Prince Bashir Chehab III () was a ruler of the

Mount Lebanon Emirate The Emirate of Mount Lebanon () was a part of Mount Lebanon that enjoyed variable degrees of partial autonomy under the stable suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire between the mid-16th and the early-19th century. The town of Baakleen was the seat o ...

(7th Emir, reigned 1840–1842). After Prince Bashir II was banished from Lebanon, the Ottoman authorities in Asitana (

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

) appointed Prince Bashir III from the

Chehab family The Shihab dynasty (alternatively spelled Chehab; ar, الشهابيون, ALA-LC: ''al-Shihābiyūn'') was an Arab family whose members served as the paramount tax farmers and local chiefs of Mount Lebanon from the early 18th to mid-19th centu ...

to replace him.

Early life

Also known as Bashir Qasim al-Chehab, he was born in 1775, the son of Prince Qasim, and nephew of Emir Yusuf Chehab, (5th Emir of Lebanon, reigned 1770–1790). He died in 1860.

Legacy

The historians of the time commemorated him with the most cynical tales ever told about a Lebanese ruler, no one knows of any significant, rewarding things he did during his rule, and his followers gave him the humiliating nickname "Abou Taheen - أبو طحين" (father of flour), which by Greater Lebanese standards was a derogatory adjective. Other anecdotes about Bashir III had been recorded by the contemporary author Salam Al Rassi, as well as by the historian Fouad Aphram Al Boustany. They both told that Prince Bashir III enjoyed breeding pigeons, but since he had a kind of urological disease forcing him to urinate frequently, he had a toilet built for himself over the roof, so that he could enjoy his pigeon breeding hobby without having to worry about his condition. A saying is still remembered by the elders in Lebanon - a poetry verse in Lebanese dialect: "و الامير بشير التالت بشو قام؟ عمّر ششما و برج للحمام", which, when translated, reads as "As for Prince Bashir the Third, what was his accomplishment? He built a pigeon tower with a toilet".

References

Ottoman period in Lebanon 1860 deaths 1775 births 19th-century rulers in Asia Emirs of Mount Lebanon Lebanese princes 18th-century Arabs 19th-century Arabs Shihab family {{Ottoman-bio-stub