Moreover, the Abbasids treated the people of the Levant in general as treating the conquered countries during wars, so the Mardaites started a series of revolts, starting in 752 (135 AH), and led by one of their leaders “Elias” managed to defeat several armies sent by Caliph al-Mansur to Lebanon, and despite this, Elias was killed in the location known today in the name of “Qob Elias,” however, his companions continued their disobedience under the leadership of another leader named “Samaan,” who defeated the Abbasid armies and almost took over Homs and Hama through the aid that was coming to him by sea from the Byzantines.
The sons of Mansur, Nasrallah and Muhammad, continued to struggle for control of the property during Fakhr ad-Din's exile as the Shia Harfushi sheikh Yunus al-Harfush took possession of the home.
[4] The Ma'an dynasty built a formidable fortress in Qabb Ilyas that later emirs of Lebanon commissioned during times of rebellion against the Ottomans.
[6] In the mid-1820s, the Ottoman wali of Damascus, Darwish Pasha, defeated Emir Bashir Shihab II and proceeded to demolish most of what remained of the Fakhr ad-Din Castle.
[5] In 1838, Eli Smith noted Kubb Elyas as a Sunni Muslim, Druze, Maronite and Greek Catholic village in the Beqaa Valley.
[7] During the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war, the Druze used Qabb Ilyas, which at the time was a religiously mixed village, as their local headquarters in the Beqaa Valley and it withstood a raid by fighters from the nearby Christian stronghold Zahle.
It is also thought to have been built by the Druze prince Fakhr ad-Din II, who chose the location for its elevation and defensibility against potential assaults by the Mamalik military.