Jeddah massacre of 1858

On June 15, 1858, 21 Christian residents of Jeddah, then an Ottoman town of 5,000 inhabitants, predominantly Muslims, were massacred, including the French consul M. Eveillard and his wife, and the British vice-consul Stephen Page, by "some hundreds of Hadramites, inhabitants of Southern Arabia". 24 others, mostly Greeks and Levantines, some "under British protection" plus the daughter of the French consul Elise Eveillard and the French interpreter M. Emerat, both badly wounded, escaped and took refuge, some by swimming to it, in the steam paddle wheel frigate HMS Cyclops.[1][2][3][4]

HMS Cyclops (1839), which rescued some survivors of the massacre

Whereas The Church of England quarterly review (1858) suggested there could be a vague connection to the British repression of the Indian Rebellion of 1857–1859, and The Spectator wrote that "A Sheik from Delhi is said to have instigated the massacre",[5] the Perth Gazette of October 22, 1858 extensively quoted an interview in the Moniteur of M. Emerat, the French dragoman (interpreter) and chancellor. According to him, the events were provoked by a commercial dispute which ended by the rehoisting of the British flag on an Indian ship and the hauling down of the Ottoman one, which provoked a riot. He added that the "agitators" actually resented the presence of non-Muslims "whose presence, in their eyes, defiled the sacred soil of the Hejaz".[1][6]

The massacre was discussed in the British House of Commons on 12 and 22 July 1858.[7][8]

According to The Church Review (1859), the Jeddah population of about 5,000 was "often much increased by the influx of strangers", "the inhabitants are nearly all foreigners, or settlers from other parts of Arabia".[2]

References
  1. The Church of England quarterly review, 1858 p.218-219
  2. John McDowell Leavitt, Nathaniel Smith Richardson, Henry Mason Baum G.B. Bassett, The Church Review, Volume 11, 1859 p.527
  3. The Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review, and Church Register, Volume 5, H. Dyer, 1858 p.560-561
  4. "Details of the Jeddah Massacre", Taranaki Herald, Volume VII, Issue 331, 4 December 1858, Supplement
  5. "Jeddah", The Spectator, 18 July 1858
  6. "The Massacre at Jeddah", The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 22 October 1858
  7. "The Massacre at Jeddah – Question", Hansard, Commons Sitting, 12 July 1858
  8. "The Outrage at Jeddah – Question", Hansard, Commons Sitting, 22 July 1858

Scientific bibliography

See also
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