Fakhr al-Din Ma'n (; 6 August 1572 13 April 1635), commonly known as Fakhr al-Din II or Fakhreddine II (), was the paramount

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round. Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...

from the

Ma'n dynasty The Ma'n dynasty (, alternatively spelled ''Ma'an''), also known as the Ma'nids; (), were a family of Druze chiefs of Arab stock based in the rugged Chouf District, Chouf area of southern Mount Lebanon who were politically prominent in the 15th� ...

, an Ottoman

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of Sidon-Beirut and

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

, and the strongman over much of the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

from the 1620s to 1633. For uniting modern

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

's constituent parts and communities, especially the Druze and the

Maronites Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally resided near Mount ...

, under a single authority for the first time in history, he is generally regarded as the country's founder. Although he ruled in the name of the Ottomans, he acted with considerable autonomy and developed close ties with

European powers A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power ...

in defiance of the Ottoman imperial government. Fakhr al-Din succeeded his father as the emir of the

Chouf Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf; ) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate ( muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east of Beirut, the region comprises a narrow coastal stri ...

mountains in 1591. He was appointed over the

sanjak A sanjak or sancak (, , "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (, ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian. Banners were a common organization of nomad ...

s (districts) of Sidon-Beirut in 1593 and Safed in 1602. Despite joining the rebellion of

Ali Janbulad Ali Janbulad Pasha (transliterated in Turkish as Canbolatoğlu Ali Paşa; died 1 March 1610) was a Kurdish tribal chief from Kilis and a rebel Ottoman governor of Aleppo who wielded practical supremacy over Syria in . His rebellion, launched t ...

in 1606, Fakhr al-Din remained in his post and the Ottomans recognized his takeover of the

Keserwan Keserwan may refer to the following: *Kisrawan, a historical region in Mount Lebanon *Keserwan District, the administrative district in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of modern Lebanon *Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate Keserwan-Jbeil () is the most re ...

mountains from his rival

Yusuf Sayfa Yusuf Sayfa Pasha (; – 22 July 1625) was a chieftain and ''multazim'' (tax farmer) in the Tripoli region who frequently served as the Ottoman ''beylerbey'' (provincial governor) of Tripoli Eyalet between 1579 and his death. Yusuf or his f ...

. Seven years later, an imperial campaign was launched against him for allying with

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

and

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

ing the strategic fortresses of

Shaqif Arnun Beaufort or Belfort Castle, known locally as Qal'at al-Shaqif () or Shaqif Arnun, is a Crusader fortress in Nabatieh Governorate, Southern Lebanon, about to the south-south-east of the village of Arnoun. There was a fortification on the site ...

and Subayba. He escaped and became an exile in Tuscany and

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. Upon his return in 1618, he resumed control of his former domains and within three years took over northern Mount Lebanon, which was predominantly Maronite. After Fakhr al-Din routed the governor of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

at the

Battle of Anjar The Battle of Anjar was fought on 1 November 1623 between the army of Fakhr al-Din II and an coalition army led by the List of rulers of Damascus#Ottoman walis, governor of Damascus Mustafa Pasha. Background In 1623, Harfush dynasty, Yunus al-H ...

in 1623, he extended his control to the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

, the stronghold of his rivals, the

Harfush dynasty The Harfush dynasty (or Harfouche, Harfuch, Harfouch, or most commonly spelled Harfoush dynasty, all varying transcriptions of the same Arabic family name حرفوش) was a dynasty that descended from the Khuza'a tribe, which helped, during the ...

. Fakhr al-Din proceeded to capture fortresses across central Syria, gained practical control of

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

and its

eyalet Eyalets (, , ), also known as beylerbeyliks or pashaliks, were the primary administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire. From 1453 to the beginning of the nineteenth century the Ottoman local government was loosely structured. The empire was a ...

, and acquired tax farms as far north as

Latakia Latakia (; ; Syrian Arabic, Syrian pronunciation: ) is the principal port city of Syria and capital city of the Latakia Governorate located on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, it has also been known as Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad Mar ...

. Although he frequently attained government favor by timely forwarding of tax revenue, bribing officials, and using opportunities of mutual interest to eliminate local rivals, his outsized power and autonomy were considered a rebellion by the imperial government. A near-contemporary historian remarked that "the only thing left for him to do was to claim the

Sultanate Sultan (; ', ) is a Royal and noble ranks, position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". La ...

". He surrendered to the Ottomans during a siege of his Chouf hideout in 1633 and was executed in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

two years later. In 1697 Fakhr al-Din's grandnephew was awarded a tax farm spanning southern Mount Lebanon. It was gradually expanded by the Ma'ns' marital relatives, the Shihabs, in 1711, and was a precursor to the Lebanese Republic. According to the historian

Kamal Salibi Kamal Suleiman Salibi () (2 May 19291 September 2011)long economic crisis, Fakhr al-Din's territories thrived, and

Sidon Sidon ( ) or better known as Saida ( ; ) is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast in the South Governorate, Lebanon, South Governorate, of which it is the capital. Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre, t ...

in particular attained political significance for the first time in its modern history. He protected, promoted, and helped modernize commercial agriculture in his domains, inaugurating the lucrative

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

trade of Mount Lebanon. By opening his port towns for European commerce, he facilitated the most significant European political and economic penetration of the Levantine coast since the 13th century. Fakhr al-Din's wealth, derived mainly from his tax farms, but also from extortion and counterfeiting, enabled him to invest in the fortifications and infrastructure needed to foster stability, order, and economic growth. His building works included palatial government houses in Sidon,

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

and his Chouf stronghold of

Deir al-Qamar Deir al-Qamar () is a city south-east of Beirut in south-central Lebanon. It is located five kilometres outside of Beit ed-Dine in the Chouf District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate at 800 m of average altitude. History Crusader period The ol ...

caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was an inn that provided lodging for travelers, merchants, and Caravan (travellers), caravans. They were present throughout much of the Islamic world. Depending on the region and period, they were called by a ...

s, bathhouses, mills, and bridges, some of which remain extant. Tax farming financed his army of mercenaries, which after 1623 mostly replaced the local peasant levies on which he previously depended.

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

prospered and played key roles under his rule, with his main enduring legacy being the symbiotic relationship he set in motion between Maronites and Druze, which proved foundational for the creation of a Lebanese entity.

Origins and early life

Fakhr al-Din was born , the eldest of at least two sons of Qurqumaz ibn Yunus, the other son being Yunus. They belonged to the

, a

family of

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

stock established in the

area of southern

from before the Ottoman conquest of the Levant in 1516; traditional accounts date their arrival in the Chouf to 1120. The Chouf was administratively divided into a number of (subdistricts). They were part of the Sidon Sanjak, a district of

Damascus Eyalet Damascus Eyalet (; ) was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. Its reported area in the 19th century was . It became an eyalet after the Ottomans took it from the Mamluks following the 1516–1517 Ottoman–Mamluk War. By Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan ...

. The Chouf, together with the neighboring mountainous of the Gharb, the Jurd and the

Matn Matn () is an Islamic term that is used in relation to Hadith terminology. It means the text of the hadith, excluding the isnad. Use A hadith is made of both an isnad (chain of transmission) and a matn. A hadith would typically adopt the f ...

, all south or east of

, were commonly referred to in contemporary sources as "the Druze Mountain" due to their predominantly Druze population. Like other Ma'nids before him, Qurqumaz was a , a local rural chieftain in charge of a small area. He was also a —a holder of a limited-term tax farm known as an —over all or part of the Chouf. He was referred to as '

' by local chroniclers, but the title reflected the traditional prominence of his family in the community and was not an official rank. Fakhr al-Din's mother, Sitt Nasab, belonged to the

Tanukh The Tanukh (, sometimes referred to as the Tanukhids (, ), was an Arab tribal group whose history in the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile Crescent spanned the 2nd century CE to the 17th century. The group began as a confederation of Arab tribes ...

, a princely Druze family established in the Gharb from at least the 12th century. In the words of the historian

Kamal Salibi Kamal Suleiman Salibi () (2 May 19291 September 2011)see family tree below). The Druze were officially considered Muslims by the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

for taxation purposes, though they were not viewed as genuine Muslims by the authorities. Members of the community had to pretend to be of the

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

creed to attain any official post, were occasionally forced to pay the poll tax known as which was reserved for Christians and

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and were the target of condemnatory treatises and s (religious edicts). In countering their incorporation into the Ottoman administrative and fiscal system, the Druze benefited from rugged terrain and possession of

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

s, making it difficult to impose Ottoman authority in the Druze Mountain. Ottoman efforts to tax and disarm the Druze manifested in a series of punitive expeditions between 1523 and 1585. During the summer 1585 expedition, hundreds of Druze elders were slain by the

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

Ibrahim Pasha and the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

chief

Mansur ibn Furaykh Mansur Bey ibn Furaykh (died 7 December 1593) was Emir of the Biqa'a, Safad and Ajlun districts in the late 16th century during Ottoman rule.Sluglett and Weber, p. 333. The Ottomans granted Mansur this large power base to enable him to check the ...

of the

, and thousands of muskets were confiscated. Qurqumaz refused to surrender and died in hiding shortly after the expedition. The period between Qurqumaz's death and Fakhr al-Din's emergence in local politics is obscure. According to the historian William Harris, the chiefs of the Druze, "long disobedient and fractious, again became ungovernable" after Qurqumaz's death. The 17th-century historian and

Maronite Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...

patriarch

Istifan al-Duwayhi Istifan al-Duwayhi or Estephan El Douaihy ( / ALA-LC: ''Isṭifānūs al-thānī Buṭrus al-Duwayhī''; ; ; ; 2 August 1630 – 3 May 1704) was the 57th Patriarch of the Maronite Church, serving from 1670 until his death. He was born in Ehden, L ...

, who was an associate of the Ma'n, holds that Fakhr al-Din and Yunus were afterward taken in by their maternal uncle Sayf al-Din, the Tanukhid chief of Abeih in the Gharb, for about six years.

Appearance and personality

Most contemporary descriptions of Fakhr al-Din's appearance note his small stature. He had an olive complexion, a ruddy face, and black eyes, described as "brilliant" by Eugène Roger, a

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

-based

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

who served as Fakhr al-Din's physician in 1632–1633. His practical court historian,

Ahmad al-Khalidi Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Khālidī al-Safadī (died 1625) was an Ottoman historian and the Hanafi mufti of Safed . He was best known for being the adviser of the powerful Druze chief and tax farmer Fakhr al-Din II after the latter was appointed g ...

, referred to him as , roughly translating as 'one with a kind face'. The French consul in

and traveler

Chevalier d'Arvieux Laurent d'Arvieux (2 June 1635 – 30 October 1702) was a French traveller and diplomat born in Marseille.Le Consulat de France à Alep au XVIIe siecle2009, p.29-38 Arvieux is known for his travels in the Middle East, which began in 1654 as a m ...

commented on his appearance:

Fakhr al-Din was of mediocre height, brown in face; he had a colored complexion, large eyes full of fire, an aquiline nose, a small mouth, white teeth, a beautiful face, a chestnut-blond beard, a very majestic air, of wit infinitely male and a harmonious voice.

According to Harris, the English traveler

George Sandys George Sandys ( "sands"; 2 March 1578''Sandys, George''
in: ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online ...

, a contemporary of Fakhr al-Din, offered the "best description" of his personality, calling him "great in courage and achievements ... subtle as a fox, and a not a little inclining to the Tyrant ttoman sultan. Sandys further noted that he was "never known to pray, nor ever seen in a mosque" and only made major decisions after consulting his mother. Roger remarked that he had "invincible courage" and was "learned in

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

and

physiognomy Physiognomy () or face reading is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object, or terrain without referenc ...

Rise

Governor of Sidon-Beirut and Safed

Around 1590 Fakhr al-Din succeeded his father as the of all or part of the Chouf. Tax records indicate that he had gained the of the Sidon and Beirut and the port of Beirut from 14 July 1589. Unlike his Ma'nid predecessors, he cooperated with the Ottomans who, though able to suppress Mount Lebanon's local chiefs with massive force, were unable to pacify the region in the long term without local support. When the veteran general Murad Pasha was appointed

beylerbey ''Beylerbey'' (, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords’, sometimes rendered governor-general) was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks and the I ...

(provincial governor) of Damascus, Fakhr al-Din hosted and gave him expensive gifts upon his arrival at Sidon in September 1593. He appointed him the

sanjak-bey ''Sanjak-bey'', ''sanjaq-bey'' or ''-beg'' () was the title given in the Ottoman Empire to a bey (a high-ranking officer, but usually not a pasha) appointed to the military and administrative command of a district (''sanjak'', in Arabic '' liwa’' ...

(district governor), of Sidon-Beirut in December. While his ancestors were locally referred to as emirs, Fakhr al-Din had attained the official rank of emir or its Turkish equivalent,

bey Bey, also spelled as Baig, Bayg, Beigh, Beig, Bek, Baeg, Begh, or Beg, is a Turkic title for a chieftain, and a royal, aristocratic title traditionally applied to people with special lineages to the leaders or rulers of variously sized areas in ...

. The Ottomans' preoccupation with the wars against Safavid Iranbetween 1578 and 1590 and again between 1603 and 1618and the war with Habsburg Austria afforded Fakhr al-Din the space to consolidate and expand his semi-autonomous power. Between 1591 and 1594 government records indicate that Fakhr al-Din's tax farms grew to span the Chouf, Matn, Jurd, the southern Beqaa Valley, the Shaqif and

Tibnin Tibnin ( ''Tibnīn'', also Romanized ''Tibnîn'', ''Tebnine'' etc.) is a municipality spread across several hills (ranging in altitude from 700m to 800m (2,275 ft to 2,600 ft) above sea level) located about east of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre ...

Jabal Amil Jabal Amil (; also spelled Jabal Amel and historically known as Jabal Amila) is a cultural and geographic region in Southern Lebanon largely associated with its long-established, predominantly Twelver Shia Muslim inhabitants. Its precise bounda ...

—in present-day

South Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa districts, the southernmost distr ...

—as well as the salt profits from the ports of

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

, Sidon, and Beirut. Most of his tax farms were renewed by the Ottoman imperial government between 1596 and 1598. Coinciding interests between Fakhr al-Din and the Ottomans frequently recurred in his career through which he advanced against his local rivals. In 1594 or 1595 Murad Pasha executed Ibn Furaykh and ordered Fakhr al-Din to kill Ibn Furaykh's son Qurqumaz. The sources attribute the measures to Fakhr al-Din's influence over Murad Pasha, though his role was exaggerated according to the historian

Abdul-Rahim Abu-Husayn Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn (1 March 1951 – 23 June 2022) was a Palestinian people, Palestinian author, professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB)'s Department of History and Archaeology, and an honorary member of the Turkish Historical Soci ...

. Nonetheless, the elimination of the Furaykhs, known for their exactions on the local population and harassment of the Druze, had been a mutual interest of Fakhr al-Din and the government. Their interests coincided again in 1598 when Fakhr al-Din was commissioned by the beylerbey of Damascus, Seyyed Mehmed Pasha, to drive out

Yusuf Sayfa Pasha Yusuf Sayfa Pasha (; – 22 July 1625) was a chieftain and ''multazim'' (tax farmer) in the Tripoli, Lebanon, Tripoli region who frequently served as the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman ''beylerbey'' (provincial governor) of Tripoli Eyalet between 157 ...

, the beylerbey of

and local chief of

Akkar Akkar District () is the only district in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon. It is coextensive with the governorate and covers an area of . The UNHCR estimated the population of the district to be 389,899 in 2015, including 106,935 registered refugees o ...

, from the of Beirut and the

. Fakhr al-Din had been wary of Yusuf's growing proximity to his domains, while Damascus, to which Beirut and the Keserwan administratively belonged, opposed Tripoli's encroachment into its jurisdiction. Fakhr al-Din routed Yusuf's forces at the

Nahr al-Kalb The Nahr al-Kalb (, meaning ''Dog River'') is a river in Lebanon. It runs for from a spring in Jeita near the Jeita Grotto to the Mediterranean Sea. Historical significance The Nahr al-Kalb is the ancient Lycus River. The river mouth is reno ...

river and took control of the two for a year before returning them to Yusuf in return for payment. The battle inaugurated a rivalry between Fakhr al-Din and the Sayfas, which lasted for the remainder of his career. In July 1602, after his patron Murad Pasha became a vizier in

, Fakhr al-Din was appointed the sanjak-bey of

. Shortly before, he had gained the of the Acre,

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

and Safed . With the Druze of Sidon-Beirut and Safed under his authority, he effectively became their paramount chief. Although the Druze were often in conflict with the Ottomans, in principle the community was loyal to the ruling Sunni Muslim states, in contrast with the

Shia Muslims Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

, who formed a large component of the population of the Safed sanjak. Fakhr al-Din, his military talents proven, may have been appointed to the post to leverage his Druze power base against the Shia. He cultivated close ties with Safed's Sunni religious scholarly class, known as the . Among them was Khalidi, who was of the city's

Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...

s, the Islamic school of lawfavored by the Ottoman state. Foreseeing that he would benefit from Khalidi's close ties to the Damascene authorities and ulema, Fakhr al-Din entered him into his service. Fakhr al-Din was careful to present himself as a Sunni to the Ottoman government.

Janbulad rebellion and aftermath

In 1606 Fakhr al-Din made common cause with the

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

rebel

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

against Yusuf; the latter had been invested as commander-in-chief of the Ottoman armies in the

to suppress Janbulad. Fakhr al-Din, "who no doubt shared Canpolad's anbulad'sthirst for greater regional autonomy", according to the historian

Stefan Winter Stefan Winter (born 16 March 1968''List of licenses ordered by country''

, had ignored government orders to join Yusuf's army. Yusuf's rout by Janbulad and his at
Hama Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...
demonstrated the weakness of the government's troops in the Levant; after the battle, Fakhr al-Din united forces with the Kurdish rebel near
Hermel Hermel () is a town in Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. It is the capital of Hermel District. Hermel is home to a Lebanese Red Cross First Aid Center. Hermel's inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims. There is an ancient pyramid known ...
. According to Khalidi, Fakhr al-Din's motive was to defend his territory from Yusuf, though Abu-Husayn maintains that he also aimed to take over Beirut and Keserwan, both held by Yusuf. The rebel allies advanced through the Beqaa Valley toward Damascus where Yusuf was headquartered. Fakhr al-Din and Janbulad gathered the Shihabs of
Wadi al-Taym Wadi al-Taym (), also transliterated as Wadi el-Taym, is a wadi (dry river) that forms a large fertile valley in Lebanon, in the districts of Rachaya and Hasbaya on the western slopes of Mount Hermon. It adjoins the Beqaa Valley running north t ...
, old allies of the Ma'ns, and besieged Damascus. They defeated Yusuf's troops outside the city and sacked its suburbs for three days, demanding Yusuf's surrender. Yusuf escaped after bribing the city's officials, and Fakhr al-Din and Janbulad withdrew after the officials bribed them with Yusuf's money to lift the siege. Janbulad pursued Yusuf to his
redoubt A redoubt (historically redout) is a Fortification, fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on Earthworks (engineering), earthworks, although some are constructed of ston ...
at the
Krak des Chevaliers Krak des Chevaliers (; , ; or , ; from , ) is a medieval castle in Syria and one of the most important preserved medieval castles in the world. The site was first inhabited in the 11th century by Kurds, Kurdish troops garrisoned there by ...
castle where the latter sued for peace, but Fakhr al-Din did not join him. In the course of the fighting, Fakhr al-Din took over the Keserwan. Murad Pasha, who had become
grand vizier Grand vizier (; ; ) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. It was first held by officials in the later Abbasid Caliphate. It was then held in the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Soko ...
in 1606, moved against Janbulad in late 1607 and demanded that Fakhr al-Din join his imperial forces at
Payas Payas (; ; ) is a municipality and district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 157 km2, and its population is 43,919 (2022). The district Payas was created in 2013 from part of the district of Dörtyol. Geography Payas is a Mediterranean ...
off the
Gulf of Alexandretta The Gulf of Alexandretta or İskenderun () is a gulf of the eastern Mediterranean or Levantine Sea. It lies beside the southern Turkish provinces of Adana and Hatay. Names The gulf is named for the nearby Turkish city of İskenderun, the cl ...
. The contemporary Damascene historian
al-Burini Badr al-Din al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Dimashqi al-Saffuri al-Burini (July 1556-11 June 1615), commonly known as al-Hasan al-Burini, was a Damascus-based Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Arab historian and poet and Shafi'i jurist. Life Al-Burini was born ...
reported that Fakhr al-Din ignored the summons, waiting for the outcome of the war to decide his position. When Janbulad was defeated, Fakhr al-Din immediately dispatched three hundred men under his son Ali with considerable gifts in the form of 150,000
piasters The piastre or piaster () is any of a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for "thin metal plate". The name was applied to Spanish and Hispanic American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Lev ...
and 150,000 piasters' worth in silk to appease Murad Pasha in Aleppo. The high amount was a testament to the Ma'ns' wealth and demonstrated why Murad Pasha was invested in their alliance, according to the historian Alessandro Ossaretti. The Grand Vizier had been petitioned by a Damascene delegation to punish Fakhr al-Din for joining Janbulad and damaging their city, but Murad Pasha left him alone, promising the Damascenes he would deal with Fakhr al-Din at a later time. The Aleppine historian al-Urdi (d. 1660) and Sandys attributed Murad Pasha's favorable treatment of Fakhr al-Din in the aftermath of Janbulad's defeat to Fakhr al-Din's large bribes and their cordial ties during Murad Pasha's governorship of Damascus. Fakhr al-Din was kept as sanjak-bey of Safed, his son Ali was appointed to Sidon-Beirut, and their control of the Keserwan was recognized by the Ottoman imperial government. In early 1610 Fakhr al-Din was instructed by Murad Pasha to assist the new beylerbey of Tripoli, Husayn Pasha al-Jalali, with the collection of the eyalet's taxes amid the interference of Yusuf, who had been dismissed from his post but still held practical control of Tripoli's countryside.

First conflict with the Ottoman imperial government

Alliance with Tuscany
Toward the close of the 16th century, the
Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...
grand dukes of
Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
had become increasingly active in the eastern Mediterranean, pushed for a new
crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
in the
Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...
, and began patronizing the
Maronite Christians Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally resided near Mount ...
of Mount Lebanon. Fakhr al-Din rebuffed two Tuscan requests to meet between 1599 and 1602, while the Grand Duke Ferdinand I did not act upon his adviser's suggestion in 1605 to communicate with Fakhr al-Din about a new crusade and trade relations with Beirut. The Tuscans focused instead on Janbulad, with whom they signed a treaty stipulating his assistance in a new crusade and special interests for the Tuscans in the Levantine ports months before Janbulad was defeated. After Janbulad's defeat, the Tuscans shifted focus to Fakhr al-Din, sending him an arms shipment originally bound for Janbulad. In 1608 they promised him sanctuary in Tuscany if he backed a future crusade. Fakhr al-Din and Tuscany forged a treaty that year. It stipulated military aid and support from the Maronite clergy to Fakhr al-Din against the Sayfas, who controlled predominantly Maronite northern Mount Lebanon, in return for supporting a future Tuscan conquest of
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
and Damascus. After the Tuscans' Ottoman ally, the pretender to the throne
Sultan Yahya Count Alexander of Montenegro (1585? –1648), also known as Şehzade Yahya (sometimes spelled Jachia or Jahja), was an impostor and a self-claimed pretender to the Ottoman throne who claimed to be the son of Sultan Murad III. Biography Bac ...
, proved incapable of mustering sufficient support within the Empire in 1609, Fakhr al-Din became Tuscany's "last hope for an ally of the region", according to Ossaretti. The Tuscans, their
Papal The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...
allies, and Fakhr al-Din maintained correspondence between then and 1611. In mid-1609 Fakhr al-Din gave refuge to the Maronite patriarch Yuhanna Makhlouf upon the latter's flight from northern Mount Lebanon. In a 1610 letter from Pope
Paul V Pope Paul V (; ) (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a mem ...
to Makhlouf, the Pope entrusted Fakhr al-Din with the protection of the Maronite community. Sandys noted in 1610 that Fakhr al-Din had reactivated the port of Tyre for clandestine exchanges and trade with the Tuscans. The following year, he dispatched a Maronite bishop to be his representative in the court of Grand Duke
Cosimo II Cosimo II de' Medici (12 May 1590 – 28 February 1621) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1609 until his death. He was the elder son of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Christina of Lorraine. For the majority of his 12-year re ...
and in the
Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
.

Ottoman expedition of 1613 and flight
Fakhr al-Din lost favor in Constantinople with the death of Murad Pasha in July 1611 and the succession of
Nasuh Pasha Nasuh Pasha was an Ottoman statesman of Albanian origin. He was grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 5 August 1611 until 17 October 1614.İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971 (Turkish) He was f ...
. By then, the Ottoman imperial government, freed up from the wars with
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
and
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and the
Jelali revolts The Celali rebellions () were a series of rebellions in Anatolia of irregular troops led by bandit chiefs and provincial officials known as ''celalî'', ''celâli'', or ''jelālī'', against the authority of the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th and ...
in
Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
, had turned its attention to affairs in the Levant. The authorities had become wary of Fakhr al-Din's expanding territory, his alliance with Tuscany, his unsanctioned strengthening and garrisoning of fortresses, and his employment of outlawed . Nasuh Pasha had old grievances with Fakhr al-Din stemming from the latter's assistance to the Damascus
janissaries A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted du ...
in their standoff with imperial troops in Aleppo when the Grand Vizier had been governor there. In 1612 Fakhr al-Din sent his chief aide, or , Mustafa with 25,000 piasters to gain the goodwill of the Grand Vizier, who may have been offended by the gesture when compared with the much larger gift presented to his predecessor by Fakhr al-Din's son Ali in 1607. The Grand Vizier demanded Fakhr al-Din disband his , surrender the strategic fortresses of
Shaqif Arnun Beaufort or Belfort Castle, known locally as Qal'at al-Shaqif () or Shaqif Arnun, is a Crusader fortress in Nabatieh Governorate, Southern Lebanon, about to the south-south-east of the village of Arnoun. There was a fortification on the site ...
and Subayba, and execute his ally, the chieftain of
Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...
, Yunus al-Harfush; the orders were ignored. Not long after, Fakhr al-Din repulsed an assault by the beylerbey of Damascus,
Hafiz Ahmed Pasha Hafiz () or Hafez may refer to: * Hafiz (Quran), a term used by Muslims for people who have completely memorized the Qur'an ** ''Al-Ḥafīẓ'', one of the names of God in Islam, meaning "the Ever-Preserving/Guardian/All-Watching/ Protector" Pe ...
, against Yunus al-Harfush and Ahmad Shihab. To check Fakhr al-Din, the Ottomans appointed
Farrukh Pasha Farrukh Pasha ibn Abdullah (also known as Farrukh Bey) (died 1620–21) was the Ottoman governor of Nablus and Jerusalem in the early 17th century, and founder of the Farrukh dynasty, which held the governorship of Nablus and other posts for much ...
to the neighboring sanjaks of
Ajlun Ajloun (, ''‘Ajlūn''), also spelled Ajlun, is the capital town of the Ajloun Governorate, a hilly town in the north of Jordan, located 76 kilometers (around 47 miles) north west of Amman. It is noted for its impressive ruins of the 12th-centur ...
and
Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...
, and drove out two of his allied Bedouin chiefs from Ajlun and the
Hauran The Hauran (; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, to the northeast by the al-Safa field, to the east and south by the Harrat ...
, both of whom took refuge with Fakhr al-Din. The latter avoided direct conflict with the Ottoman government by deferring the Bedouin chiefs' requests for assistance while awaiting the imperial authorities' response to a gift of money and goods he sent. Nonetheless, at the urging of his Damascene janissary ally Hajj Kiwan, Fakhr al-Din moved to restore his allies to their home regions, sending with them his son Ali at the head of 3,000 men. With help from the Sayfas, who sought to mend ties with the Ma'ns, Ali defeated Farrukh Pasha and the faction of Damascene janissaries opposed to the Ma'ns at
Muzayrib Muzayrib (, also spelled Mzerib, Mzeireb, Mzereeb, Mezereeb or al-Mezereeb) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located northwest of Daraa on the Jordan–Syria border. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh ...
on 21 May 1613. In response, Nasuh Pasha appointed Ahmed Pasha at the head of 2,000 imperial janissaries and the troops of some sixty beylerbeys and sanjak-beys to move against Fakhr al-Din. Fakhr al-Din garrisoned Shaqif Arnun and Subayba, both containing five years' worth of provisions and ammunition, with his under the commanders Husayn Yaziji and Husayn Tawil, respectively. He sent Ali to take safety with his Bedouin allies in the desert, while sending a Sunni delegation to Damascus led by Khalidi with a peace proposal entailing large payments to the authorities. The proposal was rejected, and on 16 September, Ahmed Pasha had all the roads from Mount Lebanon into the desert blocked and the port of Sidon blockaded to prevent Fakhr al-Din's escape by land or sea. He sent a new sanjak-bey to Safed, where Fakhr al-Din was headquartered at the time, prompting Fakhr al-Din's flight to Sidon. He bribed the deputy admiral of the blockade to allow his escape and boarded a European ship for
Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...
, Tuscany. Fakhr al-Din's defected to Ahmed Pasha during the campaign, and most of Fakhr al-Din's allies and other local chiefs, namely the Shihabs, Harfushes, Turabays, Hayars, and Qansuhs, also joined the Ottomans, with the exception of his Bedouin ally, the Mafarija chief Amr ibn Jabr, who refused to surrender Fakhr al-Din's son Ali. Abu-Husayn explains their defections as a reflection of "the precariousness of the alliances made by Fakhr al-Din" and the Ottomans' ability to reassert control over the Levant when they were "seriously challenged" there. The Sayfas used the campaign to restore their ties with the Ottoman imperial government and revive their former power. Yusuf's son Husayn backed Ahmed Pasha's siege of Shaqif Arnun and proceeded to burn
Deir al-Qamar Deir al-Qamar () is a city south-east of Beirut in south-central Lebanon. It is located five kilometres outside of Beit ed-Dine in the Chouf District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate at 800 m of average altitude. History Crusader period The ol ...
, the headquarters village of the Ma'ns. In the invasion of the Chouf, Ahmed Pasha and the Sayfas were helped by Druze rivals of Fakhr al-Din. The Ma'ns led by Fakhr al-Din's brother Yunus sued for peace, sending Sitt Nasab and a delegation of thirty Druze religious notables to Ahmed Pasha with a 25,000-piaster payment to him personally and a promised payment of 300,000 piasters to the Ottoman imperial authorities. Ahmed Pasha accepted and ordered Husayn to halt the burning of Deir al-Qamar.

Exile in Tuscany and Sicily
Shortly after his arrival in Livorno on 3 November, Fakhr al-Din went to
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
. His arrival surprised the Medici, who offered to escort him back to Mount Lebanon and were irked by his refusal. Later that month, Pope Paul V informed the Medici of his opposition to military aid for Fakhr al-Din to avoid provoking a naval war with the Ottomans. The Medici also sought to avoid conflict and in correspondence with Nasuh Pasha in 1614 the latter offered to pardon Fakhr al-Din in return for restricting the port of Sidon to domestic trade with the Ottoman ports of Constantinople, Alexandretta and
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
. Ottoman–Tuscan negotiations about Fakhr al-Din's fate continued through 1615. After Nasuh Pasha's death in 1614, Fakhr al-Din also began direct attempts to reconcile with the Ottoman government. Khalidi's chronicle omits Fakhr al-Din's time in Tuscany, mentioning only his departure and return. A supplement attributed to Khalidi by his chronicle's 20th-century editors provides a detailed account of Fakhr al-Din's time in exile, based in large part on Fakhr al-Din's narrations to Khalidi; Abu-Husayn calls its author "unknown", considering Khalidi's authorship to be "doubtful". Livorno remained Fakhr al-Din's primary residence, but during stays in Florence he was housed in the apartment of the late Pope
Leo X Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political and banking Me ...
in the
Palazzo Vecchio The ( "Old Palace") is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the , which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. Originally called the ''Palazzo della Signoria'', a ...
. He signed a letter in May requesting permission to remain in Tuscany until it was safe for him to return to Mount Lebanon, after which he relocated to the
Palazzo Medici The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a 15th-century Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It was built for the Medici family, who dominated the politics of the Repu ...
where he remained until July 1615. Afterwards, Fakhr al-Din moved to
Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...
in
Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
at the invitation of its viceroy, Pedro Téllez-Girón of the
Spanish Habsburgs Habsburg Spain refers to Spain and the Hispanic Monarchy, also known as the Catholic Monarchy, in the period from 1516 to 1700 when it was ruled by kings from the House of Habsburg. In this period the Spanish Empire was at the zenith of its in ...
. The Spanish Habsburgs, who were the strongest advocates of a new crusade, probably held Fakhr al-Din against his will for the next two years, possibly to threaten the Ottomans, according to Olsaretti. The viceroy allowed him a reconnaissance visit to Mount Lebanon later in 1615. He was not permitted to disembark; instead, Yunus and other kinsmen and supporters greeted him on board and informed him that "all of the people of the Shuf houf awaited his return. On his return to Sicily he stopped in
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
. When the viceroy moved, in succession, to
Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...
and
Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, Fakhr al-Din accompanied him.

Peak of power

Reestablishment of the Ma'nid domains
In June 1614 the Ottomans administratively reorganized Fakhr al-Din's former domains to curtail Ma'nid power, combining the sanjaks of Sidon-Beirut and Safed into a separate eyalet called Sidon and appointing to it a beylerbey from Constantinople. The new appointee redistributed control of the Druze Mountain's among pro-Ottoman Druze chiefs, restricting the Ma'ns' to the Chouf. Political circumstances in the Empire soon after shifted to the Ma'ns' favor, beginning with the replacement of the executed Nasuh Pasha in November 1614, the dissolution of the Sidon Eyalet in early 1615, and the dismissal of Ahmed Pasha in Damascus in April 1615. The Ottoman–Safavid wars resumed about the same time, siphoning Ottoman troops from the Levant to the Iranian front. The authorities appointed Ali to the governorships of Sidon-Beirut and Safed in December 1615 in return for large payments. The imperial government's principal objective, the dismantlement of the Ma'nid-held fortresses of Shaqif Arnun and Subayba, was carried out in May 1616. Despite their official appointments, the Ma'ns faced continued opposition from their traditional Druze rivals, who were backed by the Sayfas. The Ma'ns defeated them in four engagements in the heart of the Druze Mountain. In the course of the fighting, the Ma'ns recaptured Beirut and the Keserwan from the Sayfas. Ali granted the in his sanjak mainly to his uncle Yunus and the Ma'ns' allies from the Tanukh and Abu al-Lama families. Growing opposition to the Ma'ns by the Shias of Safed Sanjak culminated with their support for Fakhr al-Din's former commander Yaziji's efforts to replace Ali as sanjak-bey and their alliance with the Shia Harfushes in 1617–1618. Yaziji was killed after taking up office in Safed in June 1618, and Ali was restored to the post. The Ottomans pardoned Fakhr al-Din and he returned to Mount Lebanon, arriving in Acre on 29 September 1618. From that point there was no further active Druze opposition to Fakhr al-Din. In Acre Fakhr al-Din held a reception for the rural chieftains across the Levant arriving to greet him, which included all those who joined the 1613 expedition against the Ma'ns. Uneasy about the growing ties between the Harfushes and the Shia chiefs of Safed, he moved to supervise the collection of taxes in the predominantly Shia Bilad Bishara area in December. This prompted the Shia notable families of Ali Saghir, Munkir, Shukr, and Daghir to take refuge with Yunus al-Harfush and evade payment. Fakhr al-Din responded by destroying their homes. In response to the flight of the Jallaqs, a Shia family from Safed city, to
Afiq Afik () is an Israeli settlement organized as a kibbutz in the Golan Heights. It was established in 1972 close to the abandoned Syrian village of Fiq following Israel's capture and occupation of the Golan Heights in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. I ...
, he captured Afiq, killed fifteen Shia refugees there and took captive the Jallaq women. Afterward, the Shia chiefs of the sanjak agreed to return and concede to Fakhr al-Din's rule; he subsequently released the captives. Shia levies thereafter joined his army in his later military campaigns.

War with the Sayfas and control of the Maronite districts
During his reception of the Levantine chiefs in Acre, Fakhr al-Din had berated the Sayfas for their hostility in the preceding five years. In 1618 or 1619, he moved against the Sayfas with imperial sanction under the guise of assisting Tripoli's beylerbey Umar Kittanji Pasha with the collection of taxes in his eyalet, which continued to be controlled by the Sayfas. On 4 February 1619 he captured and looted their stronghold of Hisn Akkar and four days later besieged Yusuf and the latter's Druze allies in the Krak des Chevaliers. During the siege, word had reached Fakhr al-Din that the Ottoman imperial government, probably seeking to avoid a total victory by the Ma'ns, reappointed Yusuf to the governorship of Tripoli. Fakhr al-Din pressed on with the siege and demanded a payment of 150,000 piasters from the Sayfas, while he sent a detachment to burn the Sayfas' home village of
Akkar Akkar District () is the only district in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon. It is coextensive with the governorate and covers an area of . The UNHCR estimated the population of the district to be 389,899 in 2015, including 106,935 registered refugees o ...
and gained the defection of the Sayfas' men in the forts of
Byblos Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...
and Smar Jbeil. The beylerbeys of Damascus and Aleppo mobilized their troops in
Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...
and Hama, respectively, in support of Yusuf, who afterward persuaded Fakhr al-Din to accept a promissory payment of 50,000 piasters and lift the siege in March. Fakhr al-Din's control of the
Byblos Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...
and
Batroun Batroun ( ';, ancient Botrys (), is a coastal city in northern Lebanon and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the capital city of Batroun District. The main Political Party of this city is the Free patriotic ...
and his earlier leasing of their from Umar Kittanji was recognized by Yusuf in May in lieu of the promised payment. Fakhr al-Din was charged by the imperial authorities with collecting tax arrears from Yusuf in June/July 1621, thereby giving him imperial cover to assault the Sayfas once again. He captured the Bahsas fort on Tripoli's southern outskirts and besieged the
Citadel of Tripoli The Citadel of Tripoli ( ) is a 12th-century fortress in Tripoli, Lebanon. It was built at the top of a hill "during the initial Frankish siege of the city between 1102 and 1109" on the orders of Raymond de Saint-Gilles, who baptized it the Cas ...
. Under pressure, Yusuf agreed to sell Fakhr al-Din his properties in Ghazir and
Antelias Antelias () is a city in Lebanon in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate. It is located around 5 km to the north of Beirut. Etymology The name is originally Greek, ἀντήλιος – from ἀντί(anti) "contra" and ἥλ� ...
, both in the Keserwan, and Beirut, in return for cancelling Yusuf's personal debts to him. The siege was maintained pending Yusuf's payment of the tax arrears to the government, until Yusuf persuaded the authorities that Fakhr al-Din was using his imperial commission to annex Tripoli. Upon the imperial government's orders, Fakhr al-Din withdrew from Tripoli on 2 October 1621. Yusuf was dismissed again in October/November 1622 after failing to remit the promised tax payments, but refused to hand over power to his replacement Umar Kittanji, who in turn requested Fakhr al-Din's military support. Fakhr al-Din complied in return for the of the Tripoli of Dinniyeh,
Bsharri Bsharri ( ''Bšarrī''; also romanized ''Becharre'', ''Bcharre'', ''Bsharre'', ''Bcharre Al Arz'') is a Lebanese town located in the district of the same name, North Governorate, situated at altitudes between and . Bsharri is the location o ...
and Akkar. Once Fakhr al-Din set out from Ghazir, Yusuf abandoned Tripoli for Akkar. Fakhr al-Din thereafter sent his Maronite ally Abu Safi Khazen, the brother of his fiscal and political adviser and scribe, or , Abu Nadir Khazen, to occupy Maronite-populated Bsharri, thereby ending the rule of the local Maronite established since the late 14th century. The dismissed and his son were soon after executed by Fakhr al-Din in connection to the son's raid of a Maronite monastery near
Hasroun Hasroun (also Hasrun or Hasroon, Arabic: حصرون ) is a village located in the Bsharri District in the North Governorate of Lebanon. It is situated in the Valley of Qadisha, overlooking the southern branch of this valley, the Qannoubine Valle ...
. The Maronites of Bsharri are likely to have welcomed the end of the , the last several of whom failed to protect the interests of their church and community. Fakhr al-Din secured the defection of Yusuf's son Beylik and their combined forces reentered Tripoli on 13 March 1623. An imperial order arrived a few days later reappointing Yusuf to the eyalet. Umar Kittanji attempted to resist his dismissal, but Fakhr al-Din, by then in practical control of most of the eyalet, insisted that the imperial government's orders be followed. He subsequently escorted the outgoing beylerbey to Beirut and ordered Beylik to return to his father. In May/June, Fakhr al-Din mobilized his forces in Bsharri in support of Yusuf's rebellious nephew Sulayman, who controlled
Safita Safita ( '; , ''Sōpūte'') is a city in the Tartus Governorate, western Syria, located to the southeast of Tartus and to the northwest of Krak des Chevaliers. It is situated on the tops of three hills and the valleys between them, in the Syrian ...
. Yusuf had moved against Sulayman, but relented after Fakhr al-Din's attempted intervention, thereby confirming the Ma'ns as the practical overlords of Safita. Meanwhile, Beylik, who had been appointed by his father to govern Akkar, expelled Yusuf's from the and declared support for Fakhr al-Din.

Battle of Anjar and aftermath
In 1623, Yunus al-Harfush prohibited the Druze of the Chouf from cultivating their lands in the southern Beqaa, angering Fakhr al-Din. In August/September 1623 he stationed in the southern Beqaa village of
Qabb Ilyas Qabb Ilyas (; ALA-LC: ''Qab Ilyās'' / Lebanese Arabic: ) also spelled ''Kab Elias'', ''Qab Elias'', ''Qob Elias'', ''Qoub Elias'') is a municipality in Zahle District, in eastern Lebanon. Qabb Ilyas is 15 kilometers from Zahleh and from the Leb ...
and evicted the Harfushes. Meanwhile, in June or July, the imperial authorities had replaced Fakhr al-Din's son Ali as sanjak-bey of Safed and replaced his other son Husayn and Mustafa Kethuda as the sanjak-beys of Ajlun and Nablus respectively with local opponents of Fakhr al-Din. The imperial authorities soon after restored the Ma'ns to Ajlun and Nablus, but not to Safed. The Ma'ns thereupon moved to assume control of Ajlun and Nablus, prompting Yunus al-Harfush to call on the janissary leader Kurd Hamza, who wielded significant influence over the beylerbey of Damascus, Mustafa Pasha, to block their advance. Kurd Hamza then secured Yunus al-Harfush's appointment to Safed, followed by a failed attempt by Fakhr al-Din to outbid him for the governorship. Fakhr al-Din launched a campaign against the Turabays and Farrukhs in northern Palestine, but was defeated in a battle at the Awja River near
Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...
. On his way back to Mount Lebanon from the abortive Palestine campaign, Fakhr al-Din was notified that the imperial government had reappointed his sons and allies to Safed, Ajlun, and Nablus. The reversal was linked to the successions of Sultan
Murad IV Murad IV (, ''Murād-ı Rābiʿ''; , 27 July 1612 – 8 February 1640) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad I ...
() and Grand Vizier Kemankeş Ali Pasha, the latter of whom had been bribed by Fakhr al-Din's agent in Constantinople to restore the Ma'ns to their former sanjaks. Mustafa Pasha and Kurd Hamza, nonetheless, proceeded to launch an expedition against the Ma'ns. Fakhr al-Din arrived in Qabb Ilyas on 22 October, and immediately moved to restore lost money and provisions from the Palestine campaign by raiding the nearby villages of
Karak Nuh Karak (also Kerak, Karak Nuh or Karak Noah) () is a village in the municipality of Zahlé in the Zahle District of the Beqaa Governorate in eastern Lebanon. It is located on the Baalbek road close to Zahle. Karak contains a sarcophagus claimed ...
and Sar'in, both held by the Harfushes. Afterward, the Damascenes, the Harfushes, and the Sayfas set out from Damascus, while Fakhr al-Din mobilized his Druze fighters, , and Shia levies. He sent the Shihabs to serve as his vanguard in the tower of Anjar, but by the time Fakhr al-Din arrived there in early November 1623, the Shihabs had been driven off and the Sayfas and Harfushes had taken over the tower. Fakhr al-Din immediately routed the Damascene janissaries at Anjar and captured Mustafa Pasha, while Kurd Hamza and Yunus al-Harfush escaped to Aleppo. Fakhr al-Din extracted from the beylerbey confirmation of the Ma'ns' governorships, his appointment over
Gaza Sanjak Gaza Sanjak (), known in Arabic as Bilād Ghazza (the Land of Gaza), was a sanjak of the Damascus Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire centered in Gaza, and spread northwards up to the Yarkon River. In the 16th century it was divided into ''nawahi'' ...
, his son Mansur over Lajjun Sanjak, and Ali over the southern Beqaa . The appointments to Gaza, Nablus and Lajjun were not implemented due to the opposition of local powerholders. Fakhr al-Din plundered Baalbek soon after Anjar and captured and destroyed its citadel on 28 March, after a months-long siege. The Aleppine historian Utayfi observed in 1634 that "the city of Baalbek ... was in ruins ... destroyed by Fakhr al-Din Ibn Ma'n in his war with Banu al-Harfush". Yunus al-Harfush was imprisoned by the beylerbey of Aleppo and executed in 1625, the same year that Fakhr al-Din gained the governorship of the Baalbek , according to Duwayhi. The imperial government had replaced Mustafa Pasha in January 1624, but without Fakhr al-Din's agreement, the new beylerbey could not assume office in Damascus. Mustafa Pasha remained in place and Fakhr al-Din secured from him the governorship of the
Zabadani Al-Zabadani or Az-Zabadani () is a city and popular hill station in southwestern Syria in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, close to the border with Lebanon. It is located in the center of a green valley surrounded by high mountains at an elevation of ...
for his Shihab proxy Qasim ibn Ali. By March, Fakhr al-Din turned against Mustafa Pasha in favor of his replacement, but the new beylerbey died soon afterward, and Mustafa Pasha was reinstated in April. Relations between Fakhr al-Din and Mustafa Pasha subsequently soured.

Takeover of Tripoli and zenith
Information about the career of Fakhr al-Din after 1624 is limited due to the deaths of his main contemporary chroniclers and the increasing silence of known Ottoman government sources. Most information about his post-1624 years are provided by Duwayhi. The claim by the local 19th-century chroniclers Haydar al-Shihabi and
Tannus al-Shidyaq Tannus ibn Yusuf al-Shidyaq ( – 1861), also transliterated ''Tannous el-Chidiac'', was a Maronite clerk and emissary of the Shihab emirs, the feudal chiefs and tax farmers of Ottoman Mount Lebanon, and a chronicler best known for his work on th ...
that Murad IV, powerless against Fakhr al-Din's ''de facto'' control over large parts of the Levant, recognized him as ('ruler of the Land f the Levant) in 1624, is a fabrication, according to Abu-Husayn. In 1624, Fakhr al-Din lent his backing to Umar Kittanji after the latter was denied entry into Tripoli by Yusuf, who resisted Umar Kittanji's reappointment to the eyalet that year. After mobilizing in support of Umar Kittanji in
Batroun Batroun ( ';, ancient Botrys (), is a coastal city in northern Lebanon and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the capital city of Batroun District. The main Political Party of this city is the Free patriotic ...
in April, Fakhr al-Din stalled from further military action while negotiating with Yusuf over fiscal concessions. Fakhr al-Din secured another four-year over Byblos, Batroun and Bsharri. Yusuf was restored as beylerbey in August, but his practical control was limited to Tripoli city, the Krak des Chevaliers, the Koura , and the
Jableh Jableh (; ', also spelt ''Jebleh'', ''Jabala'', ''Jablah, Gabala'' or ''Gibellum'') is a Mediterranean coastal city in Syria, north of Baniyas and south of Latakia, with c. 80,000 inhabitants (2004 census). As Ancient ''Gabala'', it was a By ...
sanjak, while most of the remaining areas, including
Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...
, were held by Fakhr al-Din or his allies and sons-in-law among Yusuf's sons and nephews. A few months after Yusuf's death in July 1625, Fakhr al-Din launched an abortive assault against Tripoli. He cooperated with its new beylerbey, Mustafa Pasha ibn Iskandar, in the latter's offensive against the Sayfas in the eyalet. He forced out his old ally Sulayman Sayfa from the Safita fortress and was later ceded the fortresses of Krak des Chevaliers and
Marqab Margat, also known as Marqab (), is a castle near Baniyas, Syria, which was a Crusader fortress and one of the major strongholds of the Knights Hospitaller. It is located around from the Mediterranean coast and approximately south of Baniyas. ...
by Yusuf's sons. In return, Fakhr al-Din influenced the beylerbey to leave the Sayfas undisturbed. In September 1626, he captured the fortress of
Salamiyah file:Hama qalat shmemis salamiyyah syria 1995.jpg, A full view of Shmemis (spring 1995) Salamiyah (; also transliterated ''Salamiyya'', ''Salamieh'' or ''Salamya'') is a city in central Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate. It is ...
, followed by Hama and Homs, appointing his deputies to govern them. Following the appointments of two more beylerbeys to the eyalet, Fakhr al-Din was appointed beylerbey of Tripoli in 1627, according solely to Duwayhi. The near-contemporary Aleppine historian Ramadan al-Utayfi noted that Fakhr al-Din controlled Tripoli until his downfall, but does not specify whether he held office. Ottoman government records affirm that he held the of the Tripoli of
Arqa Arqa (; ) is a Lebanese village near Miniara in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon, 22 km northeast of Tripoli, near the coast. The town was a notable city-state during the Iron Age. The city of ''Irqata'' sent 10,000 soldiers to the coalition a ...
, Akkar, Dinniyeh, Safita, Krak des Chevaliers, Byblos, Batroun, in addition to the of Sidon-Beirut, Safed and Baalbek, for most of 1625–1630. His were expanded to Jableh and
Latakia Latakia (; ; Syrian Arabic, Syrian pronunciation: ) is the principal port city of Syria and capital city of the Latakia Governorate located on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, it has also been known as Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad Mar ...
in 1628–1629. By the early 1630s, Muhibbi noted that Fakhr al-Din had captured many places around Damascus, controlled thirty fortresses, commanded a large army of , and that the "only thing left for him to do was to claim the Sultanate".

Fall and execution
In 1630 or 1631, Fakhr al-Din denied the attempted winter housing of imperial troops returning from a failed campaign against the Safavids in territory under his control. The early 18th-century Ottoman historian
Mustafa Naima Mustafa Naima (; ''Muṣṭafā Na'īmā''; Aleppo, Ottoman Syria 1655 – 1716) was an Ottoman bureaucrat and historian who wrote the chronicle known as the ''Tārīḫ-i Na'īmā'' (''Naima's History''). He is often considered to be the f ...
held that Fakhr al-Din's growing army and power by this point induced fear among the Ottomans that he would take over Damascus. Murad IV was alarmed at his growing presence in northern Syria, near the Empire's Anatolian heartland. Numerous complaints about Fakhr al-Din were submitted to the Sultan. The Ottomans' victories against the Safavids in 1629 are likely to have freed up their forces to deal with Fakhr al-Din and other rebels across the Empire. The imperial authorities appointed the veteran general Kuchuk Ahmed Pasha to the governorship of Damascus and promoted him to the high rank of vizier in 1632 for the purpose of eliminating Fakhr al-Din. Kuchuk led a large army toward Mount Lebanon, defeating the Ma'ns led by Ali, who was slain, near Khan Hasbaya in Wadi al-Taym. Fakhr al-Din and his retinue subsequently took refuge in a cave in Niha in the southern Chouf or further south in
Jezzine Jezzine ( ''Jizzīn'') is a municipality in Lebanon, located from Sidon and south of Beirut. It is the capital of Jezzine District. Surrounded by mountain peaks, pine forests (like the Bkassine Pine Forest), and at an average altitude of 95 ...
. Unable to access the cave, Kuchuk started fires around it to smoke out Fakhr al-Din. He and his men consequently surrendered to Kuchuk. His sons Mansur and Husayn, the latter of whom was stationed in Marqab, had already been captured by Kuchuk. His sons Hasan, Haydar, and Bulak, his brother Yunus and nephew Hamdan ibn Yunus were all executed by Kuchuk during the expedition. Kuchuk confiscated the money and goods in Fakhr al-Din's possession. A 1634 document from the
Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
Court in Damascus, which recorded the confiscation and disposal of his estate, referred to Fakhr al-Din as "a man well known for having rebelled against the sublime Sultanate". Kuchuk escorted him, chained on a horse, through Damascus where the local poets sang Kuchuk's praises for toppling Fakhr al-Din. Afterward, Fakhr al-Din was sent to Constantinople. There, he was imprisoned in
Yedikule Yedikule (''Seven Towers'') is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Fatih, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its population is 15,789 (2022). It is named after the seven-towered Yedikule Fortress, which surrounds the neighborhood. Urbaniz ...
, while his two sons were sent to the
Galata Galata is the former name of the Karaköy neighbourhood in Istanbul, which is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn. The district is connected to the historic Fatih district by several bridges that cross the Golden Horn, most nota ...
saray. In March or April 1635, Fakhr al-Din was beheaded and Mansur was strangled and tossed into the sea on the orders of Murad IV. Fakhr al-Din's body was displayed in the
Hippodrome Hippodrome is a term sometimes used for public entertainment venues of various types. A modern example is the Hippodrome which opened in London in 1900 "combining circus, hippodrome, and stage performances". The term hippodroming refers to fr ...
. The executions may have been prompted by complaints against the Ma'ns, particularly the operations of Fakhr al-Din's nephew Mulhim ibn Yunus against Fakhr al-Din's government-appointed replacement in the Chouf, Ali Alam al-Din. After his execution, his wives, all of whom were imprisoned in the
Citadel of Damascus The Citadel of Damascus () is a large medieval fortified palace and citadel in Damascus, Syria. It is part of the Old city of Damascus, Ancient City of Damascus, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The location of the curr ...
, were hanged. His maternal kinsmen, the Tanukh, were all killed by Alam al-Din. Husayn, still a youth, was spared execution and went on to have a career as a high-ranking imperial official and diplomat. In the assessment of Olsaretti, "more profound causes than a string of military events were responsible for Fakhr al-Din's fall". Among the contributing factors were the unstable relations between Constantinople and the Levantine provinces with every change of sultan and grand vizier; Fakhr al-Din permanently fell out of imperial favor with Murad IV's accession in 1623. Fakhr al-Din's victories over his local rivals, such as the Sayfas and Mustafa Pasha, removed any serious checks on his power by local forces, eventually provoking an imperial backlash. His increased dependence on mercenaries in the late 1620s allowed and financially necessitated him to raise more revenue from the local population, risking their goodwill towards him. Duwayhi noted that in 1631 Fakhr al-Din sold large quantities of grain to foreign merchants during a period of scarcity, which increased food prices and burdened the inhabitants of his territories. Moreover, social and political conditions in general began to favor stronger, centralized states at the expense of local actors, such as the Ma'nid
emirate An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalent ...
.

Politics

Economic policies
Fakhr al-Din's basic governing policy was based on the collection of sufficient revenue to satisfy the exorbitant demands of the Ottoman imperial government and to elicit the goodwill of the pashas of Damascus through bribes. To raise revenue, he introduced more productive agricultural methods to his territories and promoted commerce. Sandys, who visited Sidon in 1611, observed that Fakhr al-Din had amassed a fortune "gathered by wiles and extortion" from locals and foreign merchants, counterfeited Dutch coins, and was a "severe justice", who restored the ruined structures and repopulated the once-abandoned settlements in his domains. The tax farms which Fakhr al-Din and his family held practically undisturbed from the 1590s were the principal source of his income. The price the Ma'ns paid the imperial authorities for the tax farms remained fixed despite their increasing value, enabling Fakhr al-Din to keep the greater part of their revenue. Fakhr al-Din protected commercial agriculture in his tax farms and encouraged the growing of cash crops, which were purchased by foreign merchants at a relatively high cost. Special attention was paid to
silk production Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth is the most widely used and intensively studied silkworm. This spe ...
due to high demand in Europe. The Levantine raw
silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
market had developed in the mid-16th century due to fluctuations in the Iranian silk supply. Mount Lebanon became a center of production by 1550 and its silk exports became an important commodity in Venetian trade by the 1570s. Once in control of Tripoli Eyalet in 1627, Fakhr al-Din planted 12,000 or 14,000
mulberry tree ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinate ...
s in Tripoli's outskirts and another large mulberry grove in nearby Hisah. As part of his efforts to foster the export of silk, he sent a gift of silk to Tuscany, which reciprocated the following year by sending him five vessels of goods. Significant profits were also derived from cotton, grain, olive oil, and wine. In Safed, where political and economic conditions in the sanjak had deteriorated in the years preceding Fakhr al-Din's appointment, the imperial authorities lauded him in 1605 for "guarding the country, keeping the Bedouins in check, ensuring the welfare and tranquility of the population, promoting agriculture, and increasing prosperity", a state of affairs affirmed by Khalidi. The Ottoman naval defeat by a
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
–Venetian coalition at Lepanto in 1571 had increased European economic and political influence in the eastern Mediterranean, including a revival of European–Levantine trade. Towards the end of the 16th century and during the early 17th century, the Ottoman Empire experienced a long-term economic crisis characterized by high inflation, heavy taxation, and political instability. Fakhr al-Din turned the changing economic circumstances to his advantage by opening the ports of Sidon, Beirut and Acre to European trade ships, building hostel-warehouses—known as
khans Khan may refer to: * Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name * Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by various ethnicities Art and entertainment * Khan (band), an English progressiv ...
—for merchants there, and establishing friendly ties with European powers. In contrast to the extortion of foreign merchants by the Assafs and Sayfas, the contemporary Arabic, Venetian, and Tuscan sources all emphasized the close relations between Fakhr al-Din, the French, English,
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, and Tuscan merchants and the English and French consuls in Sidon. Fakhr al-Din used a local merchant as his representative in negotiations with foreign traders. In 1622, he secured the release of French traders captured by Moroccan pirates in Acre and assisted the completion of their activities in the town. In 1625, before Fakhr al-Din's capture of Tripoli, the governor of Aleppo had that city's fortifications dismantled to sway foreign merchants there to operate in Aleppine ports; instead, the mostly French and Flemish traders relocated to Fakhr al-Din's Sidon. Under his watch, Sidon was poised to continue prospering at the expense of Aleppo and its Mediterranean ports. In 1630, the Medici granted Fakhr al-Din's request to post a permanent representative to Sidon by dispatching an unofficial consul who operated under the French flag to avoid violating Ottoman capitulation agreements. In the assessment of Salibi, at a time when the Empire "was sinking to destitution because of its failure to adapt to changing circumstances, the realm of Faḫr al-dīn Maʿn ic in the southern Lebanon
ange Ange or Anges may refer to: Places * Angé, Loir-et-Cher department, France, a commune * Ånge Municipality, Västernorrland County, Sweden ** Ånge, the seat of Ånge Municipality * Änge, Jämtland County, Sweden, a locality * Ange (river), Ai ...
and
Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...
, attracted attention as a tiny corner into which the silver of Europe flowed".

Fortifications and troops
Fakhr al-Din spent the surpluses from his mainly on fortifications and other infrastructure, which promoted the order and stability required for agriculture and trade to thrive. He obtained and strengthened fortresses throughout his early career, starting with the Chouf redoubt of Niha in 1590, followed in 1594 by fortifications in Beirut, Sidon's inland fort, and the fort guarding Sidon's port. After his appointment to Safed, he obtained Shaqif Arnun in Jabal Amil, formerly held by the Shia
Sa'b family The Sa'b family is a prominent Shia Muslim family in Lebanon. History The Sa'bs were of Kurdish tribal origin and during the Ottoman era became a leading family (''zu'ama'') among the Shia Muslims of the Jabal Amil area of modern southern Lebanon ...
and which he heavily provisioned and garrisoned, and Subayba in
Mount Hermon Mount Hermon ( / ALA-LC: ('Mountain of the Sheikh', ), , ) is a mountain, mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the Lebanon–Syria border, border between Syria and Lebanon a ...
. Sandys noted that Fakhr al-Din's "invincible forts" were equipped for a lengthy war. After returning from exile in 1618, he strengthened the fortifications of Acre. The coastal forts of Sidon, Beirut, and Acre were "remarkable for both their strength and the fact they incorporated storage for merchandise", according to Olsaretti. He built watchtowers to guard the mulberry groves he planted in and around Tripoli. Fakhr al-Din kept the costs of his private army relatively low during his early career as he relied mainly on local peasant levies. Although generally less skilled than professional soldiers, their permanent presence made them readily available in times of war. European government estimates of his local forces between 1605 and 1614 ranged from 10,000 to 30,000, while Sandys estimated the number to be 40,000 Muslims and Christians. Local levies constituted the bulk of the Ma'nid army until the Battle of Anjar in 1623. The peasants' principal responsibility was agriculture, which limited the amount of time and the distance in which the Ma'ns could deploy them during campaigns. As their territories and agricultural production grew, the Ma'ns' use of peasant armies decreased. Khalidi noted that in 1617 the Ma'ns were not able to mobilize more than a small number of troops because the bulk of the levies were needed to work the mulberry groves. According to Khalidi and a Tuscan agent sent to Sidon, in 1614 Fakhr al-Din employed 1,500 professional infantry and 150 mounted musketeers, who accounted for his largest single expense. The were a mobile force used in small-scale engagements, sieges, patrols over key roads, and against pirates and brigands. From the 1620s onward, Fakhr al-Din relied on increasing numbers of . He compensated for the higher cost of their employment by taking larger shares of the surplus from his at the expense of the peasantry.

Assessment
Fakhr al-Din's political ambitions spanned well beyond the Druze Mountain and he attached equal importance to controlling the sanjaks and eyalets of Sidon-Beirut, Safed, Tripoli, and Ajlun. Harris places Fakhr al-Din, along with the heads of the Janbulad, Assaf, Sayfa, and Turabay families, in a category of late 16th–early 17th-century Levantine "super chiefs ... serviceable for the Ottoman pursuit of 'divide and rule' ... They could war among themselves and even with the governor of Damascus ... but were in deep trouble if the Ottomans became agitated about revenue or loyalty". In the assessment of the historian Adnan Bakhit, Fakhr al-Din was a Syrian strongman who was afforded space by the Ottomans to suppress and eliminate other local strongmen until he was destroyed by the Ottomans to facilitate their centralized rule over the Syrian eyalets. The Sunni Muslim establishment in Ottoman Damascus generally considered Fakhr al-Din as a tyrant, rebel, and infidel. Salibi held that in the "annals of Ottoman Syria" Fakhr al-Din "stands out as a brilliant figure by any standard". In his assessment, Fakhr al-Din "was a born adventurer who combined military skill and eminent qualities of leadership with a keen business acumen and unusual powers of observation". The 17th-century English academic and clergyman
Henry Maundrell Henry Maundrell (1665–1701) was an academic at Oxford University and later a Church of England clergyman, who served from 20 December 1695 as chaplain to the Levant Company in Syria. His ''Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697'' ...
remarked that Fakhr al-Din was "a man much above the ordinary level of a Turkish ttomangenius". Salibi further noted that although Fakhr al-Din was "a rapacious tyrant who weighed his subjects down with taxes", he was "enlightened enough to realize that the better the condition of a people, the more they can pay". Sidon, Beirut, Acre and their mountainous countryside prospered under Fakhr al-Din. He helped modernize agriculture in his territories with Italian expertise and was the first to promote silk as a cash crop in Mount Lebanon at a time of global demand. Through his ties with the French, the Tuscans and the Papacy, he fostered the most significant European political and economic penetration of Sidon and Beirut since the collapse of the
Crusader states The Crusader states, or Outremer, were four Catholic polities established in the Levant region and southeastern Anatolia from 1098 to 1291. Following the principles of feudalism, the foundation for these polities was laid by the First Crusade ...
in the late 13th century. Under his stewardship, the city of Sidon attained political significance for the first time in its modern history. The Lebanese nationalist and
Arab nationalist Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...
histories of Sidon written in the 1960s by Munir al-Khuri and Abd al-Aziz Salim, respectively, both commend Fakhr al-Din and note his rule was a golden age for the city.

Legacy
After Fakhr al-Din's downfall, the Ottomans attempted, unsuccessfully, to undo the unity of the Druze-dominated Chouf and the Maronite-dominated Keserwan forged under Fakhr al-Din. In 1660, the Ottomans reestablished the Sidon Eyalet and in 1697, awarded Fakhr al-Din's grandnephew Ahmad ibn Mulhim the of its mountain of the Chouf, Gharb, Jurd, Matn, and Keserwan. The singular rule over the mountain by Ahmad and his successors from the Shihab clan inaugurated what became known to later historians as the " Lebanese emirate", a term that was not used until the days of the Shihab ruler
Bashir II Bashir Shihab II (, also spelled Bachir Chehab II; 2 January 1767–1850) was a Lebanese emir who ruled the Emirate of Mount Lebanon in the first half of the 19th century. Born to a branch of the Shihab family which had converted from Sunni Isl ...
(). Nonetheless, the system of fiscal cantons in Mount Lebanon introduced by the Shihabs in 1711 was the precursor to the
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861–1918, ; ) was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the 19th-century Tanzimat reform. After 1861, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian Mutasarrif (governor), which had be ...
established in 1861, which in turn, was a precursor of the modern
Lebanese Republic Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
. Although he did not actually establish a Lebanese state, Fakhr al-Din is regarded by the
Lebanese people The Lebanese people ( / Romanization of Arabic, ALA-LC: ', ) are the people inhabiting or originating from Lebanon. The term may also include those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains prior to the creation of the mod ...
as the founder of their modern country because he united the Druze and Maronite districts of Mount Lebanon, the neighboring Mediterranean coastal cities, and the Beqaa Valley under a single authority for the first time in history. According to Salibi, Fakhr al-Din's only "enduring" political legacy was the tenuous, symbiotic union of the Maronites and the Druze, which became a significant development throughout Mount Lebanon's later history. In the view of Harris, Fakhr al-Din inaugurated the continued interaction among the Druze, Maronite, Shia, and Sunni communal elites of the constituent regions of modern Lebanon, namely Mount Lebanon, Jabal Amil, the Beqaa Valley and the coast. From the establishment of the French Mandatory state of
Greater Lebanon The State of Greater Lebanon (; ), informally known as French Lebanon, was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic (; ) in May 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon. The state was declared on 1 Septembe ...
in 1920, Lebanese schoolchildren have been taught that Fakhr al-Din was the country's historical founder. Under Fakhr al-Din's leadership, Maronite,
Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...
, and
Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...
Christians began migrating to the Druze Mountain in large numbers; the devastation wrought on the Druze peasantry during the punitive government campaigns of the 16th century had probably caused a deficit of Druze farm labor for the Druze landowners, which was partly filled by the Christian migrants. Christians were settled in Druze villages by the Druze tribal chiefs in the days of Fakhr al-Din to stimulate agricultural production, centered on silk, and the chiefs donated land to the Maronite Church and monastic institutions to further facilitate Christian settlement. Fakhr al-Din made the first such donation in 1609. Although the Druze chiefs owned much of the Chouf lands on which the silk crop was grown, Christians dominated every other aspect of the silk economy there, including production, financing, brokerage to the markets of Sidon and Beirut, and its export to Europe. Fakhr al-Din's religious tolerance endeared him to the Christians living under his rule. According to Duwayhi,
Under Emir Fakhr al-Din the Christians could raise their heads high. They built churches, rode horses with saddles, wore turbans of fine
muslin Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It is commonly believed that it gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq. Muslin was produced in different regions o ...
and belts with precious inlays, and carried jeweled rifles. Missionaries from Europe came and established themselves in Mount Lebanon. This was because his troops were Christians, and his stewards and attendants Maronites.

Nationalist historiography
Modern Lebanese historians from the country's different religious communities have interpreted Fakhr al-Din's emirate, or collection of tax farms, according to their own community's conception of the Lebanese state, generally omitting divergent views. Nationalist narratives by Lebanese Druze and Maronites agree on Fakhr al-Din's "decisive influence and contribution to Lebanon's history", according to the historian Yusri Hazran, though they differ significantly in determining Fakhr al-Din's motives and the historic significance of his rule. Druze authors describe him as the ideal ruler who strove to achieve strong domestic unity, build a prosperous economy, and free Lebanon politically from Ottoman oppression. Making the case that the Ma'nids worked toward Lebanon's integration into the Arab regional environment, the Druze authors generally de-emphasize his relations with Europe and portray his drive for autonomy as the first forerunning of the Arab nationalist movement. On the other hand, Maronite authors viewed the legacy of Fakhr al-Din as one of isolation from the Arab–Islamic milieu. Fakhr al-Din himself has been adopted by a number of Maronite nationalists as a member of the religious group, citing the refuge he may have taken with the
Khazen family Khazen (also El-Khazen, Al-Khazen, Khazin or De Khazen; ) is a prominent Arab Levantine family and clan based in Keserwan District, Lebanon, Damascus, Syria, Nablus, Palestine, as well as other districts around the Levant, predominantly in the Gali ...
in the Keserwan during his adolescence, or claiming that he had embraced Christianity at his deathbed. In the view of the historian
Philip Hitti Philip Khuri Hitti (; 22 June 1886 – 24 December 1978) was a Lebanese-American professor and scholar at Princeton and Harvard University, and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history, Islam, and Semitic languages. He almost single-handedly ...
, Fakhr al-Din's "long career stood between Lebanon past and Lebanon future. It pointed to the Lebanese their destiny and established a clear-cut break between their country and
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
." According to the historian Christopher Stone, Fakhr al-Din was utilized by the
Rahbani brothers Assi Rahbani (4 May 1923 – 21 June 1986) and Mansour Rahbani (1925 – 13 January 2009), known as the Rahbani brothers (), were Lebanese sibling musicians, composers, songwriters, authors, and playwrights/dramatists, best known for their work ...
in their Lebanese nationalist play, ''The Days of Fakhr al-Din'', as "a perfect historical predecessor for Lebanon's Christian nationalism of the twentieth century".

Building works
Toward the end of his career Fakhr al-Din requested assistance from the Medici in building modern fortifications in his territory. Tuscan experts, including the architect Francesco Cioli and the builder Francesco Fagni, arrived in Sidon in 1631. D'Arvieux noted that Fakhr al-Din had a significant interest in the arts, poetry, and music. Nonetheless, the modern historian Elie Haddad holds that his communications with Tuscany indicate that Fakhr al-Din's primary concern was utilitarian, namely the defense of his territory, facilitation of movement for his soldiers, and raising the living standards of the inhabitants. Fakhr al-Din's palace in Beirut, possibly built by Cioli, combined
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
and Tuscan architectural influences, and contained a marble fountain and extensive gardens. It was no longer extant by the end of the 19th century. Fakhr al-Din's palace in Deir al-Qamar was built in the Mamluk architectural style with little ornamentation, except its arched doorway entrance with its alternating yellow and white bands of limestone, a style known as . Haddad assumes that Fagni oversaw the construction of water works and bridges at Nahr al-Kalb, Sidon, and Beirut, as well as the palace in Deir al-Qamar. Fakhr al-Din's building works in Sidon, Acre, and Deir al-Qamar "stand as a permanent tribute to the power and wealth that the Ma'ns achieved under his akhr al-Din'sleadership and to their role in the re-emergence of the Levantine coast", according to Olsaretti.

Sidon
Fakhr al-Din had his government house—known as a —built in Sidon as early as 1598. It consisted of a large courtyard, an
iwan An iwan (, , also as ''ivan'' or ''ivān''/''īvān'', , ) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...
on the ground floor, several rooms, including roofed reception areas known as , a fountain, and gardens. It was positioned immediately south of a large square in the city, today called 'Saray Square' after Fakhr al-Din's construction. Other than the entrance of the building, which is characterized by masonry and a type of ornamented
vaulting In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...
known as , the rest of the original structure had been gradually replaced through the early 19th century, when it was converted into a school; the courtyard is now a schoolyard and the garden is a playground. In its original form it was the tallest structure in Sidon and its garden had a wide variety of plants. The expansion of commercial activity and increasing wealth in Sidon overseen by Fakhr al-Din is architecturally testified by his construction of the khans and mosques he built in the city. Fakhr al-Din is commonly, though erroneously, credited with the construction of the
Khan al-Franj Khan al-Franj () is an Ottoman caravanserai in Sidon, Lebanon. The founding of the structure is traditionally attributed to the Druze emir Fakhr al-Din II, but its construction was ordered earlier, in the late 15th century by Grand Vizier Sokul ...
caravansary complex. It housed the French consul around 1616 until the consul relocated to a neighboring, formerly Ma'nid-owned property, the Dar al-Musilmani, in the 1630s. The Dar al-Musilmani was built by Fakhr al-Din, who may have used it as his original residence in the city and that of his wives. Following the capture of Fakhr al-Din by Kuchuk, the latter confiscated all of the Ma'ns' properties in Sidon, Tyre,
Banias Banias (; ; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: , etc.; ), also spelled Banyas, is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek god Pan. It had been inhabited for 2,000 years, until its Syrian population fle ...
, and other places. He initially endowed the family's properties in Sidon, sixty-nine in total and mostly owned by Fakhr al-Din, his son Ali, and brother Yunus, in an endowment—known as a
waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...
—administered from Damascus for the benefit of the Islamic holy cities of
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
and
Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...
. Among the properties were dozens of houses and shops, two khans, several mills, a soap factory, a
coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...
, and a bathhouse (or
hammam A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model ...
). Fakhr al-Din's two khans in Sidon were the Khan al-Ruzz (the Caravansary of Rice) and the Khan al-Qaysariyya, both built directly on the Mediterranean shore of the old city. The first was observed by d'Arvieux as having large stores for the storage of rice and other commodities on the ground floor, a covered gallery for the rooms housing visitors on the top floor, a large courtyard, and a small mosque. Today, the Khan al-Ruzz is in a poor state, with the lower floor used for small workshops and the upper floor permanently housing Sidonian and
Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
families, while the mosque has been replaced by a different structure. The smaller, neighboring Khan al-Qaysariyya, which abutted the Bahri Mosque, had a small, square courtyard with four stores, a second floor with a covered gallery leading to twelve rooms for visitors. D'Arvieux considered it the most beautiful of three khans of Sidon, including the Khan al-Franj. It is a sandstone structure and at present the courtyard has been built on, the lodging rooms and half of the stores have been subdivided and their structure changed. Two of the larger original stores of the Khan al-Qaysariyya remain intact and are used as shops. Fakhr al-Din built dozens of shops in the markets of Suq al-Ars and Suq al-Harir, around the three khans. A number of them continue to function in the Saray Square.

Marriages and children
Fakhr al-Din married at least four women. The sources generally omit their names, identifying them instead by their male relatives. His first wife was the sister of Muhammad ibn Jamal al-Din, a chief of the Arslans of
Choueifat Choueifat (, also transliterated Shuwayfat) is one of the biggest and most important cities in southeast of Beirut in Lebanon. The city is a Druze enclave that lies on the eastern side of Beirut's airport. The local population of the city is made ...
in the Gharb. The marriage was arranged by Fakhr al-Din's mother and uncle Sayf al-Din to reconcile tensions with the Yamani Druze faction of which the Arslans were part. She was known in the sources by the honorific term 'Sultana', as Sitt Nasab was also known. She gave birth to Fakhr al-Din's eldest son Ali. His second marriage was to a woman from the Qaysi Druze faction, to which the Ma'ns belonged, and nothing further is known about her. In a series of peace settlements with the Sayfas, Fakhr al-Din established marital ties with the family. In 1613, he wed Alwa, a daughter of Yusuf's brother Ali Sayfa, who gave birth to his sons Husayn and Hasan in 1621 and 1624, respectively, and a daughter, Sitt al-Nasr. Sitt al-Nasr was married to Yusuf's son Hasan before 1618, and when Hasan died in 1623 she was remarried to his brother Umar in January 1624. Another of Fakhr al-Din's daughters was wed to Yusuf's son Beylik in 1620, while Fakhr al-Din's son Ali was wed to Yusuf's daughter in the same year. In 1617, one of Fakhr al-Din's daughters was officially wed to Ahmad, a son of Yunus al-Harfush who negotiated with the Ottomans on behalf of the Ma'ns to reinstate them as the sanjak-beys of Sidon-Beirut and Safad in 1615; the daughter was not sent to join Ahmad until December 1620. After Ahmad's death, she was married to his brother Husayn. Fakhr al-Din's fourth wife was Khasikiyya bint Zafir, the sister of Fakhr al-Din's friend Ali al-Zafiri, who controlled Sidon before Fakhr al-Din's governorship. Known for her intelligence and beauty, she became his favorite wife. She continued to live in Sidon where Fakhr al-Din renovated a palace for her. She was the mother of his sons Haydar and Bulak, and daughter Fakhira. While Fakhr al-Din's other wives were sent for safety in Shaqif Arnun and Subayba, Khasikiyya accompanied him during his exile. She maintained social relations with the women of the Medici household, as indicated by a letter she sent to the Tuscan grand duchess
Maria Maddalena Maria Maddalena or Santa Maria Maddalena may refer to: * Mary Magdalene, St. Mary the Apostle * Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria (1589–1631), Grand Duchess of Tuscany * Maria Maddalena de' Medici (1600–1633), Tuscan princess * Maddalena ...
in March 1616. Fakhr al-Din also had a concubine, who bore him his son Mansur.

Family tree

Notes

References

Bibliography
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Further reading
* * * *" Istoria di Faccardino : grand-emir dei Drusi", by
Giovanni Mariti Giovanni Mariti (Florence, 4 November 1736 – Florence, 13 September 1806) was an Italian scientist, historian, and traveler. His father was Marcantonio di Luigi, a chancellor, and his mother was Alessandra Moriani. Mariti lost of his father ...
, 1787 (in Italian). {{DEFAULTSORT:Fakhr Al-Din 02 1570s births 1635 deaths Emirs of Mount Lebanon Lebanese princes Ma'n dynasty Druze in Lebanon 16th-century people from the Ottoman Empire 17th-century people from the Ottoman Empire Druze people from the Ottoman Empire Rebels from the Ottoman Empire 16th-century Arab people 17th-century Arab people People executed by the Ottoman Empire by decapitation

HOME

Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne

Consider donating to Wikimedia

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases