Bashir II's emirship (1789-1740)
The Shihab dynasty governed Mount Lebanon for 157 years. Bashir was the tenth prince-emir to succeed to the title. His reign lasted 52 years and went through three distinct phases during which internal and external factors combined that would lead to his fall. Bashir was born in Ghazir where he was baptised and instructed in the Christian faith. He lost his father very young and his childhood was further scared by his mother's immediate remarriage and by poverty. When he was about twelve he settled down in Beit ed-Dine, hard by Deir al-Qamar at the heart of Mount Lebanon and near the prince-emir's residence, there to enjoy the munificence of his cousin, Emir Yusuf[1]. The latter entrusted him with the mission to take stock of his maternal uncle's property after his death in Hasbaya, the Shihabs' family seat. Bashir completed his mission, married Shams the late emir's widow and returned to Deir al-Qamar a very rich man. His presence at court did not escape the notice of Emir Yusuf's enemies. The powerful Jumblatt clan that lead them approached him with a view to overturn his uncle but young Bashir chose to sit on the fence until the onset of troubles. The extortionate taxation imposed by the wali of Acre, Jazzar Pasha[2] caused a general rebellion against the emir in place. Finding it impossible to govern, Emir Yusuf abdicated. The assembly of overlords held at Barouk in 1788 chose Bashir II. Jazzar Pasha confirmed their choice, no less intent on exploiting Mount Lebanon[3] for all that.
The European powers encouraged autonomist movements by local sheikhs with a view to create stable alliances and thus pretexts to intervene. Conversely the Porte made every effort to repress such separatist proclivities and stamped out any sign of interference. Jazzar Pasha repelled a Russian attack on Beirut and so detached it from the emirate of Mount Lebanon. Having established himself in Acre, he was appointed wali of Sidon, then of Damascus. He succeeded in sealing off these regions, preventing any incursion and imposing a monopoly on trade. Bonaparte[4]'s campaign in Egypt in 1798 had vast ambitions with, high on the list, flushing the British out of India, freeing the peoples, Ottomans included, through their adoption of the French Revolution's ideals, finding economic markets and disseminating “science”. Approached by both sides, Bashir II stuck to a neutral position. Internal unity came first and he rooted out every intrigue liable to saw seeds of discord, particularly between Druze and Maronites[5]. His loyalty towards the sultan got the better of his personal sympathies for the French. Between 1789 and 1805, he assisted the passage of Ottoman troops lead by Grand Vizier Yusuf Diya through his territories, taking good care of their supply line without forgetting to ply the Pasha with rich presents; he got the backing of Commodore Sidney Smith[6], who had the command of the British fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean. Vexed, Jazzar stirred up against him rival princes in his clan, in particular Emir Yusuf's sons, he also arbitrarily dismissed him on five separate occasions (1791-1793, 1795, 1799, 1799-1801) but without any effect. Jazzar's death in 1804, rid him of an adversary within the Ottoman administration.
Thereafter, Bashir II succeeded in forming a lasting friendship with Sulayman Pasha[7], the new wali of Acre thanks to whom his standing grew beyond the bounds of the region. At the behest of the Sultan, they fought side by side against the Wahhabi[8] who attacked Damascus in 1810. Sulayman rewarded him by appointing him emir of Mount Lebanon. This period of stability enabled the Emir to deal with neighbouring pashas and to entrench a reformed and centralised power, free from Muqata'ji control and prerogatives. He rallied around his person all the parties and reclaimed for Mount Lebanon the Bekaa and the coastal towns from Tripoli to Sidon. On the Caravan route linking Damascus to Sidon, he had the Palace of Beit ed-Din built in 1806; an authentic seat of power, home to a court, a council, barracks, stables, it boasted a water supply system.
The peace and tolerance enjoyed in Mount Lebanon attracted minorities persecuted in the Syrian realm. Many Christians, in particular, Melkite Greek Catholics[9] fled the Wahabbi domination in Damascus and the rash of hostility towards the dhimmi[10] set off by the Ottomans in a bid to unify the populace behind them outdoing the Wahabbi. in a bid to unify the populace behind them. Also the butt of this politico-religious zeal, some 400 Druze families came and settled in the Mountain with the financial support of both the Emir and Sheikh Bashir Jumblatt[11]. However, on Bashir's orders, Emir Yusuf's sons, his direct rivals, along with their Baz[12] guardians were the first victims of a merciless purge. He had the latter executed and rendered their wards harmless by placing them, blinded, with their tongues cut out and their property confiscated, under house arrest in the Keserwan. He deposed the Nakads[13] ,muqata'ji of Deir al-Qamar and dispossessed them of their district to the benefit of Shihab family members. With his main rivals out of the way, the Emir implemented reforming policies aimed at turning his emirate into an embryonic state.
Law was standardised. Sharia law, understood here as a legal corpus bound in the Sunni tradition and familiar to the Maronites since the 18th century thanks to jurist bishop Abdallah Qara'li[14] was put in force. The Holy See gave the opinion that its praxis was acceptable as long as it did not contradict the Catholic doctrine. Bashir set in place two tribunals, one in Deir al-Qamar and the other at Ghazir the first was presided over by a Druze judge, the other by a Maronite. Both judges were competent in all matters and had jurisdiction in all disputes regardless of the religion of the parties in court. The Emir commissioned every village chief as justice of the peace. The muqata'ji courts acted as courts of appeal who must refer to the supreme court in Bet ed-Din. The Emir was reputed an implacable and impartial judge who maintained order. A folk tale talks of travellers fancying they walked in the shadow of the Emir nick-named Abu Saada after his eldest daughter (according to the practice whereby the father adopts the name of his eldest child). The princely pursuit of hawking partridges annually in January or February gave the Emir the opportunity to keep a check on his territories.
Taking his leaf from the Ottoman sultan or Egypt's viceroy, Bashir II took steps to improve sanitation and fight epidemics; he also encouraged graduates to go and study medicine in Egypt. He developed the road network, had bridges built and encouraged trade, among other things with the construction of covered markets in Deir el-Qamar, Zahlé and Zouk. Palaces were erected for his sons near his own in Beit ed-Din. Men of letters made up the Emir's council, dispensing their recommendations; they would on occasion be entrusted with some mission. To those who would rank him among the « enlightened despots »
Bashir II was a liberal patron of the arts. The best known are Nasif al-Yaziji, Nicolas al-Turk[15], Butros Karame[16], Elias Edde[17], Haidar Chehab[18] ... This areopagus was an early portent of the renaissance of Arab letters to come.
Mount Lebanon did not have a set budget; it had to pay the miri which the emir paid to the Porte via the pasha of Sidon. Caught up in sale of office practices but mindful of the Mountain's stability, he sought to keep to a fixed rate of taxation in the face of wali cupidity and he opposed their claims to change the tax base and modalities of collection. The overall sum to be collected was broken down between the muqata'ji, pro-rated to their supposed wealth; hawalis[19] would swing into action to punish the dodgers, gather the monies owed and keep the pashas' at bay. The Emir set in place the nucleus of a standing army counting one thousand men, half cavalry and half infantry and lead by his sons or by himself. When calling on the troops maintained by the muquata'jis, he was able to muster 20 000 men. He gradually curbed the power of aristocratic families clinging to their age-old privileges, to wit the Baz or the Arslans but he had to reach an understanding with the Jumblatts who held on to the control of their own districts.
Bashir made sure he would not provide the Porte with any opportunity to insinuate itself in Mountain affairs however the burden of taxations caused popular revolts. He faced three uprisings in 1820, 1821 and 1840. The violence of the latter and its international implications caused his fall. These popular risings, organised around social grievances became known as ammiya[20], this was a novelty in the Ottoman Empire. In the early 1820's, in the context of the Greek uprising and a war with Russia, the Porte signalled its intention to raise taxation via the wali of Acre Abdullah Pasha[21]. Bashir implemented the decision in the Mountain but the Christian peasant farmers refused to pay the increase to the miri. After two momentous meetings in Antelias and Lehfed they concluded a pact engaging their mutual solidarity, the defence of the common good and the election of wakils[22] to protect their interests. This opened a democratisation process translating into a number of demands, notably for decentralisation.
This was a point of no return. With the help of Bashir Jumblatt, Bashir II crushed the peasantry, collected extortionate levies, penalized the overlords and had the Keserwan placed under a system of land title registry for the purpose of land taxation that did not spare even church property. No sooner was the country pacified than Bashir compromised his relation with the sultan by his alliance with Abdullah Pasha who wanted to enlarge his territories at the expenses of his neighbours. The coalition of the pashas of Damascus and Aleppo, supported by the Porte and reinforced by the defection of his most powerful ally, Bashir Jumblatt forced the Emir to stand down and to take refuge in Egypt with Muhammad Ali[23]. The latter pleaded the Emir's cause before the sultan who reinstated him in 1822. Upon his return, however it became clear that « the country was too small for two Bashirs »
. If the Emir's legitimacy was comforted by endorsements from the neighbouring pashas of Acre and Damascus, the sheikh had force on his side. The struggle started in 1824 and first favoured the Sheikh's troops. But when luck smiled on the Emir, Bashir Jumblatt and two sheikhs of the Imad[24]clan, having left Mount Lebanon, were captured and executed by the walis of Damascus and Acre. The fall of Bashir Jumblatt would cast a long shadow on 19th century Lebanon.
By quelling his rich and powerful rival, Bashir meant to complete his centralisation work. His response belongs in a context of power struggle, not of religious conflict: For one thing, he was not acting as a Christian against a Druze for he made sure not to make any display of his faith, and furthermore a number of Christian overlords, Khazen, Hobeich and Dahdah fought against him in the Sheikh's army. However the Druze did perceive the conflict and its outcome in a different way and they withdrew their cooperation waiting for a shift in the balance of power. Having weakened the muqata'jis and subdued the peasantry, Bashir rearranged the districts and ruled like a despot until the arrival of the Egyptians.
