Ibrahim al-Sabbagh

Ibrahim al-Sabbagh (Arabic: إبراهيم الصباغ, romanized: Ibrāhīm al-Ṣabbāgh), a physician by training, was the chief adviser of Zahir al-Umar, the Acre-based sheikh and multazim (tax farmer) of northern Palestine from the early 1760s until Zahir was killed by Ottoman imperial forces in 1775. In his role, he was highly trusted by Zahir and wielded significant influence in the economic and political affairs of his sheikhdom.

Ibrahim's family, the Sabbaghs, were Arab Christians from Shuweir in Mount Lebanon.^[1][2] Under his father Habib, the family became known as Sabbagh, the previous generation (Ibrahim's grandfather Yuhanna) having been al-Sabigh (both words meaning 'dyer' in Arabic). Ibrahim's paternal great-grandfather was Yusuf ibn Mar'i. Ibrahim had two brothers, Ilyas and Khalil.^[3]

The Sabbaghs were members of the Melkite (Greek Catholic) Church,^[1][2] which split from the Greek Orthodox Church in the mid-18th century. Opposition from the Greek Orthodox clergy led many Melkites to move from the inland areas of Syria to the coasts of Syria, Palestine and Egypt.^[4] The Sabbaghs moved to the coastal towns of Beirut and Sidon. Ibrahim's father Habib and uncle Abbud were merchants and moved to Damietta in c. 1700.^[1] At that time, Damietta was a Mediterranean trading town in Egypt with a burgeoning community of Melkite merchants.^[5] Ibrahim was born in Damietta in c. 1715 and was sent to the Mar Yuhanna (St. John) monastery of Shuweir at the age of seven. There, he gained an education and eventually medical training.^[1]

He moved to Acre, probably in the 1740s, to practice as a physician. There, he developed a reputation as a border-line "miracle worker", according to historian Thomas Philipp. Philipp noted of Sabbagh's repuation:

With a deft measure of insight into the human psyche, a familiarity with the human physis, considerable knowledge of medicine, and a sense for the dramatic he almost appeared to make the blind see and to resurrect the dead.^[1]

In 1757, Sabbagh was brought in to treat the sheikh and multazim (tax farmer) of Acre and the Galilee, Zahir al-Umar. Sabbagh was a friend of Zahir's wazir (chief adviser) and mudabbir (manager), a fellow Melkite Yusuf Qassis. Zahir's regular physician, Sulayman Suwwan, a Greek Orthodox Christian, was unable to treat Zahir from the serious illness that befell, prompting Yusuf to call on Sabbagh. Sabbagh healed Zahir and Qassis subsequently appointed Sabbagh to replace Suwwan.^[6][1]

Sabbagh was mentioned for the first time in contemporary sources in 1758, when a French letter noted that he purchased the personal items of a Frenchman, Pierre Blanc, who had recently died.^[1] The following year, Sabbagh mediated between Zahir and French merchants in Acre, for which the latter paid Sabbagh handsomely.^[7] Sabbagh's profile also rose among his Melkite community when he financed the construction of the St. Andrew Church in Acre in 1760.^[8]

Qassis, himself a merchant, served as Zahir's agent and intermediary with the European, mostly French, cotton merchants docked in Acre, who purchased the cotton grown in Zahir's domains and whose export Zahir dominated. The trade was lucrative and Qassis grew wealthy managing this trade. Following an uncovered attempt to smuggle his wealth to Malta in the early 1760s, Qassis was dismissed by Zahir, who appointed Sabbagh in his place as wazir and mudabbir.^[9]

Throughout the 1760s, Sabbagh's power and wealth grew to such a point that it was not quite certain any more whether he was Ẓāhir al-ʿUmar's man or vice versa", according to Philipp.^[8] In line with Zahir's policy, Sabbagh vigorously pursused monopolization of the cotton trade with the French, who became ever more reliant on his good graces. The merchants condemned Sabbagh in their correspondences as a tyrant and despot influential enough to ban merchants from the port.^[8]

At some point, he began to pursue his own trade, separate from Zahir's, with the port of Livorno, selling cotton and rice to the merchants there via the French merchant boats docked in Acre. In 1767, he was paying the French a two percent duty, but by 1769 he only offered to pay one percent and then reneged on the payment. This testified to the leverage Sabbagh wielded and the helplessness of the French merchants who described him as the "marchand qui tient le gouvernement d'Acre et qui y est le maître absolu" (merchant who controls the government of Acre and who is the absolute master there").^[8]

• Crecelius, Daniel (1981). The Roots of Modern Egypt: A Study of the Regimes of 'Ali Bey Al-Kabir and Muhammad Bey Abu Al-Dhahab, 1760–1775. Minneapolis and Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica.
• Crecelius, Daniel (2010). "Damiette and Syrian-Egyptian Trade in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century". In Sluglett, Peter; Weber, Stefan (eds.). Syria and Bilad al-Sham under Ottoman Rule: Essays in honour of Abdul-Karim Rafeq. Leiden and Boston: Brill. pp. 155–178. ISBN 978-90-04-18193-9.
• Haddad, George M. (1967). "The Chronicle of Abbud al-Sabbagh and the Fall of Daher al-Umar of Acre". Al-Abhath. 20: 37–44.
• Joudah, Ahmad Hasan (2013). Revolt in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: The Era of Shaykh Zahir al-Umar (Second ed.). Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-4632-0002-2.
• Mahdi, Muhsin S. (1995). The Thousand and One Nights. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-10204-3.
• Philipp, Thomas (1992). "Social Structure and Political Power in Acre in the 18th Century". In Philipp, Thomas (ed.). The Syrian Land in the 18th and 19th Century: The Common and the Specific in the Historical Experience. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. pp. 91–108. ISBN 3-515-05685-8.
• Philipp, Thomas (2001). Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730–1831. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50603-8.

• Cheikho, Louis (1905). "Mikha'il al-Sabbagh wa usratuhu" [Mikha'il al-Sabbagh and his Family]. Al-Machriq (in Arabic). 8: 24–34.