Tanyus Shahin

Skyline of a Keserwan village, 2019

Peasant anger in Keserwan had been building since the mid-19th century, due to a number of factors, including the burdens of corvée (unpaid labor for a landlord) that had been imposed during the rule of Emir Bashir Shihab II,[6] general economic hardship, and the decreasing availability of land.[7] The Maronite Khazen family traditionally served as the sheikhs (chiefs) of Keserwan, although their power had been significantly diminished during Emir Bashir's rule.[6] To meet Emir Bashir's increased tax demands and finance their move to gain further control over Keserwan's silk production, the Khazens took loans from Beirut lenders and accumulated significant debts. Several became destitute in the 1830s and 1840s and Khazen influence over the Maronite Church waned. To compensate for their economic, social and political stagnation, the Khazens increased their pressure on the peasants of Keserwan in the late 1850s, while also spending extravagantly.[8] The Khazens opposed the creation of the "Double Qaimaqmate" in Mount Lebanon in the 1840s, which divided Mount Lebanon into Druze and Christian-run sectors, and were incensed at the appointment of a sheikh from the mixed Druze-Christian Abu'l Lama family as the qaimaqam (deputy governor) of the Maronite section of the Qaimaqamate. The Khazens feared that such an appointment would formally subordinate them to the Abu'l Lama sheikhs. Following the Abu'l Lama sheikh's death in 1854, his successor Bashir Ahmad Abu'l Lama attempted to further reduce the Khazens' influence, prompting the Khazens to stir the peasants to revolt against Bashir Ahmad. The revolt against Bashir Ahmad soon turned against the Khazen sheikhs and their feudal allies.[6] The peasant subjects of the Khazen sheikhs had long been wary of their rule due to the excessive taxes they imposed as well as the additional gifts the peasants were virtually obligated to give the sheikhs, which many peasants considered humiliating.[7]

In early 1858, a group of peasants from Keserwan lodged a formal complaint against the Khazens to Khurshid Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Beirut. Later, in March 1858, the Khazens held a summit for the people of Keserwan to garner support for their nomination of a new qaimaqam. Instead, the peasants participating in the summit voiced their dissent against the Khazens and in October, several villages in Keserwan entered into an alliance against the Khazen sheikhs. Shahin was chosen by this alliance of peasants as their leader in December,[9] and was declared the wakil awwal (first delegate).[10]

In January 1859, Shahin intensified the armed revolt against the Khazen sheikhs and with 800 of his peasant fighters, he besieged the Khazens during a summit they were holding in Ghosta. The siege prompted the sheikhs to flee the village, and the peasants under Shahin subsequently plundered the Khazens' estates. Shahin and his men proceeded to attack the Khazens in other villages with little blood spilled in the process,[9] with the exception of the wife and daughter of a Khazen sheikh who were killed in Ajaltoun in July during a raid on their home by the peasants.[9][11] The Maronite patriarch, Paul Peter Massad, condemned their killing as a "horrific crime".[11] Silk and wheat warehouses belonging to the sheikhs were plundered and the goods were redistributed among the peasants of Keserwan.[9] By July, the Khazens had been routed and between 500[9] and 600 family members had fled to Beirut in an impoverished state.[12] Shahin broadened the peasants' main demands of tax relief and refunds for the illegal payments they had previously paid to the Khazen sheikhs to also include political and legal reforms. Shahin cited the Edict of Gülhane, which mandated equality for all Ottoman citizens.[13]

Following his victory over the Khazen sheikhs, Shahin and the peasants of Keserwan formed a government, with Shahin declaring a jumhuriyya (republic).[9] He became known as the wakil 'amm (general delegate), and in the fall of 1859 moved the headquarters of the rebellion from the coastal village of Zouk Mikael to his hometown of Rayfoun in the mountains.[10] Although revolts were relatively commonplace in Mount Lebanon, the ousting of a noble family by their peasant subjects was unprecedented.[14] Shahin's government consisted of a 100-member council made up of representatives from the villages of Keserwan.[9][10] Over half of the representatives were peasants who did not own land, 32 were relatively well-to-do farmers, ten were clergymen and three were merchants or lenders.[10] Shahin, who by this point oversaw a 1,000-strong militia,[10] exercised power by seizing arms, ensured the upholding of the law and established security on the roads. He disciplined dissidents suspected of betraying the government and issued decrees in the name of the public. He also entered into negotiations with the Khazen sheikhs, but they reached a stalemate.[9]

The main villages that supported Shahin's government were Rayfoun, Ajaltoun, Ashqout, Qleiat and Mazraat Kfardebian. The representatives of these villages were able to gain the solidarity of other villages by persuading their inhabitants through both peaceful and coercive means that as Christians they were all a part of single community with a united purpose.[15] The leaders of some villages, such as those of Ghosta, Aramoun, Ghazir and Ftuh opposed Shahin and his revolt.[11] Shahin's popularity among the Christian peasants of Mount Lebanon grew as he came to be viewed as their savior from both the Druze nobles and the traditional Maronite elites. This reputation was further solidified after Shahin's men backed Christian residents in a clash with Druze residents in the mixed village of Beit Meri in Matn in August 1859.[14]

The Khazens demanded the restoration of their rule in Keserwan and lodged complaints to the Ottoman government about property stolen or damaged by the peasantry. The Ottomans launched an investigation in Keserwan, but in their interviews with the peasants, all claimed that they were unaware of looting and other crimes, while representatives of Shahin denied that they were rebels, insisting that they only sought the implementation of the Tanzimat reforms and the restoration of law and order. In petitions to the Maronite Patriarchate, the peasants demanded compensation by the Khazens for taxes that were illegally extorted from them, an abolition to the traditional gift-giving required of the peasants, the abolition of marriage taxes levied by the Khazens and an end to the practice of beating peasants, among other demands. Shahin nominally recognized the Maronite Patriarchate as the ultimate arbiter of disputes, but consistently urged them to honor their obligations to the "ahali" (commoners). In one incident he or his men fired shots toward the patriarch's headquarters in Bkirki for hosting a number of Khazens who were seeking refuge there.[16] In March 1859, Shahin rebuffed the church's request to make an agreement with the Khazen sheikhs, citing the need to first "consult with all the ahali and all the villages".[17]

Shahin's rise generally confused the Ottoman government because Shahin used the Tanzimat to legitimize his revolt. The Ottomans did not consider the religious equality called for by the Tanzimat reforms to translate into class equality, which is how Shahin interpreted it. Moreover, the Ottomans did not countenance that a semi-literate Arabic-speaking peasant from a rural region such as Keserwan would serve as a representative of the Tanzimat.[18] They reacted to Shahin's revolt negatively, although the provincial Ottoman authorities of Beirut generally felt powerless to act against the peasant rebels due to a lack of funds and forces on the ground. Khurshid Pasha sympathized more with the Khazen sheikhs and in a letter to the Patriarchate accused Shahin of using "deceit to lead astray the minds of the people and to seduce them into following his evil ways".[19] The principal focus of the Ottoman authorities in Lebanon was containing Shahin's revolt.[19] However, later historians of Lebanon accused Khurshid Pasha of at least tacitly supporting Shahin in order to break communal solidarity.[18]

Khurshid Pasha dispatched Emir Yusuf Ali Murad, a Maronite sheikh from the Abu'l Lama family, to rein in peasant rebels in Byblos, but Shahin sent a letter warning Emir Yusuf not to "intervene in the affairs" of Bybos because the "Christians of Jubail [Byblos] were united with the ahali of Keserwan" and claimed that "all the Christians of Syria have made common cause".[19] He condemned Emir Yusuf for aligning himself with the ousted sheikhs and his "Druze relatives" and accused him of attempting to "subjugate the Christians after we achieved our [freedom]".[20] He threatened Emir Yusuf to "return without delay" and that if he "desires a fight, we are more eager than you, and we are not afraid".[20] Shahin's confidence in the support he received from the Christian peasantry of Keserwan and other parts of Mount Lebanon and his challenge to Emir Yusuf through a populist sectarian approach alarmed the Maronite elites, the church and the Ottoman authorities.[21]

In response to a Maronite priest's complaints about harassment by Shia Muslims against Christians, Shahin's men attacked and plundered Shia villages and travelers in Byblos and demanded that Shia villages convert to Christianity to avoid assault. The Shia residents of Byblos protested these assaults in June 1859. While Shahin's actions further frustrated the local elites, Christian, Muslim and Druze alike, his reputation as the defender of Christian rights was bolstered at the popular level.[22]