Bashir Shihab II (, also spelled Bachir Chehab II; 2 January 1767 – 1850) was a Lebanese emir who ruled the Emirate of Mount Lebanon between 1788 –1840. Born to a branch of the Shihab family which had converted from Sunni Islam, the religion of previous Shihabi emirs, he was the only Maronite ruler of the Mount Lebanon Emirate.
Early life and family
Bashir was born in 1767 in Ghazir,Salibi 1992, p. 58. a village in the Keserwan region of Mount Lebanon. He was the son of Qasim ibn Umar ibn Haydar ibn Husayn Shihab of the Shihab dynasty,Farah 2000, p. 766. which had been elected to the super tax farm of Mount Lebanon by Druze nobility, also known as the Mount Lebanon Emirate, when their Druze kinsmen, the Ma'an dynasty died heirless in 1697. Although the Shihab family was ostensibly Sunni Muslim, some members of the family had converted to the Maronite Catholic Church. Bashir was among the first members of his extended family to be born a Christian.Khairallah 1996, p. 83.
In 1768, when Bashir was still an infant, his father Qasim died. Bashir's mother remarried, and he and his elder brother Hasan were entrusted to the care of tutors and nannies. The children were raised in poverty and did not benefit from the privileges of a princely birth; their branch of the family was relatively poor. Bashir and Hasan developed feelings of mistrust from their childhoods that made them wary of their companions and of members of their own family. Leadership of Qasim's branch of the family was taken up by Hasan. The latter had a reputation for being cruel and aloof. Bashir, meanwhile, grew to become a cunning, stubborn and clever opportunist who was more able to control his temper and conceal his callousness. He sought out wealth working with his cousin Emir Yusuf in Deir al-Qamar, the virtual capital of Mount Lebanon, where he also gained an education. Bashir's personal qualities established him as a leading figure in the Shihabi court where he engaged in political intrigues. His activity in Deir al-Qamar attracted the attention of Qasim Jumblatt, Yusuf's main adversary, who sought to install Bashir at the head of the emirate.Salibi 1992, p. 59. When probed on the subject by the Jumblatt sheikhs, Bashir was noncommittal but left room for negotiations; his hesitance was a result of his financial destitution.
Marriages and children
Bashir II's financial fortunes changed in 1787 when he was dispatched to Hasbaya to inventory the assets of Yusuf's maternal uncle, Bashir ibn Najm,Khairallah 1996, pp. 125–126. the son of Najm Shihab, leader of the Sunni Muslim, Hasbaya-based branch of the clan. Yusuf killed Bashir ibn Najm for backing the revolt against him led by Yusuf's brother Ahmad. During Bashir II assignment in Hasbaya, he married Bashir ibn Najm's wealthy widow, Shams. She was also known as "Hubus" and "Shams al-Madid", the latter of which translates in Arabic as "sun of the long day". Bashir II had previously encountered Shams on a hunting trip to Kfar Nabrakh, but at the time she was arranged by her father, Muhammad Shihab, to be married to Bashir ibn Najm, his nephew. With the latter, Shams had a son named Nasim and a daughter named Khadduj. Although Bashir II was a Christian and Shams was a Muslim, members of the Shihab family typically married within the family and with the Druze Abu'l Lama clan, regardless of religion.Mishaqa, p. 23. As a result of his marriage to Shams, Bashir II gained considerable wealth. Shams later had three sons with him: Qasim, Khalil and Amin (listed in order of birth).
In 1829, Shams died, and Bashir had a mausoleum built for her nestled in the orchards of Beit el-Din.Khairallah 1996, p. 126. Afterward, a friend of Bashir from Sidon named Ibrahim al-Jawhari set out to find a new wife for Bashir.Khairallah 1996, p. 27. Al-Jawhari already knew a Circassian slave girl named Hisn Jihan in Istanbul. She was the daughter of a certain Abdullah Afruz al-Sharkasi, but had been kidnapped by Turkish slave dealers and sold to a certain Luman Bey, who was known to have treated her like a daughter. Al-Jawhari suggested that Bashir marry Jihan. Bashir agreed, but also instructed al-Jawhari to buy her and three other slave girls in case Jihan was not to his satisfaction. In 1833, al-Jawhari brought Jihan (then aged 15) and three other slave girls, Kulhinar, Shafkizar and Maryam, to Bashir. The latter was enthralled by Jihan, married her and built a palace for her in Beit el-Din.Khairallah 1996, p. 128. Jihan was a Muslim and Bashir had her convert to the Maronite Church before the marriage.Dau 1984, p. 617.
According to contemporary chroniclers of the time, Jihan was seclusive and only left her residence fully veiled, was a loving wife to Bashir, wielded significant influence over him and was reputed for her enchantment and charitable efforts with Mount Lebanon's inhabitants. She became known as sa'adat al-sitt, which translates as "her excellency, the lady". Jihan had two daughters with Bashir, Sa'da and Sa'ud. The other slave girls from Istanbul were married off to Bashir's relatives or associates; Kulhinar was married to Bashir's son Qasim, Shafkizar was married to Bashir's kinsmen Mansur Shihab of Wadi Shahrour and Maryam was married to a certain Agha Nahra al-Bishi'lani of Salima.
Rule Accession Bashir emerged on Mount Lebanon's political scene in the mid-1780s when he became involved in an intra-family dispute over leadership of the Shihabi emirate in 1783.Harris 2012, p. 124. In that dispute, Bashir backed emirs Isma'il and Sayyid-Ahmad Shihab against Emir Yusuf, who ultimately prevailed when the powerful Ottoman governor of Sidon, Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, confirmed his control of the Mount Lebanon tax farms after Yusuf promised him a bribe of 1 million qirsh. Bashir subsequently reconciled with Yusuf. Five years later, however, al-Jazzar attempted to collect Yusuf's promissory bribe, but payment of the large sum did not materialize, and al-Jazzar shifted his support to Yusuf's rival, Ali Shihab, Isma'il's son. Ali, who sought to avenge Isma'il's death in Yusuf's custody, and Yusuf mobilized their allies and confronted each other at Jubb Jannin, where Yusuf's forces were routed by Ali and al-Jazzar. Yusuf fled to the Tripoli hinterland and was compelled to request the Druze landowning sheikhs to appoint his replacement. With the key backing of the Jumblatt clan, Bashir was selected by the Druze sheikhs to be their hakim. For the Druze sheikhs of Mount Lebanon, the hakim denoted the leader prince who served as their intermediary with the Ottoman authorities, and who nominally had political, military, social and judicial authority over their affairs.Harris 2012, p. 117. Bashir traveled to al-Jazzar's headquarters in Acre, where he was officially transferred the Mount Lebanon tax farms in September 1789.
Meanwhile, Yusuf attempted to restore himself to the Shihabi emirate, mobilizing his partisans in Byblos and Bsharri, while Bashir had the support of the Jumblatt clan (his main backer among the Druze) and al-Jazzar, who loaned him 1,000 of his Albanian and Maghrebi soldiers. Bashir's forces decisively defeated Yusuf's partisans in the Munaytara hills, but Yusuf escaped after receiving cover from the Ottoman governors of Tripoli and Damascus. However, Yusuf was later invited to Acre by al-Jazzar in a ruse by the latter and was virtually under arrest upon his arrival to the city. While al-Jazzar considered playing Yusuf and Bashir off of each other by soliciting bribes for the Mount Lebanon tax farm, Bashir managed to convince al-Jazzar that Yusuf was causing strife among the Druze clans, and al-Jazzar subsequently decided to execute Yusuf in 1790.
Despite prevailing over Yusuf, the Druze sheikhs of the Yazbaki faction (rivals of the Jumblatti faction) managed to lobby al-Jazzar to transfer the Mount Lebanon tax farms from Bashir to Yusuf's nephews, Qa'dan and Haydar.Harris 2012, p. 131. Not long after, Jirji Baz, the mudabbir (manager) of Yusuf's sons Husayn and Sa'ad ad-Din, persuaded Qa'dan and Haydar to grant Yusuf's sons the tax farm of Jubail. Bashir and his ally Sheikh Bashir Jumblatt resisted this situation by successfully preventing Qa'dan and Haydar from collecting the taxes that they were mandated to deliver to al-Jazzar. The latter lent Emir Bashir and Sheikh Bashir his support against Baz, Yusuf's sons and their Imad (leading clan of the Yazbaki faction) and Abi Nakad backers. Bashir succeeded in forcibly restoring himself as hakim, but by 1794, al-Jazzar again shifted his support to Baz and Yusuf's sons after Bashir apparently fleeced al-Jazzar in his tax payments that year. This was short-lived as al-Jazzar reverted to Bashir in 1795 after abundant complaints were raised against Baz.Harris 2012, pp. 131–132.
Conflict with al-Jazzar In 1797, Baz reestablished good offices with al-Jazzar, bringing him Yusuf's sons to pay their respects. Al-Jazzar wielded his potential support for Yusuf's sons as a way to leverage Bashir into paying more taxes or risk losing his Mount Lebanon tax farms.Harris 2012, p. 132. At the same time, Emir Bashir decided to eliminate his Abi Nakad opponents and to that end, he conspired with the Jumblatts and Imads. Emir Bashir invited the Abi Nakad sheikhs to the counselor's quarters of his palace in Deir al-Qamar, where Bashir Jumblatt and the Imad sheikhs ambushed and killed all five of them.Makdisi 2000, p. 35. According to a contemporary source, the killings effectively meant that the "Nakad name was obliterated".
Relations soured between al-Jazzar and Bashir in 1799, during Napoleon's two-month siege of Acre. Al-Jazzar had called on Bashir to contribute forces to aid Acre's defense, but Bashir disregarded the troop levy. Al-Jazzar was infuriated, and although Bashir took a strictly neutral position in the conflict, al-Jazzar accused him of sending the French troops provisions.Mishaqa 1988, p. 47. He subsequently forced Bashir to depart Mount Lebanon by sending an expeditionary force to help Baz oust Bashir from Deir al-Qamar. Bashir, along with Sheikh Bashir and many of his fellow Jumblatti sheikhs, left Deir al-Qamar and headed north for Akkar and the area of the Krak des Chevaliers (al-Husn). Emir Bashir thereafter penned a letter appealing to the Royal Navy officer, Sir Sidney Smith, whose forces' bombardment of French troops was key in forcing the French withdrawal from Palestine, to use his offices with the imperial Ottoman authorities to restore him to Mount Lebanon. Smith responded positively to his plea, docked his ship in Tripoli's port and met with Bashir, who then accompanied Smith to meet the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Kör Yusuf Ziyaüddin Pasha in al-Arish. Kör Yusuf was in al-Arish commanding the Ottoman ground army to retake Egypt from the French. Bashir informed Kör Yusuf of his situation with al-Jazzar and was treated well by the grand vizier, who thereafter issued a decree granting Bashir fiscal authority over Mount Lebanon, Wadi al-Taym, the Beqaa Valley and the Shia Muslim-dominated Jabal Amil. As part of this arrangement, Bashir would be independent from the governors of Sidon, Tripoli and Damascus and would submit tax revenues directly to the imperial government. However, this major appointment was tempered by Bashir's lack of actual control over his assigned lands, which al-Jazzar had largely transferred to Yusuf's sons and Baz.