[2] Heavy taxation by the Ottoman Empire authorities with no state-provided services in return led to a rebellion by the inhabitants of Shoubak in 1900.

During that rebellion, the inhabitants of Shoubak climbed the town's Montreal Crusader Castle and killed a number of Ottoman soldiers.

[3] The second revolt started in May 1905, after Ottoman forces started to put women of the town into forced labor, tasking them with carrying water from springs deep in the valley to the Montreal Castle up above where the troops where stationed.

[3] Historian Suleiman Mousa argues that Ottoman authorities intentionally humiliated the Arabs they governed in order to provoke them into a rebellion.

[3] The Mutasarrıf of the nearby town of Al-Karak sent a special expedition consisting of 100 armed horsemen to confront the rebels.