As'ad Pasha al-Azm

As'ad Pasha al-Azm (Arabic: أسعد باشا العظم ʾAsʿad Bāšā l-ʿAẓm; c. 1706 – March 1758) was the governor of Damascus under Ottoman rule from 1743 to his deposition in 1757.

As'ad governed Hama as a tax collector for a number of years,[4] until his uncle, Sulayman Pasha al-Azm, governor of Damascus, died in 1743.

In his dealings with the Bedouin tribes along the caravan route in the Syrian Desert and the Hejaz, As'ad Pasha either utilized force to subdue them or bought them off.

Frustrated in their attempt to take the khan, they attacked nearby coffee-houses associated with the Kurds and might have done even more damage if As'ad Pasha al-Azm had not personally intervened and prevented the conflict from spiraling out of control.

[6] When locust swarms devastated the harvests of interior Syria, As'ad Pasha used it as a pretext to launch raids against Druze communities in the Bekaa Valley, plundering their crops which he placed on the market in Damascus.

[8] His rule represented the apex of al-Azm influence in the Levant as at that time, the members of the family administered Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Tripoli, Sidon, and for a short period, Mosul.

In addition, the Kizlar Agha of Istanbul, Aboukouf, was disdainful toward As'ad Pasha for apparently not catering to him properly when he passed through Damascus as part of the Hajj caravan.