Kisrawan
The Kisrawan or Keserwan is a region between Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean coast, north of the Lebanese capital Beirut and south of the Ibrahim River.
The assaults caused wide scale destruction and displacement, with Maronites from northern Mount Lebanon gradually migrating to depopulated villages in the region.
Under the patronage of the Ma'nid emir Fakhr al-Din II, the Maronite Khazen family gradually came to dominate the area, purchasing large tracts of land from Shia Muslim villagers.
Although the Kisrawani militia played a key role sparking the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war, the area largely avoided the bloodshed and destruction of that conflict.
[5] The modern historian William Harris asserts that the origins of the Kisrawan Shia community in the 12th–13th centuries "are shrouded in mystery, with no clues in Arabic chronicles".
[4] In the aftermath of the Crusader withdrawal from the Levant, the mountaineers of the Kisrawan frequently blocked the coastal road between Tripoli and Beirut and harassed passing Mamluk troops.
It was led by Baydara, the viceroy of Egypt, the second highest-ranking official in the sultanate, after the commanders of Damascus expressed reticence fighting the experienced mountaineers in the region's narrow passes.
[16][17] The Mamluks settled Sunni Muslim Turkmens in the coastal villages of the Kisrawan in 1306 to serve as a permanent direct guard for the government over the region and the road to Beirut.
Although iqta-holders in principal were only granted the right to an area's revenues as a salary and to provide for their troops, the Turkmens, like their Druze Buhturid neighbors to the south, held them on a practically inheritable basis.
[19] The Turkmens temporarily evacuated the Kisrawan for Ottoman-controlled Anatolia in 1366 to escape punishment by the Mamluks for failing to heed unspecified government orders.
[19] Barquq retook the sultanate in 1390 and dispatched Arab tribesmen from the Beqaa Valley to attack the Turkmens, killing their leader Ali ibn al-A'ma.
[9] Through the following several years the Kisrawan experienced peace and prosperity while conditions in the Druze Mountain to its south (i.e. the districts of the Matn, Gharb, Jurd and Chouf) were characterized by chaos and punitive expeditions by the Ottoman government.
Christians from northern Mount Lebanon continued to migrate to the Kisrawan, with Maronites from al-Majdal moving to Aramoun and the Hubaysh family of Yanouh settling in Ghazir.
[26] After Assaf died in 1518 his youngest son Qaytbay killed Hasan and Husayn, drove out the Hubayshes, and took over the Kisrawan from his base in Beirut.
[29] Assaf dominance over northern Lebanon, including the Kisrawan persisted through Mansur's death in 1580 and the first five years under his son and successor Muhammad.
At that point his authority was expanded to include the tax farms for all the districts of northern Mount Lebanon, excluding the city of Tripoli.
[37] The following year a new province was established, the Sidon Eyalet, and its governor Bustanji Pasha attempted to wrest control of the Kisrawan but was repulsed by the Sayfas.
[41] Abu Nadir consolidated Khazen control of the Kisrawan by purchasing large tracts of land there from the impoverished Twelver Shias of the district.
The sons and their descendants mainly based themselves in the villages of Ghosta, Ajaltoun and Zouk Mikael, and to a lesser extent Daraoun and Sahel Alma.
[42] Besides the tax collection rights the family obtained on a practically inheritable basis, the Khazens monopolized the silk trade in Kisrawan, fostering sericulture there and the migration of Maronite peasants from northern Mount Lebanon.
[44] Frustration had been mounting among the peasants of the Kisrawan from the mid-19th century, due to the burdens of corvée (unpaid labor for a landlord) that had been imposed during the rule of Emir Bashir Shihab II,[45] general economic hardship, and the decreasing availability of land.
[45] To meet the latter's increased tax demands and finance their attempt to consolidate their control over Kisrawan's silk production, the Khazens took loans from Beirut lenders and accumulated significant debts.
To compensate for their economic, social and political stagnation, the Khazens increased their pressure on the peasants of Kisrawan in the late 1850s, while also spending extravagantly.
[46] In early 1858, a group of peasants from the Kisrawan lodged a formal complaint against the Khazens to Khurshid Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Beirut.
A muleteer and youths boss from Rayfoun, Tanyus Shahin, was chosen by this alliance of peasants as their leader in December,[48] and was declared the wakil awwal (first delegate).
[51] Shahin broadened the peasants' main demands of tax relief and refunds for the illegal payments they had previously paid to the Khazen sheikhs to also include political and legal reforms.
[50] Shahin's star rose among the Christians of Mount Lebanon in general, who saw in him their defender against the Druze landlords and the traditional Maronite elites.
[50] In May 1860, Shahin's militiamen intervened on the side of Christian villagers in the neighboring Matn region to the south during clashes with their Druze counterparts.
[57] The following year, after an international intervention ended the civil war, a rival Maronite leader, Youssef Karam, defeated Shahin at a battle between Rayfoun and Ashqout.
In 1990 the LF retained control of the area, as well as East Beirut, despite a month long offensive by Lebanese Army troops loyal to General Michel Aoun which caused extensive damage and many casualties.
