Zahir al-Umar
He was appointed by Bashir Shihab, the powerful chief of the Druze in Mount Lebanon who had been granted the iltizam (limited-term tax farm) of Safed by the governor of Sidon Eyalet.
The tribe had long dominated the area between Nablus and Safed, rendering the highways unsafe for travel and commerce, while often plundering villages and ignoring tax obligations.
Elsewhere, Sa'd had taken control of Deir Hanna, establishing his headquarters there, while their cousin Muhammad, who was already the multazim of Damun, added Shefa-Amr to his holdings, increasing the presence of the Zaydans in the western Galilee.
[29] Philipp contends the extension of Zahir's rule southward toward Nazareth and the neighboring Marj Ibn Amer, the wide plain between the Galilee and Jabal Nablus through which the Damascus–Nablus trade routes passed, was a drawn-out process and the precise dating of the associated events is unclear.
The defeat marked the limit of Zahir's influence south of Marj Ibn Amer and confirmed the Jarrars as the dominant force of Jabal Nablus over their rivals, the Tuqans.
[47] When Sulayman Pasha lifted the siege to lead the Hajj caravan, Zahir marshaled French mercantile partners in Acre and Jewish allies in Tiberias to lobby the authorities in Constantinople.
[55] Joudah views Zahir's moves as "inevitable", considering he already controlled Acre's fertile countryside and needed "an outlet to the sea" and was motivated by "potential profits".
[60] After mobilizing its ulema (Muslim scholars) and qadi (Islamic head judge) to petition the sultan on his behalf,[61] in July 1746, Zahir was formally appointed the multazim of Acre.
[60] Afterward, Zahir confiscated five villages in Sahil Akka (the coastal plain of Acre), Julis, Mazra'a, Makr, Judayda, and Sumayriyya, as personal estates, which he also developed.
[62] In 1757, Zahir had expanded his holdings southward, along Palestine's northern coastal plain, taking control of the villages of Haifa, Tira, and Tantura, and nearby Mount Carmel.
[87] In 1768, the Porte partially recognized or legitimized Zahir's de facto political position by granting him the title of 'Sheikh of Acre, Emir of Nazareth, Tiberias, Safed, and Sheikh of all Galilee'.
They made it as far as Muzayrib, but Ismail abruptly halted his army's advance after confronting Uthman Pasha as he was leading the Hajj caravan in order to avoid harming the Muslim pilgrims.
However, Abu al-Dhahab was persuaded by Ismail that confronting the Ottoman sultan, who carried a high religious authority as the caliph of Islam, was "truly ... a scheme of the Devil" and a crime against their religion.
[95] Abu al-Dhahab's withdrawal frustrated Zahir who proceeded to make independent moves, first by capturing Jaffa in August 1771,[90] after driving out its governor Ahmad Bey Tuqan.
[102] In the same year, Lajjun was the site of a decisive battle in which Zahir defeated the alliance of the Jarrars, the Saqr and the Nabulsi sheikhs, preparing his political and military hegemony over Jabal Nablus.
News of the massacre spurred the people of Acre into a mass panic, with its residents fleeing and storing their goods in the city's Khan al-Ifranj caravanserai for safekeeping.
[108] Some of Zahir's sons attempted to secure their own peace with Abu al-Dhahab, but the latter became ill and died on 10 June, causing the collapse and chaotic withdrawal of his Egyptian troops from Acre.
The latter was a local Greek Orthodox Christian and when he failed to properly treat Zahir during a serious illness in 1757, Qassis used the opportunity to replace him with Sabbagh, a friend and fellow Melkite.
Much of this wealth was acquired through Sabbagh's own deals where he would purchase cotton and other cash crops from the local farmers and sell them to the European merchants in Syria's coastal cities and to his Melkite partners in Damietta, Egypt.
[122] Sabbagh served other important roles as well, including as Zahir's political adviser, main administrator and chief representative with European merchants and Ottoman provincial and imperial officials.
This situation hurt the economy of the region as the raids sharply reduced the villages' agricultural output, tax collectors could not collect their impositions, and trade could not be safely conducted due to the insecurity of the roads.
[129] Moreover, Zahir charged the sheikhs of the towns and villages of northern Palestine with ensuring the safety of the roads in their respective vicinity and required them to compensate anyone who was robbed of their property.
[53] While Zahir used force to strengthen his position, the local inhabitants generally took comfort in his rule, which historian Thomas Philip described as "relatively just and reasonably fair".
[132] In addition to providing security, Zahir and his local deputies adopted a policy of aiding peasants cultivate and harvest their farmlands as a means to ensure the steady supply of agricultural products for export.
[134] After Zahir conquered Acre, he transformed it from a decaying village into a fortified market hub for Palestinian products, including silk, wheat, olive oil, tobacco and cotton, which he exported to Europe.
He did business with European merchants based in northern Palestine's ports, who competed with one another for the cotton and grain cultivated in the rural villages under Zahir's control or influence in the Galilee's hinterland and Jabal Amil.
[138] With mixed success, Zahir attempted to have French merchant ships redirected from the ports of Tyre and Sidon to Haifa, in order to benefit from the customs fees he could exact.
[153] His marriages were politically advantageous, helping to seal his rule over areas he captured and consolidate relationships with Bedouin tribes, local clans, or urban notables.
[53] In Murad Mustafa Dabbagh's Biladuna Filastin (1965), a multi-volume work about Palestine's history, Zahir is referred to as the "greatest Palestinian appearing in the eighteenth century".
[169] The Crusader plan and main structure of Khan al-Shunah was preserved by Zahir in his restoration of the building in 1764, and it remained in use as an inn and market for traders until Haifa overtook Acre as the commercial center of the region in the late 19th century.
