Daher al-Umar al-Zaydani, alternatively spelled Zahir al-Umar or Dahir al-Umar (Arabic: ظاهر العمر الزيداني, romanized: Ẓāhir al-ʿUmar al-Zaydānī, 1689/90 – 21 or 22 August 1775), was the paramount sheikh of the Zayadina family and ruler of northern Palestine from the 1730s until his death in 1775, during Ottoman rule. At his zenith in 1774, he controlled the Syrian coast from Jaffa to Sidon, though formal recognition of his status was limited to that of a multazim (tax farmer).
In 1730, Daher took over Tiberias and by c. 1740, Safed and Nazareth. He and his family fortified these towns and other Galilee villages, most notably Deir Hanna, helping them withstand sieges by the governor of Damascus, Sulayman Pasha al-Azm, in 1742–1743. By then, Daher controlled the area's cotton and eventually monopolized its lucratize trade with the French. In 1750, he made the outlet of this trade, the port of Acre, into his capital, developing it into Syria's third largest city. He expanded into Haifa and its environs in the 1760s.
His territorial expansion provoked a war with the governor of Damascus, Uthman Pasha al-Kurji, against whom Daher allied with Egypt's mamluk ruler, Ali Bey, and the Shias of southern Lebanon. Their military campaigns ousted Uthman Pasha and his son from Damascus and Sidon, culminating with Daher's victory at Lake Hula and occupations of Jaffa and Sidon in 1771. By 1774, the Ottoman army chief in Syria recognized his control of Sidon province and most of Palestine, but this was soon rescinded by the new sultan. In March 1775, Abu al-Dhahab, who had earlier toppled Ali Bey, ousted Daher from Acre, but died soon after and Daher returned to power. In August, the Ottomans, freed up from their six-year war with Russia, blockaded Acre and eliminated Daher. The last of the Zayadina were neutralized in 1776 by Acre's new governor, Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar.
Daher's establishment of law and order, flexible taxation policies, and battlefield reputation earned him the goodwill of the local peasantry. He invited Christian and Jewish immigrants from across the empire, stimulating the economy and leading to the significant growth of the Christian communities in Acre and Nazareth and the Jewish community in Tiberias. Under his rule, northern Palestine's main centers, Acre, Haifa, Tiberias, and Nazareth, urbanized and prospered after long periods of decline. With Acre's restoration and the reestablishment of Haifa, Daher strengthened the Galilee's ties with the Mediterranean world, which continued under Jazzar. Daher's autonomy over much of Palestine has made him a national hero among Palestinians today.
Family and early life
Daher was born in 1689 or 1690. His father, Umar, was the sheikh of the Zayadina (sing. Zaydani), a family of Bedouin origin. They had settled around Tiberias in the eastern Galilee in the late 17th century under Daher's grandfather, Salih. Daher's mother was from the Sardiyya, a Bedouin tribe in the Hauran. The Galilee was administratively part of Sidon Eyalet, a province of the Constantinople-based Ottoman Empire. Due to their endemic military weakness, the governors of Sidon subcontracted tax collection to local potentates, like the Zaydani sheikhs, as iltizam (limited-term tax farms). Around 1698, Daher's father became a multazim (iltizam holder) and by 1703 was considered the "paramount sheikh of the Galilee" by the French vice-consul of Sidon.
Umar died in 1706 and was succeeded by Daher's eldest brother, Sa'd. The Zaydani sheikhs were often in conflict with the governor for failing to timely forward the revenues of their iltizam. Occasionally, they leased their iltizam in young Daher's name to mitigate their liability in the event of a default. This afforded Daher considerable power within his clan. In 1707, Daher was entangled in a brawl, killing a man from Tiberias. To avoid potential repercussions, Sa'd moved the family to Arraba, a village between the commercial centers of Tiberias, Safed and Nazareth but away from the main highways. The Zayadina had been offered safe haven there by the sheikhs of the Bedouin Saqr tribe. In Arraba, Daher was educated by the Muslim scholar Abd al-Qadir al-Hifnawi and learned how to hunt and fight. Daher's martial talents and moderate personality gained him the respect of the peasantry. In the mid-1710s, he attained folk hero status for defending the village of Bi'ina from an attack by the governor of Sidon and evading capture. Throughout the 1720s, Daher and Sa'd frequently traded goods in Damascus, continuing commercial relationships their father had established there.
Among the elite contacts Daher made in Damascus was Sayyid Muhammad al-Husayni, a sharif (descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad). Daher married Sayyid Muhammad's daughter as his first wife, and established her residence in Nazareth because she considered Arraba too small. When her father died, Daher inherited his fortune. Daher had four other wives, among them a woman from his mother's Sardiyya tribe, and the daughters of the mukhtars (village headmen) of Bi'ina and Deir al-Qassi. His marriages were politically advantageous, consolidating relationships with Bedouin tribes, local clans, or urban notables. From his marriages, Daher had eight sons and a daughter. His sons were Salibi, Uthman, full brothers Ali and Sa'id, Ahmad, Salih, Sa'd al-Din and Abbas. His daughter Nijma was married to his cousin Karim al-Ayyubi, the grandson of Daher's uncle Ali. By 1773, Daher had 272 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Rise and consolidation of power
Stronghold in the Galilee
Capture of Tiberias
Around 1730, the governor of Sidon and the sheikhs of Jabal Nablus (e.g. Samaria) moved to suppress the Saqr Bedouins. The tribe had long dominated the area between Nablus and Safed, rendering the highways unsafe, plundering villages, and ignoring tax obligations. Under pressure, the leader of the Saqr appointed Daher to intercede for them with the governor, hoping to benefit from the Zayadina's good reputation. The historian Thomas Philipp comments the Bedouins "probably hoped to use Ẓāhir for their own purposes" but "did not anticipate how quickly Ẓāhir al-ʿUmar would use them for his own ambitions". Not long after allying with the Saqr, Daher took over Tiberias with their support. He ousted the town's mutasallim (subgovernor) and obtained the iltizam of Tiberias and Arraba. Tiberias thereafter became Daher's base.
Northern and western expansion
Due to Daher's relative justice and fairness, peasants from nearby areas moved to his domains or invited his rule. The people living under Ahmad al-Husayn, the multazim of Acre's coastal plain, appealed for Daher to relieve them of his heavy-handedness and the extortions of the Bedouin. Daher obtained permission from Sidon's governor, Ibrahim Pasha al-Azm, to seize the area. Ahmad also requested permission to attack Daher, to which Ibrahim Pasha consented in the hope of neutralizing two powerful local leaders. In 1738, Daher led a 1,500-strong force which defeated Ahmad and gained control over his fortress, Jiddin, and its dependencies, Abu Sinan and Tarshiha. During the confrontation, Daher encountered a mercenary, Ahmad Agha al-Dinkizli, whom he commissioned to raise and command a private army of Maghrebi troops.
Daher next moved on Safed, whose multazim, Muhammad al-Nafi, surrendered it around 1740. Control of the strategically situated town, with its citadel on a high hill, gave the Zayadina command over the surrounding countryside. Afterward, Bi'ina, which had withstood a siege by Daher in 1739, was added to his domains through an agreement sealed by his marriage to its mukhtar's daughter. He also acquired the fortress of Suhmata through diplomacy, followed by the nearby fortified village of Deir al-Qassi, after marrying the daughter of its sheikh, Abd al-Khaliq Salih. These gains solidified Daher's hold over the northern and eastern Galilee. Sa'd established his fortified headquarters in Deir Hanna, while their cousin Muhammad al-Ali, who was based in Damun, added Shefa-Amr to his holdings, boosting the Zaydani presence in the western Galilee.
Capture of Nazareth and conflict with Nablus
Nazareth and the Marj Ibn Amer plain, through which the Damascus–Nablus trade routes passed, came under Daher's control by the end of 1740. Although it administratively belonged to Sidon, Nazareth was controlled by the rural chiefs of Nablus Sanjak, a district of the Damascus Eyalet. The town was the residence of Daher's first, Damascene wife and the hometown of his second wife. Through these connections, he forged close ties with its mostly Christian residents. They preferred Daher, who had a reputation for religious tolerance, over the chiefs and merchants of Nablus, who they viewed as oppressive or extortionary.
The dominant clans of Jabal Nablus, especially the Jarrars, challenged Daher's advance, recruiting the Saqr as allies. By then, the Saqr had grown hostile toward Daher for stemming their raids against the peasants in his territories. Probably sometime after 1738, Daher, leading his kinsmen, Maghrebi mercenaries, and the Nazarenes, routed the Jarrar–Saqr coalition in Marj Ibn Amer, near the village of al-Mansi. Afterward, Daher mobilized his people to subdue Jabal Nablus. Among them were many Nazarenes, including Christian women who supplied the troops with food and water. Daher's forces pursued the Jarrars to their throne village of Sanur, but retreated after failing to capture its fortress. The defeat marked the limit of Daher's influence south of Marj Ibn Amer and confirmed the Jarrars as the dominant force of Jabal Nablus.
Confrontations and respite with Damascus
Daher's rise coincided with that of the Azm family, whose members governed Damascus since 1725. Sulayman Pasha al-Azm (r. 1734–1738, 1741–1743) opposed Daher's buildup of power on the borders of his province and encroachments into Nablus Sanjak. More alarming to Sulayman Pasha than Daher's activities in Palestine were his incursions east of the Jordan River. In 1737 and 1738, Daher launched raids into the Jawlan (Golan) and Hauran, and attacked Damascus city. The imperial government determined Daher was a threat to the all-important Hajj pilgrim caravan to Mecca, which was annually marshaled in Damascus and traditionally led by its governor. With Constantinople's sanction, Sulayman Pasha launched an abortive attack against Daher in 1738. The Saqr then captured his brother, Salih, and handed him to Sulayman Pasha, who executed him, embittering Daher. Sulayman Pasha renewed his efforts to suppress the Zayadina in 1741, enlisting his nephew, Ibrahim Pasha of Sidon, who was defeated by Daher near Acre.
With unprecedented imperial orders to execute Daher, Sulayman Pasha besieged Tiberias in September 1742. He withdrew in January 1743 to lead the Hajj but resumed the operation upon his return to Damascus in July 1743. The campaign ended in August with Sulayman Pasha's death on the outskirts of Tiberias and Daher's subsequent assault on his camp. The following fourteen years were characterized by peace between Daher and Sulayman Pasha's successor, his nephew As'ad Pasha al-Azm (r. 1743–1757), who was deterred by his uncle's unsuccessful experience and preoccupied with domestic affairs.
In 1757, Husayn Pasha ibn Makki replaced As'ad Pasha and among his priorities were subduing Daher. In late 1757, the Banu Sakhr and Sardiyya tribes launched an assault on the Hajj caravan on its return to Syria. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims were killed, including Sultan Osman III's sister. The attack shocked the government, and discredited Husayn Pasha for failing to ward off the Bedouin. He lodged a complaint to the imperial government alleging Daher's involvement in the raid. Daher denied this and pressed for an investigation into the assault. To earn the government's favor, he purchased the looted goods of the caravan from the Bedouin, including the decorated banners representing the prophet Muhammad and the sovereignty of the sultan, and restored them to the new sultan, Osman III's successor, Mustafa III.
Control of Acre and Haifa
The peace with Damascus enabled Daher to focus his resources on capturing the port of Acre. As he already controlled the agricultural output of Acre's countryside, the port would provide him a key outlet to the sea and greatly improve his profits. In 1743, Daher executed his cousin Muhammad to remove him as a rival for influence in Acre. That year, Ibrahim Pasha, wary of Daher's growing power, rejected his request for Acre's iltizam. In 1744, Daher took Acre by force and killed its multazim. After mobilizing the town's ulema (Muslim scholars) and qadi (judge) to petition the sultan, in July 1746, Daher was formally appointed the multazim of Acre. Upon completing its walls and other public works c. 1750, Daher made Acre his new headquarters. He thereafter seized and developed the villages of Julis, Mazra'a, Makr, Judayda, and Sumayriyya as personal estates and installed water mills on the Na'aman and Ga'aton rivers near the city, both part of the 16th-century waqf (endowment) of Sinan Pasha.
In 1757, Daher expanded his holdings southward, along Palestine's northern coastal plain, taking control of Haifa, Tira, and Tantura, and the adjoining Mount Carmel. Ostensibly, Daher captured the harbor village of Haifa to eliminate the base established there by Maltese pirates. More likely, he aimed to prevent the governors of Damascus from utilizing Haifa, strategically positioned across the bay from Acre, as a launchpad against him, while seeking a secondary port. As'ad Pasha had not acted against Daher's occupation of Haifa, but a new governor, Uthman Pasha al-Kurji (r. 1760–1771), attempted to return it to Damascene authority. Acting on Uthman Pasha's request, the governor of Sidon dispatched a vessel of mercenaries captained by a Frenchman to capture Haifa in May 1761. Upon arrival, Daher had the ship confiscated, its soldiers arrested, and the captain fined. The issue over Haifa's annexation was settled in Daher's favor by his imperial associate, Yaqub Agha. The latter had a high-ranking official, the kizlar agha (chief eunuch) Sulayman Agha, revoke the imperial order sanctioning Uthman Pasha's attempt to repossess Haifa.