Ibrahim al-Sabbagh
Ibrahim al-Sabbagh, a physician by training, was the chief adviser of Daher al-Umar, the Acre-based sheikh and 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.
Origins and early life and career
Ibrahim's family, the Sabbaghs, were Arab Christians from Shuweir in Mount Lebanon. Under his father Habib, the family became known as Sabbagh, the previous generation having been al-Sabigh. Ibrahim's paternal great-grandfather was Yusuf ibn Mar'i. Ibrahim had two brothers, Ilyas and Khalil.The Sabbaghs were members of the Melkite Church, 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. 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. At that time, Damietta was a Mediterranean trading town in Egypt with a burgeoning community of Melkite merchants. Ibrahim was born in Damietta in and was sent to the Mar Yuhanna monastery of Shuweir at the age of seven. There, he gained an education and eventually medical training.
Sabbagh moved to Acre, probably in the 1740s, to practice as a physician. 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.
Career under Daher al-Umar
Personal physician
In 1757, Sabbagh was brought in to treat the sheikh and of Acre and the Galilee, Daher al-Umar. Sabbagh was a friend of Daher's and , a fellow Melkite Yusuf Qassis. Daher's regular physician, Sulayman Suwwan, a Greek Orthodox Christian, was unable to treat Daher from the serious illness that befell, prompting Yusuf to call on Sabbagh. Sabbagh healed Daher and Qassis subsequently appointed Sabbagh to replace Suwwan.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. The following year, Sabbagh mediated between Daher and French merchants in Acre, for which the latter paid Sabbagh handsomely. Sabbagh's profile also rose among his Melkite community when he financed the construction of the St. Andrew Church in Acre in 1760.
Chief adviser
Qassis, himself a merchant, served as Daher's agent and intermediary with the European, mostly French, cotton merchants docked in Acre, who purchased the cotton grown in Daher's domains and whose export Daher 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 Daher, who appointed Sabbagh in his place as and.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. In line with Daher'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.
At some point, he began to pursue his own trade, separate from Daher'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".
Sabbagh became the most influential figure in Daher's administration, particularly as Daher grew old. This caused consternation among Daher's sons as they viewed Sabbagh to be a barrier between them and their father and an impediment to their growing power in Daher's territory. Sabbagh was able to gain increased influence with Daher largely because of the wealth he amassed through his integral role in managing Daher's cotton monopoly. Much of this wealth was acquired through Sabbagh's own deals where he purchased cotton and other cash crops from the local farmers and sold them to the European merchants in Syria's coastal cities and to his Melkite partners in Damietta.
Downfall
On 7 August 1775, an imperial Ottoman flotilla under Hasan Pasha al-Jaza'iri blockaded Acre. Hasan Pasha's mission was to collect the tax arrears from Daher that had been accumulating since 1768 and possibly eliminate him in the process. Negotiations were opened but collapsed, with all contemporary or near-contemporary accounts attributing it disputes or sabotage by Sabbagh or Daher's military chief, the Maghrebi mercenary Ahmad Agha al-Dinkizli. Sabbagh and Dinkizli were evidently mutually hostile.Most sources hold that Sabbagh deterred Daher from his initial intention to settle with Hasan Pasha, against the counsel of Dinkizli, who supported an accommodation without the need for a military confrontation. In this version of events, Dinkizli preferred to bribe Hasan Pasha and, according to the Lebanese chronicler Haydar Ahmad al-Shihabi, had secured a pardon for Daher in return for a lesser settlement of the arrears. Sabbagh argued that Daher lacked funds and that Hasan Pasha's flotilla could be repulsed, as he believed the admiral only had three ships and could not stage a land assault. Dinkizli disagreed and advised Daher to extract the necessary funds from Sabbagh personally. Dinkizli accused Sabbagh of having accumulated substantial wealth during the preceding fourteen years by monopolizing trade with the Europeans, selling lands, and withholding salaries and provisions from Gaza and Jaffa when they were besieged by Abu al-Dhahab in the spring of 1775. Daher sided with Sabbagh.
The other version of events, cited by Ibrahim's grandsons, Mikha'il Sabbagh and Abbud Sabbagh, holds that Daher had agreed to pay the arrears and personal sums to Hasan Pasha and the sultan but that Dinkizli betrayed Daher in the negotiations, secretly encouraging the admiral to capture Acre and confiscate the wealth of Daher and Ibrahim.