Origins The Banu Shihab were purportedly an
Arab tribe originally from the
Hejaz. According to the 19th-century historian
Mikhail Mishaqa, they were descendants of the
Banu Makhzum clan of the
Quraysh tribe to which the leader of the 7th-century
Muslim conquest of Syria,
Khalid ibn al-Walid, belonged. Mishaqa held the family's ancestor was a commander in the conquest, Harith, who fell in battle at the
Bab Sharqi gate of
Damascus during the Muslim
siege of that city in 634. At some later point, the tribe settled in the
Hauran region south of Damascus. In 1172, the Banu Shihab migrated from their home village of
Shahba in
Jabal Hauran westward to
Wadi al-Taym, a plain at the foot of
Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh).
Governors of Wadi al-Taym in
Wadi al-Taym The 19th-century family histories of the Shihabs by Haydar al-Shihabi and his assistant
Tannus al-Shidyaq note that the clan's leader during its migration to
Wadi al-Taym was Munqidh ibn Amr (d. 1193), who defeated the
Crusaders in an engagement there the following year. The same sources note that he was appointed governor of Wadi al-Taym in 1174 by the
Zengid ruler of Damascus,
Nur al-Din. Munqidh was succeeded by his son Najm (d. 1224), who was in turn succeeded by his son Amir (d. 1260). The latter allied with the
Ma'n family, a
Druze clan based in the
Chouf region of
Mount Lebanon, and defeated the Crusaders in an engagement in 1244. Amir's son and successor, Qurqumaz, took refuge with the Ma'ns in the Chouf during a
Mongol invasion in 1280. After his death in 1284, his son Sa'd succeeded him as governor of Wadi al-Taym. The Shihabs continued to govern Wadi al-Taym throughout
Mamluk rule (1260–1516), according to the family histories. Their chief, Ali ibn Ahmad, was mentioned by the local Druze chronicler
Ibn Sibat (d. 1520) as the governor of Wadi al-Taym in 1478. Ali's son Yunus was mentioned by the contemporary Damascene chroniclers al-Busrawi and Ibn al-Himsi as being involved in a rebellion in Damascus in the late 1490s. The
Ottoman Empire conquered the Mamluk Levant in 1516 and an Ottoman government record from August 1574 directs the governor of Damascus to confiscate the rifle stockpiles of Qasim Shihab, identified by the Shihab family histories as Qasim ibn Mulhim ibn Mansur, a great-grandson of the above-mentioned Yunus ibn Ali. Qasim's son Ahmad was the
multazim (limited-term tax farmer) of Wadi al-Taym and neighboring Arqoub in 1592–1600, 1602, 1606, 1610–1615, 1618–1621 and 1628–1630. Ahmad fought alongside his cousin
Fakhr al-Din II in a revolt against the Ottomans in the Levant in 1606, which was stamped out the following year. When the forces of the Ottoman governor of Damascus
Hafiz Ahmed Pasha moved against Ahmad in Wadi al-Taym in 1612, Fakhr al-Din's forces repulsed them. When, in the following year, Hafiz Ahmed Pasha launched an imperial-backed campaign against Fakhr al-Din, Ahmad, his brother Ali and many other local allies of the Ma'ns joined the Ottoman forces. He held the fort of
Hasbaya and later that year attacked his brother Ali in the latter's fort of
Rashaya. Fakhr al-Din escaped to Europe and returned to Mount Lebanon in 1618, after which Ahmad sent his son Sulayman to welcome his return. By then the Ma'ns had been restored to their tax farms and the governorships of
Sidon-Beirut and
Safad. Fakhr al-Din reconciled Ahmad and Ali in 1619. Ahmad and his men fought in Fakhr al-Din's army against the governor of Damascus Mustafa Pasha in the decisive
Battle of Anjar in 1623, which sealed Fakhr al-Din's growing power in Mount Lebanon. In 1629, Husayn Shihab of Rashaya married the daughter of Emir
Mulhim Ma'n. In 1650, the Ma'n and Shihab clans defeated a mercenary army of the Druze emir
Ali Alam al-Din (Ali's troops were loaned to him by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, who was opposed to Fakhr al-Din). Koprulu Mehmed Pasha issued orders to Emir
Ahmad Ma'n to hand over the Shihab emirs, but Emir Ahmad rejected the demand and instead fled to the Keserwan, losing his tax farms in Mount Lebanon in the process. The peasantry of the abandoned regions suffered at the hands of Ottoman troops pursuing the Shihab and Ma'n leaders. In 1693, the Ottoman authorities launched a major military expedition, consisting of 18,500 troops, against Emir Ahmad when he declined a request to suppress the Hamade sheikhs after they raided
Byblos, killing forty Ottoman soldiers, including the garrison commander, Ahmad Qalawun, a descendant of Mamluk sultan
Qalawun. Emir Ahmad fled and had his tax farms confiscated and transferred to
Musa Alam al-Din, who also commandeered the Ma'n palace in
Deir al-Qamar. Instead, the Ottoman authorities appointed Husayn Ma'n's choice, Haydar Shihab, the son of Musa Shihab and Ahmad Ma'n's daughter. Haydar's appointment was confirmed by the governor of Sidon, and agreed upon by the Druze sheikhs, but because Haydar was still a minor, Bashir was kept on as regent. However, the tax farm was not owned by the Shihabi emir and was subject to annual renewal by the Ottoman authorities, who made the ultimate decision to confirm the existing holder or assign the tax farm to another holder, often another Shihab emir or a member of the rival Alam al-Din clan. Emir Haydar and his Qaysi allies then fled to the Keserwani village of
Ghazir, where they were given protection by the Maronite Hubaysh clan, while Mount Lebanon was overrun by a Yamani coalition led by the Alam al-Din clan. Emir Haydar fled further north to
Hermel when Abi Harmoush's forces pursued him to Ghazir, which was plundered. Emir Haydar confirmed his Qaysi allies as the tax farmers of Mount Lebanon's tax districts. His victory in Ain Dara also contributed to the rise of the Maronite population in the area, as the newcomers from Tripoli's hinterland replaced the Yamani Druze and Druze numbers decreased due to the Yamani exodus. Thus, an increasing number of Maronite peasants became tenants of the mostly Druze landlords of Mount Lebanon. One of Emir Mulhim's early actions was a punitive expedition against the Wa'il clan of Jabal Amil. The Wa'il kinsmen had painted their horses' tails green in celebration of Emir Haydar's death (Emir Haydar's relations with the Wa'il clan had been poor) and Emir Mulhim took it as a grave insult. In the ensuing campaign, the Wa'ili sheikh,
Nasif al-Nassar, was captured, albeit briefly. Emir Mulhim had the support of Sidon's governor in his actions in Jabal Amil. One faction was led by the Jumblatt clan and was known as the Jumblatti faction, while the Imad, Talhuq and Abd al-Malik clans formed the Imad-led Yazbak faction. In 1748, Emir Mulhim, under the orders of the governor of Damascus, burned properties belonging to the Talhuq and Abd al-Malik clans as punishment for the Yazbaki harboring of a fugitive from Damascus Eyalet. Afterward, Emir Mulhim compensated the Talhuqs. This not only empowered Emir Yusuf in his conflict with Emir Mansur, but it also initiated Shihabi patronage over the Maronite bishops and monks who had resented Khazen influence over church affairs and been patronized by the Hamade sheikhs, the Shihab clan's erstwhile allies. Emir Mansur's resignation was precipitated by his alliance with Sheikh
Zahir al-Umar, the Zaydani strongman of northern
Palestine, and Sheikh Nasif al-Nassar of Jabal Amil in their revolt against the Ottoman governors of
Syria. Sheikh Zahir and the forces of
Ali Bey al-Kabir of Egypt had occupied Damascus, but withdrew after Ali Bey's leading commander,
Abu al-Dhahab, who was bribed by the Ottomans. Their defeat by the Ottomans made Emir Mansur a liability to the Druze sheikhs vis-a-vis their relations with the Ottoman authorities, so they decided to depose him. Uthman Pasha, seeking to prevent Beirut's fall to Sheikh Zahir, appointed
Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, who was formerly in Emir Yusuf's service, as garrison commander of the city. Emir Yusuf, as tax farmer of Beirut, agreed to the appointment and declined a bounty on al-Jazzar by Abu al-Dhahab (al-Jazzar was wanted by the Mamluk strongmen of
Ottoman Egypt). In 1778 he agreed to sell the Chouf tax farm to Emir Yusuf's brothers, emirs Sayyid-Ahmad and Effendi after the latter two gained the support of the Jumblatt and Nakad clans (Emir Yusuf's ally Sheikh Ali Jumblatt died that year). Emir Yusuf, thereafter, based himself in Ghazir and mobilized the support of his Sunni Muslim allies, the Ra'ad and Mir'ibi clans from
Akkar.
Bashir Shihab III was then appointed. On January 13, 1842, the sultan deposed Bashir III and appointed
Omar Pasha as governor of Mount Lebanon. This event marked the end of the rule of the Shihabs. ==Legacy==