Mulhim Ma'n

Mulhim belonged to the Ma'n dynasty, a family of Druze traditional emirs of the Chouf region of Mount Lebanon.[2] His father Yunus was one of two sons of Qurqumaz,[2] the Ma'nid chief of the Chouf who died in the 1585 Ottoman expedition against the Druze.[3] The other son was Fakhr al-Din II, who succeeded Qurqumaz in his traditional role around 1591.[3]

Fakhr al-Din gained the Ottomans' good graces and went on to become a powerful tax farmer and governor of the Sidon-Beirut and Safed sanjaks.[4][5] Because of his increasing strength and autonomy, the Ottomans targeted Fakhr al-Din and the Ma'ns in an expedition in 1613, causing Fakhr al-Din to flee to Tuscany.[6] Yunus largely took over his brother's role, but his power was initially confined to the Chouf.[7] By 1616 Yunus and Fakhr al-Din's son Ali were installed as governors of Sidon-Beirut and Safed. Yunus resumed his role as the deputy of his brother upon Fakhr al-Din's return in 1618.[8]

The Ma'ns expanded their control and tax farms to the Beqaa Valley and much of the Tripoli Eyalet, and their defiance of the Ottomans led to another punitive campaign in 1633.[9] Ali was killed in the fighting, while Yunus was captured along with Mulhim and his brother Hamdan in the Jabal Amil area. Yunus and Hamdan were executed by the commander of the campaign, the Damascus governor Kuchuk Ahmed Pasha, but Mulhim escaped.[10] Fakhr al-Din, meanwhile, was captured and imprisoned in Constantinople.[9]

The Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand II, a political ally and economic partner of Fakhr al-Din, dispatched a galleon to rescue Mulhim, but he was not found.[11] He gained refuge with Ahmad Turabay, the chief of the Turabay dynasty, the Bedouin emirs and governors of the Lajjun Sanjak in northern Palestine. After becoming aware of the fates of Yunus and Fakhr al-Din, Ahmad had his kethuda (steward) escort Mulhim to Kuchuk Ahmed Pasha, but Mulhim escaped en route to Damascus.[12] His residential property in a village called al-Jazira in the southern Beqaa Valley was confiscated and sold by Kuchuk Ahmed Pasha's order in 1634.[13]

While Fakhr al-Din was in prison, a rival Druze chief Ali Alam al-Din was appointed in his place over the tax farms of the Druze areas of Mount Lebanon, namely the Chouf, Gharb, Jurd and Matn districts. Mulhim led the Ma'nid opposition against Alam al-Din.[14] He assaulted Alam al-Din and his forces at a place called Majdal Majous, forcing their flight to Damascus. Alam al-Din returned with reinforcements and defeated Mulhim at Qabb Ilyas. The Ma'nid afterward went into hiding in the Chouf.[15] His activities prompted the Ottomans to execute Fakhr al-Din in 1635, according to the 17th-century Maronite patriarch and historian Istifan al-Duwayhi.[14]

In 1636 Mulhim and his following drove Alam al-Din out of the Chouf and, together with Assaf Sayfa of Tripoli, went after Alam al-Din and Assaf's nephew Ali as they made their way north. After besieging them in the village of al-Ghantu, they reached a truce and Mulhim returned to his Chouf redoubt.[15] Generally after this victory, Mulhim and his allies among the Druze and Maronite chiefs, including the Khazens of Keserwan, were the stronger party in Mount Lebanon. This paramountcy was interrupted in 1638 when Alam al-Din was reinforced with Shia Muslim allies in Jabal Amil. Mulhim led an ambush against them in the village of Ansar where some 1,600 Shia Muslims were killed.[16]

Mulhim had backing of the majority of the Druze of Mount Lebanon. This was indicated when the Druze inhabitants of the Chouf, Gharb, Matn and Jurd fled with him he fled before the combined forces of Alam al-Din and the deputy governor of Damascus in response to the Ansar ambush.[16] Three years later he was appointed by imperial order the tax farmer of the Chouf, Gharb, Matn, Shahhar and Jurd for a one-year term. The imperial government concomitantly ordered that this muqataa be outside the fiscal authority of Damascus. The tax farm was renewed on an almost yearly basis until 1657.[17]

In November 1650 he defeated Ibshir Mustafa Pasha, the governor of Damascus in an engagement in the Qarnana Valley.[17] Another account held that Mulhim, with backing from the Ma'ns' longtime allies the Shihabs of Wadi al-Taym, defeated Damascene government forces hired by Alam al-Din in that clash.[18]

That year, he was appointed the zabit (subdistrict governor) of Batroun in northern Mount Lebanon by the governor of Tripoli.[18] He installed his confederate Abu Nawfal al-Khazen, a Maronite chief, to run the subdistrict on his behalf.[19] Abu Nawfal had been patronized by Mulhim, like his father Abu Nadir had been by Fakhr al-Din. The Khazens collected the taxes in Keserwan, the area just north of the Druze country, fostered the Maronite majority there and invested considerable sums in silk farming, trade with Tuscany and France, and land.[20] In 1651 Mulhim was also appointed zabit of Akkar, in the far north of Mount Lebanon.[17]

Four years later, to counter Alam al-Din's efforts to turn the imperial government against him, Mulhim sent his subordinate Mehmed Agha Qahveji Zade with a large bribe to Grand Vizier Murad Pasha.[18] The Grand Vizier appointed Mehmed Agha as the sanjak-bey (district governor) of Safed, which comprised the Jabal Amil and the Galilee. Mulhim and his sons Qurqumaz and Ahmad subsequently relocated to Safed and in February 1657 he was directly appointed as governor of the sanjak.[17] The appointment was to last one year, but in August he was dismissed and replaced with Ahmed Agha Tatar. The latter concurrently leased the tax farm of the sanjak to Mulhim.[17]

While attempting to collect the taxes of Safed in August 1658 Mulhim became ill and left for Sidon. He died there on 26 September.[17]