Power and light, profit and loss: the establishment and operation of the Damascus Electricity and Tramway Company, 1903-1914

Abstract

This article addresses the shift of power that occurred in Ottoman Damascus as a result of the establishment of its electricity and tramway network that started operating in 1907. The company, which ought to have been public, in the ownership of Ottoman-Syrian investors, ended up being owned by a Belgian consortium. The central argument in the article is that the Damascene elite families rationally refrained from the risk of establishing the Electricity Company but paid the price of losing control over power and light in the city. An informal network of Ottoman officials and Belgian businessmen, led by the second secretary of Sultan Abdülhamid II, the Damascene İzzet Pasha, orchestrated the buyout. Therefore, Damascus’s encounter with its first electric grid, which was naturally complex in the first place, was also subjected to the tensions of outsourcing a local-municipal power to an external network that the Central Ottoman Government imposed. This article is an outcome of research on the electrification of Damascus, based on the papers of the Ottoman Ministry of Public Works from the Ottoman Archive and the company’s records from Belgium’s National Archive, the Ottoman-Syrian press, and the British and American consulates’ archives.

Keywords:

• Ottoman Empire
• Economic History
• Damascus, Electricity
• Concessions

Acknowledgments

This article is based on part of my dissertation, titled: ‘Crises versus Opportunities: Entrepreneurship and Engineering in Late Ottoman Syria, 1890-1920’.

I want to thank my mentors, friends, and colleagues who contributed to this research, shaping it, and reading its results in this article. I am deeply thankful to my advisor, Professor Ehud R. Toledano, who has guided me in this study from its rudimentary stages in my doctoral studies. I thank Professor Yuval Ben-Bassat, Professor Orit Bashkin, Professor Uri M. Kupferschmidt, Professor Avner Wishnitzer, and Professor On Barak, whom I consulted at different stages of this study and to the anonymous readers of this article. Last but not least, I want to thank my friends and colleagues who read and commented on it: Professor Sam Dolbee, Or Pitusi, Dr Yusri Khaizaran, Dr Eilat Maoz and Maayan Brodsky.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 T.C. Cumhurbaşkanı Devlet Arşivleri Başkanlığı, Osmanlı Arşivi (hereafter BOA) A.}DVN.MKL, 45/16/1, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Temmuz 1319 [30 July 1903].

2 Lisan al-Hal, 21 January 1907.

3 Servet-i Fünun, ‘Şam Elektrik Tramvaileri ve Elektrik Tenviratı’, 10 March 1907.

4 Nurçin İleri, ‘A Nocturnal History of Fin de Siècle Istanbul’ (Unpublished PhD diss., Binghamton University, 2015); Avner Wishnitzer, As Night Falls: Eighteenth Century Ottoman Cities after Dark (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).

5 On Barak, ‘Scraping the Surface: The Techno-Politics of Modern Streets in Turn-of-Twentieth-Century Alexandria’, Mediterranean Historical Review Vol.24, no.2 (2009), pp.187–205.

6 Stefan Weber, Damascus: Ottoman Modernity and Urban Transformation (1808-1918) (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2009), p.107.

7 Hasan Kayalı, Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918 (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1997); Hasan Kayalı, ‘Wartime Regional and Imperial Integration of Greater Syria during World War I’, in Thomas Philipp and Birgit Schaebler (eds), The Syrian Land: Processes of Integration and Fragmentation: Bilad Al-Sham from the 18th to the 20th Century (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998), pp.295–306; Martha Mundy, Governing Property, Making a Modern State: Law Administration and Production in Ottoman Syria (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007); Eugene Rogan, Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

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10 Talha Çiçek, War and State Formation in Greater Syria: Cemal Pasha Governorate during World War I, 1914-1917 (New York: Routledge, 2014); Salim Tamari, ‘Muhammad Kurd Ali and the Syrian-Palestinian Intelligentsia in the Ottoman Campaign against Arab Seperatism’, in M. Talha Çiçek (ed.), Syria in World War I: Politics, Economy and Society (New York: Routledge, 2016), pp.61–86; Ayhan Aktar, ‘A Propaganda Tour Organized by Djemal Pasha: The Arab Literati’s Visit to the Gallipoli Front, 18-23 October 1915’, in M. Talha Çiçek (ed.), Syria in World War I: Politics, Economy and Society (London: Routledge, 2016), pp.61–85; Nora Barakat, ‘Marginal Actors? The Role of Bedouin in the Ottoman Administration of Animals as Property in the District of Salt, 1870-1912’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient Vol.58, no.1–2 (2015), pp.105–34; Elizabeth Williams, ‘Economy, Environment and Famine: World War I from the Perspective of the Syrian Interior’, in M. Talha Çiçek (ed.), Syria in World War I: Politics, Economy and Society (London: Routledge, 2016), pp.150–68; M. Talha Çiçek, Negotiating Empire in the Middle East: Ottomans and Arab Nomads in the Modern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).

11 Stefan Weber, Damascus, vol.1, pp.106–08; Hudson, Transforming Damascus, pp.109–12; Grallert, ‘To Whom Belong the Streets?’, pp.224–83; Jacques Thobie, ‘L’électrification dans l’aire Syro-Libanaise des origines à la fin du Mandat français’ [Elecrification in the Region of Syria and Lebanon from the Origins to the End of the French Mandate], Outre-Mers: Revue d’histoire, Vol.89, no.334–335 (2002), pp.527–54; Frank Peter, ‘Les "Bonnes Affaires" de La Modernisation: Les Sociétés Anonymes et L’industrialisation En Syrie, 1908-1946’ [‘The "Good Deals" of Modernization’: public limited companies and industrialisation in Syria], in Nadine Meouchy (ed.), France, Syrie et Liban 1918-1946 (Damascus: Presses de L’Ifpo, Institut Français d’études Arabes de Damas, 2002); Emine Erol, ‘Osmanli Devleti’nde Aydınlatma Uygulamaları ve Verilen İmtiyazlar (1850-1914)’ [Lighting Implementation and Concession given in the Ottoman Empire (1850-1914)], Türk Dunyası Araştırmaları 175, no.August (2008), pp.201–25.

12 Cyrus Schayegh, The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017), pp.34–91; Kristen Alff, ‘Levantine Joint-Stock Companies, Trans-Mediterranean Partnerships, and Nineteenth-Century Capitalist Development’, Comparative Studies in Society and History Vol.60, no.1 (2018), pp.150–77; Mostafa Minawi, The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016), pp.99–117; Murat Özyüksel, The Hejaz Railway and The Ottoman Empire: Modernity, Industrialisation and Ottoman Decline (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2014).

13 Duygu Aysal Cin, ‘The European Competition to Electricify Istanbul in the Early Twentieth Century’, International Journal of Turkish Studies Vol.21, no.1&2 (2015), pp.95–116; Hanssen, Fin de Siècle Beirut: The Making of an Ottoman Provincial Capital; Yasemin Avcı, ‘Jerusalem and Jaffa in the Late Ottoman Period: The Concession-Hunting Struggle for Public Works Projects’, in Yuval Ben-Bassat and Eyal Ginio (eds), Late Ottoman Palestine: The Period of Young Turk Rule (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011).

14 Ronen Shamir, Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013); Fredrik Meiton, Electrical Palestine: Capital and Technology from Empire to Nation (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019), pp.41–46; Jacob Norris, Land of Progress: Palestine in the Age of Colonial Development, 1905-1948 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp.26–46; Burcu Kurt, ‘Osmanlı Irakı’nda Gündelik Hayatı Modernleştirme Çabalarına Bir Örnek: Bağdad Şehri Tramvay Projeleri’ [An Example to Modernization Efforts of Daily Life in Ottoman Iraq: The Tramway Projects in the City of Baghdad], in Kerim İlker Bulunur, Fatih Bozkurt, and Mahmut Cihat İzgi (eds), Osmanlı’da Şehir, Vakıf ve Sosyal Hayat [The City, the Endowment and Social Life in the Ottoman World] (Istanbul: Mahya Yayıncılık, 2017); Stephen Pascoe, ‘A “Weapon of the Weak”: Electric Boycotts in the Arab Levant and the Global Contours of Interwar Anti-Imperialism’, Radical History Review 2019, no.134 (2019) pp.116–41.

15 William J. Hausman, Peter Hertner, and Mira Wilkins, Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878–2007 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp.94–111.

16 Murat Özyüksel, The Hejaz Railway and The Ottoman Empire, pp.65–66; Camille Lyans Cole, ‘Nafia for the Tigris: The Privy Purse and the Infrastructure of Development in Late Ottoman Iraq, 1882–1914’, History of Science, online (2021), pp.1–5.

17 E. Pech and Banque Imperialle Ottomane, Manuel des Sociétés Anonymes Fonctionnant en Turquie, 1906, III–V; E. Pech and Banque Imperiale Ottomane, Manuel Des Sociétés Anonymes Fonctionnant En Turquie, 1911, III–V.

18 Ibid., pp.88–89.

19 BOA A.}DVN.MKL, ‘Şam şehrinin havagazı ile aydınlatılması hususunun tüccardan Hacı Şükrü Efendi’ye ihalesine dair mukavelename, şartname ve Ticaret ve Nafia Nezareti tezkiresi’, 29/18, 9 Mart 1307 [21 March 1891].

20 Hanssen, Fin de Siècle Beirut, pp.97–98.

21 The United States National Archives and Records, RG 84, Damascus, Vol.8, Mishaqa to Robeson, 30 June 1886; Mishaqa to Robeson, 12 July 1887; Vol.107, Mishaqa to Hollis, 9 December 1909; Jaridat al-Muqtabas, 17 June 1909; 9 March 1910.

22 Avner Wishnitzer, ‘Kerosene Nights: Light and Enlightenment in Late Ottoman Jerusalem’, Past & Present 248, no.1 (2020), pp.165–207.

23 Hanssen, Fin de Siècle Beirut, p.200.

24 Jaridat al-Muqtabas, 11 April 1909; Martin Hartmann, Reisebriefe Aus Syrien [Travel Notes from Syria] (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), 1913), p.17.

25 Caeser Farah, ‘Arab Supporters of Sultan Abbülhamıd II: ʻİzzet Al-Abid’, Archivum Ottomanicum 15 (1997), pp.189–219; Ruth Roded, ‘Ottoman Service as a Vehicle for the Rise of New Upstarts Among the Urban Elite Families of Syria Last Decade of the Ottoman Empire’, Asian and African Studies Vol.17, no.1–3 (1983), pp.63–94.

26 Jens Hanssen, ‘"Malhame–Malfame": Levantine Elites and Transimperial Networks On the Eve of the Young Turk Revolution’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.43 (2011), pp.25–48.

27 Hartmann, Reisebriefe Aus Syrien, p.17.

28 Pech and Banque Imperiale Ottomane, Manuel des Sociétés Anonymes Fonctionnant en Turquie [A Manual for Incorporated Companies Operating in the Ottoman Empire] (1911), pp.226–44.

29 BOA İ.DUİT, 34/13/1-2, ‘İmtiyaz, Tesis; Osman Vehbi Bey, Mühendis (Halep Şehrinde elektrik tevziiatı ve Elektrikli tramvai tesis ve işletme imtiyazı sahibi)’, 17 Eylül 1330 [30 September 1914]; Kurt, ‘Osmanlı Irakı’nda Gündelik Hayatı Modernleştirme Çabalarına Bir Örnek’, in Bulunur, Bozkurt, and İzgi (eds), Osmanlı’da Şehir, Vakıf ve Sosyal Hayat , pp.79–80; Avcı, ‘Jerusalem and Jaffa in the Late Ottoman Period’, pp.90–92.

30 CZA A32.80, Meir Dizengoff, Nahum Wilbuschewitsch, and Bezalel Yaffe, ‘Entreprise de Travaux Publiques à Jaffa’, 20 October 1915.

31 The Historical Section of the Foreign Office, Syria and Palestine (London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1920), p.120; Baruch Katinka, MeAz VeAd Hena [From Then until Now] (Jerusalem: Qiryat Sefer, 1961), p.130; Halide Edib, Memoirs of Halide Edib (New York: Arno Press, 1972), pp.412–13.

32 BOA A.}DVN.MKL, 45/16/1, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Temmuz 1319 [30 July 1903].

33 BNA FO, 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 1 July 1904; FO 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 9 July 1904; Kais Firro, A History of the Druzes, (Leiden: Brill, 1991), 236, 240; Max L. Gross, “Ottoman Rule in the Province of Damascus, 1860-1909” (Unpublished diss., Georgetown University, 1979), pp.452–53.

34 BOA A.}DVN.MKL, 45/16/1/1-2, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Temmuz 1319 [30 July 1903].

35 Archives Générales du Royaume 2 - Dépôt Joseph Cuvelier, Inventaires Electrobel, 5211/1, Ministère des Travaux Publics to la Compagnie des Tramway et d’éclairage de Damas 12 April 1912 [Hereafter: AGR2.DJC.Ebel]; BOA BEO 4335/325087/2/2, 20 January 1915; Servet-i Fünun, ‘Şam Elektrik Tramvayları ve Elektrik Tenviratı’, 10 March 1907.

36 AGR2.DJC.Ebel, 5196, ‘Précisions sur la concession du tramway accordée à Mohamed Arslan’, 27 November 1903.

37 BOA A.}DVN.MKL, 45/16/2/1, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Temmuz 1319 [30 July 1903]; AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5202, 5206.

38 BOA A.}DVN.MKL, 45/16/1/1, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Temmuz 1319 [30 July 1903].

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid. 1/2.

41 Ibid. 8/2, 17 Kanunuevvel 1320 [30 December 1904].

42 BOA A.}DVN.MKL 45/16/8/4, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Kanunuevvel 1320 [30 December 1904].

43 Özyüksel, The Hejaz Railway and The Ottoman Empire, pp.93–94; Gad Gilbar, ‘The Muslim Big Merchant-Entrepreneurs of the Middle East, 1860-1914’, Die Welt Des Islams Vol.43, no.1 (2012), pp.17–21.

44 BOA BEO, 1597/119732/1/1, ‘Şam, Kudüs ve Haleb şehirlerinde buz fabrikası tesis ve inşası için Numan ebu Şair Effendi’ye ita buyurulan imtiyaz hakkındaki mukavelenamenin taleb buyurulan suret-i musaddakasının leffen gönderildiği’, Sadaret Mektubi Kalemi to Ticaret ve Nafia Nezareti, 2 Kannunuevvel 1312 [15 December 1903]; BEO, 1420/106437/1/1, ‘Haleb, Şam ve Kudüs şehirlerinde birer buz fabrikası inşası için Ebu Şi’r Numan Effendi’ye ita olunan imtiyaz mukavelenamesinde, fabrikanın tesis ve küşadı için belirlenen müddetin iradenin tebliğinden ayrı tutulması’, Sadaret Mektubi Kalemi to Nafia ve Ticaret Nezareti, 6 Kanunuevvel 1315 [18 December 1899].

45 Muhammad Kurd Ali, Khittat Al-Sham (Beirut: Dar al-ʻIlm Lilmalayin, 1969), p.216; Grallert, ‘To Whom Belong the Streets?’, pp.229–30; Weber, Damascus Vol.1, pp.106–7; Hudson, Transforming Damascus, p.110.

46 BOA A.}DVN.MKL 45/16/1/1, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Temmuz 1319 [30 July 1903].

47 BOA A.}DVN.MKL 45/16/2/3, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Temmuz 1319 [30 July 1903].

48 BNA FO, 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 22 March 1904; FO 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 10 October 1904.

49 BNA FO, 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 22 March 1904; Richards to O’Connor, 10 October 1904.

50 Minawi, The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz, pp.73–74.

51 Özyüksel, The Hejaz Railway, p.33; Geyikdağı, Foreign Investment, pp.67–68; Houssine Alloul, ‘Belgium and the Hamidian Regime; or, the Antinomies of Small State Diplomacy’, in Houssine Alloul, Edhem Eldem, and Henk de Smaele (eds), To Kill a Sultan: A Transnational History of the Attempt on Abdülhamid II (1905) (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp.134–36; The Consulate General of Belgium in Istanbul, Belgium in the Ottoman Capital, From the Early Steps to ‘La Belle Epoque’ (Istanbul: The Consulate General of Belgium in Istanbul, 2000), pp.19–22.

52 The Consulate General of Belgium in Istanbul, pp.40–44.

53 BNA FO, 618/3, ‘Quarterly Report’, 7 January 1905.

54 BOA A.}DVN.MKL, 45/16/8/2, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Kanunuevvel 1320 [30 December 1904]; AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5196/1, 27 November 1904.

55 BOA BEO 4412/330867/4/6, ‘Şam Elektrik Cer ve Tenvir Şirketi’nce ahaliye satılan elektriğe dair akd olunan imtiyaz mukavele ve şartnameleri ahkam-ı umumiye münderic ise de müşterileriyle takarrür edecek elektrik tevziatının şerait-i hususiyesi ile sair-i muamelat için kabul ve tasvib edilecek esaslar hakkında tanzim olunacak nizamnamenin irsali, 3 Nisan 1319 [16 April 1903].

56 AGR2.DJC Ebel, ‘Convention de base, règlement du syndicat’, 31 January 1905.

57 AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5185, ‘Convention entre Mehmed Ali et l’Émir Mohamed Arslan, concernant l’entremise de celui-ci auprès de la Sublime Porte en vue de l’obtention, pour le premier nommé, de la concession de l’éclairage et de la traction électriques à Damas’, 17 March 1903; 5186, ‘Éclairage électrique de la ville de Damas’, 22 April 1903; 5187, ‘Production et distribution de l’énergie électrique’, 22 April 1903.

58 BOA BEO, 2831/212311/1/1, ‘Selanik’te elektrikle tenvir ve tahrik ve İzmir’de elektrikle yalnız tahrik imtiyazıyla Beyrut ve Şam tramvay hatları imtiyazatının imtiyaz sahiblerinden alınıp uhdesine itası talebinde bulunan Fransa’nın Teraksiyon adlı şirketi hakkında bazı ifadatı havi’, 7 Mayıs 1322 [20 May 1906].

59 BOA BEO, 2778/208321/2/1, ‘Şam-ı Şerif’in elektrikle tenviri ve tramvaylar tesisi için teşekkül eden şirkete tayin olunan komiser maaşı’, 18 Şubat 1321[3 Mart 1906].

60 Lisan al-Ḥal, 22 October 1910.

61 BOA A.}DVN.MKL, 45/16/8/6, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrikle tenviri ve tramvay hattı tesisi imtiyazının Beyrut eşrafından Mehmed Arslan Bey’e itası’, 17 Kanunuevvel 1320 [30 December 1904].

62 AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5196, ‘Précisions sur la concession du tramway accordée à Mohamed Arslan’, 27 November 1904.

63 Ibid.; AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5241, ‘Cautionnements des administrateurs et titres en depôt, annex 8, 1905’; Lisan al-Ḥal, 11 February 1907.

64 AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5201, ‘Projet d’installations pour l’éclairage électrique de Damas, approuvé par les autorités turques (12 plans et un mémoire justificatif), January 1905.

65 AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5205, ‘Approbation par le ministère turc des Travaux publics de la deuxième série de plans concernant l’installation de la traction électrique’, 28 Şubat 1321 [13 March 1906].

66 Source: AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5201, ‘Projet d’installations pour l’éclairage électrique de Damas, approuvé par les autorités turques (12 plans et un mémoire justificatif)’, January 1905.

67 BOA BEO 2958/221783/1/1, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrik ile tenviri hakkında Turuk ve Meabir Müdürü Hulusi Bey’le Posta ve Telgraf Nezareti İmalat Müdürü Ferid Bey’in tayinleri’, 25 Teşrinisani 1322 [8 December 1906].

68 AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5253, ‘Cautionnements de M.M les administrateurs, annex et. 12’, 1918; BOA İ.DUİT, 8/36, ‘Tayin; Hulusi Bey (Ticaret ve Nafia Nazırı)’, 21 Haziran 1327 [4 July 1911].

69 On growing demand for electric utilities see Deutsche Levante Zeitung, ‘Elektrische Bedarfsartikel Nach Beirut und Damaskus’, 5 March 1913; ‘Absatzmöglichkeiten für Elektrotechnische Erzeugnise im Orient’, 12 March 1913.

70 BNA FO, 618/3, ‘Quarterly Report’, 7 January 1905.

71 BNA FO, 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 7 January 1904.

72 AGR2.DJC Ebel, 5170, ‘Modifications apportées aux statuts: approbation du ministère turc des Travaux publics; Assemble Generale Ordinaire’, 11 June 1911.

73 The table is based on: AGR2.DJC 5243-5257, Bilans au 31 décembre 1907-1921.

74 Ruppin, Syria, p.82.

75 Ibid.

76 Jaridat al-Muqtabas, 21 December 1908; 27 January 1909; 23 August 1910.

77 Ibid., 21 December 1908.

78 BOA BEO 4209/315606/1/1, ‘Şam Devair-i Belediyesi’yle elektrik şirketi beyninde münakid mukavelenamenin yok sayılacağı’, Sadaret to Dahiliye and Nafia, 8 Eylül 1329 [21 September 1913]; 8 Jaridat al-Muqtabas, 11 April 1909.

79 Jaridat al-Muqtabas, 10 March 1910.

80 BOA BEO 4209/315606/2/2, ‘Şam Devair-i Belediyesi’yle elektrik şirketi beyninde münakid mukavelenamenin yok sayılacağı’, 24 Kanunuevvel 1327 [6 January 1328].

81 BOA BEO 2958/221783/1/1, ‘Şam şehrinin elektrik ile tenviri hakkında Turuk ve Meabir Müdürü Hulusi Bey’le Posta ve Telgraf Nezareti İmalat Müdürü Ferid Bey’in tayinleri’, 25 Teşrinisani 1322 [8 December 1906].

82 Valeska Huber, Channelling Mobilities: Migration and Globalisation in the Suez Canal Region and Beyond, 1869-1914 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp.190, 136.

83 BOA İ.DH, 1411/16/1,4, ‘Şam şehrine celb ve isalesi mukarrer olan Hamidiye suyu için gazhaneye idhal edilecek petrolun beher sandığından belediyece resm alınması’, 30 Nisan 1319 [13 Mayıs 1903]; BNA FO, 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 22 March 1904; BNA FO 195/2165, Richards to O’Connor, 10 October 1904; BNA FO, 618/3, Quarterly Report, 7 January 1905; Archives Générales du Royaume 2 - Dépôt Joseph Cuvelier, Invetaires Electrobel, 5763, ‘Dossiers Constitués 1895-1913’; Hartmann, Reisebriefe Aus Syrien, pp.17–19.

84 Stadtbibliothek, Berlin, Public par le Commandement de la IVme Armèe, La Vérité sur la Question Syrienne [The Truth about the Syrian Question] (Istanbul: Imprimerie Tanine, 1916), p.166.