The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-07 00:00:00

THE JEDDAH MASSACRE.

A letter from Alexandria, dated Jan. 25th, says:
—On the day following the despatch of last mail
the French war steamer Duchayla arrived at Suez
from Jeddah. It is not unlikely that by means of
the telegraph the news she brought may have over-
taken my letter of the 18th inst., which informed
you that the proceedings of the Commission seemed
to be coming to a dead lock, owing to the per-
sistence on the part of the Turkish authorities in de-
claring that the powers they held were insufficient
to enable them to carry out the sentence pronounced
upon the instigators of the massacre of last year.
But before this letter can reach England you will
doubtless have learnt the events which constitute
the final chapter of the Jeddah Commission,—how
the Turks under the influence of the firm attitude
assumed by the two European delegates had finally
succeeded in construing their orders in a mode more
in accordance with the spirit of the declarations and
promises made by the Porte, and how two of the
chief instigators of the late massacre had expiated
their crime, and undergone the sentence of death
pronouncei upon them.
The investigations, conducted under the vigilant
watch of the Commissioners, had resulted in esta-
blishing the chief guilt upon three of the leading
men of the city—Abdallah el Muhhtesib (the Go-
vernment Inspector of Markets), Sheikh Seyid el
Amoudy, and the Kaimakan. The Muhhtesib
appears to have been the prime mover and instigator.
lie it was who .originally devised the plot, and for
many years past he seems to have brooded over it
and to have watched for the opportunity of putting
his designs into execution. In 1854, it has been
ascertained, he already failed in an attempt to bring
about a rising against the Christian inhabitants of
the town, including the representatives of the
nations then assembling on the shores ofk the Bos-
phorus, and preparing to shed their blood in the
defence of his country. And this appears to
have been a matter of public notoriety among
the Moslems of the town.* In Sheikh el
Amoudy he found a willing and able coadjutor.
This man, through the influence of his religious
position, possessed great power over the minds of
the people, and he was made use of to fan the
smouldering embers of their fanaticism into a fierce
outburst against the Christians, who they were
taught to believe were polluting with their pre-
sence the gates of the Holy Cities. The Kaimakan
appears to have taken a less active part, but he
knew of the conspiracy, and aided and abetted the
others, at least so far as to allow the meetings to be
held at which the plot was matured and the final
arrangements made for its execution. He, the chief
magistrate of the city, abstained from denouncing
it, and when the infuriated rabble was finally let
loose he refrained from interfering either by word
or deed to give the slightest warning to the in-
tended victims. The guilt of these three men was
established beyond the shadow of a doubt, and the
Turkish tribunal, acting under the supervision of
the Commissioners, sentenced them to suffer the
penalty of death.
Eight others were convicted of complicity to a
minor extent. Foremost among them were the
Sheikh Abdallah-es-Seeneh, late Shireef of Mecca,
and four members of the Council, which condemned
the 11 men executed in July. Five of these have
been sentenced to imprisonment for life, and the
remaining three to close confinement for five years.
Throughout the whole of the proceedings Naamik
Pasha uniformly adhered to the course which he
has pursued from the very outset. He adopted
every possible means to obstruct the course of Jus-
tice and to thwart the European Commissioners in
tSheayti d. h
i Pasha,s
instructions e
enjoinedk
the performance of their duties. But now arose
the chief difficulty, already referred to in my last.
Turkish
CGumprhonislsiiimonetro,ledat arethed
execution of the sentence to the Governor-General,
and Naamik Pasha, when applied to, maintained
that he held no authority in the matter
that his successor to the governorship of the pro-
vince had already been appointed, and that the

* When Captain Pullen was at Jeddah in July last he
made several attempts to bring the Muhhtesib to justice,
but his intentions were defeated through the opposition of
Naamik Pasha, who declared that the man was perfectly
innocent, and that there existed not the slightest ground for
the institution of proceedings against him.