian population. Such incidents, often accompanied by outbreaks of violence, occurred in Damascus (1848, 1890), Aleppo (1810, 1850, 1875), Antioch (1826), Beirut (1862, 1874), Tripoli (1834), Jerusalem (1847, 1870, 1895), Jaffa (1876), Dayr al-Qamar (1847), Istanbul (1870, 1874), Izmir (1872, 1874), Edirne (1872), and more frequently in the Greek and Balkan provinces of the empire. | 2 |
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| 1840 |
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| Restoration of Ottoman authority in the Hijaz, following the withdrawal of the Egyptians. Istanbul pursued a new policy of establishing direct control over the Hijaz through its own governors while curtailing the previously autonomous power of the sharifs of Mecca. | 3 |
| The first private Turkish newspaper, the Jeride-i Havadis, was founded in Istanbul by the English journalist William Churchill. | 4 |
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| May |
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| Adoption of a modern penal code, which marked the first attempt at systematizing the criminal laws in the empire. A second revised penal code was published in Feb. 1851, followed in Aug. 1858 by a third code based on French law. | 5 |
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