Yusuf Shihab

Yusuf Shihab (Arabic: يوسف الشهابي) (1748–1790) was the autonomous emir of Mount Lebanon between 1770 and 1789. He was the fifth consecutive member of the Shihab dynasty to govern Mount Lebanon.

Yusuf Shihab was the son of the emir (prince) Mulhim. They were the leaders of the Shihab dynasty. The Shihabs were descendants of the Ma'n dynasty of Fakhr ad-Din. The first emir of the dynasty, Haydar al-Shihab, succeeded the last Ma'n emir of Mount Lebanon in 1697. Haydar al-Shihab was a Sunni Muslim, although his mother was Druze. His kinship with the Ma'ns allowed for him to serve as the eminent leader of the Druze clans of Mount Lebanon. The Shihabs were generally not religious and embraced their faith nominally, some were Sunni Muslims or Druze, and later other members became Maronite Catholics. Yusuf was raised as a Maronite Christian, but was publicly a Sunni Muslim. During Yusuf's rule, many members of the Shihab family converted to Christianity and Yusuf also began to rely on the support of the Maronite Christians.

In 1753, Mulhim was ill and unable to govern. This led to a rivalry over succession between his brothers Ahmad and Mansur, while Mulhim and his nephew Qasim sought to prevent either from assuming control over the emirate. When Mulhim died in 1759, Qasim became the administrator of the Chouf district, although after paying a bribe, this authority was transferred to Ahmad and Mansur. The two brothers engaged in conflict in which Yusuf supported Ahmad. Mansur prevailed by 1763, and Yusuf fled the Chouf to Mukhtara, the headquarters of the powerful Druze Jumblatt clan. Ali Jumblatt, an ally of Mansur, protected Yusuf and offered to mediate the dispute between the two. After Mansur refused Ali Jumblatt's offer and seized Yusuf's properties, Ali switched allegiance and backed Yusuf in his struggle for control of the emirate.

Also in 1763, a 16-year-old Yusuf, under the mentorship of his Maronite manager Sa'ad al-Khuri and with the political support of the governor Muhammad Pasha al-Kurji of Tripoli, led the Sunni Muslim and Maronite peasants of the Tripoli countryside in an uprising that drove out the Hamade landlords, who were Shia Muslims. Thereafter, Muhammad Pasha appointed Yusuf as administrator of Batroun and Jubail. Yusuf's acquisition of Hamade territory not only provided him a solid power base from which to fight Mansur, but also provided him with the Hamades' former role as patrons of the local Maronite clergy. This further strengthened their relationship with the Maronites since Yusuf already had the support of the Khazen family of Keserwan, a prominent Maronite family.

In 1768, a strong alliance was established between Sheikh Nasif al-Nassar, the sheikh of the Metawali (Shia Muslim) clans of Jabal Amil in south Lebanon, and Sheikh Daher al-Umar, the Arab strongman of the Galilee and northern Palestine and head of the Zaydan family. Together, they carved out a territory practically independent of Ottoman authority. Mansur allied himself with them against the Ottoman governors of Sidon and Damascus, while Yusuf supported the Ottomans. Mansur backed Daher and Nasif in their alliance with Ali Bey al-Kabir of Egypt. Ali Bey dispatched his commander Abu al-Dhahab to launch an invasion of Damascus in 1770. When Abu al-Dahab suddenly withdrew from Damascus after defeating its governor Uthman Pasha al-Kurji, Mansur's position became vulnerable when Uthman Pasha resumed the governorship. The Druze clans of Mount Lebanon withdrew their backing for Mansur and Uthman Pasha transferred his governorship of Chouf to his loyalist Emir Yusuf. Uthman Pasha officially appointed Yusuf as emir of Mount Lebanon. Together with Uthman Pasha and his sons (Darwish Pasha, governor of Sidon and Muhammad Pasha, governor of Tripoli), Yusuf sought to push Daher and his Metawali allies out of Sidon, which they briefly occupied during the Egyptian invasion of Ottoman Syria.

Emir Yusuf led an offensive against Nasif and Daher in late 1771, but was decisively defeated. He failed to arrive and support Uthman Pasha when the latter attempted to launch an invasion of Galilee, but was routed by Daher's forces at the Battle of Lake Hula. Yusuf sought to compensate for this loss by launching a campaign against the Metawalis at Nabatieh, but was routed by the Zaydani-Metawali alliance, losting some 1,500 of his Druze soldiers. Following their victory against Emir Yusuf, the allies captured Sidon from Darwish Pasha. Yusuf and Uthman Pasha attempted to wrest back control of Sidon by assembling a troops backed by artillery and commanded by Ottoman officer Jezzar Pasha. The siege failed when the Russian Navy entered the conflict to back their ally Daher. After Yusuf's troops were bombarded by Russian ships, Daher and Nasif's troops drove them out of the area and pursued them to Beirut, which the Russians also began to bombard until Yusuf paid their admiral to cease their fire.

By 1772, Daher and his allies were firmly in control of Sidon. In order to prevent further encroachments in Lebanon by Daher, Yusuf requested the assistance of Jezzar Pasha, an Ottoman officer. Yusuf turned down a bribe of 200,000 Spanish reales from Abu al-Dahab to betray Jezzar and execute him. Jezzar Pasha soon consolidated his own rule in Beirut and ignored agreements he had made with Yusuf regarding the latter's authority in the city. Yusuf and his Druze soldiers subsequently tried to dislodge Jezzar Pasha, but were unable to. Thus, Yusuf requested help from his erstwhile enemy, Daher al-Umar, via his uncle Mansur who he had previously struggled against and replaced. Daher accepted the request and had his Russian allies bombard Beirut by sea on Yusuf's behalf until Jezzar surrendered and fled. Daher's backing became handy once again when Yusuf's authority over the Beqaa Valley was challenged by the governor of Damascus in 1773. Yusuf's brother, Sayyid Ahmad, who had been the governor of Beqaa at the time, had robbed traveling merchants from Damascus in the Beqaa village of Qabb Ilyas. Yusuf removed him from the Beqaa and was appointed in his place.

Jezzar Pasha became the governor of Sidon in 1776 after the Ottomans' elimination of Daher al-Umar. Yusuf was confirmed as the governor of Beirut, Chouf, Beqaa and Jubail. Moreover, Hasan Pasha, the Ottoman kapudan (commander of the Ottoman Navy) who led the offensive against Daher in 1775, declared that Governor of Sidon's authority over Yusuf was limited to the collection of the miri (Hajj tax). However, Jezzar Pasha ignored this order and took over Beirut in 1776 with the demand that Yusuf pay three years worth of miri tax. Jezzar was later driven out by the Ottoman Navy. Nassar was captured and executed by Jezzar in 1780.