Paramountcy over the Druze Ahmad and Qurqumaz succeeded their father as the paramount chiefs of the Druze after his death in 1658. At roughly that point, they were also appointed to the
iltizam of the Safed Sanjak, holding it until late 1660. Their leadership over the Mount Lebanon Druze was challenged by other Druze chiefs with backing from the Ottoman government, which launched an expedition against the Ma'ns' allies, the Shia Muslim
Hamada chiefs in northern Mount Lebanon and the Sunni Muslim
Shihab emirs of
Wadi al-Taym in 1660. The campaign was carried out by the troops of the sultan led by Grand Vizier
Koprulu Mehmed Pasha and the governor of
Sidon Eyalet, an administrative entity formed that year out of the Sidon-Beirut and Safed sanjaks to strengthen government control and taxation efforts of the Druze-dominated region. The troops wreaked havoc in the countryside but were unable to locate the rebel chiefs and expanded their targets to include the Ma'nid brothers when they refused to cooperate in handing over their allies. The rival Druze leaders Ali Alam al-Din and Sirhal Imad were appointed to the
iltizam formerly held by Mulhim, while the Ma'nid brothers took refuge in the Kisrawan. In 1662, the brothers were allegedly lured into a trap when Sidon's governor invited them to meet with his representative to reinstate them to their
iltizam. In the ensuing meeting, Qurqumaz was slain, but Ahmad evaded capture. Afterward, Ahmad mobilized his Druze warriors against his Druze rivals. In the ensuing conflict, Ahmad is held to have represented the 'Qays' faction, while the Alam al-Din emir led the 'Yaman'; these divisions alluded to the early Islamic-period
Qays–Yaman tribo-political rivalry, but there was no actual known connection to that centuries-old feud. In a battle close to Beirut in 1667, Ahmad and the Qays routed the Yamani Druze led by the Alam al-Dins and the
Sawwafs of the Matn, prompting them to leave Mount Lebanon for refuge in Damascus.
Multazim of southern Mount Lebanon After his victory that year, Ahmad assumed control over the
iltizam formerly held by his father comprising the Chouf, Jurd, Matn, Gharb and the mostly Maronite Kisrawan. In 1689 the
Ottoman imperial government issued a call up of troops from the governors and military commanders of the Syrian eyalets to the
war front with Hungary, threatening those officials who failed to cooperate with execution as infidels. The seriousness of the orders was unprecedented, as was the invocation in the orders of the
Ottoman sultan's role as
caliph, and reflected the dire state of the Ottoman military due to the war with the Hungarian
Habsburgs. The Ottoman
assault on Vienna had been repulsed in 1683 and the ensuing war caused a major drain on the empire's military resources and their increasing retreat from Hungarian territory. Ahmad was ordered to dispatch 500 musketeers to the imperial camp at
Edirne and was addressed in complementary terms as the "abode" of the "emirate". Ahmad evidently did not comply, as there are no indications to that effect in the local chronicles or the government records. Ahmad was issued orders two years later, this time to help the governors of Tripoli and
Damascus stamp out the rebellion of the Hamada sheikhs, who are only referred to in government records as
Kizilbash or
Revafid, both derogatory terms used by the Ottomans for Shia Muslims, the former meant to associate them with pro-
Safavid Persian rebels. The Hamadas, who were the
multazims of
Byblos, Jubbat Bsharri and
Batroun, had commenced their rebellion in the hill country around
Tripoli while the Ottomans were smarting from their losses on the Hungarian front in the 1680s. They had attacked the
Citadel of Tripoli in 1684, raided
Byblos around 1686 and all the while inflicted heavy casualties on government forces. Although the Ottomans were able to kill several in a 1693 expedition, many of the Hamadas and their fighters escaped and found refuge with Ahmad. With the latter's assistance, they repulsed the Ottoman troops who pursued them into the Druze Mountain, killing many soldiers. In response to Ahmad's protection of the Hamadas, the imperial government ordered the mobilization of the troops of the Tripoli and Sidon eyalets and those of the
Hama,
Homs and
Kilis sanjaks to capture and execute Ahmad and his men and send their heads to the capital at
Constantinople in 1694. Nothing evidently came of this order. Between 1694 and 1695, numerous imperial orders were issued to officers of the Syrian provinces to capture and kill Ahmad for his persisting alliance with the Hamadas. In May 1695, the imperial authorities formally voided Ahmad's control of his
iltizam, which by then also included the
nahiyas of
Iqlim al-Kharrub and
Marj Uyun to the south of the Druze Mountain. The same order called for the provincial governors of Tripoli, Sidon and Damascus, as well as commanders from
Aleppo to remove and punish Ahmad and the Hamadas. Ahmad consequently fled his Chouf stronghold for refuge with the Shihabs in Wadi al-Taym. Ahmad had formed marital ties with the family in 1674, when he married his daughter to Musa Shihab of
Hasbaya; his paternal aunt was married to Husayn Shihab of
Rashayya in 1629. Upon vacating his
iltizam, his Druze rival Musa Alam al-Din, who had been based in Damascus, was installed by the Ottomans in his place at
Deir al-Qamar, the traditional seat of Ma'nid power in the Chouf. Ahmad and the Shihabs sponsored risings against Musa, compelling him to flee the Druze Mountain for Sidon where he had the governor's protection. Ahmad subsequently returned to Deir al-Qamar and resumed control of his
iltizam. The Ottoman government, which did not approve of Ahmad's practical rule, ordered different Syrian provincial governors to help reinstate Musa, who remained the legal
multazim, and afterward reduce the tax burden on the Druze Mountain to boost his popularity there.
Last years and death Despite numerous government attempts throughout the 1690s, Ahmad consistently evaded capture or punishment. Abu-Husayn proposes this was related to the deployment of most
Ottoman government troops to the Hungarian front and the consequent lack of sufficient forces to effect imperial orders against Ahmad. The English traveler
Henry Maundrell, when visiting
Beirut in March 1697, noted that Ahmad was known to remain constantly on guard for his life, writing: Their [the Druzes'] present prince is Achmet, grandson to Faccardine; an old man, and one who keeps up the custom of his ancestors, of turning day into night: a hereditary practice in his family, proceeding from a traditional persuasion among them that princes never sleep securely but by day, when men's actions and designs are best observed by their guards, and if need be, most easily prevented; but that in the night it concerns them to be always vigilant, lest the darkness, aided by their sleep, should give traitors both opportunity and encouragement to assault their persons, and by dagger or pistol, to make them continue their sleep longer than when they intended. He died of old age in his sleep in
Deir al-Qamar on 25 September 1697. His son Mulhim had died as a young boy in 1680, and Ahmad died without male progeny. ==Succession of the Shihabs==