User:Al Ameer son/Battle of Anjar

Battle of Anjar

Early Ottoman–Ma'nid hostilities
The first recorded conflict between the Ottomans and the Druze of Mount Lebanon occurred in 1518, two years after the Ottoman conquest of the Levant. Three chiefs of the Ma'n dynasty, a leading Druze clan based in the Chouf district, joined a rebellion by the Bedouin chief of the Beqaa Valley and were captured and imprisoned by the governor of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali. One of Janbirdi's successors, Khurram Pasha, launched campaigns to subdue the Druze of the Chouf in 1523 and 1524, burning dozens of villages, inflicting a heavy death toll on the Druze peasant fighters, and capturing hundreds of their women and children. The state of rebellion by the Druze resumed in the late 16th century, by which point the Druze and other rural groups had begun acquiring firearms. The Ottomans strictly prohibited the possession of firearms by their subjects, but were unable to effectively enforce the ban. In 1565 the Druze attacked Ottoman officers in charge of tax collection in their districts and beat back a subsequent assault by government forces at Ain Dara. The governor of Damascus was ordered by the Sublime Porte (Ottoman imperial government in Constantinople) to disarm the Druze of the Chouf, Jurd, Matn and Gharb districts and specifically called for the capture of the Ma'nid chief Qurqumaz. Unable to carry out the orders, the governor was reinforced two years later by the imperial fleet docked in the harbor of Tripoli and the Janissaries of Damascus. The combined Ottoman forces were unable to subdue the Mount Lebanon Druze. The governor informed the Porte of the Druzes' continued state of rebellion, the refusal by anyone to accept the iltizam (tax farms) of their districts and the Druzes' refusal to cooperate with emins (government tax collectors). Although the Porte responded with orders to destroy several Druze villages, capture Druze muqaddams (rural chiefs) and collect tax arrears, no action was undertaken and the Druze continued to stockpile arms.

In 1585 the vizier Ibrahim Pasha, boosted by the Janissaries of Egypt and Damascus, invaded the Chouf. Several villages were plundered or destroyed and significant numbers of Druze were slain. The authorities confiscated thousands of muskets and significant sums of money as tax arrears. Qurqumaz escaped, but died soon after in hiding. Unrest in Mount Lebanon and its environs persisted and the following year the governor of Damascus, Elvendoglu Ali Pasha, arrested the chiefs of the Assafs of Keserwan, the Furaykhs of the southern Beqaa Valley, the Harfushes of Baalbek, and the Buhturs of the Gharb.

Rise of Fakhr al-Din and early relationship with Damascus
Qurqumaz was succeeded six years later as the Ma'nid muqaddam of the Chouf by his son Fakhr al-Din II. Fakhr al-Din adopted a different tack from his Ma'nid predecessors by winning over the authorities in Damascus through prompt payment of taxes and large bribes. After receiving a substantial monetary gift from Fakhr al-Din, the governor of Damascus, Murad Pasha, appointed him the sanjak-bey (district governor) of Sidon-Beirut in 1592, giving him official control over southern Mount Lebanon and the ports of Sidon and Beirut. In 1602 he was appointed sanjak-bey of Safad, extending his control southward to the Galilee, Jabal Amil and the port of Acre. In near concurrence with the appointments, he won the iltizam over their subdistricts.

Ottoman engagement in wars against Safavid Iran in the east and Hapsburg Austria in the west, along with Fakhr al-Din's bribery of successive grand viziers, enabled Fakhr al-Din to consolidate his semi-autonomy and build up his forces and fortresses. He used the rebellion of Ali Janbulad of Aleppo in 1606 as an opportunity to weaken his principal local rival, the governor of Tripoli Yusuf Sayfa Pasha. Janbulad's forces captured Tripoli in the summer, forcing Yusuf's flight to Damascus where he held command over government troops. Fakhr al-Din and Janbulad defeated the Janissaries outside of Damascus and besieged the city in September or October until Yusuf escaped. The Janissaries at the time were divided, with the faction led by Hajj Kiwan allied to Fakhr al-Din and the other led by Kurd Hamza allied to Yusuf. Shortly after, Yusuf was defeated by Janbulad, who thereafter returned to Aleppo. During the fighting, Fakhr al-Din drove out the Sayfas from Keserwan, adding the district to his territories. Meanwhile, he and Janbulad had Musa al-Harfush, the chief of his family and the subdistrict governor of Baalbek, replaced by his cousin, Fakhr al-Din's ally Yunus al-Harfush. In late 1607 Janbulad's revolt was suppressed by Grand Vizier Murad Pasha, who pardoned his old friend Fakhr al-Din despite the urging of Damascene officials to punish the Ma'nid chief.

Throughout Murad Pasha's term in office, which lasted until his death in 1611, Fakhr al-Din's position in his territories was further strengthened, while his Sayfa rivals were dispossessed of the governorship of Tripoli. Murad Pasha's successor, Nasuh Pasha, opposed Fakhr al-Din. Although the new grand vizier was personally ill-disposed to the Druze chief, his opposition also reflected imperial alarm at Fakhr al-Din's power, his control of key fortresses, especially Shaqif Arnun and Subayba, his employment of outlawed sekban mercenaries, and his secretive alliance with Tuscany. Fakhr al-Din ignored Nasuh Pasha's orders to capture and execute Yunus al-Harfush, and he repulsed an attempt by the governor of Damascus, Hafiz Ahmed Pasha, to capture Yunus al-Harfush and Fakhr al-Din's other local ally, Ahmad ibn Qasim, a chief of the Shihab clan of Wadi al-Taym. When Hafiz Ahmed Pasha dismissed Fakhr al-Din's Bedouin allies from their governorships in Ajlun and the Hauran, Fakhr al-Din sent an army under his son Ali to restore them to their posts. Nasuh Pasha dispatched Janissaries from Constantinople and the armies of fourteen provincial governors to join Ahmed Pasha in a punitive expedition against the Ma'ns. Fakhr al-Din fled into the desert and sent a delegation to Damascus to sue for peace. The governor rejected the offer, insisting that Fakhr al-Din personally submit to him. On 16 September Ahmed Pasha launched the campaign, ordering government troops to block the desert roads and blockade the port of Sidon to prevent Fakhr al-Din's escape. Fakhr al-Din nonetheless escaped by boat to Tuscany after bribing the deputy commander of the blockade.

Deterioration of Ma'n–Harfush relations
During the ensuing campaign against the Ma'ns, who were led in Fakhr al-Din's absence by his brother Yunus Ma'n, Ahmed Pasha's forces were joined by most of Fakhr al-Din's local allies, including Yunus al-Harfush and the Shihabs, as well as the Sayfas and the Ma'ns' Druze opponents led by Muzaffar al-Andari of the Jurd. Several Chouf villages were burned by the Sayfas and Muzaffar, and Yunus Ma'n was driven from the Ma'nid seat at Deir al-Qamar to Baaqlin; Deir al-Qamar was partly burned, but was spared destruction by the intervention of Ahmed Pasha after he was promised substantial payment by the Ma'ns. Nasuh Pasha died in 1614 and Ahmed Pasha was replaced in 1615 by Cerkes Mehmed Pasha, who demanded the surrender of the Ma'nid forts of Shaqif Arnun and Subayba from a commander of Fakhr al-Din's sekbans, Husayn Yaziji. While Yaziji agreed to station limited numbers of government troops in the fortresses alongside Ma'nid soldiers, Yunus al-Harfush offered Grand Vizier Kara Mehmed Pasha to dismantle the fortresses. The Porte appointed Fakhr al-Din's brother and son Yunus and Ali to the governorships of Sidon-Beirut and Safad, respectively, in December 1615. In January 1616 imperial troops were stationed in Shaqif Arnun and Subayba. The grand vizier's representatives insisted on a total withdrawal of the Ma'ns from the fortresses, but they refused and began resupplying them in defiance of Yaziji's agreement with Damascus. Afterward, Yaziji secretly met with Yunus al-Harfush and they jointly reached an agreement with grand vizier in Aleppo stipulating the dismantlement of the fortresses, the appointment of Yunus al-Harfush as sanjak-bey of Homs and the promotion of Yaziji to a high-paying military office. The Ma'ns, who were to be maintained as the govenors of Sidon-Beirut and Safad, were unable to counter the combined forces of the government, Yunus al-Harfush, and their own sekbans, who were loyal to Yaziji, and did not resist the destruction of their forts.

During Fakhr al-Din's absence Yunus al-Harfush encouraged the Shia Muslim clans of Safad Sanjak to rebel against the Ma'ns. The Harfushes established a foothold in Mashghara in the southern Beqaa Valley where they hosted Shia delegations from Safad and communicated with the Shia chiefs of the sanjak. Although they agreed to Ali Ma'n's request to leave Mashghara, they continued to sponsor the Shia in his sanjaks. Shortly after the return of Fakhr al-Din to Mount Lebanon in 1618, the Shia clans refused to forward the taxes from their subdistricts to the Ma'ns and took refuge with Yunus al-Harfush in Baalbek. After a number of raids against the Shia clans, Fakhr al-Din reconciled with them and Shia levies thereafter served in several of his military campaigns against the Sayfas and other local opponents.

Ties between the Ma'ns and Harfushes continued to deteriorate. According to the historian Abdul-Rahim Abu-Husayn, Fakhr al-Din "regarded the Harfushes as his subordinates. But the Harfushes did not seem to recognize his overlordship, especially after his flight to Tuscany." In 1623 Yunus al-Harfush prohibited the Druze of the Chouf to access or cultivate the lands in the southern Beqaa Valley which they had come to own and cultivate since the late 16th century. The restriction angered Fakhr al-Din, who also claimed personal ownership of the village of Qabb Ilyas in the southern Beqaa. In July 1623 he stationed in Qabb Ilyas his own sekbans along with sekbans sent to him by his Bedouin ally Mudlij al-Hayari of the Al Fadl. He arrived in person to Qabb Ilyas in August/September and produced documents for Husayn, the son of Yunus al-Harfush, verifying his purchase of Qabb Ilyas from the estate of Mansur ibn Furaykh in the 1590s. Husayn thereupon complied with Fakhr al-Din's order to evacuate the village. Afterward, the Ma'nid sekbans plundered Qabb Ilyas and the southern Beqaa Valley in general. Fakhr al-Din permitted the Druze of the Chouf to seize the harvests there previously bound for the Harfushes, while he seized for himself the Harfushes' cattle and brought masons from Sidon and Beirut to dissemble Harfush fortifications in Qabb Ilyas.

Meanwhile, in June/July the Porte had replaced Fakhr al-Din as sanjak-bey of Safad with a certain Bustanji Bashi and replaced Mustafa Kethuda and Fakhr al-Din's son Husayn as the sanjak-beys of Nablus and Ajlun with local opponents of Fakhr al-Din, Farrukh Pasha and Bashir Qansuh, respectively. During his time in Qabb Ilyas, the Porte restored Husayn Ma'n and Mustafa Kethuda to Ajlun and Nablus, though Fakhr al-Din was not restored to Safad. The Ma'ns thereupon left Qabb Ilyas to assume control of Ajlun and Nablus, prompting Yunus al-Harfush to call on his Janissary ally, Kurd Hamza, who wielded significant influence over the governor of Damascus, Mustafa Pasha, to oppose their move. Kurd Hamza had earlier forced Hajj Kiwan out of Damascus and Fakhr al-Din appointed him the governor of the southern Beqaa Valley subdistrict. When Bustanji Bashi's deputy, who governed Safad on his behalf, soon after died in Safed, Kurd Hamza appointed Yunus al-Harfush in Bustanji Bashi's place. At the same time, Kurd Hamza secured the reappointment of Bashir Qansuh to Ajlun. Yunus al-Harfush had paid money toward both appointments. Fakhr al-Din, incensed at the installation of Yunus al-Harfush to Safad, attempted to outbid him for the governorship, but his offer was ignored by Mustafa Pasha.

Prelude
Yunus al-Harfush left Damascus for Baalbek to prepare his forces for impending battle with the Ma'ns over Safad, while Fakhr al-Din headed south in a campaign against the Turabays, the Bedouin chieftains and sanjak-beys of Lajjun. While he was away, Yunus al-Harfush was joined in Baalbek by Yusuf Sayfa's son, the sanjak-bey of Homs Umar Sayfa, and his men. The Sayfas and Harfushes were then reinforced by the sanjak-bey of Darkush, Mustafa ibn Abi Zayd, and 1,000 of his sekbans, and Mudlij al-Hayari's rival within the Al Fadl, Husayn ibn Fayyad al-Hayari and his Bedouin cavalries. In response, Ali Ma'n mobilized and dispatched his Druze fighters from the Chouf and the Gharb and the Druze chiefs of the Jurd and Matn led by Muzaffar al-Andari to Hajj Kiwan in Qabb Ilyas.

On his way back to Mount Lebanon from his abortive campaign against the Turabays, Fakhr al-Din was notified that the Porte reappointed Ali Ma'n to Safad, Husayn Ma'n to Ajlun and Mustafa Kethuda to Nablus. The reversal by the Porte was linked to the successions of Sultan Murad IV ((r. 1623 – 1640)) and Grand Vizier Kemankeş Ali Pasha, the latter of whom had been bribed by Fakhr al-Din's agent in Constantinople Hajj Ali to restore the Ma'ns to their former sanjaks. Fakhr al-Din immediately stopped in Safed and read the Porte's orders to its people, while sending copies of the order to Mustafa Pasha. The latter ignored the letters, and according to Khalidi, considered them to be forgeries as news of Sultan Murad's succession had not yet reached Damascus. Under pressure from Kurd Hamza's Janissaries, Mustafa Pasha proceeded to launch an expedition against the Ma'ns. A contemporary historian, al-Ghazzi, noted that the governor had not been in favor of an expedition at that point and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Kurd Hamza to wait for the Porte's response to Fakhr al-Din's occupation of the southern Beqaa Valley. According to Abu-Husayn, Mustafa Pasha "had practically lost all control over them [the Janissaries] and had become an instrument of the conflicts among the local Janissaries and the local chiefs, utilized in this case by Kurd Hamza against Hajj Kiwan, and by Yunus al-Harfush against Fakhr al-Din". Ali Ma'n and his men arrived in Qabb Ilyas, where Yunus Ma'n and his men were already stationed, on 21 October. Fakhr al-Din arrived the next day, but due to his loss of money and provisions from the Turabay campaign, immediately set off to raid the nearby villages of Karak Nuh and Sar'in, both held by the Harfushes. After encountering stiff resistance from the small Harfush force in Karak, he called for reinforcements. Upon the arrival of Ali Ma'n and Yunus Ma'n, the defenders of Karak surrendered and the village was subsequently plundered and burned. The Ma'ns proceeded east to Sar'in, but its inhabitants had already fled to Zabadani. They were pursued by a number of Druze fighters, who were able to seize from them a limited amount of goods. Fakhr al-Din plundered and burnt Sar'in and did the same to a number of villages on his way back to Qabb Ilyas. The sons of Yunus al-Harfush, who were in Baalbek, informed their father, who sent them reinforcements from Damascus.

Battle
Back in Qabb Ilyas, Fakhr al-Din was notified by a messenger, Muhammad Bolukbashi Antabi, that Mustafa Pasha, the Damascene Janissaries under Kurd Hamza, Yunus al-Harfush and Umar Sayfa had set out from Damascus and encamped in Khan Maysalun en route to the Beqaa Valley. Fakhr al-Din mobilized his men, dividing them into four units. He was at the head of the first unit, composed of sekban new hires and the Druze fighters of the Gharb and the Matn. His son Ali commanded their old sekbans and the Druze of the Jurd under Muzaffar al-Andari, his brother Yunus led the Druze of the Chouf, and Mustafa Kethuda commanded the Shia levies of Jabal Amil. Fakhr al-Din sent ahead of him the brothers Ahmad and Ali Shihab with the fighters of Wadi al-Taym to take position in the tower of Anjar. By the time Fakhr al-Din arrived at Anjar on 9 November or 11 November 1623, the Shihabs had been driven off and the Sayfas and Harfushes had taken over the tower.

Immediately upon arriving in Anjar, Fakhr al-Din engaged the Damascene Janissaries in a battle on an open field near the spring of Anjar. The Damascenes were decisively defeated in the short battle and Mustafa Pasha was captured by Fakhr al-Din's men. According to the account of Fakhr al-Din's personal chronicler Ahmad al-Khalidi, Fakhr al-Din and his son Ali dismounted and kissed the robes of Mustafa Pasha in a show of respect to the governor. Mustafa Pasha claimed he had been forced into the campaign, but the Ma'ns did not release him immediately. Instead, Fakhr al-Din used the governor's detention to extract political concessions and aid in the war efforts against the Harfushes. Meanwhile, Kurd Hamza and Yunus al-Harfush had escaped to Aleppo.

Siege of Baalbek and political wrangling
With Mustafa Pasha in his company, Fakhr al-Din pursued to the Harfushes to Baalbek, which was deserted except for its citadel. The Ma'ns plundered the town and besieged the Harfush sekbans in the citadel. A cousin of Yunus al-Harfush, Shalhub al-Harfush, defected to the Ma'ns in Baalbek. A delegation from Damascus arrived to the town to lobby for Mustafa Pasha's release. At the end of twelve days of negotiations, Mustafa Pasha was freed and the Damascenes agreed to all of Fakhr al-Din's terms, including affirmation of the Porte's assignments of the Ma'ns to the governorships of Safad, Ajlun, and Nablus, as well as the appointment of Fakhr al-Din to Gaza, Ali Ma'n to the southern Beqaa Valley, and Fakhr al-Din's other son Mansur to Lajjun. The Ma'ns' attempts to effect their control over Gaza and Lajjun were unsuccessful and the Turabays did not recognize their nominal rule. Among the other demands of Fakhr al-Din to which the Damascenes conceded were the appointments of his allies among the Janissaries, namely Hajj Kiwan and Tarif Husayn Bolukbashi, to the leadership of the Janissaries of Damascus. Kurd Hamza's loyalists were arrested and many of them strangled in the Citadel of Damascus. Whereas the Damascene Janissaries had previously operated with practical independence from the governor, following their rout at Anjar, Mustafa Pasha reasserted his office's authority over them.

During the siege of Baalbek, Fakhr al-Din answered a request for military assistance from Mudlij against Husayn al-Hayari. Fakhr al-Din and his Sayfa allies Beylik and Sulayman, a son and a nephew of Yusuf Sayfa, respectively, and Shalhub, made their way to the camp of Mudlij at Furqlus in the Syrian steppe in November. Mudlij decided not to assault Husayn al-Hayari due to winter conditions, but reaffirmed his alliance with the Ma'ns. Afterward, Fakhr al-Din returned to the siege of Baalbek. The Porte appointed a certain Muhammad Pasha to replace Mustafa Pasha and the new appointee arrived in Hama accompanied by Kurd Hamza on 1 January 1624. Ghazzi asserted that only with Fakhr al-Din's agreement could Muhammad Pasha assume office in Damascus. When the new governor demanded Fakhr al-Din cease his support for Mustafa Pasha, the Druze chief sent a non-committal response: "you are the Sultan's Pashas and representatives, and we do not interfere except for reconciliation". At the same time he informed the Porte of his inability to facilitate Muhammad Pasha's succession due to opposition by the Damascenes to the presence of Kurd Hamza and Yunus al-Harfush in the new appointee's company. Later than month, Fakhr al-Din secured the governorship of Zabadani for his ally Qasim ibn Ali Shihab.

At some point in February or early March Yunus al-Harfush had been captured in Salamiyah by Khalid ibn Ajaj, a loyalist of Mudlij. A son of Yunus al-Harfush, Ali, soon after made peace with Fakhr al-Din through the mediation of Shalhub against his family's wishes. In return for a payment from Ali and his family, Fakhr al-Din agreed not use his influence with Mudlij or the governor of Aleppo, Murad Pasha, to inflict harm on Yunus al-Harfush. By early March Fakhr al-Din realized Muhammad Pasha's appointment would not be rescinded by the Porte, and Mustafa Pasha agreed to leave Damascus. The new governor met with Fakhr al-Din in Ras al-Ayn near Baalbek on 10 March and confirmed the Ma'ns' in their sanjaks, while appointing Ali Harfush to Baalbek. The Harfush sekbans surrendered on 28 March and Fakhr al-Din had the citadel destroyed. An account from 1634 by the Aleppine historian Utayfi made note that "the city of Baalbek ... was in ruins ... destroyed by Fakhr al-Din Ibn Ma'n in his war with Banu al-Harfush". An account from Mahasini three years later also makes note that Baalbek was destroyed beyond recognition as a result of Fakhr al-Din's assault.

According to Istifan al-Duwayhi, Fakhr al-Din was appointed to the governorship of Baalbek in 1625, after which the Harfushes were driven out of the city and Yunus al-Harfush fled to Aleppo where he was taken prisoner and executed by Murad Pasha in exchange for Fakhr al-Din's surrender of the fortresses of Krak des Chevaliers, Chastel Blanc, Margat and Shumeimis.