DAMASCUS AFFAIR Handwritten Notes DR. LOUIS LOEWE

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DIARY OF LOUIS LOEWE Damascus Affair Orient - Middle East - Ottoman Empire in manuscript1840 ---------------------------------------------------- The Damascus Affair Diary of Dr. Louis Loewe July - November 1840Foreword by Rabbi Schemtob Profatory note bu Herbert Loewe (his grandfather is Louis Loewe)Intorduction by : Paul GoodmanWritten in RAMSGATE Theological Collage November 1940 ---------------------------------------------------- 107 Pages Diary of Alexandria between 28 to 79 pages Leondas between 80 to 81 pagesSyria between 81 to 85 pageson Boat between 86 pagesConstantinople between 87 to 101 pageson boat between 102 to105 12x9 inch Original and fine condition only 60-61 page is missing ---------------------------------------------------- Dr. Louis LOEWE English Orientalist and theologian; born at Zülz, Prussian Silesia, 1809; died in London 1888. He was educated at the yeshibot of Lissa, Nikolsburg, Presburg, and at the University of Berlin. Stopping at Hamburg on his way to London, he was entrusted with the classificationof the Oriental coins in the Sprewitz cabinet. Soon after his arrival in London he was introduced to the Duke of Sussex, who in 1839 appointed him his "Orientalist." He then traveled in the East, w he studied Arabic, Persian, Coptic, Nubian, Turkish, and Circassian. In Cairo he was presented to the khedive, Mohammed Ali Pasha, for whom he translated some hieroglyphic inscriptions. While in Palestine he was attacked by Bedouins, who took everything he had with him, including his collections and note-books. On his return he met at Rome Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, who invited him to travel with them to the Holy Land. When in 1840 Sir Moses went on his Damascus expedition , Loewe accompanied him as his interpreter. In the firman granted for the relief of the accused, Loewe discovered that the word "pardon" ("'afw") was used instead of "acquittal," and it was due to Sir Moses' exertions that the change to "acquittal" was made.Altogether, Loewe accompanied Sir Moses Montefiore on nine different philanthropic missions. When Jews' College was opened in 1856, he was nominated principal; and when Sir Moses Montefiore opened a theological college at Ramsgate in 1869, he made his friend principal of that institution, which position Loewe retained until three years after the death of his patron.Loewe wrote: "The Origin of the Egyptian Language," London, 1837; a translation of J. B. Levinsohn's "Efes Dammim," ib. 1841; a translation of David Nieto's "Ma??eh Dan," ib. 1842 (awarded the York Medal); "Observations on a Unique Coptic Gold Coin," 1849; a dictionary of the Circassian language, 1854; as well as several sermons and a Nubian grammar (the latter still in manuscript). The trip Louis made to Damascus was particularly important. In 1840, a Catholic Cappucine priest Tommaso, who often was seen among Arabs, was reported missing. Suspicion fell upon the Jews of Damascus. One Jew after the other was arrested, falsely accused of the murder of Tammaso, and through unspeakable tortures forced to make "confessions" that implicated more and more Jews, finally reaching the chief rabbi and the richest Jews of Damascus. They were accused of the old, fabled ritual murder -- the charge that Jews needed Christian blood in the baking of Matzot . ---------------------------------------------------- Herbert Loewe The focal point of Jewish Oxford, from 1920, and indeed its main continuity, was Herbert Loewe (1882-1940), who lived in 29 Beaumont Street. Loewe was a lecturer in Oriental Languages at Exeter College, appointed in 1913 and working in Oxford until 1931 until he went on to Cambridge. Herbert Loewe's grandfather, Louis Loewe (1809-1880), had in fact been Sir Moses Montefiore’s 'oriental secretary' and the first Principal of the Judith, Lady Montefiore College at Ramsgate . He was one of the very few... read more

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