Tuqan family

[1] Members of the Nimr clan, who formed part of the Yamani federation,[1] had served as elite sipahi officers during the 1657 Ottoman campaign and soon after established Nablus as their base of power and wealth.

The Tuqans' most prominent member during the early 18th century and a son of Ibrahim Agha, Hajj Salih Pasha al-Tuqan, married a woman from the Nimr clan.

However, internecine competition between the Tuqans and the Nimrs, exacerbated by the political maneuverings of the provincial authorities in Damascus, eventually triggered a serious rift between the two families.

It also brought the Tuqans into future conflict with Zahir al-Umar, the virtually autonomous Arab sheikh of Galilee who sought to control the cotton-rich plains of Bani Sa'b.

[4] The tension between the Tuqans and the Jarrars was further raised when the new wali (provincial governor) of Damascus, Muhammad Pasha al-Azm, appointed Mustafa Bey as mutasallim of Nablus in 1771.

[4] Muhammad Pasha also commissioned Mustafa Bey to collect the miri (tax earmarked for the Hajj pilgrimage caravan) from the subdistricts of Jabal Nablus, a traditional responsibility of the wali of Damascus.

[7] This turn of events cast the Tuqans as the loyal servants of the Ottoman Empire defending its authority in the face of Zahir's rebellious forces.

Throughout early January 1799, they consolidated their hold over the Uthmaniyya factory through a waqf (religious trust) exchange with a less wealthy branch of their family.

Muhammad ibn Ali Tuqan forced a waqf exchange of the entire Shafi'iyya soap factory from Qasim Shafi'i for the low sum of 150 piasters in 1801.

In February 1807, Musa Bey gained control of the Ya'ishiyya factory from the Hanbalis after the leading member of the family died with heavy debt.

By December 1811, the Tuqans endowed two-thirds of the Shaytaniyya factory as a private family waqf, the implication being that this share was newly acquired.

[11] Building on the commercial advantages of the Tuqan family's trade network, Dawud Effendi soon diversified his activities to include monetary loans.

Between both businesses, the Tuqan family in Salt had established a vast network of contacts with hundreds of herders and farmers in the Balqa District.