In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, members of the Farḥī family were important bankers (Ar. ṣarrāf) and treasury officials in Damascus and Acre (Akko). Saul Farḥī and his sons Ḥayyim, Joseph, and Raphael were active in the financial administration of the pashalik (province) of Damascus. In addition to keeping the provincial accounts, they engaged in banking and moneylending, which included helping to finance the annual pilgrim caravan (ḥajj) from Damascus to Mecca.

Ḥayyim Farḥī, Saul’s eldest son, moved from Damascus to Acre toward the end of the eighteenth …