Jumblatt family

[3] As the inheritor of Qabalan's fortune, Ali used his newfound wealth and prestige to benefit the common folk of the Chouf, thereby boosting his status.

He cites the existence of a leading Druze sheikh in the Chouf named 'Junblat' around 1614, who is mentioned by Ahmad al-Khalidi, the contemporary chronicler and court historian of Fakhr al-Din.

This Junblat and his following were in conflict with a rival Druze sheikh of the Chouf, Fakhr al-Din's close ally Yazbak ibn Abd al-Afif, during that year, when the governor of Damascus, Hafiz Ahmed Pasha, was leading a campaign against the Ma'ns.

[8] After a short period, Yunus released Junblat, whose partisans are mentioned by Khalidi as having answered summons by a victorious Ahmed Pasha and then returning to their villages with "striped robes of honor".

Abu-Husayn considers this erroneous, as the Kurdish Janbulads were avid Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school, according to the 17th-century Aleppine historian Abu Wafa al-Urdi.

[11] The conventional narrative holds that the Shihabs conferred on the Jumblatts the status of 'sheikh', second to that of 'emir' in the ranking system of Mount Lebanon's feudal nobility.

Abu-Husayn also considers this implausible, as the Kurdish Janbulads held princely titles, such as bey or beylerbey (Turkish equivalent to emir or amir al-umara, respectively), which were bestowed or recognized by the Ottoman government.

[4] Abu-Husayn further notes that neither Khalidi nor the prominent 17th-century Maronite historian and associate of the Ma'ns and Shihabs, Istifan al-Duwayhi, mentions members of the Kurdish Janbulads moving to Mount Lebanon.