Sidon-Beirut Sanjak

The Sidon-Beirut Sanjak consisted of the roughly 60-kilometer-strip of territory between the gorge of al-Muamalatayn (just north of Juniyah) to the Zahrani River. The gorge of al-Muamalatayn marked its northern boundary with Tripoli Eyalet, the Zahrani River marked its southern boundary with Safed Sanjak and the Beqaa Valley ridge marked its eastern boundary with Damascus Eyalet. The Sidon-Beirut Sanjak included the coastal towns of Sidon and Beirut, both of which were the center of their own nahiyas (subdistricts), and it included the southern Mount Lebanon range. Its interior nahiyas were, from north to south, Kisrawan and Matn in the Jabal Sannin mountains, Gharb and Jurd in the Jabal al-Kanisah mountains and Iqlim al-Kharrub and Shuf in the Jabal al-Baruk mountains. The population was religiously diverse, with Sunni Muslims being predominant in Sidon, Beirut and Iqlim al-Kharrub, Druze predominating in Matn, Gharb, Jurd and Shuf and Shia Muslims and Maronite Christians inhabiting Kisrawan. Maronites and to a lesser extent, other Christians, increasingly immigrated into the Druze-dominated areas throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. ==History==

After the Ottoman Empire conquered Syria from the Mamluks in 1516, they formed the Damascus Eyalet (Province of Damascus) out of the Mamluk provinces of central and southern Syria, including the wilayas (districts) of Sidon and Beirut. The latter two places were administratively merged to form the sanjak (district) of Sidon-Beirut. Its first sanjak-bey (district governor) was Ibn al-Hanash, a powerful Arab chieftain active under the Mamluks. He ruled Sidon-Beirut in cooperation with his Druze associates, three of whom came from the Ma'n clan and the fourth from the Tanukh clan. As a sanjak, Sidon-Beirut ostensibly functioned as a military-administrative unit with its own governor and troops. The Druze were a heterodox Muslim sect considered by the Ottoman authorities and the Sunni Muslim ulama of Damascus as heretics. Thus, the Druze were officially outside the millet system, neither classified as Muslims nor protected by dhimmi (protected) status such as Christians or Jews. The same governor led a tax collection expedition in 1524, destroying a further thirty villages. Armed conflict continued intermittently, and in 1545, the authorities in Damascus, lured the Ma'n chieftain, Yunis, to Damascus and killed him. For the next two decades, Druze defiance mounted and was successively met with Ottoman attempts to impose their authority. Ibrahim Pasha's forces, backed by Janissary regiments from Damascus and Anatolia, defeated the Druze decisively. The Druze and other rebellious groups in the sanjak surrendered the bulk of their firearms and made to pay tax arrears in the form of cash or land. The leader of the Ma'n, Qurqmaz, had fled and died in exile. For a short period in 1614 and then permanently after 1660, Sidon-Beirut and its southern neighbor, Safed Sanjak, became part of the new province of Sidon Eyalet. ==Administrative divisions==

The Sidon-Beirut Sanjak was administratively divided into the following nawahi (sing.: nahiya; subdisticts): • Beirut • Kisrawan • Matn • Gharb • Jurd • Iqlim al-Kharrub • Sidon • Shuf Ibn Ma'n • Shuf al-Bayyada • Shuf al-Harradin • Iqlim al-Tuffah ==References==