House of al-Dahdah

It traces back in continuous lineage to Girgis al-Dahdah, the son-in-law of Ghazal al-Qaysi, Muqaddam of Aqoura, who died in 1375 without male issue.

In the writings of 19th century chroniclers of Mount Lebanon, such as those of Antuniyus Abu Khattar al-'Aynturini (d. 1821), Tannus al-Shidyaq (d. 1859), and Mansur al-Hattuni (d. ca.

[14] A paternal cousin of this priest Hanna, Sulayman al-Dahdah is recorded by Patriarch Istifan al-Duwayhi as having copied a liturgy book in Aqoura as early as 1552.

[15] This succession of single children over seven generations has raised many questions about the possible existence of lateral branches of the family which either died out or survived without retaining the al-Dahdah name.

Shaykh Yusuf's momentous career is described in detail in Tannus al-Shidyaq's chronicle of the histories of notable families from Mount Lebanon.

[18] His existence is otherwise independently confirmed by a colophon he wrote as a youth in Syriac Garshuni script in 1692 on the margins of a liturgy manuscript, now at the French National Library.

[20] Father Luwis al-Hachim, in his local history of al-'Aqura (1930), lists numerous properties in Aqoura and its vicinity that still bore the al-Dahdah name long after they had been sold.

Ottoman archives in Istanbul show that the Shiite Hamadah Shaykhs played a much larger role in the history of Mount Lebanon in the 17th century than Lebanese chroniclers have recognized.

[22] Their semi-autonomous emirate reached the height of its power in the late seventeenth century, when much of North Mount Lebanon, including the seat of the Maronite patriarchate in the Qadisha Valley, was under their effective control.

[32][33][34][35] Local chronicles report the sale by Mansur al-Dahdah and his brothers of the villages of Fatqa and al-Kfur as well as half of Jabal Moussa in payment for the sums owed as guarantee for the Hamadah iltizam.

Through the good offices of Mansur al-Dahdah, Emir Yusuf Shihab had received the annual iltizam of the Northern Mount Lebanon districts, which the Ottoman Pashas of Tripoli had previously awarded to different members of the Hamadah clan, and he put members of the al-Dahdah family in charge of administering and collecting imperial taxes from these districts.

Shaykh Mansur al-Dahdah also received large estates in the Byblos and the Futuh districts, as compensation for the sale of his properties to guarantee the Hamadah obligations under their iltizam.

[50] Popular lore wrongly attributed the naming of the cemetery to the Sahabi Thabit ibn al-Dahdah, who appears to have died in Medina without issue, and not in Damascus.