Accession Bashir emerged on Mount Lebanon's political scene in the mid-1780s when he became involved in an intra-family dispute over leadership of the Shihabi emirate in 1783. In that dispute, Bashir backed emirs Isma'il and Sayyid-Ahmad Shihab against Emir Yusuf, who ultimately prevailed when the powerful Ottoman governor of
Sidon,
Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, confirmed his control of the Mount Lebanon tax farms after Yusuf promised him a bribe of 1 million
qirsh. Bashir traveled to al-Jazzar's headquarters in
Acre, where he was officially transferred the Mount Lebanon tax farms in September 1789. Not long after, Jirji Baz, the
mudabbir (manager) of Yusuf's sons Husayn and Sa'ad ad-Din, persuaded Qa'dan and Haydar to grant Yusuf's sons the tax farm of Jubail.
Conflict with al-Jazzar In 1797, Baz reestablished good offices with al-Jazzar, bringing him Yusuf's sons to pay their respects. Al-Jazzar wielded his potential support for Yusuf's sons as a way to leverage Bashir into paying more taxes or risk losing his Mount Lebanon tax farms. At the same time, Emir Bashir decided to eliminate his Abi Nakad opponents and to that end, he conspired with the Jumblatts and Imads. According to a contemporary source, the killings effectively meant that the "Nakad name was obliterated". He subsequently forced Bashir to depart Mount Lebanon by sending an expeditionary force to help Baz oust Bashir from Deir al-Qamar. Baz agreed to meet Bashir in secret and the two reached a deal without al-Jazzar's knowledge, whereby Bashir would control the Druze areas of Mount Lebanon and Maronite-dominated Keserwan, while Yusuf's sons would control the northern areas, such as Jubail and
Batroun. Bashir promised to uphold the agreement, swearing an oath on both the
Quran and the
Gospel. Bashir also hired Baz to be his
mudabbir, replacing the Maronite
Dahdah clan as his traditional provider of
mudabbirs. Baz, meanwhile, had been asserting his influence in Mount Lebanon and often acted out of concert with Bashir, bypassing the latter's authority. In 1810, Sulayman Pasha gave Bashir a leasehold for life over the Chouf and Keserwan tax districts, Moreover, Sulayman Pasha would thereafter address Bashir in their correspondence with the honorary title of "pride of noble princes, authority over great lords, our noble son, Emir Bashir al-Shihabi". The Maronite peasantry became frustrated with Emir Bashir because of the additional taxes imposed on them, while the Maronite Church was becoming increasingly angry at Emir Bashir's concealment of his Maronite Catholic faith. Bashir understood this to be an attempt by Abdullah to foment a conflict between him and the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon, and he sought to defuse tensions with Abdullah Pasha. At Antelias, the peasants agreed to reject Bashir's additional impositions, and appointed
wukala (delegates; sing.
wakil) from each of their villages to represent their interests. The Yazbaki faction, with Abdullah Pasha's blessing, proceeded to appoint two Sunni Muslim emirs from the
Rashayya branch of the Shihab clan, Hasan and Salman, as Emir Bashir's successors on 14 April 1819. By 1820, the Ottoman Empire was entering into war with
Russia and attempting to quell a
Greek uprising in Morea, prompting the
Sublime Porte (Ottoman imperial government) to issue orders to Abdullah Pasha to fortify
Syria's coastal cities and disarm Christians in his province. and Bashir II The Sublime Porte was troubled by Abdullah Pasha and Emir Bashir's actions against Damascus, and dispatched Mustafa Pasha, the governor of
Aleppo Eyalet, to reinforce Dervish Pasha and help him defeat Abdullah Pasha. From there, Sheikh Bashir began preparations for war with Emir Bashir. Patriarch
Yusuf Hubaysh greatly welcomed the aforementioned developments. In effect, Maronite clergymen, who had long dominated the religious and secular aspects of Maronite life, acquired the privileges that the Druze ''muqata'jis
had previously maintained with Bashir and his Shihabi predecessors. The latter had the mufti of Istanbul issue a fatwa (Islamic edict) that declared Muhammad Ali an infidel, while Muhammad Ali had the Sharif of Mecca issue a fatwa'' that condemned Mahmud II for violating the Sharia and promoted Muhammad Ali as Islam's savior, subsequently setting the stage for
war between Egypt and Istanbul. Under the command of Muhammad Ali's son
Ibrahim Pasha, Egyptian forces began their conquest of Syria on 1 October 1831, capturing much of Palestine before
besieging Abdullah Pasha in Acre on 11 November. Meanwhile, under the Sublime Porte's orders, the
mutasallims of Beirut and Sidon and the
walis of Tripoli and
Aleppo stood by Abdullah Pasha, and issued warnings to Mount Lebanon's notables to do likewise. Instead, they joined the Ottoman army mobilizing in Damascus under the command of the
serasker (commander-in-chief), Mehmed Izzet Pasha. The alignment of the major Druze clans with the Ottomans compelled Bashir to further rely on his growing Maronite power base. However, through his close alliance with Muhammad Ali, preventing it from being subject to the Egyptian bureaucracy that centralized power in the rest of Syria. the northern tax district of
Koura and the port cities of Sidon and Beirut. As such, he appointed Khalil to Shahhar, Qasim to Chouf, Amin in Jubail, his brother Hasan's son Abdullah in Keserwan, his cousin Bashir in Tuffah and his associate Haydar Abu'l Lama in Matn. during which Muhammad Ali sent orders to Bashir to advance against
Safad, one of the centers of the rebellion. Accordingly, Bashir led his troops toward the town, but before reaching it, he issued an ultimatum to the rebels demanding their surrender. Between 1834 and 1835, Bashir's forces commanded by Khalil and his relatives also participated in the suppression of revolts in
Akkar,
Safita, the Krak des Chevaliers and an
Alawite revolt in the mountainous region of
Latakia. With the various rebellions quelled, resistance to disarmament and conscription by Muhammad Ali's administration was stifled for a few years. Bashir acceded to Ibrahim Pasha's levy request, organizing a force under the leadership of his grandson Mahmud, which subsequently was sent to reinforce Ahmad and Sa'd ad-Din in Hasbaya. Bashir's troops were ambushed by Druze forces commanded by rival Shihab emirs,
Bashir Qasim and Ali of
Rashaya. Bashir's Druze and Christian rivals and dissidents to his rule in Mount Lebanon were courted and armed in an initiative by the British Foreign Secretary,
Lord Palmerston. With British–Ottoman support, an alliance of sheikhs in Mount Lebanon, including the Abu Nakad, Abu'l Lama,
Khazen, Shihab, Hubaysh and
Dahdah clans, Khanjar al-Harfush, Ahmad Daghir, Yusuf al-Shantiri and Abu Samra Ghanim, launched a rebellion against Bashir and Ibrahim Pasha on 27 May 1840. Most Druze did not join the revolt in its early stage due to its mostly Maronite or pro-Christian leadership based in Matn, Keserwan and the Sahil. By 13 July, Bashir informed the Egyptian authorities that the revolt was suppressed, and handed over 57 of the revolt's leaders and participants, including Haydar Abu'l Lama and Fransis al-Khazen, who were exiled to
Upper Egypt. This was after Wood, who had been accorded responsibility over settling Mount Lebanon's affairs by the Ottomans, had won over Patriarch Hubaysh with guarantees that the Ottomans would respect the privileges of the Maronite Church in Mount Lebanon. Abu Samra and the Maronites of Batroun, Jubail, Bsharri and Koura also defected from the Ottomans. Ibrahim Pasha fled, while Bashir surrendered to the Ottomans on 11 October. Bashir offered the Ottomans four million piasters to be exiled to France, but his offer was rejected. Instead, he was given the choice between exile in
Malta or
London. Bashir chose the former, and departed Beirut for Malta, bringing with him Jihan, all of his children and grandchildren, his
mudabbir Butros Karama, Bishop Istifan Hubaysh, Rustom Baz and 113 retainers. After an eleven-month stay in Malta, they departed again for Istanbul. Bashir remained in Istanbul until his death in 1850. He was buried in the Armenian Church in the
Galata district of the city. ==Legacy==