Naqib al-Ashraf revolt

In the mid-17th century, the Sublime Porte (Ottoman imperial government) launched a centralization effort in the empire's provinces guided by the policies of the Köprülü Grand Viziers. In Palestine, these policies manifested in the gradual elimination of local hereditary dynasties, namely the Ridwans, Farrukhs and Turabays. Many peasants left their villages to avoid heavy taxation by the governors or exploitation by junior officials. Following the siege, the ulama of Jerusalem requested that Mehmed Pasha ease his stringent taxation policies and militarism, but their requests were ignored. ==Revolt==

In May 1703, during Friday prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque, and while Mehmed Pasha was leading a punitive expedition around Nablus, a rebellion against the government was announced. The mutasallim appointed by Mehmed Pasha and the small number of troops who had been left to govern the city were apprehended by the Jerusalemite rebels with key assistance from the local sipahi and Janissary units. The rebels also freed the inmates of the city's prison. Once word of the ulamas call for revolt spread, the urban Jerusalemites were joined by peasants from the villages in the countryside. The rebels prepared Jerusalem's defenses to counter an assault by Mehmed Pasha and his troops. However, Muhammad ibn Mustafa did not trust imperial overtures and demanded stronger guarantees before ending the revolt. The population was split between the two camps, and the rivalry turned violent when Muhammad ibn Mustafa waged an armed campaign against the loyalists. The clashes peaked with a major battle in the narrow alleyways around the Bab al-Huta gate in the northern part of the city. The battle ended with dozens of fatalities and mass defections from Muhammad ibn Mustafa's camp. The loyalist camp was barricaded in the citadel with the qadi, awaiting the intervention of the imperial army. Clashes between the rival camps began anew in late 1705, around the time that the imperial army was departing from Damascus. The imperial army met generally ineffective resistance in the hinterland of Nablus, where peasant irregulars harried them along the way to Jerusalem. Once the Ottomans reached Jerusalem's environs in October, Muhammad ibn Mustafa decided to escape from the city with dozens of his followers through the Damascus Gate and the Moroccan Gate on 28 October, during the evening. Muhammad ibn Mustafa was captured by the Ottoman authorities, sent to Istanbul, and was executed there in 1707. ==Aftermath and legacy==

The flight of the naqib al-ashraf brought an end to the al-Wafa'iya al-Husayni family's influence in Jerusalem and paved the way for the al-Ghudayya clan, an ashraf family with a lower profile than the al-Wafi'a al-Husayni, to assume the post of naqib al-ashraf. A branch of the Ghudayyas became known as the al-Husayni family in the mid-18th century, and played a highly influentially role in Jerusalem's affairs during the remaining decades of Ottoman rule and whose members were leaders of the Palestinian national movement in the post-World War I period. According to Ilan Pappe, the Naqib al-Ashraf Revolt was "unique in the history of the district of Jerusalem in that it allied peasants and Bedouins with dignitaries and notables. ==References==