Page 81 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 67

the construction of the seraya, the Turks – using a large amount of gunpowder –
destroyed the upper parts of the ruins of the Caesarea fortress, which rose to a
height of c. 20 m, as they appear in engravings by early travelers (Figs. 67a–c).
A jail was also built in the lower part. The first Turkish governor there was the
Circassian cAli Bey, who was buried in the Caesarean mosque. He was followed
by Ah. med Bey, one of the Bosnians, whose forefathers had served in their land of
origin as a customs officials on behalf of the Turkish government. Near the seraya,
he erected a two-story house. The mudir Ah. med Bey is the one who caught in his
coop the carrier pigeon to whose leg was attached a note sent by Sarah Aaronsohn
to the British, which led to the capture of the NILI network of Jewish spies for the
British during World War I. The malaria suffered by the inhabitants resulted in the
gradual decline of the settlement.

a

According to the 1922 census, the residents in the settlement numbered 481 Fig. 67a
Muslims, 32 Christians, and 26 Jews; the 1931 census, in contrast, showed there were
686 Muslims (Bosnians, and native-born Arabs) and 19 Greek and other Christians Engraving depicting the ruins
but not one Jew. The Bosnians worked in agriculture, fishing, and commerce, along of the Crusader fortress, view
with the continuing export of watermelons and also lentils through the small from northeast (Forbin, 1819)
harbor. They married into wealthy families in Nablus and Haifa and not with
the rural Arabs closer to Caesarea. Part of the land of Caesarea was included in