El Assaad family
El-Assaad or Al As'ad is an Arab feudal political family who originated from Najd and is a main branch of the Anizah tribe. Unrelated to Syrian or Palestinian al-Assads, the El-Assaad dynasty that ruled most of South Lebanon for three centuries and whose lineage defended the local people of the Jabal Amel principality – today southern Lebanon – for 36 generations, they also held influence in Balqa in Jordan, Nablus in Palestine, and Homs in Syria during Ottomans rule.
Key figures in their history include Sheikh al Mashayekh Nasif al-Nassar ibn al-Waeli, who governed during the Arab caliphate, and Sabib Pasha El-Assaad, who navigated Ottoman conquests. Ali Bek El-Assaad ruled over Belad Bechara, a part of Jabal Amel, while Ali Nassrat Bek served as an Advisor of the Court and held a superior position in the Ottoman Empire's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Moustafa Nassar Bek El-Assaad served as the Supreme Court President of Lebanon during the colonial French administration, and Hassib Bek, also a supreme court Judge, played a significant role in legal proceedings across the Levant.
The patriarchy originated when Bedouin Ali al-Saghir travelled from the Najd. They were proclaimed as El-Assaad by their adopting people of Jabal Amel after liberating Sidon and Tyre, its ancient and biblical capitals from Byzantine tyrants. Ali's tribe, the Anazzah also the tribe of al-Saud royalty, travelled northwest in search of arable farmland.
During the El-Assaad era, provincial governors operated with the consent of local clans. In exchange for their protection and support of trade against external threats, these governors were granted Khuwwa, a voluntary crop-sharing system. This arrangement ensured the preservation for the freedom of individuals against imperial taxation regimes. However, as domestic ideological conflicts, foreign interventions, and corruption escalated, the El-Assaad regime struggled to maintain its control, leading to a rapid deterioration of stability and governance.
El-Assaads are now considered "Bakaweit", and are considered princes or heirs to the family's dynasty to some.
Family background
The Shia feudal dynasty, which originally hailed from Najd, was established by Ali al-Saghir in the 17th century after the execution of the Druze leader Fakhreddine II by the Ottoman leadership. The El-Assaad-clan of the Ali al-Saghir-family went on to dominate the area of Jabal Amel for almost three centuries, with their base originally in Tayibe, Marjeyoun District.When the 1858 Ottoman Land reforms led to the accumulated ownership of large tracts of land by a few families upon the expense of the peasants, the El-Assaad descendants of the rural Ali al-Saghir dynasty expanded their fief holdings as the provincial leaders in Jabal Amel.
During the French colonial ruler over Greater Lebanon the mandatory regime gave Shiite feudal families like El-Assaad
"a free hand in enlarging their personal fortunes and reinforcing their clannish powers."
Ali al-Saghir dynasty
Ali al-Saghir – a leader of the discriminated Metwali, the Shia Muslims of what is now Lebanon – established a dynasty that dominated the area of Jabal Amel for almost three centuries until the mid-twentieth century. The scions of its El-Assaad clan have continued to play a political role even into the 21st century, though of lately a rather peripheral one. Around 1750, Jabal Amel's ruler from the Shiite dynasty of Ali al-Saghir, Sheikh Nasif al-Nassar, initiated a number of construction projects to attract new inhabitants to the almost deserted town. His representative in Tyre was the "tax-farmer and effective governor" Sheikh Kaplan Hasan. The main trade partners became French merchants, though both Hasan and al-Nassar at times clashed with French authorities about the conditions of the commerce.Amongst al-Nassar's projects was a marketplace. While the former Maani palace was turned into a military garrison, al-Nassar commissioned the Serail at the Northern port as his own headquarters, which nowadays houses the police HQ. The military Al Mobarakee Tower from the al-Nassar era is still well-preserved, too.
In 1752, construction of the Melkite cathedral of Saint Thomas was started thanks to donations from a rich merchant, George Mashakka – also spelled Jirjis Mishaqa – in a place that had already housed a church during the Crusader period in the 12th century. The silk and tobacco trader had been persuaded by al-Nassar to move from Sidon to Tyre. Numerous Greek Catholic families followed him there. Mashakka also contributed considerably to the construction of a great mosque, which is nowadays known as the Old Mosque.
However, around the same time the resurgence of Tyre suffered some backlashes: the devastating Near East earthquakes of 1759 destroyed parts of the town and killed an unknown number of people as well. In 1781, al-Nassar was killed in a power-struggle with the Ottoman governor of Sidon, Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, who had the Shiite population decimated in brutal purges. Thus, the Shiite autonomy in Jabal Amel ended for a quarter century.
At the beginning of the 19th century though, another boom period set in: in 1810 a caravanserai was constructed near the former palace of Emir Younes Maani and the marketplace area: Khan Rabu. A khan was "traditionally a large rectangular courtyard with a central fountain, surrounded by covered galleries". Khan Rabu soon became an important commercial center. A few years later, the former Maani Palace and military garrison was transformed into a Caravanserai Khan as well.
In December 1831 Tyre fell under the rule of Mehmet Ali Pasha of Egypt, after an army led by his son Ibrahim Pasha had entered Jaffa and Haifa without resistance. Two years later, Shiite forces under Hamad al-Mahmud from the Ali al-Saghir dynasty rebelled against the occupation. They were supported by the British Empire and Austria-Hungary: Tyre was captured on 24 September 1839 after allied naval bombardments. For their fight against the Egyptian invaders, al-Mahmud and his successor Ali El-Assaad – a relative – were rewarded by the Ottoman rulers with the restoration of Shiite autonomy in Jabal Amel. However, in Tyre it was the Mamlouk family that gained a dominant position. Its head Jussuf Aga Ibn Mamluk was reportedly a son of the Anti-Shiite Jazzar Pasha.
In 1865, Jabal Amel's ruler Ali El-Assaad died after a power struggle with his cousin Thamir al-Husain.
The 1908 Young Turk Revolution and its call for elections to an Ottoman parliament triggered a power-struggle in Jabal Amel: on the one hand side Rida al-Sulh of a Sunni dynasty from Sidon, which had sidelined the Shia El-Assad clan of the Ali al-Saghir dynasty in the coastal region with support from leading Shiite families like the al-Khalil clan in Tyre. His opponent was Kamel El-Assaad from the Ali al-Saghir dynasty that still dominated the hinterland. The latter won that round of the power-struggle, but the political rivalry between al-Khalil and El-Assaad would go on to be a main feature of Lebanese Shia politics for the next sixty years.
Nasif al-Nassar
Nasif ibn al-Nassar al-Wa'ili was the most powerful sheikh of the rural Shia Muslim tribes of Jabal Amil in the mid–18th century. He was based in the town of Tebnine and was head of the Ali al-Saghir clan. Under his leadership, the Jabal Amil region prospered, due largely to the revenues from dyed cotton cloth exports to European merchants.Nasif succeeded his brother Zahir al-Nassar as head of the Ali al-Saghir clan after Zahir died in a fall from his palace roof in 1749. Between 1750 and 1768, Nasif engaged in intermittent conflict with the autonomous Arab ruler of northern Palestine, Zahir al-Umar. In 1766, Nasif was defeated by Zahir al-Umar.. In September 1767, the enmity between Zahir and Nasif was such that the French consul in the area described Nasif as the principal adversary of Zahir. However, by 1768, Nasif and Zahir entered into a close and durable alliance, with both parties benefiting in their cooperation against the Ottoman governors of Sidon and Damascus. From then on, Zahir acted as the intermediary and protector of Nasif and the Shia clans vis-a-vis the Ottoman provincial authorities. Nasif, in turn, accompanied Zahir in many of his campaigns against the latter's rivals in Palestine, including the sheikhs of Jabal Nablus.
Nasif and Zahir challenged the authority of the Ottoman governors of Sidon and Damascus and their Druze allies who dominated Mount Lebanon. When this coalition of Ottoman forces launched an offensive against Nasif and Zahir in 1771, the forces of the latter two routed them in Lake Hula. After the Battle of Lake Hula, Nasif's forces, who numbered some 3,000 horsemen, decisively defeated a 40,000-strong Druze force under Emir Yusuf Shihab, killing some 1,500 Druze warriors. According to Baron Francois de Tott, a French mercenary of the Ottoman Army, Nasif's cavalry "put them to flight at the first onset".
Afterward, Nasif and Zahir's forces captured the city of Sidon, the capital of its namesake province, which included the Galilee and Jabal Amil. This victory marked the peak of Shia power in Lebanon region during the Ottoman era, and according to de Tott, the Metawalis became a "formidable name ". Together, Nasif and Zahir ensured unprecedented security in the Galilee and south Lebanon. Following the victory at Sidon, Nasif gradually reconciled with Emir Yusuf and the powerful Druze Jumblatt clan. In September 1773, he backed Emir Yusuf in the Beqaa Valley when the latter was being attacked by Uthman Pasha's forces. Uthman Pasha's troops fled the battle when Nasif's arrival became apparent.
Zahir was defeated and killed in his capital of Acre in 1775 by the Ottomans, after which the Ottomans appointed Jezzar Pasha as Governor of Sidon and Acre. In 1780, after having consolidated his hold over the Galilee and defeating Zahir's sons, Jezzar Pasha launched an offensive against the rural sheikhs of Jabal Amil. On 24 September 1781, Nasif was shot dead in a battle with Jezzar Pasha's troops, who greatly outnumbered Nasif's cavalry, that lasted three hours. About 470 of Nasif's soldiers were also killed in the confrontation, which occurred at Yaroun. Nasif's defeat and death effectively marked the end of Shia autonomy in Jabal Amil during the Ottoman era.
Jezzar Pasha's troops proceeded to loot Shia religious places and burned many of their religious texts. Nasif's death was followed by the exile of rural Shia sheikhs to Akkar, an exodus of Shia ulama to Iraq, Iran and elsewhere, and the start of a campaign by the new head of the Ali al-Saghir clan, Hamza ibn Muhammad al-Nassar, to resist Jezzar Pasha's rule. Hamza was eventually pursued and executed. With the coming to power of Bashir Shihab II and Jezzar's replacement with Sulayman Pasha after Jezzar's death in 1804, the two leaders agreed a settlement with the Shia clans, appointing Nasif's son Faris as Sheikh al-Mashayekh of Nabatieh and its territories north of the Litani River.