Safed Sanjak
Safed Sanjak (
Territory and demographics
The territory of Safed Sanjak consisted of the area between the
Administrative divisions
In the 16th century, the Safed Sanjak was divided into the following five
- Nahiya of Jira — It roughly corresponded with the eastern Upper Galilee, surrounding the city of Safed. The name Jīra is likely a derivative of jār, Arabic for "neighbor", and the nahiya was previously known al-Zunnār, Arabic for "belt" because it surrounded Safed.[5]
- Amal of Barr Safad
- Nahiya of Acre — It roughly corresponded with the western Upper Galilee.
- Nahiya of Tiberias — It roughly corresponded with the Lower Galilee, and part of the boundary separating it from the nahiya of Jira was the Wadi al-Rubudiyeh (Zalmon) stream.[6]
- Amal of Tiberias
- Amal of Nazareth
- Amal of Marj Bani Amir — The amal included only part of the Jezreel Valley, the remaining part belonging to the Iqta of Turabay, which later became Lajjun Sanjak.[7]
- Amal of Kafr Kanna
- Nahiya of Israel–Lebanon border.[6]
- Nahiya of Shaqif — It roughly corresponded with northeastern Jabal Amil, and the boundary separating it from the nahiya of Tibnin to the south by the Litani and Hasbani rivers.[6]
- Amal of Shaqif
There is no available information about the administrative divisions of Safed Sanjak during the 17th century. By the 18th century, Safed Sanjak was divided into ten nawahi.[10]
History
Administrative origins and Ottoman conquest
Before Ottoman rule, Safed was the capital of its own mamlaka (province) of the
The Ottomans entered the territory of the mamlaka through the
Prosperity in early to mid-sixteenth century
After its incorporation into the Ottoman Empire, Safed was reorganized into a sanjak administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet.[1] Its jurisdiction roughly corresponded with the territory of Mamlakat Safad.[12] Safed Sanjak prospered at least during the first sixty years of Ottoman rule, with displaced peasants returning to their villages and the town of Safed becoming a haven for Jews from Europe, who turned the town into a wool production center.[15] The first known Ottoman land and tax survey in the sanjak was in 1525/26, followed by a second survey in 1538/39. The second survey shows substantial increases in the population and tax revenues, possibly a result of peasants returning to their villages and the stability brought by the early Ottoman rulers.[16] In 1547-48, Safad Sanjak contained a total of 287 villages.[3]
In the 16th century, the Sudun clan of
Ascendancy of the Druze
The initial prosperity of the sanjak waned toward the end of the 16th century and remained in general decline, more or less extending until the 19th century.
In 1602 the
In 1614, a new eyalet (province) was created based in Sidon, and Safed was annexed to it. The province was disbanded later that year and Safed Sanjak reverted to Damascus Eyalet.[1] During Fakhr al-Din's exile between 1613 and 1619, the Shia Muslim Harfush dynasty tried and failed to gain control of it.[22] Around the same time, in 1617, the Shia Muslim clan of Munkar and the house of El Assaad Family of Ali Al-Saghir emerged, along with Al Shukr, as opponents of the Ma'ns in Bilad Bishara.[17] After a five-year exile in Tuscany, Fakhr al-Din reestablished his position in the region, his power reaching its apex in the 1630s until he was killed by imperial Ottoman troops in 1635.[23] Ali al-Saghir and his brother Husayn, who traced their origins to an old, influential Shia Muslim tribe, eliminated the rival clans of Sudun in 1639 and Al Shukr in 1649, thereafter establishing their family as the sole leaders of the Shia Muslim clans across Jabal Amil, including the areas of Tibnin, Hunin, Qana and Ma'araka.[17]
The settlements of the Galilee, particularly Safed and Tiberias, deteriorated during the struggle to capture the region by the nephew of Fakhr al-Din,
Ahmad Ma'n died in 1697 without male progeny and the Ma'n tax farms in Sidon-Beirut Sanjak were transferred to Haydar Shihab by the Ottoman government.[26] With the demise of the Ma'ns in the late 17th century, the Safad Sanjak also largely came under the control of the Shihab dynasty.[22] The Shihabi emir, Bashir I, Haydar's uncle and the effective leader of the Shihab dynasty, launched a punitive campaign against the Ali al-Saghirs in Bilad Bishara in 1698, capturing Mushrif and his son Muhammad and transferring them to the custody of Sidon's governor Kaplan Pasha, brother of Tripoli Eyalet's governor and Shihab ally Arslan Mehmed Pasha.[25] Bashir was afterward appointed the governor of the Safad Sanjak.[25] He routed a coalition of the Ali al-Saghir, Sa'b and Munkar Shia clans in Nabatieh in 1707.[27] Taking control of Bilad Bishara, he granted it to his Druze deputy Mahmud Abu Harmush.[27]
Zaydani rule
By the late 17th century, the Bedouin
The governor of Sidon Eyalet, backed by local forces from
Zahir fortified Acre and made it the capital of his expanding sheikhdom and the center of his monopoly on the cotton trade from Palestine. Acre's practical dominance of the sanjak under Zahir, who ruled until his death in 1775, and his Ottoman-appointed successors Jazzar Pasha (1775–1804), Sulayman Pasha al-Adil (1805–1819) and Abdullah Pasha (1820–1831) contributed to the political decline of Safed, which became a nahiya center with limited local influence, belonging to the Acre Sanjak.[33]
References
- ^ a b c d Abu Husayn 2004, p. 135.
- ^ David and Ordan 2010, p. 28.
- ^ a b Ellenblum 2003, p. 216.
- ^ Rhode 1979, pp. 28–30.
- ^ Rhode 1979, pp. 27–28.
- ^ a b c Rhode 1979, p. 31.
- ^ Rhode 1979, p. 30.
- ^ Rhode 1979, p. 28.
- ^ Winter 2010, p. 126.
- ^ Rhode 1979, p. 33.
- ^ a b Rhode 1979, p. 16.
- ^ a b c Rhode 1979, p. 17.
- ^ a b Rhode 1979, p. 18.
- ^ Rhode 1979, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Rhode 1979, p. 20.
- ^ Rhode 1979, p. 21.
- ^ a b c d e f Winter 2010, p. 126.
- ^ Rhode 1979, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Abu-Husayn 1985, p. 93.
- ^ Abu-Husayn 1985, pp. 83–84.
- ^ a b Abu-Husayn 1985, p. 84.
- ^ a b Abu Husayn 2004, p. 136.
- ^ Joudan 1987, p. 13.
- ^ Falah 1978, p. 38.
- ^ a b c Winter 2010, p. 127.
- ^ Winter 2010, p. 128.
- ^ a b Winter 2010, p. 129.
- ^ a b Joudah 1987, p. 20.
- ^ a b Joudah 1987, p. 21.
- ^ a b c d Philipp 2001, p. 32.
- ^ Philipp 2001, pp. 33–36.
- ^ Philipp 2001, p. 37.
- ^ Abbasi 2003, p. 50.
Bibliography
- Abbasi, Mustafa (February 2003). "The Arab Community of Safad 1840–1918: A Critical Period" (PDF). Jerusalem Quarterly. 17: 49–58.
- Abu-Husayn, Abdul-Rahim (1985). Provincial Leaderships in Syria, 1575-1650. Beirut: American University of Beirut. ISBN 9780815660729.
- Abu Husayn, Abdul Rahim (2004). The View from Istanbul: Ottoman Lebanon and the Druze Emirate. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781860648564.
- David, Abraham; Ordan, Dena (2010). To Come to the Land: Immigration and Settlement in 16th-Century Eretz-Israel. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817356439.
- ISBN 9780521521871.
- Falah, Salman (1975). "A History of the Druze Settlements in Palestine during the Ottoman Period". In Maoz, Moshe (ed.). Studies on Palestine during the Ottoman Period. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. ISBN 9789652235893.
- Philipp, Thomas (2001). Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730–1831. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50603-8.
- Rhode, H. (1979). The Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safad in the Sixteenth Century (PhD). Columbia University.