The Ottoman government had mandated the quartering of imperial troops in the Tripoli Eyalet, a practice detested by the inhabitants, for the year 1607.
The mandate was enforced by the Maronite muqaddams (rural chiefs) of Bsharri on behalf of the provincial governor Yusuf Sayfa.
[3] The historian Pierre Dib describes Makhlouf as "a man of good and stable sense, of a character which was both gentle and firm at the same time, of a deep and active piety".
As a result, soon after his election, he left the patriarchal seat at Qannubin in Bsharri and took refuge in the Chouf area of southern Mount Lebanon with the powerful Druze emir and governor of the Sidon-Beirut district, Fakhr al-Din II.
[7] In 1610 Pope Paul V instructed Makhlouf in a letter to forge ties with Fakhr al-Din,[8] who was seeking Maronite support against his rival, Yusuf Sayfa.