User:Al Ameer son/Tribes of Syria

Mawali
The origins of the Mawali are obscure, but all accounts of their origins hold that the tribe descended from a group of slaves given to a local Muslim hero. In one of the more romanticized versions, the Mawali originated from a group of male and female slaves gifted to an Umayyad prince by the Byzantine empress, Theodora; together the Umayyad prince and his slave coterie formed what eventually became the Mawali tribe. In another version, the Mawali are descended from another slave tribe known as "Beshar". By the 15th century, during Mamluk rule, the Mamluk authorities had adopted a policy of appeasement with the Mawali, whereby the Mamluks By the time the Ottoman Empire conquered Syria from the Mamluks in 1516, the Mawali were the dominant, albeit loosely-related, tribal confederation in the Syrian Desert. By then, the tribe's composition had become vastly varied, with its members hailing from different tribal and ethnic origins, and held different customs and ways of life.

The Mawali were held together and derived their prestige from their leaders, who, beginning in the 16th century, were the Abu Risha emirs (princes). The Abu Risha were descendants of the Al Fadl, an Arab tribe belonging to Banu Rabi'ah. The Abu Risha received their name, which translates as "possessor of the plume", because its sheikh (chieftain) adorned a turban with a peacock feather given to him by the Ottoman authorities in 1574. That year, the ottomans signed a treaty with the sheikh recognizing his family's hereditary right to lead the Mawali confederation. Thereafter, the Mawali tribe guaranteed protection for peasants, travelers and caravans traversing the Euphrates road from Birecik (al-Birah) in southern Anatolia to Ridwaniyya, a suburb just east of Baghdad, in return for an annual salary of 6,000 gold ducats. The Abu Risha emirs were also allowed to deal with European trading companies without intervention by the Ottomans.

The agreement with the Ottomans largely held through the first quarter of the 18th century, with a few exceptions. Among these exceptions was an incident in 1605 when a struggle for dynastic succession broke down the order of Mawali, precipitating Mawali raids against caravans that were disapproved by the tribe's leader. Another incident occurred in 1644 when the Ottomans did not promptly pay the Abu Risha emirs their annual salary, prompting a Mawali revolt and massacre of the Ottoman garrison of Aleppo. However, it was the invasion of Anaza tribesmen from Najd that disrupted the generally peaceful caravan travels and prospering trade between Damascus and Aleppo. The Anaza, who sought to plunder caravans, and Mawali confederations entered into several battles in which the latter were defeated. With their victory over the Mawali, the Anaza became the virtual rulers of the Syrian Desert and steppe. As a result of their defeat, the Mawali withdrew to a smaller zone of desert just south and east of Aleppo where they served as guards for passing caravans. They were not able to muster the strength to reclaim their dominant position in the vast expanses of the Syrian Desert.