Sawwaf family

Al-Sawwaf (Arabic: الصوَّاف) were a Druze family of chiefs active in Mount Lebanon and Wadi al-Taym in the late 15th–early 18th centuries.

During the latter's exile in 1613–1618, they fought against his Ma'nid kinsmen and took refuge with Yusuf Sayfa in the Krak des Chevaliers after Fakhr al-Din's offensive against them in 1619.

He and his nephew, the muqaddam Abdullah ibn Qaytbay, were given military charge over Wadi al-Taym alongside the Alam al-Din chiefs Mansur and Muhammad in 1659, following the expulsion of the Shihabs.

Abdullah was killed near Beirut in a battle against the Qaysi Druze (the Sawwafs were part of the rival Yaman faction), which included the Ma'ns and Shihabs, in 1667.

[3] The traditional Druze rivals of the Sawwafs in the Matn were the Abu'l-Lama muqaddams of Kafr Silwan, allies of the Ma'ns and Shihabs.