Yusuf Sayfa Pasha (; – 22 July 1625) was a chieftain and ''

multazim An iltizam () was a form of tax farm that appeared in the 15th century in the Ottoman Empire. The system began under Mehmed the Conqueror and was abolished during the Tanzimat reforms in 1856. Iltizams were sold off by the government to wealthy n ...

'' (tax farmer) in the Tripoli region who frequently served as the Ottoman ''

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

Tripoli Eyalet Tripoli Eyalet (; ) was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. The capital was in Tripoli, Lebanon. Its reported area in the 19th century was . It extended along the coast, from the southern limits of the Amanus mountains in the north, to the gorge o ...

between 1579 and his death. Yusuf or his family may have been

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 ...

or Turkmen ''

levend Levend or levendi (Arabic ''lawend'') was a name for irregular soldiers. The term originated with the Ottoman Navy, but eventually spread to encompass most irregular troops. The origin of the term is probably from Italian ''levanti'', and was u ...

s'' (tribal irregulars) from Marash and were established in Tripoli's vicinity by at least the 1510s–1520s. He became a ''multazim'' in

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 ...

subordinate to the Assaf chieftains of the Keserwan for most of his career until his promotion to the rank of

pasha Pasha (; ; ) was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitary, dignitaries, and others. ''Pasha'' was also one of the highest titles in the 20th-century Kingdom of ...

and appointment as Tripoli's first ''beylerbey'' in 1579. Hostilities consequently ensued with the Assafs, ending with Yusuf's assassination of their last chieftain in 1591 and his confiscation of their tax farms. His takeover of the Keserwan and

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 ...

prompted his first confrontation with

Fakhr al-Din II 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 emir of Mount Lebanon from the Ma'n dynasty, an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sanjak-bey, governor of Sidon-Beirut Sanj ...

, the

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 ...

chieftain and ''

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 1598. He was given command by the

Sublime Porte The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( or ''Babıali''; ), was a synecdoche or metaphor used to refer collectively to the central government of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. It is particularly referred to the buildi ...

(Ottoman imperial government) over the armies in the region of

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 ...

to suppress the rebel Ali Janbulad of Aleppo in 1606. After a series of defeats 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 ...

, Tripoli and

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 ...

, he submitted to Janbulad at

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 ...

(Hisn al-Akrad), though the rebellion was suppressed in 1607. Relations with the Ottomans deteriorated over the next ten years, a period in which Fakhr al-Din gained steady advantage over Yusuf, who was abandoned by most of his local allies and his nephews. To prevent Fakhr al-Din from gaining total control over Tripoli, the Porte reappointed Yusuf ''beylerbey'' in 1619. He remained under financial strain with large debts due to the Porte and owed to Fakhr al-Din, who gained control over most of the eyalet's districts. With his death in 1625, the Sayfas' power gradually dissipated and most of the family was exterminated by the Ottomans by the mid-17th century. Yusuf was noted by contemporary historians for his generosity and patronage of poets and

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

s, which contributed to his poor financial state. Neither he nor his family developed Tripoli or its eyalet, which declined economically in contrast to the thriving domains of Fakhr al-Din. Although he was viewed favorably by 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 ...

s of Tripoli and Akkar for his loyalty to the Ottomans, he was resented by the

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 ...

peasantry for executing unpopular and ruinous government measures.

Origins

The 16th-century Damascene historian and intimate of Yusuf, al-Hasan al-Burini, noted that the Sayfas were relatives of the

Dulkadirids The Beylik of Dulkadir () was one of the Turkish Anatolian beyliks (principality) established by the Oghuz Turk clans Bayat, Afshar, and Begdili after the decline of Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. Etymology The meaning of Dulkadir is unclear. ...

, a Marash-based Turkmen tribal dynasty. The 17th-century

patriarch and historian Istifan al-Duwayhi referred to them as

Turkmens Turkmens (, , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, living mainly in Turkmenistan, northern and northeastern regions of Iran and north-western Afghanistan. Sizeable groups of Turkmens are found also in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, ...

. The Sayfa family were conventionally considered to be

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

based on the 19th-century, local chronicle of Tannus al-Shidyaq. The modern historians

Kamal Salibi Kamal Suleiman Salibi () (2 May 19291 September 2011)Abdul-Rahim Abu-Husayn concur that they were Turkmens in origin. The modern historian Stefan Winter holds that the Sayfas were probably of Kurdish origin but affiliated with the Dulkadirid Turkmens. Abu-Husayn notes that the Sayfas had been ''

s'', citing the generally authoritative Ottoman historian Mustafa Naima (d. 1716). According to Naima, Yusuf hailed from Marash in the

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 ...

n–

n borderlands and moved from there to Tripoli. Berkayl

Abu-Husayn surmises that the Sayfas may have arrived in Tripoli Sanjak during the dispersal of the Dulkadirids and their affiliates shortly before 1526 or shortly after their reestablishment that year. The sanjak was a subdivision 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 ...

spanning the coastlands of Ottoman Syria from

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 ...

southward to

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 northern

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, ...

and the

Alawite Mountains The Coastal Mountain Range (, ''Silsilat al-Jibāl as-Sāḥilīyah'') also called Jabal al-Ansariya, Jabal an-Nusayria or Jabal al-`Alawīyin (Ansari, Nusayri or Alawi Mountains) is a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north–south, ...

. The establishment of Turkmen and Kurdish military colonies around Tripoli started during

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

rule (mid-13th century–1516) to secure the strategic port city's mountainous hinterland and protect the roads connecting the Syrian coast with the major cities of the Syrian interior plains. The rugged ranges separating Tripoli from the Syrian interior, namely northern Mount Lebanon and the Alawite Mountains, were dominated by Catholic

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 ...

and the heterodox Muslim

Alawites Alawites () are an Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ...

, two communities viewed with suspicion by the

Mamluks and Ottomans, who conquered Mamluk Syria in 1516. Duwayhi places Yusuf in Tripoli or its vicinity in 1528. He was likely ten to twelve years old at the time. Although Abu-Husayn asserts that Yusuf was the first member of the Sayfa clan whose name is recorded in the sources, Ottoman tax records name a certain Muhammad Sayfa as the holder of ''

timar A timar was a land grant by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with an annual tax revenue of less than 20,000 akçes. The revenues produced from the land acted as compensation for military service. A ...

s'' (fiefs) in the

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

s (subdistricts) 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 ...

, Batroun, Dinniyeh, Futuh Bani Rahhal,

, Hisn al-Akrad, Manasif and

Tartus Tartus ( / ALA-LC: ''Ṭarṭūs''; known in the County of Tripoli as Tortosa and also transliterated from French language, French Tartous) is a major port city on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. It is the second largest port city in Syria (af ...

, all in the Tripoli Sanjak, in 1519. Al-Shidyaq's chronicle records the name of Yusuf's father to be Muhammad. The tax records also indicate that a son of Muhammad Sayfa, Ibrahim, held ''timars'' in Arqa in 1534–1537 and 1548–1549; after Ibrahim's failure to report to the Baghdad front in the war with

Safavid Iran The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

in 1553, his ''timars'' were transferred to a certain Yusuf.

Establishment in Akkar

Yusuf was headquartered in the fortress village of Hisn Akkar (Gibelacar). He formed ties with the local ''

s'' (holders of ''iltizam'', i.e. tax farms) upon moving to the area. Tax farming was the predominant mode of tax collection in Syria where sanjaks and nahiyas were farmed out to local strongmen for limited terms in return for a fixed amount of money. From Hisn Akkar Yusuf controlled Jabal Akkar, the northernmost part of Mount Lebanon, and possibly the

Homs Gap The Homs Gap () (also called the Akkar Gap and known in Arabic as al-Buqay'a) is a relatively flat passage in the Orontes River Valley of southern Syria. Nicknamed the "gateway to Syria," the gap separates the An-Nusayriyah Mountains and Jabal Z ...

plain at Jabal Akkar's northeastern edge. He and his paternal kinsman Hasan were given joint control of a farm in Akkar by the authorities in 1571. The tax farms in Jabal Akkar were likely subleased to Yusuf from Mansur ibn Hasan, the head of the Turkmen

Assaf dynasty The Assaf dynasty (also called Banu Assaf) were a Sunni Muslim and ethnic Turkmen dynasty of chieftains based in the Keserwan region of Mount Lebanon in the 14th–16th centuries. They came to the area in 1306 after being assigned by the Bahri ...

. The Assaf ''multazims'' were headquartered from the 13th century in the village of

Ghazir Ghazir () is a town and municipality in the Keserwan District of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is located north of Beirut. It has an average elevation of 380 meters above sea level and a total land area of . Ghazir is divided ...

in the Keserwan area in central Mount Lebanon. Mansur leased the Jabal Akkar tax farm and other tax farms in the Tripoli Sanjak from Muhammad Agha Shu'ayb, the chieftain of a long-established military family based in the fortress of Arqa in the Akkar Plain, which had held the tax farms for all or part of the Tripoli region from 1523. Mansur may have encouraged Yusuf's establishment in Jabal Akkar to undermine the Shu'aybs by installing an ally in their vicinity. Conflict broke out soon afterward between the Sayfas and Shu'aybs in 1528 when the former withheld tax revenues from the latter. The Sayfa family, lacking the local power base of the Shu'aybs, consequently fled Akkar. They temporarily found refuge in Baruk under the protection of Qurqumaz ibn Yunis of 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� ...

, a long-established family of

chieftains and tax farmers who controlled 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 ...

area in southern Mount Lebanon. Not long after their displacement, the Sayfas were assisted by Mansur, who had also owed Muhammad Agha taxes. The Sayfas, Assafs and Ma'ns assaulted Arqa in 1528 and routed the Shu'aybs, while Mansur had Muhammad Agha assassinated. The Shu'aybs lost their local importance thereafter, and Mansur reestablished the Sayfas in their Akkar stronghold. After the demise of the Shu'aybs and Mansur's subsequent elimination of other local rivals he became the preeminent strongman of the Tripoli region; the Sayfas, with whom he continued to be allied, became his fiscal subordinates and there were no reported conflicts between Mansur and Yusuf before 1579. By then, Mansur had become the most powerful chieftain in

, acquiring the tax farms of the neighboring sanjaks of

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

and the port town of

Governorship of Tripoli

First term

The

(Ottoman imperial government 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 ...

) designated the Tripoli Sanjak as its own

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 ...

in 1579, likely to check Mansur's growing power and to strengthen Ottoman authority over Mount Lebanon and its environs in general; Duwayhi holds the Porte was responding to complaints about Mansur's killing of local rivals, which Abu-Husayn determines was used by the Ottomans as a pretext to keep a closer watch on Mansur because of his stockpiling of firearms acquired from the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571 and suspected ties through his Maronite advisers with Catholic European powers increasingly active in the

eastern Mediterranean The Eastern Mediterranean is a loosely delimited region comprising the easternmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, and well as the adjoining land—often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It includes the southern half of Turkey ...

. Yusuf was promoted to the rank of

and appointed the new eyalet's first ''

''. The subsequent loss of tax farms in Tripoli Eyalet, such as the predominantly Maronite area of

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 the appointment of Yusuf, weakened the Assafs. According to Abu-Husayn, Yusuf was selected after "careful deliberation" by the Ottomans. On the one hand, the Porte determined Yusuf was well-positioned to efficiently manage the eyalet by dint of his long career in the Tripoli area, his ties to the local chiefs and his understanding of local politics. On the other hand, he would be easier to control because he lacked the tribal and peasant power bases of the Assafs and Ma'ns; further, Yusuf's headquarters in Hisn Akkar was more accessible and thus easier to reduce than the headquarters of other local chiefs nestled deep in the Lebanon range. By appointing Yusuf to a rank and position above that of the Assafs, his hitherto superiors, the Porte also aimed to undermine their alliance. The Sayfas' position was significantly strengthened with Mansur's death in 1580. In 1585 an Ottoman punitive expedition was launched to suppress the local chieftains of Syria, who had long resisted government taxation and disarmament orders. While the expedition's commander Ibrahim Pasha attacked the Druze chiefs in the Chouf, the principal target of the expedition, a veteran commander, Ja'far Pasha al-Tuwashi, raided Hisn Akkar, an event which only Duwayhi mentions. During or shortly after the expedition, Yusuf was dismissed and replaced by Ja'far Pasha; Yusuf may have resisted his dismissal and Ja'far Pasha's raid against Hisn Akkar may have been the commander's response to his resistance. Following the government raids, most of the chiefs taken captive by the Ottomans were released to their home bases, including Mansur's son and successor Muhammad. The prominence of the Assafs was reconstituted by Muhammad, who became Yusuf's principal local rival. Muhammad had persuaded the Porte of his loyalty and was given the territory of Tripoli Eyalet, except for Tripoli city, as ''iltizam'' shortly after his release in 1585, once again placing Yusuf and his kinsmen in Akkar as fiscal subordinates of the Assafs; the Sayfas maintained their ''iltizam'' in Akkar, but were responsible to Muhammad, through whom they forwarded revenues to the Porte.

Second term

Yusuf and Muhammad likely waged a struggle for political dominance of the Tripoli region afterward. By 1590 Yusuf had been reinstated as ''beylerbey'' in place of Ja'far Pasha, though he may have been reappointed before 1590. In that year he was ordered by the Porte to arrest the advisers of the Assafs from the Maronite Hubaysh family, the brothers Abu Sa'd Mansur and Muhanna, and to deal with certain tax and administrative matters. Yusuf's attempts to arrest the Hubaysh brothers likely instigated conflict between him and Muhammad. Duwayhi held that Yusuf owed Muhammad tax arrears, while Ottoman records indicate that Muhammad had owed taxes to the Porte, which ordered the ''beylerbey'' of Damascus to collect them with Yusuf's assistance shortly before Muhammad's death in 1590 or 1591. Muhammad had set out from Ghazir against Yusuf but was assassinated en route at Musayliha on Yusuf's orders. His death without progeny marked the end of Assaf power. Muhammad's tax liability was transferred to Yusuf, who was ordered to appropriate all of Muhammad's money, real property and stockpiled goods. Yusuf subsequently confiscated Muhammad's ''iltizam'' in Tripoli Eyalet. He took possession of Assaf properties in Beirut, Ghazir and Antelias, either forcibly or by purchasing them from Muhammad's widow. The imperial order further called for Yusuf to imprison Muhammad's '' kethuda'' (chief aide) Ghumayda, investigate his books and confiscate his wealth. Although the Porte's order called for Yusuf to transfer all confiscated Assaf assets and moneys to the Ottoman state, he did not comply and kept the possessions for himself. In the same year, he carried out the 1590 imperial order to arrest and execute the Hubaysh brothers. In 1592/93 Husayn ibn Janbulad, the Kurdish chieftain of

Kilis Kilis is a city in southernmost Turkey, near the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province and Kilis District. Its population is 112,187 (2022). On 6 February 2023 Kilis was badly affected by the tw ...

and career Ottoman official, was appointed ''beylerbey'' of Tripoli, an act which, for unclear reasons, was opposed by Ghumayda, who had since been released and given charge of an ''iltizam'' in Tripoli Eyalet. When Ghumayda set out for Constantinople to protest Husayn's appointment, he was killed en route. The Porte, suspecting Husayn's involvement in the killing, canceled his appointment to Tripoli before he could assume the office. The episode may have caused tensions between the Sayfa and Janbulad clans. Yusuf remained in office through 1592, when the Porte issued an order to him regarding the shipment of olive oil-based soap from Tripoli, an important soap production center in the 16th–17th centuries, to Constantinople. The Porte also sent notices to the ''beylerbey'' of Damascus that year raising concerns about Yusuf's employment of imperial

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 ...

stationed in Damascus.

Early conflict with Fakhr al-Din II

In 1593 Yusuf married Muhammad's widow and took control of the Keserwan and Beirut ''iltizam''. His new wife was escorted to Tripoli by his

Shia Muslim 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 ...

allies, the Hamade clan. Yusuf's takeover of Beirut and the Keserwan, both of which were part of Damascus Eyalet, gained him the ire of the Damascus provincial government. His increasing proximity to Ma'nid domains in the southern Lebanon range provoked

, the ''

'' of

Sidon-Beirut Sanjak Sidon-Beirut Sanjak was a ''sanjak'' (district) of Sidon Eyalet (Province of Sidon) of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to 1660, the Sidon-Beirut Sanjak had been part of Damascus Eyalet, and for brief periods in the 1590s, Tripoli Eyalet. Territory and ...

from 1592 and the son and successor of Qurqumaz ibn Yunis, who had died in the 1585 expedition. In 1598 the Damascus ''beylerbey'' Seyyed Mehmed Pasha ordered Fakhr al-Din and Musa al-Harfush 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 ...

to force Yusuf out of the Keserwan and Beirut. Fakhr al-Din and Musa engaged Yusuf's forces in a battle near 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 in the Keserwan, slaying his brother or nephew Ali Sayfa, and conquering Beirut and the Keserwan. Fakhr al-Din held the two territories for one year, before agreeing to withdraw his forces and return both territories to Yusuf after reaching unspecified accommodations with him. The battle at Nahr al-Kalb inaugurated a rivalry between Yusuf and Fakhr al-Din which lasted for the remainder of Yusuf's life. The rivalry became a conspicuous aspect of the local culture, as exemplified in a verse from the wine ode of a contemporary poet addressed to his companion:

Let us not speak of Ibn Sayfa and Ibn Ma'n
enemies seek one another out
What have we to do with wars?
— Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Akrami al-Salihi of Damascus (d. 1637).

Yusuf engaged the Hamades in 1600 to assault and drive out the ''

muqaddam () is an Arabic title, adopted in other Islamic or Islamicate cultures, for various civil or religious officials. As per the Persian records of medieval India, muqaddams, along with khots and chowdhurys, acted as hereditary rural intermediaries ...

s'' (local chieftains) of the village of Jaj in the Byblos nahiya in retaliation for their alleged support for Fakhr al-Din. Yusuf furthered his ties with the Damascene Janissaries, allying with one of their two main leaders, Kurd Hamza. In 1601 Yusuf sent 1,000 soldiers to back the Damascene Janissaries when they were blocked from entering

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 ...

by an

imperial guard An imperial guard or palace guard is a special group of troops (or a member thereof) of an empire, typically closely associated directly with the emperor and/or empress. Usually these troops embody a more elite status than other imperial force ...

. Kurd Hamza repaid Yusuf the following year by participating in his fifty-day siege of Musa in Baalbek. After they captured its citadel, they pillaged several villages in its countryside, including Hadath. In that village, Yusuf executed several captive partisans of Musa because of their alleged culpability in the slaying of Ali Sayfa at Nahr al-Kalb.

Conflict with Ali Janbulad

In 1606 Ali ibn Ahmed ibn Janbulad, a nephew of Husayn ibn Janbulad, launched a revolt from Aleppo. Although Ali remained ostensibly loyal to Ottoman Sultan

Ahmed I Ahmed I ( '; ; 18 April 1590 – 22 November 1617) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617. Ahmed's reign is noteworthy for marking the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide; henceforth, Ottoman rulers would no ...

, he engaged in secretive talks with the Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand I, to establish an independent realm over Syria; the Tuscans had also been negotiating a secretive alliance with Fakhr al-Din from 1603. Yusuf, fearing the ambitions of the Janbulads and seeking to curry favor with the Porte, requested and obtained from the imperial government military aid and the rank of ''

serdar Serdar may refer to * Serdar (given name) * Serdar (surname) Serdar is a surname of the following notable people: * Can Serdar (born 1996), German-Turkish football midfielder * Emerîkê Serdar (1935–2018), Kurdish-Yezidi writer from Armenia * I ...

'' (commander-in-chief) of the Ottoman forces throughout Syria in late 1606. At the time the bulk of imperial forces were engaged in the war with Austria, compelling the sultan to grant Yusuf's request. Yusuf stood to gain considerable clout by neutralizing the Janbulads without obligating the Porte to intervene directly. Ali viewed Yusuf as an obstacle to his territorial ambitions in Syria and resolved to kill or capture him. Yusuf's forces, consisting of the imperial and provincial troops of Damascus, Tripoli and Hama, were routed by Ali in a relatively quick battle near Hama on 24 July. Yusuf fled to Tripoli and most of his allies defected to Ali. Fakhr al-Din, despite Ottoman orders to join Yusuf, joined Ali after Hama. Ali and Fakhr al-Din advanced through the Beqaa Valley, while a division of Ali's forces led by his cousin Darwish ibn Habib attacked Tripoli. Yusuf fled the city for

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, leaving command of Tripoli's citadel to his ''

mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

'' (slave soldier) Yusuf. Darwish's troops plundered Tripoli's countryside and captured the city after a short battle, taking the treasure stored in the citadel. Fakhr al-Din likely retook the Keserwan from Yusuf about the same time. From Cyprus Yusuf went to

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, a port village controlled by the ''sanjak-bey'' of

Lajjun Lajjun (, ''al-Lajjūn'') was a large Palestine (region), Palestinian Arab village located northwest of Jenin and south of the remains of the biblical city of Tel Megiddo, Megiddo. The Israeli kibbutz of Megiddo, Israel was built 600 metres ...

, Ahmad Turabay. After securing an escort of Damascene Janissaries, he proceeded to Damascus. Ali and Fakhr al-Din proceeded through Wadi al-Taym, bringing them closer to the city. Yusuf mobilized his Damascene troops, including the Janissaries, which were swelled by soldiers from

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 ...

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 ...

, Gaza, Lajjun, and

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 ...

, all sanjaks of Damascus located in Palestine and Transjordan. A dissident Janissary faction led by Kiwan ibn Abdullah secretly collaborated with Fakhr al-Din. Ali and Fakhr al-Din moved their forces to the suburbs of Damascus where Yusuf's troops, led by his nephew Muhammad, were defeated in a battle on 30 September or mid-October. Part of the Damascene troops retreated into the city, rejecting Ali's demand to surrender Yusuf. The suburbs were then sacked for three days and Yusuf was besieged. He attempted to escape, but the officials of Damascus, alarmed at the potential economic fallout of the city's impending sack, forced him to pay 100,000 gold piasters as compensation before allowing his departure. According to al-Burini, Yusuf did not lead his troops during the Damascus engagements and "remained in hiding among the womenfolk" until he could be "smuggled out of the city by night" under the escort of a Damascene guard. Ali condemned the city's leaders upon hearing of Yusuf's flight, claiming had they "wanted peace and safety they should not have allowed him usufto leave, knowing that I only came ... to seek him, because he had bought war against me from the Porte for 50,000

dinar The dinar () is the name of the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, with a more widespread historical use. The English word "dinar" is the transliteration of the Arabic دينار (''dīnār''), which was bor ...

s". Ali lifted the siege after being bribed by the Damascenes with Yusuf's forfeited money plus an additional 25,000 piasters. Yusuf escaped to

, a fortress in the Homs Gap governed by his uncle Mahmud Sayfa. Ali pursued Yusuf and demanded that he make peace sealed by a marriage alliance between their families. They reached an arrangement whereby Yusuf, Fakhr al-Din and Ali wielded practical control over Syria with Ali at their head. Yusuf married off one of his daughters to Ali, while Yusuf's son Husayn was wed to Ali's sister. Abu-Husayn notes the agreement left Yusuf "in the awkward position where he became subservient to the rebel Ali Janbulad, while trying at the same time to remain loyal to the Porte." Ali's revolt was suppressed in 1607–1608 by Grand Vizier Kuyucu Murad Pasha after imperial troops were released from the Austrian front following the

Peace of Zsitvatorok The Peace of Zsitvatorok (or Treaty of Sitvatorok) was a peace treaty which ended the 13-year Long Turkish War between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy on 11 November 1606. The treaty was part of a system of peace treaties which put a ...

Tensions with the government out of office

Consolidation of local alliances and dismissal

By the 1600s Yusuf "had become almost completely Syrianized", in the words of Abu-Husayn, by becoming enmeshed in the power structure of Syria's chieftains instead of solely dependent on the Porte, except that he continued to lack his own significant, local power base. His closest local ally was the Kurdish Sunni emir Musa of Ras Nhash. Yusuf's closest Bedouin allies were the Al Musa of the Akkar plain. Among the Druze chieftains of the southern Lebanon, Yusuf was allied with the rivals of Fakhr al-Din, namely Shaykh Muzaffar of Ain Dara in the Jurd nahiya southeast of Beirut, Emir Muhammad ibn Jamal al-Din of Choueifat in the Gharb nahiya south of Beirut and the Sawwaf ''muqaddams'' of Chbaniyeh in 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 ...

nahiya east of Beirut. He also split Harfush ranks by allying with one of the family's chiefs, Shalhub. By Yusuf had been dismissed by Kuyucu Murad Pasha and replaced by an official from Constantinople, Husayn Pasha al-Jalali. His dismissal may have been intended to check his burgeoning local power or was engineered by Fakhr al-Din, who maintained close ties with the grand vizier dating to the 1590s. To prevent Yusuf from hindering his replacement's attempts to collect taxes in the eyalet, the grand vizier in 1610 instructed the ''beylerbeys'' of Damascus and Aleppo and Fakhr al-Din, who was still ''sanjak-bey'' of Sidon-Beirut and

Safad Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the 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 fortified town in the Upper Gal ...

, to assist al-Jalali in the event. Around that time a '' kapicibasi'' (head doorkeeper) sent by the ''beylerbey'' of Damascus Ahmad Pasha al-Hafiz to collect a debt from Yusuf was taken captive and executed by Yusuf along with his two attendants. The Porte afterward sent an order to al-Jalali to arrest and punish the killers without naming Yusuf explicitly. With frayed relations between him and the government, Yusuf sought improved ties with Fakhr al-Din, sending reinforcements to aid the latter's son Ali during a battle with the Damascene Janissaries in the Hauran in 1613. Later that year an expedition by al-Hafiz compelled Fakhr al-Din's flight to Tuscany. Yusuf used the opportunity to reclaim the Porte's favor, sending a force under his son Husayn and nephew Ahmad Sayfa to fight alongside al-Hafiz. The Sayfa force intercepted Ma'nid reinforcements from their Deir al-Qamar headquarters sent to relieve the Ma'n-held Beaufort Castle (Shaqif Arnun) on the

Litani River The Litani River (), the classical Leontes (), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding in length, the ...

. The Sayfas played the key role in the siege fighting at Beaufort. Husayn began to burn Deir al-Qamar, but was stopped by an official order after the Ma'ns submitted to al-Hafiz. During the expedition, al-Hafiz rewarded the Sayfas by restoring to them Beirut and the Keserwan. By early 1614, Husayn was made a pasha and appointed ''beylerbey'' of Tripoli, though Yusuf unofficially exercised power. The Sidon-Beirut and Safad sanjaks became an eyalet in 1614 and its ''beylerbey'' Bustanci Hasan Pasha demanded and received from the Sayfas the tax farm of Beirut; they refused to hand over the Keserwan and repulsed an attempt by Bustanci Hasan to seize it. By 1615,

Sidon Eyalet The Eyalet of Sidon (; ) was an eyalet (also known as a ''beylerbeylik'') of the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, the eyalet extended from the border with Egypt to the Bay of Kisrawan, including parts of modern Israel and Lebanon. Depending ...

was dissolved and they retook Beirut once more.

Ouster from Tripoli

The Sayfas' ascendancy ended in 1616 as a result of imperial and provincial reshuffles. The Sayfas lost a friendly grand vizier in Nasuh Pasha, al-Hafiz was replaced in Damascus by Cherkes Muhammad Pasha who transferred Beirut and the Keserwan to the Ma'ns, Husayn was replaced by al-Jalali and sent to the Safavid front, and Yusuf's enemy Yunus al-Harfush was appointed ''sanjak-bey'' of Homs and attacked Yusuf's allies Shalhub and the Al Musa. Yusuf resisted the transfer of the Keserwan and Beirut to the Ma'ns, who subsequently defeated the Sayfas and their Druze allies in four engagements in the southern Lebanon in August. Yusuf's son Hasan, on his way back to Akkar after retreating from the Keserwan was captured by al-Jalali's troops and released after a large bribe by Yusuf. The following year, Husayn was arrested and executed in Aleppo on his way back from the Safavid front, despite Yusuf's attempted bribery of the Porte. As his position with the government deteriorated, Yusuf's nephews, the sons of Ali Sayfa, Muhammad and Sulayman, defected from him. The former had been made ''sanjak-bey'' of

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 ...

in Tripoli Eyalet in late 1615, while the latter proclaimed his alliance with the Ma'ns from his fortress of Tula in Jubbat Bsharri after Husayn's execution. Yusuf stamped out Sulayman's rebellion shortly afterward. Fakhr al-Din returned to Mount Lebanon in December 1617 and took advantage of Yusuf's weakened position. In 1618/19 Umar Pasha Kittanji was appointed ''beylerbey'' of Tripoli, though his practical authority was confined to the city of Tripoli, the countryside being controlled by Yusuf, who refused to forward tax revenues to the new governor. Fakhr al-Din, who offered to help Umar Kittanji assert control over the eyalet, marched against Hisn Akkar, which Yusuf abandoned on 3 February 1619. Fakhr al-Din plundered the fortress and a caravan of provisions bound for Yusuf, who had set up base in Krak des Chevaliers with his Druze allies. Yusuf's young grandson Muhammad ibn Husayn was captured and held hostage by a Ma'nid force, while Fakhr al-Din proceeded to besiege Yusuf on 7 February. Muhammad and Sulayman Sayfa, meanwhile, restated their alliance with the Ma'ns and fortified themselves in

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 ...

. At the same time Yunus al-Harfush captured the Sayfa-held nahiyas of

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 ...

and Qayraniya, both north of Baalbek.

Third term

As the siege against Yusuf progressed the Porte, possibly seeking to avoid a total victory by Fakhr al-Din, reinstated Yusuf as ''beylerbey'' of Tripoli. Fakhr al-Din and Umar Kittanji pressed their offensive, having the village of Akkar burnt down and recruiting Yusuf's men in the forts of Byblos and Smar Jbeil south of Tripoli. Afterward, the ''beylerbeys'' of Damascus and Aleppo moved their troops to Homs and Hama, respectively, to support Yusuf. With the leverage afforded by the government, Yusuf bargained with Fakhr al-Din and Umar Kittanji, who agreed to a bribe of 50,000 piasters each, with an equivalent sum to be paid later. They lifted the siege on 4 March and Yusuf assumed office in Tripoli shortly thereafter. Yusuf remained under financial strain due to debts owed to the Porte, the ''beylerbeys'' of Damascus and Aleppo, and Fakhr al-Din. The latter had taken over Byblos and Jubbat Bsharri during the Krak des Chevaliers siege and Yusuf, unable to pay his debt to Fakhr al-Din, agreed to sublease their ''iltizam'' to him for four years in compensation. In 1620 Yusuf attempted to regain the tax farms by offering Fakhr al-Din permanent peace terms, but his offer was rejected. Instead, Fakhr al-Din moved to bribe the Porte 100,000 piasters to have Yusuf replaced by al-Jalali, while Fakhr al-Din's ''kethuda'' Mustafa was appointed ''sanjak-bey'' of Jableh and Latakia. In response, Yusuf pledged 230,000 piasters to the Porte, resulting in the cancellation of the appointments to al-Jalali and Mustafa before either could assume office. Fakhr al-Din continued machinations against Yusuf, securing an alliance with the Damascus Janissary leaders Kurd Hamza and Kiwan, who pressured Yusuf's son Umar Pasha, the ''sanjak-bey'' of Homs, to execute his ''kethuda'' over a land dispute. When Yusuf attempted to subjugate his nephew Sulayman in Safita in June 1621, Fakhr al-Din allied with Sulayman and jointly took over the village of Akkar where the Sayfas' houses were again destroyed. In the following month, the Porte, unable to collect owed taxes from Yusuf, charged Fakhr al-Din with collecting the payment. The Ma'nid emir advanced against Yusuf's domains, capturing the fortress of al-Bahsas south of Tripoli before besieging its citadel. Under pressure, Yusuf, who fled to Jableh, agreed to surrender his properties in Beirut, Ghazir and Antelias to Fakhr al-Din personally, thereby definitively ending Sayfa claims to the Keserwan and Beirut. The siege was maintained until the tax arrears to the Porte were paid. Yusuf persuaded the Porte that Fakhr al-Din was using the tax issue to take over Tripoli Eyalet and promised to pay the arrears. Fakhr al-Din was consequently withdrawn from Tripoli on 2 October 1621, while Yusuf paid part of the arrears out of the silk revenues of the eyalet.

Fourth term

Yusuf was dismissed from Tripoli on October/November 1622 for failure to remit the balance of the eyalet's tax arrears. He refused to relinquish the post to his replacement, Umar Kittanji, prompting Fakhr al-Din to mobilize his men at Ghazir. Yusuf then fled to Akkar, but was abandoned by his son Beylik, who defected to Fakhr al-Din, his father-in-law. Umar Kittanji assumed office in January 1623, but was unable to extract the tax revenues of the province, which were held by Yusuf. Fakhr al-Din agreed to assist Umar Kittanji in return for the tax farms of Byblos, Jubbat Bsharri, Dinniya and Jabal Akkar. The Porte reinstated Yusuf as ''beylerbey'' later on 23 January, which Fakhr al-Din accepted, provided he retain the newly acquired tax farms of the eyalet. To meet his tax obligations to the Porte and avoid further dismissals from Tripoli, Yusuf advanced once more against Sulayman in Safita, but again called off the campaign after Fakhr al-Din mobilized his troops in Bsharri against him. Beylik, meanwhile, took control of Hisn Akkar and threw in his lot with Fakhr al-Din, who was assisted by Beylik and Sulayman during an expedition near Hama to assist the Bedouin emir of the Al Abu Risha, Mudlij ibn Zahir al-Hayari, against his cousin Husayn ibn Fayyad al-Hayari in November. In 1624 the two Sayfas were joined in their alliance with Fakhr al-Din by Yusuf's son Umar Pasha of Homs. By then, Yusuf's allies Shalhub and Muzaffar al-Andari had also defected to Fakhr al-Din. In the spring the Porte dismissed Yusuf as ''beylerbey'', but he refused to turn over the city to his replacement Umar Kittanji, who alternatively docked his ship in the port of Batroun, which was controlled by the Ma'ns, in April. From Tripoli Yusuf negotiated with the Porte to reinstate him on the one hand, and with Fakhr al-Din, whose assistance was requested by Umar Kittanji, to stall the Druze emir from military action. By August he had secured his reinstatement and bribed Fakhr al-Din to hold off an assault. His authority was effectively restricted to the city of Tripoli, Krak des Chevaliers, the Jabala Sanjak governed by his son Qasim, and the Koura nahiya held by the Kurdish emirs of Ras Nhash; the rest of the eyalet, namely the nahiyas of Jubbat Bsharri, Batroun, Byblos, Dinniyeh and Akkar and the sanjaks of Safita and Homs, were in the hands of Fakhr al-Din or his Sayfa allies.

Death and legacy

Yusuf died on 14 or 15 Sha'ban 1034 AH/21 or 22 July 1625. Naima noted that Yusuf had lived for considerably longer than a century. The Aleppine historian Abu al-Wafa al-Urdi (d. 1660), remarked that a

religious leader considered Yusuf to be among four men of whom "time had become weary". In the words of Abu-Husayn, Yusuf's "arrival as a ''levend'' in Syria had started the history of the Sayfa family there ... his death, for all practical purposes, brought this history to an end".

Residual influence and demise of the Sayfas

The divisions within the Sayfa household deepened with Yusuf's death. Three of his surviving sons, Qasim, Mahmud and Beylik divided his domains with Qasim given control of Tripoli city. His rule was not recognized by the Porte, which appointed Mustafa Pasha ibn Iskandar ''beylerbey'' in late 1625. The new governor allied with Fakhr al-Din, appointed Sulayman to Hisn Akkar, and moved against Yusuf's sons. Qasim fled to the Margat fortress in Jabala Sanjak, and Beylik and Mahmud fled to Krak des Chevaliers. Fakhr al-Din turned against Sulayman, attacking Safita and forcing him to seek protection with Mudlij al-Hayari in the Abu Risha stronghold 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 ...

. The Bedouin emir executed Sulayman in late 1625 or early 1626 on the Porte's orders for alleged collaboration with the Safavids. Around that time Yusuf's sons surrendered Margat and Krak des Chevaliers to Fakhr al-Din, who interceded on their behalf with Mustafa Pasha. Two more ''beylerbeys'' were successively appointed to Tripoli, Umar Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, before Fakhr al-Din was given the post in 1627, which he held until his imprisonment by the Porte in 1633. Afterward, Qasim was made a pasha and appointed ''beylerbey'' in 1634. Upon being ordered to the Safavid front later that year he pretended insanity and was replaced by his nephew Ali Sayfa, the son of Yusuf's daughter. Yusuf's son Assaf, whose mother, Malak Sama bint Abdullah, was a concubine, drove Ali out of Tripoli after two months in office. Ali then allied with Ali Alam al-Din, the Ottoman-appointed successor of Fakhr al-Din over the Druze ''iltizam'' of southern Mount Lebanon, and with his support defeated Assaf and retook control of Tripoli, as well as Batroun and Byblos, in late 1635. In 1636 Ali was replaced as ''beylerbey'' by Mustafa Pasha Nishanji, who appointed Ali over Byblos, Batroun and Dinniya. When Nishanji was sent to the Safavid front, he made Assaf his placeholder over the eyalet to Ali's chagrin. Strife ensued between the two Sayfa chiefs, which caused heavy casualties and financial strain among the eyalet's inhabitants, who were obligated to pay each chief the same taxes. After Ali was defeated near Arqa, the two Sayfas were reconciled though the mediation of the Abu Risha emir Tarbush. Before the end of the year, a new ''beylerbey'' was appointed to Tripoli, Barjal Ahmad, and not long after, in 1637, the reconciliation between Assaf and Ali unraveled for unclear reasons. Ali was backed by Barjal Ahmad and Alam al-Din, while Assaf was supported by Mulhim, Fakhr al-Din's nephew and successor over the Ma'ns, and the Abu Risha emir Assaf ibn Mudlij. The latter faction moved against Ali, chasing him into the Alawite Mountains. The Porte appointed Shahin Pasha to replace Barjal Ahmad with explicit orders to destroy the Sayfa family. He invited the Safya chiefs to meet in his camp in the Homs Gap where he trapped and executed Assaf, hanging his body at Krak des Chevaliers, while Ali, suspicious of the summons, fled the eyalet. Shahin Pasha proceeded to exterminate any Sayfas in and around Tripoli and confiscated their properties. The only recorded survivors of the family were Ali, Assaf's mother Malak, and a certain Sulayman Sayfa whose relation to Yusuf was not clarified by the sources. Ali took refuge with Alam al-Din in the southern Lebanon, while Sulayman was reported in the Akkar nahiya in 1640. That year, he fought a government force in the area then fled, with nothing else known about him. Malak retired to the Qaymariyya quarter of Damascus and was recorded living there later in the century by the historian Muhammad al-Muhibbi (d. 1699). According to Muhibbi, when asked about her family, she recited a verse lamenting their demise. With the elimination of the Sayfas, the family "appear to have been completely forgotten" in the region, according to Abu-Husayn.

Assessment

The sources present a mixed assessment of the rule of Yusuf and the Sayfa family in general. The Sunni Muslim Tripolitanian scholar Mustafa Jamal al-Din Ibn Karama offered the most positive view of Yusuf's rule, writing "In his eyalet, the ''ra'iyya'' (subjects) sleep in peace, and wake up happy because he is there". Ibn Karama, al-Burini, al-Muhibbi, al-Urdi, Najm al-Din Muhammad al-Ghazzi (d. 1651) and Ramadan al-Utayfi (d. 1684), all members of the urban Sunni Muslim scholarly establishment in Syria, indicate that Yusuf was known for his generosity and patronage of poets and Sufis. Examples include Yusuf's protection of the Sufi sheikh Ahmad al-Kawakibi of Aleppo who fled the persecution of Aleppo's ''beylerbey'' Husayn ibn Janbulad in the 1600s, his financial assistance to the impoverished

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 ...

mufti A mufti (; , ) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatāwa'' have played an important role thro ...

and poet Ibrahim al-Batruni of Aleppo, and the generous treatment of al-Burini upon his visit to Tripoli and Akkar in 1599/1600. Remarking on the Sayfa family's generosity, al-Utayfi wrote "People, whether needy or not, called on them from various regions; it is said that they have revived the days of the Barmakids", who were known for their generosity. Salibi asserts Yusuf's spending and patronage partly caused his consistently poor financial state. Likewise, Abu-Husayn holds that Yusuf's generosity represented "a costly means to gain recognition" amid persistent financial difficulties, which frequently resulted in his dismissal from office or his loss of fiscal districts. The view of Yusuf by imperial Ottoman officialdom is reflected in Naima's assessment:

Yusuf Pasha was a devious old man with a white beard, a sunburnt complexion, and a long face. He killed many men in Tripoli and threw them into a well, so that nobody could say that the Pasha killed any one. He terrorized people to that extent, and by so doing he managed to acquire large amounts of money, burying many treasures in various ruins.

In the assessment of Salibi, because the inhabitants of the Akkar, like the townspeople of Tripoli, were predominantly Sunni Muslims and were loyal, or at least not opposed in principle to the Ottoman state, which they considered the global bastion of Sunni Islam, Yusuf "stood to gain ... he inhabitants'support" by serving the Ottomans. Although the Sunni Muslim townspeople and peasants generally supported Yusuf, who maintained close relations with the Ottoman officials of Tripoli, his local manpower remained opportunistic and not loyal to him personally. Yusuf strove to gain the trust of the Maronites of Byblos, Batroun and Jubbat Bsharri, for whom the Ottomans were generally unpopular. To that end he fended off an attack against the Maronites of Jubbat Bsharri by Shia Muslim peasants from Baalbek in 1602. Duwayhi, who calls Yusuf "a great emir", noted the friendly ties between Yusuf and one of Duwayhi's predecessors, Patriarch Yusuf al-Ruzzi (1597–1608), for whom Yusuf frequently secured permits of safe conduct. Duwayhi also stated that under Yusuf, Maronites who had professed Islam to secure their personal interests reverted to publicly proclaiming their Christian faith. Nonetheless, Yusuf continued to be viewed as an agent of the state and its oppressive policies by the Maronite peasantry. His oversight of the Porte-ordered quartering of troops in 1607 led to the abandonment of four Maronite villages in Batroun, while his excessive taxation on fruit trees in 1621 led to the ruin of eight villages in Jubbat Bsharri and the flight of many Maronites to Damascus and Aleppo. The Maronites preferred the rule of Fakhr al-Din, a practically independent native who had considerable support from the Maronites' Catholic coreligionists in the Italian states. The English traveler

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

, who visited Syria in 1610, noted: "this Joseph usuf Sayfa ashated of his people for his excessive tyrannie." Neither Yusuf nor the other Sayfas invested in or promoted the economic development of Tripoli and its eyalet. There are no indications in the sources that they took an interest in the city's soap industry, though a barracks built by Yusuf in Tripoli later became the city's Soap Caravanserai (Khan al-Saboun). Instead of fostering commerce in Tripoli's well-positioned port with its easy access to the major cities of the Syrian interior, Yusuf committed acts discouraging foreign trade. One of the acts recorded by the sources was his confiscation of the gold, goods and cloth of two Venetian ships docked in Tripoli's harbor in 1623. Yusuf concocted evidence that the ships' crews were

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...

pirates and consequently had all eighty crew members beheaded on the shore. The Venetian consul in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

went to Tripoli to investigate, but was threatened by Yusuf's secret messengers that he would execute all the European residents in Tripoli if the investigation continued. According to al-Khalidi, no foreign ships docked at Tripoli after the incident. The eyalet under the Sayfas' underwent a gradual economic decline. In contrast, under Fakhr al-Din the ports of Beirut, Sidon and

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 ...

thrived while agriculture prospered in the

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 ...

and the southern Lebanon. Upon his appointment to Tripoli in 1627, Fakhr al-Din planted thousands of mulberry trees to stimulate the eyalet's silk production. In the words of Salibi, Yusuf was "a poor manager of affairs", and lacked the imagination and energy of Fakhr al-Din, to whom he was indebted.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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