Politics Religion and State building (11th – 16th/19th centuries)

Fakhr al-Din between revolt and loyalty

Fakhr al-Din is a scion of the Arab house of Ma'an who came from the Eastern part of the Abbasid empire and whose dominance over the Druze community had started with its settling of the Wadi al Taym, then the Chouf mountain around 1120. By the 15th century they had set up their centre of power in Deir al-Qamar, whence to stand up to the Ottoman authority. The Porte launched several military expeditions against the rebels. One such, led by Ibrahim Pacha[1], governor of Egypt in 1584, lay the country waste. Emir Qorqmaz[2] was not able to withstand the onslaught and was killed. His sons, Fakhr al-Din and Yunus[3], still children, were kept by their mother out of the way of Turkish retaliations ; according to al-Douaihy[4]'s records, they were entrusted to their uncle Sayf al-Din al Tanhuki[5]. When he reached 18, in 1590, Fakhr al-Din took over the running of the Chouf. His authority was soon to stretch from the Anti-Lebanon Mountains to the sea.

The mainly rural population fell into two distinct social categories: peasantry and aristocracy. The latter were the emir, the muqaddam[6] and the Sheikhs[7]. The peasant farmer's bound to his master was tight, particularly among the Druze. Two factions vied with each other for the exercise of power: the Kayssiyya[8], lead by the Ma'ans and the Yamaniyya[9]. These factions transcended confessional obedience but religious communities were no less a structuring agent of private and collective life: religion played a foremost role when it came to customs, traditions, behaviour, dress and language. The communities were lead by ulama[10], uqqal[11], patriarchs[12] and bishops[13] whose religious authority strayed into the political realm and who prevailed in the social sphere. They enjoyed a special status bolstered by strong traditions and the hazards of a geography that kept the Ottoman power at bay.

A patriarch and a Maronite monkInformationsInformations[14]

Under the sultanate of Selim II[15] and his immediate successors, the region was divided into three vilayets: Aleppo, Damascus and Tripoli. The emirate was boxed in the latter two, introducing a conflict between the authority instituted by Constantinople and the authority supported by the local populations. The young Fakhr al-Din provided security in the whole emirate by granting all Christians equality with the Druze, Sunni and Shia. He practised religious tolerance towards every community. Though belonging to a Druze community strongly attached to land as a guarantee of its perpetuation and jealous of its autonomy from any political or military power, he had no qualms in choosing Sunni and Maronites advisers. His biographer Ahmad al-Khalidi al-Safadi goes out of his way to show that the emir was a pious man, who « obeys God and the Sultan » : he offered precious gifts to influential figures at court, to ministers as well as to the pashas of Damascus, Aleppo and Egypt. This enabled him to establish his authority and to eliminate his opponents but it did not quite shield him from « jealousy » or from manoeuvres aimed at isolating him from the governor of Damascus or from the centre of power in Constantinople.

In the event, Fakhr al-Din did not discontinue his predecessors' policies but altered some of the means to that end. He showed prepared to seek from European powers the military and economical support he needed to enlarge his territory and lay the basis for a sovereign political entity. In 1613, hard-pressed by the Ottomans, he called an assembly of dignitaries in Damour and, having found that any military resistance was impossible, he decided to withdraw from the situation by sailing to Europe. On his return in 1618, the wars the Ottoman sultans had engaged in the Balkans on the one hand and in Persia against shah Abbas I[16] on the other enabled the Emir to impose his authority on the regions neighbouring the Chouf under the pretence of ridding the country of its brigands. After his victory over the Pasha of Damsacus at Anjar in the Bekaa valley, his territory encompassed Antioch to the North, Palmyra to the east and Gaza to the South.

  1. Ibrahim Pacha

    In 1517, the Ottomans conquered Egypt, whereupon the country became an Ottoman province managed in the name of the Sultan by a wali with the Ottoman title of Pasha. During the reign of Sultan Murad III (1574-1595), Egypt was governed by 6 Pashas among whom Ibrahim Pasha (between 1583 and 1585), remembered for his campaign against the Druze in the Chouf after which he resigned

  2. Qorqmaz

    Histories of Qorqmaz' reign are succinct. He ruled the Chouf and its Druze majority from 1544. He led a revolt against the Ottomans who ravaged the area and killed the Emir in 1585. Qorqmaz left two young sons: Fakhr al-Din and Yunus.

  3. Yunus

    Yunus was Fakhr el-Din's younger brother. Born in 1574, he seconded his brother in his political action and the latter left him in charge during his exile (1613-1618), having enjoined him to transfer the seat of power to Deir al-Qamar, deep in the Chouf mountain. After Fakhr el-Din's return, he remained his second in command until his death in 1633, during the Ottoman repression in the Chouf.

  4. Estephan al Douaihy (1644-1704)

    Born in Ehden. He was sent to the Maronite College in Rome by Patriarch Gewargios I (George) Omaira (1633-1644). He stayed there for 14 years. A priest in 1656, he was ordained bishop of Cyprus in 1668 then Patriarch in 1670.

    In the 19th century, in the context of clashes between Druze and Maronite, Tannous al Shidyac would put a different spin on the story, writing that Qorqmaz' sons were entrusted to Ibrahim Abou Sakr el Khazen, a prominent Kersouan Maronite.

  5. Sayf al-Din al Tanuki

    Sayf al-Din al Tanuki was Fakhr al-Din's maternal uncle. He held control of the Chouf after Emir Qormaz' death, in full agreement with his sister Nassab and the Qaysite clans. In 1550, he handed power over to Fakhr al-Din and helped him deepen his knowledge of the country

  6. Muqaddam

    Literally the person “placed at the front”. The word applies to a chief, for instance of a troop or a ship. At the time of the emirate (1516-1540), the muqaddam was nominated by the emir and placed in charge of a given territory for which he collected taxes.

  7. Sheikhs

    They were tribal leaders. Etymologically the term means “elder“, who has acquired experience and knowledge, particularly valued in social groups where oral tradition held sway.

  8. Kayssiyya

    Or Qaysites, faction gathering the families who claim origins in the north of the Arabic peninsula.

  9. Yamaniyya

    Or Yemenites faction gathering families who trace their origins to the South of the Arabic peninsula

  10. Ulama

    Scholars specialised in Islamic religious sciences. They may be referred to as “Doctors of Islamic law”

  11. Uqqal

    Within the Druze community they are “savants” or “knowledgeable initiate” as opposed to the Juhhal, the “ignorant”. The Uqqal are duty bound to observe the seven Druze commandments distinct from the five “pillars” observed by Sunni and Shi'-a Muslims.

  12. Patriarch

    Patriarch is a title used in a number of Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox churches and Eastern churches. Some Eastern churches use the term Catholicos.

    The word has its root in classical Greek πατριάρχης (patriarkhēs), "father" or "chief of a race. In the Roman Catholic Church, patriarchs operated within the Roman Empire whereas the catholicos had charge of a see outside the Empire (notably in Armenia and Mesopotamia). By analogy with the Old Testament, the title was used up to the 5th century as synonymous with “bishop”. However it already applied more narrowly to the bearers of a more significant authority. The three first Patriarchates are those of Rome, Antioch and Alexandria. At the Council of Chalcedon (451), the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople were created, the latter being recognised by the pope only in 12 15. It remains that, starting from this council, we may officially speak of the patriarchate and even of Pentarchy: the five patriarchal churches of the Christian Church during the first millennium of its history

  13. Bishop

    The word “bishop” has come from the Proto-Germanic biskopas, biskupaz from Vulgar Latin biscopus, from Latin episcopus (“overseer, supervisor”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos, “overseer”). It is to be understood as moderator, tutor in charge of an organisation. The bishop was a cleric in charge of a diocese. Before the Christian era, the word was applied to all sorts of administrators in the civil and financial spheres in the military and the judiciary.

  14. Père Eugène ROGER, La terre Sainte ou description topographique très particulière des saints lieux et de la terre de promission [The Holy Land or Very Particular Topographic description of the Holy Sites and of the Promised Land], Paris, 1646, p.482 - 483..

  15. Selim II

    Selim II (1524-1574) was Suleiman the Magnificent's son from his wife Roxelana, and his successor as Ottoman Sultan of. He ruled from 1566 to 1574, after sidelining his brothers at the term of internal clashes. His short reign saw the height of Ottoman power. He drank alcohol, was in thrall to the women of his harem and proved unable to curb the power of the Janissaries. He had no interest in government and relinquished effective power in the hands of his vizier and son in law Sokullu Mehmed Pasha. A peace treaty with Austria in 1568 reinforced his power in Moldavia and in Valachia. Friendly relations were established with Tahmasb I, the Safavid ruler of Iran. The Ottoman invasion of Cyprus brought about the league of European states and their 1571 victory over the Turk at Lepanto. However the following year a new Ottoman fleet forced Venice to accept Ottoman hegemony and in 1574, modern Tunisia was recovered at the expenses of Philip II's Spain.

  16. Abbas I the Great (1571-1629)

    A member of the Safavid dynasty, Abbas became shah in 1587, reorganised the army, conquered Afghanistan, forced the Uzbeks back in the North and, in 1606, inflicted a defeat on the Ottomans in the West. His empire stretched from the Caucasus to Baghdad.

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