Druze ruler Fakhr ad-Din II, unlike his …
Years: 1611 - 1611
Druze ruler Fakhr ad-Din II, unlike his Yamani party foe, Yusuf Sayfa, the Shi’i ruler of Tripoli, has cultivated friendships and support among both Sunnis and Shi’ites, and he is the first to have united the city’s Druze and Maronite Christian districts.
By 1600, the military activity by his private army has gained him control of Sidon and Beirut on the coast as well as the enmity of both the Porte and Tripoli’s ruler; as a consequence, fighting has begun between Fakhr ad-Dion’s Kaysis party and the Yamanis.
The Porte had continued to waver in its support, favoring first one party and then the other, until Fakhr ad-Din’s victories became consistent.
With the defeat of Yusuf Sayfa in 1607, the Ottomans, who had aided Fakhr ad-Din in this triumph, had finally recognized his authority over the Druze and Maronite districts of the Lebanon Mountains.
To prevent Ottoman interference in his emirate, he has regularly sent ambassadors and bribes to Istanbul.
However, because Fakhr ad-Din is still uncertain of Ottoman support, however, and is aware of the Ottoman preoccupation with war in Europe and Asia, he had secretly allied the region with Ferdinand I, duke of Tuscany, in 1608, seeking trade and security, the two parties pledging to support each other against the Ottomans.
Locations
People
Groups
- Christians, Maronite
- Muslims, Shi'a
- Druze, or Druse, the
- Ottoman Empire
- Mount Lebanon Emirate
- Tuscany, Grand Duchy of
