Mulhim Ma'n
The Ottomans executed Fakhr al-Din, Mulhim's father Yunus, and his brothers and cousins during and after a massive expedition to end their control over large parts of the Levant.
After Mulhim defeated his principal Druze rival, Ali Alam al-Din, in 1641, the Ottomans granted him tax farms[a] previously held by his uncle and father Yunus in southern Mount Lebanon, namely for the subdistricts of the Chouf, Gharb, Matn and Jurd.
[3] Fakhr al-Din gained the Ottomans' good graces and went on to become a powerful tax farmer and governor of the Sidon-Beirut and Safed sanjaks.
[8] The Ma'ns expanded their control and tax farms to the Beqaa Valley and much of the Tripoli Eyalet, and their defiance of the Ottomans led to another punitive campaign in 1633.
[9] The Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand II, a political ally and economic partner of Fakhr al-Din, dispatched a galleon to rescue Mulhim, but he was not found.
[12] His residential property in a village called al-Jazira in the southern Beqaa Valley was confiscated and sold by Kuchuk Ahmed Pasha's order in 1634.
[15] Generally after this victory, Mulhim and his allies among the Druze and Maronite chiefs, including the Khazens of Keserwan, were the stronger party in Mount Lebanon.
[17] Another account held that Mulhim, with backing from the Ma'ns' longtime allies the Shihabs of Wadi al-Taym, defeated Damascene government forces hired by Alam al-Din in that clash.
The Khazens collected the taxes in Keserwan, the area just north of the Druze country, fostered the Maronite majority there and invested considerable sums in silk farming, trade with Tuscany and France, and land.
[17] Four years later, to counter Alam al-Din's efforts to turn the imperial government against him, Mulhim sent his subordinate Mehmed Agha Qahveji Zade with a large bribe to Grand Vizier Murad Pasha.
[22] According to the 19th-century local historian Tannus al-Shidyaq, a daughter of Mulhim (unclear if Fa'iza or another) was married to the emir Husayn, of the Sunni Muslim Shihab family in 1629.
[18] Together with his Druze and Maronite confederates, including his uncle's former assistants, the Khazens, Mulhim reestablished Ma'nid control over the core area of Fakhr al-Din's former domain, namely the combined tax farms of the Chouf, Gharb, Jurd, Matn and Keserwan.
[23] Although there is no record of correspondence with his uncle's European partners, Mulhim's Maronite subordinates on a number of occasions communicated his honors to the Tuscans and the Pope.
Shortly after, an imperial expedition, attended in person by the reformist Grand Vizier Koprulu Mehmed Pasha, was launched against the Ma'ns and their allies the Shihabs of Wadi al-Taym and the Shia Muslim Hamade lords of the Tripoli region.
[27] The Ma'ns' Druze rivals, the Alam al-Dins, the Sawwafs of the Matn, and Sirhal Imad gained control of southern Mount Lebanon, while Ahmad and Qurqumaz went into hiding in Hamade territory.
[29][30] His factional allies among the Druze resolved to elect Ahmad's maternal nephew Bashir Shihab I to serve as their chief and take over his tax farm.
