Russian occupations of Beirut - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Russian_occupations_of_Beirut

Russian occupations of Beirut

The Russian occupations
of Beirut were two separate
military expeditions by
squadrons of the Imperial
Russian Navy's Mediterranean
Fleet, with the first one taking
place in June 1772 and the
second one from October 1773
to early 1774. They formed
part of its Levant campaign
during the larger Russo-
Turkish War of 1768–1774.
Russia's main objective in this
campaign was to assist local
forces led by Egypt's
autonomous ruler, Ali Bey al-
Kabir, who was in open
rebellion against the Ottoman
Empire.
Extent of Ali Bey and Zahir's territory between 1768 and 1774 and Russian
Ali, taking advantage of the naval movements in the Levant, based on the accounts of Sauveur
Empire's preoccupation with Lusignan, a contemporary historian
Russia, declared Egypt's
independence and in 1771 sent
an army led by Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab to occupy Ottoman territory in the Levant. Abu al-
Dhahab unexpectedly returned to challenge Ali for control of Egypt. Ali requested Russian military
assistance against his rival and the Ottomans. When this aid, in the form of a small Russian
squadron, arrived in the region, Ali had already fled Egypt and taken refuge in Acre, the power base
of his ally, Zahir al-Umar. After helping repel an Ottoman offensive on Sidon, the Russian
squadron sailed for Beirut. They bombarded the town in June 1772 and occupied it from June 23 to
28.

Ali, now formally allied with the Russian Empire, requested further assistance from his new
European partner, to recover Egypt from Abu al-Dhahab. The Russians had recently entered a
period of truce with the Ottomans, constraining their involvement in the region. They did,
however, promise Ali a large squadron. Impatient, Ali set out for Egypt with a small force that was
defeated near Cairo; he was imprisoned and died a few days later. When the Russian squadron
arrived in June 1773 and learned of Ali's fate, its commander allied with Zahir and the Druze
chieftain Yusuf Shihab. The latter had agreed to pay the Russians a tribute in exchange for their
liberation of Beirut from Jazzar Pasha, Shihab's insubordinate vassal whom he had recently
appointed as governor of the town. The bombardment of the town began on August 2, and Jazzar
surrendered after two months, on October 10. A few hundred Albanian mercenaries were left as
occupiers.

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The occupations are of debatable historical importance. Despite their brevity, they marked the first
time in over 250 years that Beirut was ruled by a power other than the Ottomans. It also marked
the first occasion on which Russian rule was imposed over an Arab city.

Contents
Background
First occupation
End of Ali Bey's revolt
Second occupation
Aftermath and legacy
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading

Background
The pressure of Austria and Russia on the northern Ottoman frontiers since the beginning of the
18th century had encouraged insubordination among local governors in the largely decentralised
Arab provinces of Ottoman Syria.[1] In 1768, while the Russian Empire was suppressing a Polish
uprising near the Ottoman border, a Cossack regiment chased some of the rebels across the border
and reportedly carried out a massacre in the town of Balta.[2] The Sultan eventually responded by
declaring war on Russia.[3] He demanded military assistance from Ali Bey, a Mamluk, who was the
most powerful official in Ottoman Egypt at the time. Ali closely observed the course of the war,
sending the required 3,000 soldiers to the aid of the Sublime Porte in 1769. Early in the following
year, however, he declared Egypt's independence, chiefly in response to the war with Russia. Later
he struck an alliance with Zahir al-Umar, a wealthy Arab ruler in northern Palestine. Ali and Zahir
shared common ground in their opposition to Islamic fundamentalism, the Sultan's isolationist
policies towards Europe and the imposition of Ottoman dignitaries to their courts.[4]

At the same time, Tsarina Catherine the Great, lacking an organised Russian fleet in the Black Sea,
drew up plans with Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov to detach a large number of ships from the
Baltic Fleet and deploy them to the Mediterranean.[5] Russia hoped they would attack the Turkish
Straits from the rear, and that its naval presence in the Aegean Sea would provoke a Greek
rebellion.[1] This newly formed Mediterranean Fleet, headed by Orlov and commanded by Admiral
Grigory Spiridov, sailed from Copenhagen on September  23, 1769. By March  1, 1770, the first
detachment was anchored off the southern Morea, where the Orlov revolt broke out. This was
followed by bombardments and troop landings at different locations in the region over the coming
months.[6] On July 7 a Turkish fleet was crushed at the Battle of Chesma, which crippled the
Ottoman Navy and gave the Russians naval command of the Mediterranean for the remainder of
the war. Turkish ships that survived retreated to the Dardanelles. Rear-Admiral John Elphinstone
proposed a direct assault on Constantinople, but was instead convinced by Orlov to blockade the
Straits with his squadron, while the rest of the fleet went on the offensive in the northern

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Aegean.[7]

Russian chronicles have described Muslims as Hagarians since

the 15th century. This is a pejorative term suggesting that they
were the descendants of biblical Hagar who was exiled into the
deserts of Sinai. The Russian court was aware of the
autonomization of Ottoman Tunis, Algeria and Tripolitania in
the 18th century.[8] Despite her negative perception of
Muslims, Catherine did not hesitate to approach them as
potential allies. On 15 July 1769, she instructed Spiridov to
avoid attacking ships belonging to the aforementioned states
unless provoked, and prompted him to attempt to turn the
Barbary states against their Ottoman overlord. Catherine's
plans did not materialize as Tunis and Algeria fought on the Battle of Çesme at Night by Ivan
side of the Ottomans, while the correspondence of Ali Pasha of Aivazovsky (1848)[n 1]
Tripoli with Orlov bore no significant results.[9]

In late 1770, Ali Bey dispatched an army of 40,000 troops, commanded by his trusted general
Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab, to Palestine where it joined forces with Zahir's army in the spring
of 1771 and went on to occupy several towns in the Levant. However, soon after the fall of
Damascus in early June, Ottoman agents managed to convince Abu al-Dhahab to turn against Ali
Bey, promising to appoint him as ruler of Egypt instead of his overlord. Abu al-Dhahab retreated
with his army, and became embroiled in a power struggle against his former master over the
control of Egypt. Zahir, for his part, became isolated in his sheikhdom and had to face the
inevitable Ottoman counteroffensive on his own.[10] Ali Bey was then convinced that he could
reverse his recent setbacks through an alliance with Russia. On December  2, 1771, he sent an
Armenian envoy named Yaqub to meet with Orlov at the Mediterranean Fleet's headquarters on
the Aegean island of Paros where he offered the Russians an alliance.[11]

The offer was later accepted by the Tsarina, but her knowledge of the proposed alliance came after
Ali Bey was no longer ruling Egypt.[n 2] He had been forced to leave the country and seek refuge
with his ally Zahir when the standoff between him and Abu al-Dhahab finally escalated to armed
confrontations.[13] Ignorant of Ali's flight and with orders from Orlov to make contact with him, a
detachment commanded by General-Adjutant Rizo, a Greek, sailed for Damietta but quickly left
port after learning of his fate. The squadron then searched for him along the Palestinian coast and
eventually found him in Acre on June   3. Rizo later sent a detachment to the north, which
intercepted an Ottoman frigate from Beirut near Tyre. Meanwhile, in Sidon, Zahir's small army of
6,000 was being besieged by an Ottoman force of 30,000 that included Druze contingents. Rizo's
ships joined the garrison by bombarding the Ottoman attackers who withdrew shortly
afterwards.[14]

First occupation
The newly assembled coalition, wishing to exploit the Ottoman First bombardment of Beirut
setback in Sidon, decided to send the Russian squadron to the
small port town of Beirut, which was controlled at the time by
the Druze. According to the researcher William Persen, the aim
of this expedition was to both preoccupy the Druze and punish
them for siding with the Porte. Blockading their port would

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achieve this. Beirut was also the only port in the region which Date 18 June 1772 – 23
had so far remained under Ottoman rule.[15] June 1772

Likely unaware of a recent armistice between Russia and the Location Beirut
Porte, Rizo's squadron appeared off the town's coast on Result Occupation of the town
June   18 after it was reunited with its Tyre and Acre until 28 June
detachments. The force consisted of two frigates, the Sv.
Nikolai and the Sv. Pavel, four polaccas, five half-galleys and Belligerents
four xebecs. It was transporting an infantry division that was Imperial Druze garrison
largely made up of Greek and Albanian mercenaries. Russian Navy
Bombardment of the town began on the same day, and
Ottoman ships docked in its port were sunk.[16] In his version of the events, Auriant, author of
Catherine II et l'Orient, wrote that Beirut's defenders were given a 24-hour ultimatum by Rizo to
fly the Russian flag and pay a tribute. The naval offensive lasted five days and involved an
unsuccessful assault by a landing party on June 21. After two days of heavier bombardment, they
finally landed on June 23 and spent hours sacking the town and its bazaar. About 550,000 qirsh
worth of loot, in the form of both trade goods and cash, was taken.[n 3] The Russians left on
June 28, after receiving additional payment from Yusuf Shihab, a Druze emir who ruled over the
surrounding mountains. Shihab also agreed to a four-month alliance with the coalition.[18]

End of Ali Bey's revolt

Following the Russians' departure, the Ottomans ceded Beirut to Yusuf Shihab's Mount Lebanon
Emirate. Shihab, in turn, charged Ahmed Bey Jazzar, who had previously served under Ali Bey,
with the town's defence.[19] While in Acre and with his allies bombarding Beirut, Ali received his
envoy Yaqub. He came aboard a Russian frigate carrying gifts and a friendly message from
Catherine in which she assured him of her commitment to Russia's alliance with the Egyptian
ruler. Ali, however, was dissatisfied with the mere gesture and sought Russian military assistance
in the form of infantry, artillery and naval support to reconquer Egypt from Abu al-Dhahab. He
sent a new envoy with this message to Orlov. According to the historian Édouard Lockroy, he may
have also offered the Russians control of the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.[20]

Orlov responded by telling Ali that he was bounded by the truce with the Porte. He pledged a small
force of Russian officers and artillery, and promised to give Ali all the assistance he needed as soon
as circumstances permitted. During the summer, Ali and Zahir's forces laid siege to the city of
Jaffa. The siege was joined in September by a Russian transport ship which landed artillery pieces
near the city. The ship left a month later, carrying a renewed plea to Orlov.[20] Another Russian
naval detachment, commanded by Lieutenant Panaiotti Alexiano,[21] arrived at Jaffa in November,
again joining the bombardment and informing Ali of Orlov's plan to commission a large fleet for
his cause. Alexiano's squadron consisted of the frigate Sv. Pavel and a number of polaccas, and had
earlier destroyed two Barbary ships off Damietta and captured some smaller vessels.[22]

Planted rumours of insubordination in Abu al-Dhahab's camp and growing dissent in Egypt had
caught Ali's attention. He grew impatient and, in April 1773, he set out for Egypt at the head of a
small force, despite being assured a month earlier that Russian assistance would arrive soon. Ali's
force was defeated by his rival's army near Cairo. He was taken prisoner and died a few days later,
likely by poisoning.[20] Jazzar, meanwhile, had fortified Beirut and chose to act independently of
Shihab, declaring that he would recognise only the Sultan's authority over the town. Orlov's
promised squadron, commanded by Captain Mikhail Gavrilovich Kozhukhov,[23] reached Acre in

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June. Hearing of Ali's death, Kozhukhov agreed to a "treaty of friendship" with Zahir.[24]

Second occupation
Kozhukhov appeared with his squadron of at least 222 guns off Beirut's coast on July 6, carrying a
force of 1,200 Albanian mercenaries and mobile artillery units. Zahir had already negotiated an
alliance with Shihab, when the latter was denied assistance by the Pasha of Damascus against
Jazzar. During the month-long negotiations that followed, the Druze emir managed to persuade
Kozhukhov, through Zahir and his uncle Amir Musa Mansur, to deliver Beirut to him. Shihab was
to pay a tribute of 300,000 qirsh and place the town under Russian protection. On his part,
Kozhukhov promised that his troops would not pillage the town as the Russian occupiers of 1772
had. Both sides agreed that the Russians would hold Mansur as a hostage, pending full payment by
Shihab.[25]

Order of battle

By the time it appeared before Beirut, Kozhukhov's squadron consisted of the following ships:[26]

Ship Type Guns

Nadezhda (Kozhukhov) Frigate 32
Sv. Pavel Frigate 26
Sv. Nikolai Frigate 26
Naksia Frigate 22
Slava Frigate 16
Sv. Aleksii Polacca 20
Sv. Anna Polacca 20
Sv. Ekaterina Polacca 18
Sniks Polacca 12
Zabiaka Schooner 18
six half-galleys

A bombardment began on August 2 and lasted the entire day, Second bombardment of
destroying the port area and its towers.[27] The noise was so Beirut
loud it could be heard in Sidon, about 25 miles (40 km) away,
according to the city's French consul. Arabic sources said that Date 2 August 1773 – 10
it could even be heard in Damascus.[28] Much of Beirut was October 1773
destroyed, but Jazzar refused to surrender. Kozhukhov ordered Location Beirut
the landing of troops and artillery units for a ground assault.
Result Occupation of the town
The walls were breached in several places but Shihab would
not commit his forces to storming the town, citing the until late January or
agreement which gave Kozhukhov the task of delivering the early February 1774
town to the Druze in exchange for payment. Kozhukhov chose Belligerents
to maintain the naval and land blockade, cutting off the town
Imperial Jazzar's garrison
from its food supply.[29] Shihab and Zahir's troops routed an
Ottoman relief army commanded by the Pasha of Tripoli which Russian Navy

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approached from the Beqaa.[28] Shihab's forces

Zahir's forces
Jazzar opened negotiations with the attackers at the end of
September. Fearing that submission to either Shihab or Kozhukhov would eventually lead to his
execution, he offered to surrender himself to Zahir instead and serve under his command.[30]
Jazzar surrendered Beirut on October 10,[26] after which he left for Acre with his garrison of 800
Maghrebis.[31] By the end of their offensive, the Russians had lost 34 men killed and 96 wounded.
Kozhukhov restricted himself to seizing two half-galleys and some weaponry after docking, in
accordance with his arrangement with Shihab. When the latter could not pay the full amount
promised to the Russians, Kozhukhov threatened to kill Mansur, his Druze hostage. Shihab
managed to make a partial payment, which Kozhukhov accepted, pending payment of the balance.
The Russian commander and his squadron departed for the Aegean, leaving behind 300 Albanian
mercenaries to guard Mansur, who was under house arrest, and to remain in the town as
occupiers.[32]

The Albanians occupied Beirut until late January or early February 1774,[32] though it remains
unclear whether they received the balance of the tribute due.[n 4] According to French consular
reports from Sidon, the occupiers kept the Russian flag raised over Beirut, along with a large
portrait of Catherine the Great over the town's main gate, to which travellers were forced to pay
their respects.[29]

Aftermath and legacy

Jazzar and his Maghrebi mercenaries
defected from Zahir's camp to the Ottomans
shortly after surrendering Beirut.[31] With
the departure of the Russians in early 1774
and the signing of the Treaty of Küçük
Kaynarca the same year, Zahir had to face
the Porte's retribution by himself. The
Russo-Turkish peace treaty allowed Russia
to establish consulates wherever it wished in
the Mediterranean, to open up trade routes
with the Middle East, and to guarantee the
safety of Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land,
but made no mention of Zahir or of Russia's
A map of Beirut from the Atlas of the Archipelago, printed
wartime territorial gains in the region.[33] in 1788
Zahir was killed in August 1775 during a
siege of Acre by Ottoman forces, who were
initially led by Egypt's Abu al-Dhahab. Shihab was quickly pardoned by the Ottomans, as he was
never in direct rebellion against them. But he was pressured into surrendering Beirut in 1776 due
to heavy taxation by Jazzar, who had been recently appointed by the Ottoman government as the
Pasha of Sidon.[34]

In addition to being the first time an Arab city came under Russian rule, the events also marked the
first time that Beirut had not been under Ottoman control since the Ottoman conquest of the
region over two and a half centuries earlier.[35] "Place des Canons" ("Cannons Square") became the
common name for today's Martyrs' Square in Beirut's Central District in 1773. This name remained
in use, though unofficially, until the 1950s. It was a reference to the large artillery pieces that the

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Russians stationed in the plaza, which was then an empty area known as the Bourj, east of the
walled town.[36]

The importance of this short-lived occupation remains a subject of debate among the relatively few
historians and scholars who have analysed it. In his 1952 evaluation of the events, William Persen
played down the occupation, describing it simply as a "new force of Western penetration in the
Middle East."[35] Soviet scholars like P. Perminov, on the other hand, described it as an early
manifestation of modern Cold War era assistance by the Soviet Union to national liberation
movements in Third World nations.[35]

Notes
1. Çeşme is sometimes spelled "Chesma" or "Chesme".
2. By the time Yaqub reached Paros, Orlov had been gone for four days on a mission to Livorno.
Spiridov, who had been in charge there, told Ali's envoy that he was not at liberty to form an
alliance. Yaqub then sailed to Livorno, where he met Orlov, after which he travelled all the way
to Saint Petersburg to pass the message to Catherine herself.[12]
3. According to Lusignan, a certain Amir Mahamut was appointed by the Greek captain Anton
Psaro, as governor of Beirut, in response to calls by members of the local Greek Orthodox
community for greater protection in the face of their Druze overlords. Lusignan, however, also
designates April as the month in which the events take place, contradicting other accounts of
this occupation.[17]
4. Some Arab chroniclers, such as Tannus al-Shidyaq, wrote that the Russians were fully repaid.
On the other hand, Paul Masson, author of Histoire du commerce français dans le Levant au
XVIIIe siècle, wrote that "100 purses" were never paid.[29]

References
1. Persen 1955, p. 276.
2. Sicker 2001, pp. 69–70.
3. Gallant 2015, p. 18.
4. Persen 1955, pp. 277–278; Smilianskaya, Velizhev & Smilianskaya 2011, pp. 346–347
5. Anderson 1952, p. 278.
6. Anderson 1952, p. 282; Gallant 2015, pp. 18–19.
7. Persen 1955, p. 276; Anderson 1952, p. 291.
8. Smilianskaya, Velizhev & Smilianskaya 2011, pp. 333–334.
9. Smilianskaya, Velizhev & Smilianskaya 2011, pp. 334–336.
10. du Quenoy 2014, pp. 131–132; Persen 1955, p. 278.
11. Persen 1955, p. 279.
12. du Quenoy 2014, p. 132.
13. du Quenoy 2014, p. 133.
14. Persen 1955, pp. 279–280; Anderson 1952, p. 298.
15. du Quenoy 2014, pp. 133–134; Persen 1955, p. 280.
16. du Quenoy 2014, pp. 133–134; Anderson 1952, p. 298.
17. Persen 1955, p. 280.

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18. Persen 1955, pp. 280–281.

19. du Quenoy 2014, p. 135.
20. Persen 1955, p. 281.
21. Mariti 1774, p. 121.
22. Persen 1955, p. 281; Anderson 1952, p. 300.
23. Solov'ev 1991, p. 102, endnote at p. 287
24. du Quenoy 2014, pp. 135–136.
25. Persen 1955, pp. 281–282; Harris & Harris 2014, p. 122.
26. Anderson 1952, p. 302.
27. Persen 1955, pp. 282–283.
28. du Quenoy 2014, p. 136.
29. Persen 1955, p. 283.
30. du Quenoy 2014, pp. 136–137.
31. Philipp 2001, p. 138.
32. du Quenoy 2014, p. 137.
33. Persen 1955, pp. 283–284; du Quenoy 2014, p. 139.
34. du Quenoy 2014, p. 138; Philipp 2001, pp. 43–44.
35. du Quenoy 2014, p. 129.
36. Khalaf 2013, paragraph starting "The first definitive change in its public identity ..."; du Quenoy
2014, p. 137.

Sources
!"Anderson, R. C. (1952). Naval Wars in the
Levant 1559–1853 (https://hdl.handle.net/20
27/mdp.39015005292860). Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
OCLC 1015099422 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/1015099422).
!"Gallant, Thomas W. (2015). The Edinburgh
History of the Greeks, 1768 to 1913: The
Long Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh
University Press. ISBN 9780748636051.
!"Harris, William; Harris, William W. (2014).
Lebanon: A History, 600–2011. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 9780190217839.
!"Khalaf, Samir (2013). Heart of Beirut:
Reclaiming the Bourj. Saqi.
ISBN 9780863565908.
!"Mariti, Giovanni (1774). Istoria della guerra
accesa nella Soría l'anno 1771: Dalle armi di
Aly-Bey dell' Egitto e continovazione del
successo a detto Aly-Bey fino a quest' anno
1772, Volume 2 (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=P-9AAAAAcAAJ) [History of the
war in Syria in the year 1771: From the arms
of Aly-Bey of Egypt and the further
successes of the aforementioned Aly-Bey to
the present year of 1772, Volume 2].
Stamperia Allegrini, Pisoni, e Comp.
!"Persen, William (1955). "The Russian
occupations of Beirut, 1772–74". Journal of
the Royal Central Asian Society. 42 (3–4):
275–286. doi:10.1080/03068375508731555
(https://doi.org/10.1080%2F0306837550873
1555).
!"Philipp, Thomas (2001). Acre: The Rise and
Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730–1831.
Columbia University Press.
ISBN 9780231123273.

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!"du Quenoy, Paul (2014). "Arabs under
Tsarist Rule: The Russian Occupation of
Beirut, 1773–1774". Russian History. 41 (2):
128–141. doi:10.1163/18763316-04102002
(https://doi.org/10.1163%2F18763316-0410
2002).
!"Sicker, Martin (2001). The Islamic World in
Decline: From the Treaty of Karlowitz to the
Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.
Greenwood Publishing Group.
ISBN 9780275968915.
!"Smilianskaya, Irina; Velizhev, Michael;
Smilianskaya, Elena (2011). Россия в
Средиземноморье. Архипелагская
экспедиция Екатерины Великой [Russia
in the Mediterranean. The Archipelago
expedition of Catherine the Great] (in
Russian). Moscow: Indrik.
ISBN 978-5-91674-129-2.
!"Solov'ev, Sergeĭ M. (1991). The Rule of
Catherine the Great: War, Diplomacy and
Domestic Affairs, 1772–1774. Academic
International Press. ISBN 9780875691220.

Further reading
!"Michael F., Davie; Frumin, Mitia (2007). "Late 18th century Russian Navy maps and the first 3D
visualization of the walled city of Beirut" (http://www.e-perimetron.org/vol_2_2/davie_frumin.pd
f) (PDF). E-Perimetron. 2 (2): 52–65.

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