Assaf dynasty
Banu Assaf | |
---|---|
Chieftains and Tax Collectors of Mamluk Sultanate Ottoman Empire | |
Founded | 1306 |
Founder | Unknown Assaf (first head of dynasty during Ottoman rule) |
Final ruler | Muhammad ibn Mansur |
Titles | Emir |
Dissolution | 1591 |
The Assaf dynasty (also called Banu Assaf) were a
Under the leadership of Emir Assaf, they were confirmed as the rulers of Keserwan by Sultan
Mansur was dismissed in 1579 and replaced by his son Muhammad, who was imprisoned by the authorities in 1584 for alleged involvement in a looting raid against an
History
Mamluk era
The Assafs were the descendants of the
In 1382, the Mamluk emir
Barquq was restored to power in 1390, after which the Turkmen tribesmen raided the hills around Beirut once more, although they were unable to capture the villages of Ainab and Aramoun.[7] Under Barquq's direction, the Mamluks mobilized their army troops, Druze warriors, and tribesmen from the Beqaa Valley and dealt a heavy blow against the Turkmens of Keserwan.[7] Nonetheless, Barquq decided to keep the Turkmen emirs as the lords of Keserwan, albeit in a weakened state.[7] Barquq likely kept the Turkmens in place to avoid giving the Buhturids too much power in Mount Lebanon or to avoid over-extending Buhturid forces.[7] According to the historian Kamal Salibi, only four Turkmen emirs have been named in primary sources: a certain Sa'id who ruled in 1361, his brother and successor Isa, and a certain Ali ibn al-A'ma and his brother Umar ibn al-A'ma.[9] The latter two were the Turkmen emirs involved in the rebellion against Barquq. Ali was killed in Barquq's punitive expedition, while Umar was imprisoned and released.[10]
Ottoman era
Reigns of Assaf and Hasan
According to the historian Muhammad Adnan Bakhit, reliable information about the Assafs in the early 16th century is relatively scarce.
In Tripoli, the Assafs had their own chief agent, Muhammad Agha Shu'ayb, who was their subordinate tax collector for the countryside of Tripoli, including the
Reign of Qa'itbay
Assaf's other son from a different wife, Qa'itbay, sought to usurp power from his brothers.[14] In the ensuing power struggle, Qa'itbay was forced to flee and received refuge in Choueifat, before relocating to Beirut; there, he accrued funds to bribe the governor of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali, to replace Hasan as the tax farmer of Keserwan.[14] Hasan and Husayn sought to reconcile with their half-brother, but as they entered Beirut, they were killed in an ambush ordered by Qa'itbay.[16] In his subsequent assertion of control over Keserwan, Byblos and Beirut, Qa'itbay was backed by al-Ghazali, the ex-Mamluk Ottoman governor of Damascus Eyalet.[16] Despite al-Ghazali's revolt against the Ottomans and its subsequent suppression in 1521, the authorities did not punish Qa'itbay for his alliance with al-Ghazali.[15] However, the death of al-Ghazali represented the loss of a major political patron of the emir.[17]
After al-Ghazali's downfall, the Hubaysh clan, who had since been forced out by Qa'itbay and settled in Lassa, sought to oust Qa'itbay.[17] They kidnapped Hasan's son Mansur,[17] who Qa'itbay had spared from execution due to Qa'itbay's lack of male children,[16] and organized a revolt against Qa'itbay in Mansur's name.[17] The revolt quickly spread through Qa'itbay's territories, but after marshaling financial resources to mobilize military support from the Bedouin Ibn al-Hansh tribe of the Beqaa Valley, he managed to drive his opponents back to Lassa.[18] Qa'itbay died without a male heir in 1523, and was succeeded by Hasan's son Mansur, who Qa'itbay had spared from execution due to Qa'itbay's lack of male children.[16]
Reign of Mansur
In Ottoman administrative records, a certain Emir Musa Bey is noted as the local authority in Keserwan between Qa'itbay's death in 1523 and 1548, not Mansur.[16] However, nothing else is written about Emir Musa, prompting Bakhit to suggest that by dint of Musa's title, "emir", that Musa was a member of the Assaf clan who led the dynasty as a virtual regent during the years of Mansur's years as a minor.[16] In Duwayhi's account, only Mansur is mentioned as leader.[16]
Mansur was regularly assigned the tax farms of the nawahi of Keserwan, Byblos, Batroun, Bsharri, Kura and Dinniyah.[19] Mansur installed members of the Hubaysh clan as his chief agents in Keserwan, particularly investing sheikhs Yusuf and Sulayman Hubaysh as his stewards.[19] Mansur also became the patron of the Turkmen Sayfa clan,[20] who entered the region as Ottoman levend (auxiliary troops) in 1528.[21] He installed the Sayfas as his subordinate tax farmers in Akkar, provoking opposition from Muhammad Shu'ayb, who was killed by Mansur later that year.[20] Mansur subsequently had Shu'ayb replaced with Yusuf Sayfa as his chief agent in Tripoli.[20] Mansur proceeded to eliminate his Muslim rivals between then and 1541. Among those killed were the Kurdish Ottoman official in charge of Batroun, a couple of Shia sheikhs from Keserwan, a rival Turkmen clan in Keserwan and the sheikhs of the Bedouin Banu al-Hansh tribe; the latter were executed at a reception held by Mansur in Ghazir.[20]
Mansur encouraged Maronite settlement in Keserwan, who he viewed as less of a threat to his rule than his Sunni rivals and as a counterweight to the Shia Muslim clans of Keserwan; the Maronites were the majority population in the nawahi that Mansur tax farmed.
Although Mansur timely delivered taxes to the authorities, the Ottomans became wary of his power in Mount Lebanon and importing of arms from Venice.[22] In 1579, Sultan Murad III established the Tripoli Eyalet, which was centered in Tripoli and included all of the nawahi north of Keserwan that were ostensibly under Assaf lordship.[20] The authorities assigned Mansur's client Yusuf Sayfa as Tripoli's governor, making him independent of Mansur. Yusuf Pasha Sayfa's elevation also gave him tax rights over the Mansur's former and predominantly Maronite nawahi.[20]
Reign of Muhammad
Complaints lodged to the authorities against Mansur ultimately led to his dismissal in 1579. He was replaced with his son Muhammad.
Muhammad's taxation was considered exploitative by Tripoli Eyalet's inhabitants.[23] Yusuf Sayfa refused to pay taxes to Muhammad, prompting the latter to attempt collecting them through military means.[23] However, while en route to the Akkar to pressure the Sayfas, Muhammad was shot dead outside of Tripoli on Yusuf Sayfa's orders in 1591.[26] Muhammad's death with no male heirs marked the end of Assaf rule. Following his death, Yusuf Sayfa was transferred control of the Assafs' nawahi in Tripoli Eyalet, and he expelled the Hubaysh clan, promoting his Shia Muslim Hamade allies from Byblos at their expense.[26] In 1593, Yusuf Sayfa wed Muhammad's widow and thus acquired the Assafs' wealth.[23] He concurrently took control over Keserwan and Assaf properties in Beirut.[26]
List of Assaf emirs during Ottoman rule
Name | Reign | Notes |
---|---|---|
Emir Assaf | 1516–1518 | First Assaf emir under the Ottomans. |
Emir Hasan | 1518 | Son of Assaf. |
Emir Qa'itbay | 1518–1523 | Son of Assaf. He died childless. |
Emir Musa | 1523–1548 | Member of Assaf dynasty who may have ruled as Mansur's regent during the latter's minority. |
Emir Mansur | 1523–1579 | Son of Hasan. |
Emir Muhammad | 1579–1591 | Son of Mansur. He died childless and was the last Assaf emir.[11][27] |
See also
References
- ^ Salibi 1959, pp. 121, 220 note 1.
- ^ Salibi 1959, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Salibi 1959, p. 220.
- ^ Harris 2012, p. 71.
- ^ Salibi 1959, p. 220, note 4.
- ^ a b Harris 2012, p. 72.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Harris 2012, p. 76.
- ^ a b c Salibi, p. 103.
- ^ Salibi 1967, p. 148.
- ^ Salibi 1967, pp. 147–148.
- ^ a b Bakhit, p. 178.
- ^ Harris 2012, pp. 88–89.
- ^ a b c Salibi 1967, p. 152.
- ^ a b c d e Salibi 1967, p. 153.
- ^ a b c d Harris 2012, p. 89.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Bakhit 1982, p. 178.
- ^ a b c d Salibi 1967, p. 155.
- ^ Salibi 1967, pp. 155–156.
- ^ a b c d Bauder and Lewis, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harris 2012, p. 90.
- ^ Winter 2010, p. 30.
- ^ Harris 2012, pp. 90, 93.
- ^ a b c d e f Bakhit 1982, p. 179.
- ISBN 9789004021044.
- ^ Harris 2012, pp. 91–92.
- ^ a b c d e Harris 2012, p. 92.
- ^ Salibi 1967, pp. 152–165.
Bibliography
- Bakhit, Muhammad Adnan (1982). The Ottoman province of Damascus in the sixteenth century. Librairie du Liban. ISBN 9780866853224.
- Harris, William (2012). Lebanon: A History, 600–2011. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195181111.
- Salibi, Kamal S. (1959). Maronite Historians of Medieval Lebanon. Beirut: American University of Beirut.
- Salibi, Kamal (June 1967). "Northern Lebanon under the Dominance of Ġazīr (1517–1591)". Arabica. 14 (2): 144–166. JSTOR 4055631.
- Salibi, Kamal S. (1988). A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520071964.
- Winter, Stefan (2010). The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1788. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139486811.