SYRIATV — broadcast
20261105 190000 UTC
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[00:00:03] I mean, tens of thousands of
[00:00:23] so on, at least
[00:00:34] is what has been preserved in
[00:00:42] You are not Arabs by origin. You are Turks, you are remnants.
[00:00:45] Remnants. That's why neither my uncle, nor my grandfather, nor my father
[00:00:49] participated in the political life, which did not last more than two years.
[00:00:54] Özal? Yes, The storyteller in Damascus is not really a profession, it is
[00:00:57] a demographic nature and urbanism.
[00:01:00] The spontaneous Damascene
[00:01:03] historian, the barber, was a narrator
[00:01:07] who used to tell and hear stories, he recorded them in colloquial Arabic
[00:01:10] with a colloquial accent. So when
[00:01:12] that he was dealing with Hafez al-Assad carried out his so-called "correctionist movement" coup on
[00:01:15] October 16, 1970, they wrote
[00:01:18] for him at the entrance of Al-Hamidiyah Souq: "We asked God for help, and He sent
[00:01:22] us Hafez al-Assad." This means that this person would protect us. He said, from whom?
[00:01:26] From this Shiite tide. I mean, this is a very harsh rule.
[00:01:35] In his pocket, he had date pits.
[00:01:38] No one found his body,
[00:01:39] he tells you that many and the winds blew the body away. With time,
[00:01:43] used to study. They would come to a palm tree grows from the date pits in
[00:01:46] his pocket. They dig under the palm tree and find his body, and he turns
[00:01:51] So what was the effect of this into a national hero. Among the Jews, his
[00:01:53] famous book, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," "Seven Pillars of Wisdom,"
[00:01:57] the dedication was to S.A.
[00:02:01] that I gathered a group of brave men to achieve
[00:02:04] your dream of a national homeland for you.
[00:02:20] with
[00:02:22] In this episode of "A Testimony to History" with
[00:02:26] Dr. Ahmed Ebash, we see how the urban
[00:02:30] development in Damascus, customs and traditions,
[00:02:34] trade, and adventure
[00:02:38] Aleppo, from emerged from these factors.
[00:02:41] The city's connection and its figures
[00:02:45] to Palestine and the beginnings of the project to seize
[00:02:48] Syria TV on the land from its indigenous inhabitants.
[00:02:51] Reading the details of stone and people in
[00:02:54] a scene open to the ages. In
[00:02:58] every carved piece in Damascus, you read
[00:03:01] politics, economy, and beliefs,
[00:03:05] we have in the state is not and you realize that the place is not enough for celebration, but
[00:03:09] for in-depth research into transformations
[00:03:12] and the course
[00:03:13] of change.
[00:03:18] Dr. Ahmed, in the previous episode of your testimony to history, we sailed
[00:03:21] through thousands of years around the Umayyad Mosque
[00:03:24] and Damascus until we reached the modern
[00:03:27] era and the end of the Ottoman Empire, arriving
[00:03:31] at Jamal Pasha the Butcher and his relationship with your grandfather
[00:03:34] and the beginning
[00:03:36] of a new era for the political and social role
[00:03:40] played by your grandfather and your father in
[00:03:43] Damascus.
[00:03:46] I mean, we can continue, maybe in the colloquial dialect, if
[00:03:49] you like. We reached the point where
[00:03:52] Sarah Aaronsohn was able to frame Jamal
[00:03:56] Pasha the Butcher. We mentioned the Suez Canal campaign
[00:03:59] of 1915. This was actually
[00:04:02] the establishment of the Nili espionage organization that
[00:04:05] we mentioned, which was founded by her brother and Sarah
[00:04:09] and her brother-in-law Avshalom Feinberg.
[00:04:13] They were established in the same year, 1915. Their
[00:04:16] first tasks, as we mentioned previously, were to spy
[00:04:19] on the movements of the Ottoman army,
[00:04:22] transfer of supplies, ammunition,
[00:04:26] train movements, officers. We mentioned all of this.
[00:04:30] So, in 1915, Sarah Aaronsohn convinced
[00:04:33] Jamal Pasha, and he became a British agent.
[00:04:35] In 1915, he decided
[00:04:39] that the garrisons on the road to
[00:04:42] Egypt were not enough, so he decided
[00:04:45] to launch a campaign they called the Suez Canal campaign,
[00:04:49] which is, of course, the Suez Canal.
[00:04:52] My father participated in the campaign because he spent his military service
[00:04:56] Bring me this, this hero in Palestine. And there was also a massacre, he mentioned.
[00:05:00] It was a massacre. I mean, the British army
[00:05:03] had information about the movements of the Ottoman
[00:05:07] army that was unusual. They were being shelled
[00:05:10] from land and from warships at sea.
[00:05:15] soldiers were annihilated. My father used to mention that when the British airplane came,
[00:05:19] everyone was not used to the participation
[00:05:23] of airplanes. This was the beginning of the occupation of Palestine.
[00:05:26] They were already there. Field Marshal Edmund
[00:05:30] Allenby was there, and now we will talk about the first and second battles of Gaza. Allenby
[00:05:33] was not on the verge of entering, no, after 1917, I
[00:05:37] agree with you completely. So my father used to mention that when the airplane came,
[00:05:41] which was not that dangerous at that time, all the soldiers
[00:05:45] would lie down on the ground and be afraid, hiding their heads
[00:05:47] with their hands. My father's uncle was an officer, and he told them, "Get up!
[00:05:51] What are you afraid of? Shoot at it with your rifles, you'll hit it."
[00:05:54] They were afraid. So a large part of the Ottoman army was annihilated
[00:05:58] because of Jamal Pasha's betrayal. Now, I want to
[00:06:01] mention something here. Do you remember the Turkish Prime Minister Turgut
[00:06:06] this man, one day, before he was assassinated
[00:06:10] by the army with a poisoned glass of orange juice.
[00:06:13] In one of his press conferences, he mentioned
[00:06:16] that Jamal Pasha was a traitor
[00:06:19] to the state. Why did he tell the story
[00:06:24] the English through Sarah Aaronsohn? He said,
[00:06:28] "And if you are not sure of my words, ask
[00:06:31] Hasan Jamal." At that time, people didn't know who Hasan
[00:06:35] Jamal was, and after a short while, the Prime Minister
[00:06:38] was assassinated. It turns out that Ahmed Jamal Pasha's grandson,
[00:06:42] whose name is Hasan Jamal, confirms, "It's true that he is my grandfather, but I
[00:06:46] state for history that my grandfather was complicit with the English,
[00:06:49] and he was the one who received bribes, and his primary mission was
[00:06:52] to create hatred and enmity between Arabs and Turks, as we
[00:06:56] mentioned in the previous episode, how they held a party and the
[00:07:00] Turkish officers came in and wanted to dance with the girls."
[00:07:03] on your grandfather
[00:07:06] and on his path in caring
[00:07:09] for the tribal and nomadic life around him? Exactly. When my
[00:07:13] father returned from the Suez Canal war and told his father this,
[00:07:16] his father was very upset, and it started to emerge that what Ahmed Jamal Pasha was doing
[00:07:20] was wrong. When,
[00:07:23] in 1919, we mentioned that he executed
[00:07:26] the Arab nationalists, my grandfather went
[00:07:30] to him and said, "You are not my friend, and I don't want any
[00:07:33] favors from you, and I don't want the Committee of Union and Progress. I
[00:07:35] am even withdrawing from your friendship." And of course,
[00:07:39] most of the notables and scholars of Damascus withdrew from the Committee of Union.
[00:07:43] After it became clear that he was indeed a traitor to the state.
[00:07:47] Hasan Jamal, his grandson, mentioned all these matters
[00:07:50] and mentioned how Ahmed Jamal Pasha even
[00:07:53] made a secret conspiracy to
[00:07:56] assassinate Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Therefore,
[00:07:59] today Ahmed Jamal Pasha is hated in Turkey.
[00:08:03] One day, when he returns to Turkey
[00:08:06] after the loss of World War I, his two
[00:08:09] colleagues, Talaat Pasha
[00:08:13] and Enver Pasha, tell him that all the money
[00:08:18] enough to rectify the mistakes, disasters, and calamities
[00:08:21] you have committed. I want the path related
[00:08:25] to your father. Exactly. My father withdrew
[00:08:28] into himself. He did not participate in the Great Arab
[00:08:31] Revolt. Why? Because he was not against
[00:08:34] the state as a state, but he was against Jamal Pasha because he was
[00:08:38] a traitor. But he did not participate in the Great Revolt. No, he did not participate with
[00:08:41] that. I will mention something else to you. You did not have a presence.
[00:08:45] There was no political presence for the Ebash family at that
[00:08:48] time, during the reign of King Faisal. In reality,
[00:08:51] let me tell you why. There was a political presence
[00:08:55] before that. For example, my uncle Hussein Bey was a member
[00:08:58] of the Provincial Council of the State, meaning the council
[00:09:02] of the capital Damascus. But when Turkey
[00:09:05] completely left Syria on
[00:09:09] October 14, 1924, October
[00:09:12] 1, 1918,
[00:09:15] there was a perception among these people who were from
[00:09:18] the former regime that
[00:09:21] you are not Arabs by origin, you are remnants, you are Turks, you are remnants.
[00:09:25] Therefore, neither my uncle nor my grandfather nor my father
[00:09:28] participated in the political life that lasted only two years,
[00:09:32] 1918-1920. When Mariano
[00:09:36] Goybet entered Damascus, everyone tells you that
[00:09:39] Henri Gouraud was the one who entered, but he was not even in Syria
[00:09:43] or Lebanon. Mariano Goybet was the one who entered. He tells
[00:09:47] a strange story that his grandfather was named Jean
[00:09:50] de Montgolfier, he was a prisoner of
[00:09:54] the Damascenes in 1448, during the
[00:09:58] Crusades. They besieged Damascus.
[00:10:01] His ancient origin is Spanish. He even
[00:10:05] mentions a funny thing, he says that we came to the gardens surrounding
[00:10:08] Damascus and found a fruit we didn't know, they called it
[00:10:14] damask. It's apricots. So they were happy and started eating and eating and eating. They
[00:10:18] didn't realize until they suffered severe diarrhea. So the
[00:10:22] Damascene apricot was an effective element in eliminating
[00:10:25] the Crusader campaign. So from the Damascene apricot and
[00:10:29] the matters of religion, we go to the dark
[00:10:33] ages. Yes, that preceded the moment you
[00:10:37] mentioned, the departure of the Ottomans from Damascus. These
[00:10:40] centuries, historians in them are few
[00:10:43] and are essentially called the ages of decline or
[00:10:48] artistically. Among the historians, Al-Moudairi
[00:10:51] the barber appeared, who conveyed a picture of life in
[00:10:55] Damascus and in the Levant at that time. It
[00:10:59] memory, how life was in the city of Damascus
[00:11:03] and the social and demographic classes, and you wrote about this and researched it. Yes,
[00:11:07] yes, an excellent question. It is certain and 100%
[00:11:11] proven that I even had a thesis
[00:11:15] that I presented at Boğaziçi
[00:11:18] University about the beginning of the emergence of
[00:11:22] national sentiment among some military factions in Damascus. Among them
[00:11:25] were the Yerliler. Hmm, the local
[00:11:28] Janissaries. This period, as you mentioned,
[00:11:31] was when the spontaneous Damascene
[00:11:35] historian, the barber, was a narrator
[00:11:38] who used to tell and hear stories, he recorded them in colloquial Arabic with a colloquial
[00:11:42] accent. Then Sheikh Al-Qasimi, Jamal
[00:11:45] Al-Qasimi, came and refined and wrote them in
[00:11:49] classical Arabic. Regarding that
[00:11:52] period, I am completely sure that
[00:11:55] there was no actual Arab nationalist sentiment against the Turks.
[00:11:59] Why? Because the Ottomans were, first of all,
[00:12:01] Muslims. Secondly,
[00:12:04] officers
[00:12:08] the Umayyad Mosque or some of them. My uncle, with a Steyr pistol from
[00:12:12] his back, told him, "No, you walk in front of me." He looked
[00:12:15] at him like this. He stared at him and said, "You are a man."
[00:12:19] He said, "What?" He said, "I was planning, do you know what I was planning? He said, "We would walk
[00:12:23] about 100 or 200 meters
[00:12:25] and I would take whatever money you had, the five gold liras or whatever." Okay, allow me
[00:12:29] to go to a break and then we will return
[00:12:33] to find out what happened with Hussein Bey Al-Ebash in this adventure and whether he was able
[00:12:36] to save the son of Abdul Rahman Pasha, Youssef, or
[00:12:40] not. Okay. Dear viewers, we will continue our discussion
[00:12:45] Dr. Ahmed Ebash in his testimony
[00:12:48] to history.
[00:12:55] Radio Syria with you wherever
[00:12:57] you are. From Damascus to
[00:13:03] the coast to
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[00:13:29] your voice wherever you are.
[00:13:41] Before the break, we talked about Hussein Bey Al-Ebash's
[00:13:45] adventure in saving Mohammed
[00:13:49] Said Al-Youssef, the son of Abdul Rahman
[00:13:53] Pasha Al-Youssef, the emir of the quarter at that time. Was he
[00:13:56] really able to save him, and what were the consequences of that?
[00:14:00] And I promise you that you will tell the people about Sarah because you mentioned
[00:14:03] this, so let's find out what happened with Sarah.
[00:14:07] The story, the historian has
[00:14:09] an internal tension. Of course, of course, we need to finish
[00:14:12] the narration, no doubt. My uncle arrived at the military school,
[00:14:16] and of course, the matter of the
[00:14:20] enormous Austrian guide ended. He walks around the wall, he
[00:14:23] finds the person whose picture he
[00:14:26] saw. He asked his father for his picture, and he waited
[00:14:30] a moment, I mean, it was a little dark. He called out to Muhammad Said. He came.
[00:14:34] He said, "There's no time to talk now. Take these clothes.
[00:14:38] Put them on." He cut the wires for him and got him out. He arranged
[00:14:41] for them to get in a car. He told him, "Don't say a word. You
[00:14:45] don't talk. I'll talk alone." They started driving
[00:14:48] and crossing the Allies' checkpoints. My uncle
[00:14:52] claimed that he spoke
[00:14:55] as if he was speaking with an American accent. He studied at the
[00:14:58] American University, like you, he studied at the American University. Yes, and my father too,
[00:15:02] of course. So they passed, and they passed.
[00:15:05] They arrived in Damascus.
[00:15:09] They enter the guest house of Pasha Abdul Rahman Pasha. Muhammad Said
[00:15:12] runs, oh, Muhammad Said runs to kiss
[00:15:16] his father. He tells him, "No, wait there. Stop!
[00:15:21] who brought you." He came closer and kissed him,
[00:15:25] and told him, "You are, I mean, we haven't seen such a person
[00:15:28] before, and I know that, I mean, there is
[00:15:32] a divine providence that chose you. I want to give you my daughter, Wajiha Khanum,
[00:15:36] and marry her. Wajiha married his daughter, Wajiha Khanum
[00:15:38] Al-Youssef." Yes, my uncle married her, and she became the mother of his children.
[00:15:42] Sarah? Sarah? We'll get to that later, if you remember. Exactly.
[00:15:46] Exactly. We got to the point that in 1915,
[00:15:50] it became clear to everyone that this was