In February 1840, Capuchin friar Thomas and his Muslim servant disappeared in Damascus, then under Egyptian rule. French consul Ratti-Menton supported a blood-libel accusation that Jews had murdered them for ritual purposes. Authorities arrested and tortured Jewish residents; several died in custody, and others gave coerced confessions. The accusation was false.
Arrests and coercion in Damascus
The affair unfolded amid rivalry among European powers and the Egyptian administration of Syria, but it was the local Jewish community that faced the immediate danger. Prisoners were subjected to torture, and the case drew intense attention in European newspapers. The Jewish Virtual Library’s account documents the French consular role and the campaign that followed; its chronology of the Damascus blood libel also records how the false charge circulated beyond Syria.
Jewish leaders intervene
Sir Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Crémieux, and other Jewish leaders organized a diplomatic mission. They went to Egypt and appealed to Muhammad Ali, whose government controlled Damascus. The surviving prisoners were released after the ruler intervened. The mission then continued to Constantinople to seek a statement from Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I condemning blood-libel accusations and the use of such charges to prosecute Jews. The firman that followed was an official repudiation of the accusation, though it did not guarantee equal treatment in every later case.
The episode showed how a local accusation could put an entire Jewish community at risk—and how coordinated advocacy could bring international attention to it. It helped build modern Jewish organizations and cross-border solidarity. The legal conditions facing Jews in the Ottoman Empire were also changing during this period; read about dhimmi status and Ottoman legal reform.