His activity in Deir al-Qamar attracted the attention of Qasim Jumblatt, Yusuf's main adversary,[8] who sought to install Bashir at the head of the emirate.

[13][15] According to contemporary chroniclers of the time, Jihan was seclusive and only left her residence fully veiled, was a loving wife to Bashir, wielded significant influence over him and was reputed for her enchantment and charitable efforts with Mount Lebanon's inhabitants.

[16] Meanwhile, Yusuf attempted to restore himself to the Shihabi emirate, mobilizing his partisans in Byblos and Bsharri, while Bashir had the support of the Jumblatt clan (his main backer among the Druze) and al-Jazzar, who loaned him 1,000 of his Albanian and Maghrebi soldiers.

[20] However, this major appointment was tempered by Bashir's lack of actual control over his assigned lands, which al-Jazzar had largely transferred to Yusuf's sons and Baz.

[28] In 1810, Sulayman Pasha gave Bashir a leasehold for life over the Chouf and Keserwan tax districts,[26] effectively making him the lifetime ruler of Mount Lebanon.

[35] The Maronite peasants and clergymen of Jubail, Bsharri and Batroun decided to take up armed resistance against Bashir's impositions, and garnered the support of the Shia Muslim Hamade sheikhs.

[37] Emir Bashir proceeded to reorganize the tax farms (virtual fiefs) of Mount Lebanon to strengthen the hand of his remaining Druze allies and deny his enemies a fiscal power base.

[37] As such, the Jumblatts were dismissed from the tax districts of Chouf, Kharrub, Tuffah, Jezzine, Jabal al-Rihan and the eastern and western Beqaa Valley regions, which were redistributed to Bashir's son Khalil, the Talhuqs, and Nasif and Hammud Abu Nakad.

[31] As such, he assigned a qadi in Deir al-Qamar in Chouf, who mostly oversaw the affairs of the Druze, and two Maronite clergymen who were based in Ghazir or Zouk Mikael in Keserwan and Zgharta in northern Mount Lebanon, respectively.

[39] These clergymen were also at the forefront of efforts to roll back the excesses imposed on Maronite tenants from their Druze lords and the latter's influence in the tax districts in general.

[38] Muhammad Ali sought to annex Syria, and as a pretext to invade the region, he published a list of complaints against Abdullah Pasha, who in turn received the support of Sultan Mahmud II.

[42] Meanwhile, under the Sublime Porte's orders, the mutasallims of Beirut and Sidon and the walis of Tripoli and Aleppo stood by Abdullah Pasha, and issued warnings to Mount Lebanon's notables to do likewise.

[41] Bashir attempted to rally his Druze allies and rivals, such as Hammud Abu Nakad and several Jumblatt, Talhuq, Abd al-Malik, Imad and Arslan sheikhs, to defect to Muhammad Ali.

[44] He subsequently directed Bishop Abdullah al-Bustani to appoint a Maronite military commander for each district, but to do so discreetly to avoid provoking a Druze backlash.

[45] However, through his close alliance with Muhammad Ali,[42] Bashir maintained his direct authority over the Mount Lebanon Emirate,[46] preventing it from being subject to the Egyptian bureaucracy that centralized power in the rest of Syria.

[48] The latter had become the commercial outlet for Mount Lebanon's silk industry, Acre's successor as the political center of the Syrian coast and a principal residence for Egyptian officials, European consuls and Christian and Sunni Muslim merchants.

[48] As such, he appointed Khalil to Shahhar, Qasim to Chouf, Amin in Jubail, his brother Hasan's son Abdullah in Keserwan, his cousin Bashir in Tuffah and his associate Haydar Abu'l Lama in Matn.

[48] Bashir suppressed several revolts against Muhammad Ali's conscription and disarmament policies in the mountainous regions throughout Syria in the service of Ibrahim Pasha.

[50] Bashir's Druze forces under the command of his son Amin,[49] entered Safad without resistance on 18 July, making way for the displaced residents from its Jewish quarter to return.

[49] Muhammad Ali's position in Syria was shaken again in 1838, during the Druze revolt in Hauran, which attracted the support of the Jumblatt and Imad sheikhs of Mount Lebanon and Wadi al-Taym.

[49] The Shihab emirs of Hasbaya, Ahmad and Sa'd al-Din, were commissioned to put down the Druze rebels in Wadi al-Taym led by Shibli al-Uryan, while Bashir was ordered to mobilize a Christian force in April.

[52] Bashir acceded to Ibrahim Pasha's levy request, organizing a force under the leadership of his grandson Mahmud, which subsequently was sent to reinforce Ahmad and Sa'd ad-Din in Hasbaya.

[53] Bashir's Druze and Christian rivals and dissidents to his rule in Mount Lebanon were courted and armed in an initiative by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston.

[54] Bashir managed to temporarily suppress the revolt by confiscating property from the rebels, issuing threats and offering tax reductions to uninvolved Druze sheikhs in return for their support.

[56] A European alliance consisting of Great Britain, Prussia, Russia and Austria backed the Ottomans, and through the British consul in Beirut, Richard Wood, sought to persuade Bashir to defect from Muhammad Ali in August 1840.

[56] While Ibrahim Pasha headed for Mount Lebanon from northern Syria, allied forces set up headquarters in Jounieh, north of Beirut, and began distributing weapons to Bashir Qasim's rebels.

[56] By 25 September, allied forces had captured Beirut, Sidon and Haifa, Tyre, cutting off Egyptian sea access to Ibrahim Pasha's troops.

[57] After a failed attempt to woo the Druze sheikhs to his side by promising them complete control of Keserwan,[59] Ibrahim Pasha fled, while Bashir surrendered to the Ottomans on 11 October.

[60] Bashir chose the former,[60] and departed Beirut for Malta, bringing with him Jihan, all of his children and grandchildren, his mudabbir Butros Karama, Bishop Istifan Hubaysh, Rustom Baz and 113 retainers.

[18] Bashir also overturned another aspect of the "social contract" in Mount Lebanon by "serving the interests of outsiders against those of his own people", according to Lebanese historian Leila Fawaz.