Harfush dynasty

rdf:langString Harfush dynasty

rdf:langString Harfush

rdf:langString Beqaa Valley and Sidon-Beirut Sanjak briefly, Ottoman Empire

rdf:langString Ibn Harfush

rdf:langString The Harfush dynasty (or Harfouche dynasty) (most commonly spelled Harfoush) was a dynasty that descended from the Khuza'a tribe, which helped, during the reign of Muhammad, in the conquest of Syria. The Harfush dynasty controlled the Baalbek District and several parts of the Bekaa Valley. Their being Shiites was a major factor in the rivalry between the Harfushes and the Lebanese Druze Maan family. The Shiite notables such as the Harfush emirs of Baalbek and Bekaa Valley were among the most sought-after local intermediaries of the Ottoman state. Later the Hamadas rose to power. They exercised control over multiple tax farms in the rural hinterland of Tripoli in the seventeenth century through complex relationships with both the Ottoman state authorities and the local non-Shiite communities. The Harfush and Hamadas both belonged to Shia Islam in Lebanon, the Harfush emirate of the Bekaa Valley and the Hamadas of Mt Lebanon challenged the territorial extension and power of the Druze emirate of the Shuf. Unlike the Druze, the Shiite emirs were regularly denounced for their religious identity and persecuted under Ebu's-Suud's definition of (Kızılbaş) heretics. The Harfushes had been a regionally paramount dynasty since early Mamluk times and even served as patrons of local Shiite shrines and scholars. To the Ottomans they were therefore always leading candidates for local fiscal and political offices, including for the military governorship of the sub-province of Homs, to which they were appointed to partially offset the influence of the increasingly hegemonic Druze emirate.

rdf:langString Ahmed