1585 Ottoman expedition against the Druze
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The 1585 Ottoman expedition against the Druze, also called the 1585 Ottoman invasion of the Shuf, was an Ottoman military campaign led by Ibrahim Pasha against the
Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
and other chieftains of
Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at . Geography The Mount Le ...
and its environs, then a part of the
Sidon-Beirut Sanjak Sidon-Beirut Sanjak was a ''sanjak'' (district) of Sidon Eyalet (Province of Sidon) of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to 1660, the Sidon-Beirut Sanjak had been part of Damascus Eyalet, and for brief periods in the 1590s, Tripoli Eyalet. Territory and d ...
of the province of
Damascus Eyalet ota, ایالت شام , conventional_long_name = Damascus Eyalet , common_name = Damascus Eyalet , subdivision = Eyalet , nation = the Ottoman Empire , year_start = 1516 , year_end ...
. It had been traditionally considered the direct consequence of a raid by bandits in
Akkar Akkar District ( ar, قضاء عكار) is the only district in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon. It is coextensive with the governorate and covers an area of . The UNHCR estimated the population of the district to be 389,899 in 2015, including 106,935 ...
against the tribute caravan of Ibrahim Pasha, then
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
's outgoing governor, who was on his way to
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
. Modern research indicates that the tribute caravan arrived intact and that the expedition was instead the culmination of Ottoman attempts to subjugate the Druze and other tribal groups in Mount Lebanon dating from 1518. In 1523–1524 dozens of Druze villages were burned in the
Chouf Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf, in ''Jabal ash-Shouf''; french: La Montagne du Chouf) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate (muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east ...
area and hundreds of Druze were killed or captured by the governor Khurram Pasha, after which a period of peace ensued. Tensions resumed in the 1560s as Druze and non-Druze local dynasties, particularly the Ma'ns, Assafs and Shihabs, acquired large quantities of prohibited firearms, which were often superior to those possessed by government troops. Military action by the Ottoman governors of Damascus in the 1570s failed to disarm the chiefs and the general population or collect tax arrears, which had been building up from the 1560s. Ibrahim Pasha was appointed to "rectify the situation" in the Levant in 1583 and launched the expedition against the Druze of Mount Lebanon in the summer of 1585 as a Porte-ordered diversion from his Constantinople-bound caravan. He mobilized about 20,000 soldiers, including the
Janissaries A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ( ...
of Egypt and Damascus, as well as local chieftains, namely the
Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
Mansur ibn Furaykh Mansur Bey ibn Furaykh (died 7 December 1593) was Emir of the Biqa'a, Safad and Ajlun districts in the late 16th century during Ottoman rule.Sluglett and Weber, p. 333. The Ottomans granted Mansur this large power base to enable him to check th ...
and Druze rivals of the Ma'ns. Hundreds of Druze rebels were slain, thousands of muskets were confiscated and large sums of money were collected as tax arrears by Ibrahim Pasha. The Ma'nid chief Qurqumaz, one of the principal targets of the expedition, died in hiding after refusing to surrender. The following year the governor of Damascus, Ali Pasha, captured the chieftains of the local Assaf, Harfush,
Tanukh The Tanûkhids ( ar, التنوخيون, transl=al-Tanūḫiyyūn) or Tanukh ( ar, تنوخ, translit=Tanūḫ) or Banū Tanūkh (, romanized as: ) were a confederation of Arab tribes, sometimes characterized as Saracens. They first rose to prom ...
and Furaykh dynasties and sent them to Constantinople. They were afterward returned to their home regions and confirmed in their tax farms. The expedition and its aftermath marked a turning point in Ottoman governance of the Levant as local chieftains were thenceforth frequently appointed as ''
sanjak-bey ''Sanjak-bey'', ''sanjaq-bey'' or ''-beg'' ( ota, سنجاق بك) () was the title given in the Ottoman Empire to a bey (a high-ranking officer, but usually not a pasha) appointed to the military and administrative command of a district (''sanjak' ...
s'' (district governors). One such governor was a son of Qurqumaz,
Fakhr al-Din II Fakhr al-Din ibn Qurqumaz Ma'n ( ar, فَخْر ٱلدِّين بِن قُرْقُمَاز مَعْن, Fakhr al-Dīn ibn Qurqumaz Maʿn; – March or April 1635), commonly known as Fakhr al-Din II or Fakhreddine II ( ar, فخر الدين ال ...
, who became the most powerful local force in the Levant from his appointments to the sanjaks of Sidon-Beirut and
Safad Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevat ...
in the 1590s and 1602, respectively, until his downfall in 1633.


Sources

The source used for the 1585 expedition by 19th-century chroniclers from
Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at . Geography The Mount Le ...
and modern historians was the account of the
Maronite The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
patriarch and historian Istifan al-Duwayhi, which dates to . Duwayhi's version attributes the cause of the campaign to a raid of the
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
-bound tribute caravan of
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
's governor Ibrahim Pasha by bandits in Jun Akkar, a coastal area north of
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
. Duwayhi's account was reproduced almost identically by the 19th-century, Lebanon-based chroniclers Haydar al-Shihabi (d. 1835) and
Tannus al-Shidyaq Tannus ibn Yusuf al-Shidyaq ( – 1861), also transliterated ''Tannous el-Chidiac'', was a Maronite clerk and emissary of the Shihab emirs, the feudal chiefs and tax farmers of Ottoman Mount Lebanon, and a chronicler best known for his work on th ...
(d. 1859). Their accounts were the principal source used for the event by the modern historians
Peter Malcolm Holt Peter Malcolm Holt, FBA (28 November 1918 – 2 November 2006) was a historian of the Middle East and Sudan., British Academy, 2008 He was generally known as P. M. Holt. Biography The son of a Unitarian minister, Holt attended Lord Willia ...
, Abdul Karim Rafeq,
Kamal Salibi Kamal Suleiman Salibi ( ar , كمال سليمان الصليبي ) (2 May 19291 September 2011)
and Muhammad Adnan Bakhit. The year of the caravan raid was cited as 1584 by Duwayhi, and then by Rafeq, Salibi and Bakhit, while Shihabi, and in turn Holt, placed the raid in 1585. Modern research by the historian Abdul-Rahim Abu-Husayn in the 1980s suggests that the Jun Akkar raid did not occur and that successive government–Druze hostilities from the 1520s onward culminated with the 1585 government expedition. Abu-Husayn based his reassessment of the events on contemporary and near contemporary sources, namely Ottoman government records, the accounts of the Ottoman historian
Mustafa Selaniki Mustafa Selaniki ( tr, Selanıkî Mustafa; "Mustafa of Salonica; died 1600), also known as Selanıkî Mustafa Efendi, was an Ottoman scholar and chronicler, whose ''Tarih-i Selâniki'' described the Ottoman Empire of 1563–1599. See also *Salo ...
(d. 1600), the Italian historian and traveller Giovanni Tomasso Minadoi (d. 1615) and the Damascene historians Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Tulun (d. 1576), al-Hasan al-Burini (d. 1615) and Ahmad al-Qaramani ().


Background

The Ottoman Empire conquered the
Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
from the
Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
s following the
Battle of Marj Dabiq The Battle of Marj Dābiq ( ar, مرج دابق, meaning "the meadow of Dābiq"; tr, Mercidabık Muharebesi), a decisive military engagement in Middle Eastern history, was fought on 24 August 1516, near the town of Dabiq, 44 km north of ...
near
Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...
in 1516. The Ottoman
sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite last ...
largely preserved the Mamluk governing structures and officials of the region. His ''
beylerbey ''Beylerbey'' ( ota, بكلربكی, beylerbeyi, lit=bey of beys, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords') was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks ...
'' (provincial governor) over Damascus,
Janbirdi al-Ghazali Janbirdi al-Ghazali ( ar, جان بردي الغزالي; ''Jān-Birdi al-Ghazāli''; died 1521) was the first governor of Damascus Province under the Ottoman Empire from February 1519 until his death in February 1521. Career Viceroy of Hama and ...
, had served the same role under the Mamluks. After Janbirdi declared himself sultan following Selim's death in 1520, the Ottomans stamped out his revolt and began to incorporate the Levant more firmly into the empire's structures. The most significant challenge for the
Sublime Porte The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( ota, باب عالی, Bāb-ı Ālī or ''Babıali'', from ar, باب, bāb, gate and , , ), was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire. History The nam ...
(imperial Ottoman government in
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
) in the Levant had been the subjugation of its eastern desert and western mountainous peripheries. Selim had entrusted the pacification of
Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
tribes and the security of the
Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
pilgrimage route between Damascus and
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
to the powerful Sunni Muslim Bedouin dynasties of the
Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...
and
Jabal Nablus The Nablus Sanjak ( ar, سنجق نابلس; tr, Nablus Sancağı) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman rule in the Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part o ...
, the Hanash and Tarabay, respectively. The area of Mount Lebanon and the port towns of
Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...
and
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
became administratively part of the
Sidon-Beirut Sanjak Sidon-Beirut Sanjak was a ''sanjak'' (district) of Sidon Eyalet (Province of Sidon) of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to 1660, the Sidon-Beirut Sanjak had been part of Damascus Eyalet, and for brief periods in the 1590s, Tripoli Eyalet. Territory and d ...
, a district of
Damascus Eyalet ota, ایالت شام , conventional_long_name = Damascus Eyalet , common_name = Damascus Eyalet , subdivision = Eyalet , nation = the Ottoman Empire , year_start = 1516 , year_end ...
. Sidon-Beirut was divided into the ''
nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...
s'' (subdistricts) of Beirut and Sidon along the coast, and the following nine ''nahiyas'' in the mountainous parts of the sanjak: from north to south, the Keserwan, the
Matn Hadith studies ( ar, علم الحديث ''ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism) consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in th ...
, the Jurd, the Gharb, Iqlim al-Kharrub, three nahiyas collectively known as the
Chouf Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf, in ''Jabal ash-Shouf''; french: La Montagne du Chouf) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate (muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east ...
and Iqlim al-Tuffah. The ''nahiyas'' of the Matn, the Jurd, the Gharb and the Chouf were predominantly inhabited by
Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
, followers of an 11th-century offshoot of Isma'ili Shia Islam. The Druze tribesmen of southern Mount Lebanon proved challenging for the authorities to pacify, and a provincial law code from Sultan
Suleiman Suleiman (Arabic language, Arabic: سُلِيمَان ''sulaymān''; or dictionary.reference.comsuleiman/ref>) is the Arabic name of the Quranic king and Islam, Islamic prophet Solomon (name), Solomon meaning "man of peace", derived from the Heb ...
's reign (1520–1566) referenced them as a "misguided folk where each follows his own cult" and from whom tax collection was difficult. The Druze were officially considered Muslims by the Ottomans for taxation purposes, though they were not viewed as genuine Muslims by the authorities or the Sunni Muslim ''
ulema In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
'' (religious establishment). Members of the community had to pretend to be of the Sunni Muslim faith to attain any official post, were occasionally forced to pay the
jizya Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent Kafir, non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Sharia, Islamic law. The jizya tax has been unde ...
(poll tax) reserved for Christians and Jews, and were the target of condemnatory treatises and
fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...
s (edicts) by the ''ulema'' of Damascus. The Druze were likewise suspicious of the Ottomans. In their consistent efforts to counter their incorporation into the administrative and fiscal system, the Druze benefited from a rugged terrain, possession of firearms and sectarian and tribal cohesion, making it difficult to impose government authority in the Druze areas. Consequently, the Ottoman presence in the Druze areas, as well as the non-Druze ''nahiyas'' of Sidon-Beirut, was negligible for much of the 16th and 17th centuries, during which time local chieftains, Druze and Muslim alike, governed the area through ''
iltizam An Iltizām (Arabic التزام) was a form of tax farm that appeared in the 15th century in the Ottoman Empire. The system began under Mehmed the Conqueror and was abolished during the Tanzimat reforms in 1856. Iltizams were sold off by the gov ...
'' (limited-term tax farms). Ostensibly, the appointed holders of ''iltizams'', called ''multazims'', were to remit taxes to the government and undertake official military duties; the local ''multazims'' did neither and were more powerful than the occasional government-appointed ''
sanjak-bey ''Sanjak-bey'', ''sanjaq-bey'' or ''-beg'' ( ota, سنجاق بك) () was the title given in the Ottoman Empire to a bey (a high-ranking officer, but usually not a pasha) appointed to the military and administrative command of a district (''sanjak' ...
'' (district governor).


Druze–Ottoman hostilities before 1585

The first known government action against the Druze occurred in 1518 during the rebellion of
Nasir al-Din Nasir al-Din ( ar, نصیر الدین or or , 'defender of the faith'), was originally a honorific title and is an Arabic masculine given name and surname. There are many variant spellings in English due to transliteration. Notable people with ...
, the Hanash chieftain and the ''sanjak-bey'' of Sidon-Beirut, against Selim. The rebellion was suppressed by Janbirdi, who arrested and executed Nasir al-Din and captured the latter's Druze allies, the chiefs Qurqumaz, Zayn al-Din and Alam al-Din Sulayman from the Chouf-based Ma'n family and Sharaf al-Din Yahya of the Gharb-based Tanukh-Buhtur family. The four Druze chiefs were released after paying a heavy fine. The ''beylerbey'' of Damascus, Khurram Pasha, launched a punitive expedition against the Chouf Druze led by the Ma'nid chiefs in 1523. Forty-three Druze villages, including
Barouk Barouk ( ar, باروك) is a village in the Chouf District of Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon. Barouk is located 52 kilometers southeast of Beirut. Its average elevation is 1000 to 1200 meters above sea level and its total land area consists ...
, the headquarters of Qurqumaz, were burned and Ibn Tulun reported that Khurram Pasha returned to Damascus with four camel loads of Druze heads and Druze religious literature proving the religion's hostility to Sunni Islam. The expedition represented the first attempt to impose direct government authority in the Chouf. Khurram Pasha followed up by appointing '' subashis'' (police superintendents) to enforce law and order in the area, but they were killed by the Druze. Khurram Pasha responded by launching a second punitive expedition against the Chouf on 18 June 1524, during which thirty villages were burned and the ''beylerbey'' returned the next day with three camel loads of Druze heads and 300 Druze women and children captives. The campaigns were lauded by the contemporary ''ulema'' and poets of Damascus. There are no further mentions of Druze rebellions or government expeditions in the sources until the late 16th century. Tensions between the Druze and the Porte rose considerably as the Druze, along with other tribal and sectarian groups in Syria, acquired firearms which were at times superior to the firearms used by the Ottoman armies. The possession of firearms by non-military subjects was forbidden, though the authorities faced difficulties enforcing the ban in Syria. The Syrians obtained at least part of their arsenals from European powers intent on destabilizing Ottoman rule in Syria. The arsenals were provided using mercantile ships which docked in the Syrian ports. Other sources included the
Janissaries A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ( ...
of Damascus, the ''
timar A timar was a land grant by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with an annual tax revenue of less than 20,000 akçes. The revenues produced from the land acted as compensation for military service. A ...
'' (fief)-holders in Syria and Ottoman ships from Constantinople which came to transport grain from Syria to the imperial capital. Druze armed with long muskets attacked officials sent to collect the taxes from their subdistricts and repulsed the subsequent Ottoman raid against them at Ain Dara in 1565. In an order by the Porte to the ''beylerbey'' of Damascus in August 1574, it is mentioned that the villagers of the Gharb, Jurd, Chouf and Matn owed tax arrears dating over twenty years and that the ''muqaddams'' (chieftains) of the Druze possessed large quantities of muskets; the ''muqaddams'' named in the order were the Ma'nid Qurqumaz, possibly the grandson of the above mentioned Qurqumaz, the Tanukhid Sharaf al-Din and the non-Druze chieftains Mansur ibn Hasan of the Keserwan-based Assaf family and Qasim of the
Wadi al-Taym Wadi al-Taym ( ar, وادي التيم, Wādī al-Taym), also transliterated as Wadi el-Taym, is a wadi (dry river) that forms a large fertile valley in Lebanon, in the districts of Rachaya and Hasbaya on the western slopes of Mount Hermon. It ad ...
-based Shihab family. The ''beylerbey'' was ordered to collect at least 6,000 muskets from the named chieftains and more from each household of the named subdistricts. The combined forces of the ''beylerbey'' of Damascus, the imperial Damascene Janissaries, the ''sanjak-bey'' of Tripoli, and an Ottoman fleet launched an expedition against the Druze that year, but they were unable to subdue and disarm them. The imperial order from 1574 was renewed in February 1576, but the ''beylerbey'' of Damascus was again unable to execute the order rather complaining that the inhabitants of the Gharb, Jurd, Chouf and Matn remained in a state of rebellion, that no ''multazim'' was willing to accept the tax farm for the subdistricts and appointed '' emins'' (tax collectors) were disrespected by the populace. The Porte consequently ordered that the ''beylerbey'' destroy an unspecified number of Druze villages, arrest and punish their ''muqaddams'' and collect the tax arrears. No military action was taken and the Druze continued to defy the authorities and were reported by the government to have acquired further muskets in 1582. In that year they were accused of collaborating with the Druze and Shia Muslims of the
Safad Sanjak Safed Sanjak ( ar, سنجق صفد; tr, Safed Sancağı) was a ''sanjak'' (district) of Damascus Eyalet ( Ottoman province of Damascus) in 1517–1660, after which it became part of the Sidon Eyalet (Ottoman province of Sidon). The sanjak was cen ...
, south of Sidon-Beirut, and the Porte's order called for "get
ing Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...
rid of urqumazibn Ma'n, whose trouble and evil deeds exceed all others".


Prelude

Al-Qaramani wrote that the ''
vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...
'' Ibrahim Pasha was sent to Egypt and Syria in 1583 to "rectify the situation
here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Technologies, Here Television * Here TV (form ...
. On 12 February 1585 an imperial order issued to the ''beylerbey'' of Damascus, Uveys Pasha, reaffirmed that Qurqumaz was "a rebellious chieftain ... who has gathered round himmiscreants in the Druze community and done harm and mischief in the sanjak of Safad". Ibrahim Pasha arrived in Damascus with a tribute caravan from Egypt and a large military escort in June. He was instructed by the Porte to subdue the Druze of Mount Lebanon. On 31 August Uveys Pasha was ordered by the Porte to cooperate with Ibrahim Pasha against the Bedouin and the Druze who had rebelled throughout Damascus Eyalet, causing damage and attacking highways. Abu-Husayn views the constant state of rebellion by the Druze and the general insubordination of chieftains in parts of Syria where the government had been unable to exercise authority as the direct cause of Ibrahim Pasha's expedition.


Expedition and follow up campaigns

Ibrahim Pasha's army consisted of the Janissaries of Egypt and Damascus, and his troops numbered about 20,000. The versions of Duwayhi and Shihabi, which add the troops of
Aleppo Eyalet ota, ایالت حلب , common_name = Aleppo Eyalet , subdivision = Eyalet , nation = the Ottoman Empire , year_start = 1534 , year_end = 1864 , date_start = , date_end = , event_s ...
and Cyprus Eyalet to the expeditionary force, hold that Ibrahim Pasha's troops encamped in an area called Marj Armush and the size of the Ottoman force alone "frightened all the Arab lands". The Ottoman troops and their local backers blocked the roads to the coast and the Beqaa Valley and killed about 500 Druze elders. Government records confirm Ibrahim Pasha killed hundreds of Druze rebels, sent many of their heads to Constantinople and had "thus punished the rebellious community properly". Numerous villages in the Chouf were plundered and Qurqumaz went into hiding in a cave and died. The Druze and others were disarmed and tax arrears were collected, with al-Burini reporting that Ibrahim Pasha confiscated thousands of muskets and large sums of money from the Druze. Ibrahim Pasha used
Mansur ibn Furaykh Mansur Bey ibn Furaykh (died 7 December 1593) was Emir of the Biqa'a, Safad and Ajlun districts in the late 16th century during Ottoman rule.Sluglett and Weber, p. 333. The Ottomans granted Mansur this large power base to enable him to check th ...
as his guide. Ibn Furaykh was a Sunni Bedouin chieftain of the Beqaa Valley and local enemy of Qurqumaz who had a reputation of hostility toward the Druze and Shias; the role attributed to Ibn Furaykh of persuading the ''vizier'' to launch the campaign by the 19th-century chroniclers was without foundation, according to Abu-Husayn. During the expedition, a number of Ma'nids and other Druze chieftains, including the
Alam al-Din The Alam al-Dins, also spelled Alamuddin or Alameddine, were a Druze family that intermittently held or contested the paramount chieftainship of the Druze districts of Mount Lebanon in opposition to the Ma'n dynasty, Ma'n and Shihab dynasty, Shihab ...
s of the Matn and the Sharaf al-Dins of the Gharb defected to Ibrahim Pasha, along with a significant proportion of Qurqumaz's men. Ibrahim Pasha arrived in Constantinople later in 1585. According to Minadoi's account he entered the
Golden Horn The Golden Horn ( tr, Altın Boynuz or ''Haliç''; grc, Χρυσόκερας, ''Chrysókeras''; la, Sinus Ceratinus) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with t ...
with 24 galleys and received a welcome by a volley of artillery fire from the Topkapi Palace and large crowds. In contradiction to Duwayhi's account of the tribute having been robbed, contemporary accounts indicate it arrived in Constantinople with about 300,000–1,000,000
piaster The piastre or piaster () is any of a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for "thin metal plate". The name was applied to Spanish and Hispanic American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant ...
s, 173,000 gold pieces, an emerald throne for Sultan
Murad III Murad III ( ota, مراد ثالث, Murād-i sālis; tr, III. Murad; 4 July 1546 – 16 January 1595) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Saf ...
(),
Arabian horse The Arabian or Arab horse ( ar, الحصان العربي , DIN 31635, DMG ''ḥiṣān ʿarabī'') is a horse breed, breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is ...
s, an elephant and a giraffe. After the expedition, in the same year, the Sidon-Beirut Sanjak was detached from Damascus Eyalet and became part of
Tripoli Eyalet Tripoli Eyalet ( ota, ایالت طرابلس شام, Eyālet-i Ṭrāblus-ı Şām; ar, طرابلس الشام) was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. The capital was in Tripoli, Lebanon. Its reported area in the 19th century was . It extended ...
, which was established in 1579. The ''beylerbey'' of Tripoli from 1579, the local chieftain of the
Akkar Akkar District ( ar, قضاء عكار) is the only district in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon. It is coextensive with the governorate and covers an area of . The UNHCR estimated the population of the district to be 389,899 in 2015, including 106,935 ...
area
Yusuf Sayfa Pasha Yusuf Sayfa Pasha ( ar, يوسف سيفا باشا, Yūsuf Sayfā Pāsha; – 22 July 1625) was a chieftain and ''multazim'' (tax farmer) in the Tripoli, Lebanon, Tripoli region who frequently served as the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman ''beylerbey' ...
, was concomitantly dismissed, likely because of suspicions that he would compromise the government's interests for local considerations. His replacement, the veteran Ottoman commander Ja'far Pasha al-Tuwashi, was entrusted with continuing Ibrahim Pasha's suppression of the rebellion in Mount Lebanon. Yusuf Sayfa may have resisted his dismissal, as according to Duwayhi his territory in Akkar was raided by Ja'far Pasha. The latter was reassigned to the Safavid front within a few months and without his iron grip the territory of Sidon-Beirut drifted out of Tripoli's control and, in practice, reverted to Damascene oversight. Although Duwayhi's version holds that a number of Syrian chieftains were captured in Ibrahim Pasha's expedition and brought to Constantinople, contemporary sources indicate most of the chieftains were captured in a follow-up campaign by Ali Pasha ibn Alwan, Ibrahim Pasha's appointee as ''beylerbey'' of Damascus, in 1586. Among the captive chieftains were Muhammad, the
Ghazir Ghazir ( ar, غزير) is a town and municipality in the Keserwan District of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is located north of Beirut. It has an average elevation of 380 meters above sea level and a total land area of . The tow ...
-based son and successor of the Assaf chieftain Mansur, Muhammad ibn Jamal al-Din and Mundhir, the respective Tanukhid chiefs of Aramoun and Abeih, Ali al-Harfush, the Shia chieftain of
Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...
, and Ibn Furaykh. The chieftains were well-received in Constantinople and shortly after sent back to their respective territories with confirmations of their ''iltizam''.


Aftermath

The 1585–1586 events marked a turning point in the history of Mount Lebanon and the Levant in general under Ottoman rule. The Ottomans began to entrust local chieftains with the policing and taxation of the region by appointing them over the sanjaks of the region and granting them the title of
bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...
(Turkish equivalent to the Arabic
emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
). Qurqumaz's son
Fakhr al-Din II Fakhr al-Din ibn Qurqumaz Ma'n ( ar, فَخْر ٱلدِّين بِن قُرْقُمَاز مَعْن, Fakhr al-Dīn ibn Qurqumaz Maʿn; – March or April 1635), commonly known as Fakhr al-Din II or Fakhreddine II ( ar, فخر الدين ال ...
was appointed ''sanjak-bey'' of Sidon-Beirut in the early 1590s and was additionally assigned Safad Sanjak in 1602. Fakhr al-Din combined lucrative commercial ties with the Italians, a privately-funded army of ''
sekban The Sekban were mercenaries of peasant background in the Ottoman Empire. The term ''sekban'' initially referred to irregular military units, particularly those without guns, but ultimately it came to refer to any army outside the regular military ...
s'' (musketeers), and support from Ottoman officialdom, which he guaranteed through bribes and prompt payment of taxes, to establish himself as the most powerful chieftain of the Levant until his downfall in 1633. Ali al-Harfush, who had been appointed ''sanjak-bey'' of
Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
in 1585, was kept in his post during his exile in Constantinople and returned to his Baalbek headquarters by 1589. He was executed but his son Musa succeeded him in Baalbek and was appointed ''sanjak-bey'' of Homs in 1592. The historian Stefan Winter places the 1585 expedition within the context of imperial changes to the military and fiscal structures of the Levant in the late 16th century, which included the creation of the hybrid eyalet of Tripoli in 1579, which combined the military appendage sanjak of
Jabala ) , settlement_type = City , motto = , image_skyline = Jableh Collage.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = General view of city and port • Roman Amphitheater• A ...
with the tax revenue-driven sanjaks of Sidon-Beirut,
Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
and
Salamiyah A full view of Shmemis (spring 1995) Salamieh ( ar, سلمية ') is a city and district in western Syria, in the Hama Governorate. It is located southeast of Hama, northeast of Homs. The city is nicknamed the "mother of Cairo" because it was t ...
, which were governed by local chieftains and did not contribute troops for war. About the same time the Porte also began to grant lands along the upper
Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
valley to Ottoman officers and loyal Bedouin chieftains and in 1586 created the
Rakka Eyalet ota, ایالت رقهEyalet-i Rakka , common_name = Rakka Eyalet , subdivision = Eyalet , nation = the Ottoman Empire , year_start = 1586 , year_end = 1864 , date_start ...
all toward exerting greater control of the desert interior of the Levant.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{Druze footer, uncollapsed 1585 in the Ottoman Empire Ottoman period in Lebanon Conflicts in 1585 Wars involving the Ottoman Empire Druze in the Ottoman Empire Persecution of Druze by Muslims