The emirate and the Egypto-Ottoman conflict
The remission was short-lived (1825-1831) before the emirate of Mount Lebanon was dragged into a fresh conflict, opposing the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II[1] and his vassal in Egypt, Muhammad Ali. The latter's power had grown considerably after his subduing the Wahhabi tribes of the Arabic peninsula in 1817 and especially after he fought against the Greeks during the 1822-1828 war. Yet he dreamt of a kingdom independent from the Ottomans, a kingdom taking in greater Syria and its rich farming and forest land, the Arabic peninsula and the lands stretching to the springs of the Nile and to Tripolitania. He had the means of his ambitions: a modern army and an efficient administration whose officials had been educated in Europe. The campaign started in 1831. Bashir II was approached by both sides and eventually gave in to the Viceroy's threats as he was in his debt. He joined in all the battles until the victory of Konieh on 21 December 1832 whereby Egypt gained the overall control of the region. Muhammad Ali considered entrusting the wilayet of Syria to Bashir but the Emir declined the offer, being content with the run of Mount Lebanon.
The new occupier was diversely welcome by the local populace. The Christians, not least those of Mount Lebanon, supported the viceroy and looked to the implementation of the promises of tolerance and equality proclaimed by his son Ibrahim Pasha[2], at the beginning of his campaign. They saw him as France's ally. As a whole, Sunni Muslims did wish for an Arab empire but they did not look kindly on any rapprochement with France. The Druze leaders proved the least amenable, some of them leaving the Mountain to join the sultan's camp. Damascus, made the seat of a consultative council, became the centre of the new kingdom. Cities with more than 12 000 inhabitants also had their own council. In Beirut it had 12 members 6 of which were Christians. A military governor held civil power and ensured public order. New courts were open in which Sharia law no longer obtained alone, and whose judges no longer had to be Muslim. A state monopoly on trade, in force in Egypt since 1811, was extended to the whole realm.
The Egyptian centralisation imposed on Mont Lebanon was well received at first because of its efficiency but it was later questioned then rejected. Under surveillance after 1835, Bashir divested the traditional mukata'ji, whether Christian or Druze, from their privileges; in their place he installed members or associates of his clan. The constant increase in taxes, compulsory conscription, corvée along with the trade monopoly caused uprisings in 1834-1836. Finding the Egyptian soldiers powerless to control the situation, the Emir had to intervene to put down the unrest, which compromised him further in the eyes of the people. The Druze insurrection that broke out in the Hauran and the Anti-Lebanon put paid to the myth of Egyptian invincibility. Faced with enormous losses and in order to avert a total collapse, Muhammad Ali compelled the Emir to arm the Maronites and to call them up against the Druze. This open confrontation between two communities who had never seen the like in their age-old history of co-habitation compounded the resentment felt at the time of Bashir Jumblatt's execution. The repression directed by Ibrahim Pasha and carried out by the Maronites alongside the Egyptians was exceedingly brutal and also targeted Druze sanctuaries which were desecrated.
In the face of growing external and internal threats, the Porte issued an edict, the hatti-i sherif of the Gul-Khane or Rescript of the Rose Chamber (1839) to counter the 1831 declaration with measures in favour of greater equality between the Empire's subjects. The Five Power Note of 27 July 1839 dispatched by the European powers aimed at promoting an internal resolution of the Ottoman-Egyptian conflict. In order to avoid the dislocation of the Ottoman Empire, a quadruple alliance formed by Austria, Prussia, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Convention of London in July 1840. This document granted Muhammad Ali hereditary sovereignty over Egypt and granted him lifelong control of the southern part of the Syrian region, including the pashalik of Acre. Strong in his position the viceroy of Egypt turned the offer down. Ibrahim Pasha ensconced in the palace of Beit ed-Din since 1835 played high stakes, conducting via Bashir a repressive policy that saw harvests and villages burn. An Austro-British fleet set about to control the sea traffic on the Eastern Mediterranean coast before landing at Jounieh. Supporting agents rekindled the early 1840 insurrection known as the Third Ammiyya in which Druze and Maronites took part.
Without the support of their French ally who had no taste for a military clash with the British, the Egyptians withdrew from all the coastal towns bar Acre before the Anglo-Austro-Ottoman coalition. They were driven out of the mountain (Keserwan, Metn). The English diplomat Richard Wood[3] sent Bashir several messages asking him to abandon Ibrahim Pasha and fight alongside the coalition powers. But the Emir, kept under house arrest at Beit ed-Din while his sons were at the front with the Egyptian ignored these pressing calls. At the pivotal battle of Bhersaf the Egyptian army was defeated by forces including units of rebels to Bashir II's authority; the Egyptians withdrew to the Bekaa plain. The Emir left his palace with his retainers, camped near Sidon and surrendered to Admiral Stopford on the high seas on 11 October 1840. He was exiled to Malta thus concluding a reign that had lasted half a century but also sealing the fate of an emirate under Ottoman authority which had lasted three centuries.
The Shihab emirship was at the receiving end of the diplomatic and military fall-outs of the « Eastern Question »
concerned with the fate of the Ottoman Empire. It also made the experience of the social movements linked to the onset of rural and industrial transformations: some were pacific like the rise of such families as the Baz accessing key positions in the administration outside the traditional aristocratic route; others, such as the ammiyya popular risings were violent. The conversion of aristocratic shi'a or Druze families viz. the Shihabs and the Abil Lama affected the emirate from the middle of the 18th century. Without impacting directly on the running of public affairs since the emirs' public action did not reflect their adoption of the Christian faith – which did not prevent relations with the several communities . – the religious issue remained sensitive during the following century. Imposing his authority on the territory by securing a monopoly on violence, enjoying a degree of autonomy in respect of justice and taxation, seeking to negotiate his military contribution to the region's major powers, Bashir II displayed ambitions he did not in the end manage to satiate. Three generations later he was a reference for the advocates of the creation of the State of Lebanon.
