The Sawwafs were based in the village of
Chbaniyeh in the
Matn area of
Mount Lebanon, east of
Beirut. They were the descendants of a certain Alam al-Din Sulayman al-Sawwaf ibn Husayn, who was killed in an engagement at Ayn Fujur in
Wadi al-Taym in 1478, according to the local Druze chronicler
Ibn Sibat (d. 1520). His son Abd al-Wahid and kinsman Zayn al-Din Salih died or were killed in 1503. A Sawwaf
muqaddam (local chief) named Qaytbay was mentioned as the chief of the
Matn area in an Ottoman document dated to 1558. He raided the home of the Bedouin chief Muhammad ibn al-Hanash in the southern
Beqaa Valley in 1568. The following year he was granted the
tax farm of the Matn subdistrict of
Sidon-Beirut Sanjak. The
Ottoman imperial government ordered the governor of
Damascus Eyalet to confiscate his rifle stockpiles, along with those of Qurqumaz of the
Ma'n dynasty, Mansur of the
Assaf dynasty and Qasim of the
Shihab dynasty. During the early 17th century, the Sawwafs formed part of the Druze opposition, along with the
Alam al-Dins and
Arslans, to the powerful Druze chief, tax farmer and Ottoman governor
Fakhr al-Din II. During the latter's exile in 1613–1618, they fought against his Ma'nid kinsmen and took refuge with
Yusuf Sayfa in the
Krak des Chevaliers after Fakhr al-Din's offensive against them in 1619. The apparent grandson of Qaytbay, Zayn al-Din, militarily supported Ali ibn Muhammad, the grandnephew of
Yusuf Sayfa, in his victory against Yusuf's son Assaf in a battle at
Iaal near
Tripoli in 1634. He was appointed to governorship of
Bsharri along with the Maronite chief Abu Awn al-Jumayyil (Abu Aoun Gemayel) in 1641. He and his nephew, the
muqaddam Abdullah ibn Qaytbay, were given military charge over Wadi al-Taym alongside the
Alam al-Din chiefs Mansur and Muhammad in 1659, following the expulsion of the Shihabs. Abdullah was killed near
Beirut in a
battle against the Qaysi Druze (the Sawwafs were part of the rival Yaman faction), which included the Ma'ns and Shihabs, in 1667. The traditional Druze rivals of the Sawwafs in the Matn were the Abu'l-Lama
muqaddams of
Kafr Silwan, allies of the Ma'ns and Shihabs. They fought in the ranks of the Yamani Druze against the Qays led by the Shihabs at the
Battle of Ain Dara in 1711. The Yaman were routed, many of the Sawwafs were killed and family survivors fled the Matn and adopted different names. ==References==