| Harfush آل حرفوش | |
|---|---|
 Flag of the Harfush dynasty[1] | |
| Country | Beqaa Valley and Sidon-Beirut Sanjak briefly, Ottoman Empire |
| Founded | 15th century (Beqaa) |
| Founder | Ibn Harfush |
| Final ruler | Ahmed |
| Dissolution | 1865 |
| Historical Arab states and dynasties |
|---|
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The Harfush dynasty (or Harfouche, Harfuch, Harfouch, or most commonly spelled Harfoush dynasty, all varying transcriptions of the same Arabic family name حرفوش) was a dynasty that descended from the Khuza'a tribe, which helped, during the reign of Muhammad, in the conquest of Syria. The Harfush are considered the best-known Shiite group in the history of Ottoman-period Lebanon,[2] when they controlled the Baalbek District and several parts of the Bekaa Valley. Their being Shiaa was a major factor in the rivalry between the Harfushes and the Lebanese Druze Maan family.[citation needed]
The Shia 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-Shiaa communities.[3] 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 Shia emirs were regularly denounced for their religious identity and persecuted under Ebu's-Suud's definition of (Kızılbaş) heretics.[4]
The Harfushes had been a regionally paramount dynasty since early Mamluk times and even served as patrons of local Shiaa 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.[5]
- ^ Nehme, Joseph; Nehme, Adonis (1995). Le Drapeau Libanais: A Travers les Siècles. Deir al-Qamar. p. 20.
وقد اختار آل حرفوش والأمراء الشيعة علماً لهم باللون الأخضر، الذي كان شعار المتشيعين للإمام علي - صهر النبي
[The Harfush family and the Shiite princes chose green as their flag, which was the emblem of the Shiite followers of Imam Ali - the son-in-law of the Prophet.]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Winter, Stefan (2010). The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman rule, 1516-1788. Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-521-76584-8.
The Harfushes are doubtless the best-known Shiite group in Ottoman-period Lebanese history. As a result of their early rivalry with the Druze Ma'n emirs, their constant interaction with Christian communities in the Bekaa and finally their subjugation to the Shihabi emirate, the Harfushes achieved a high profile in the narrative chronicles of the day, and their rule over Baalbek and parts of the Bekaa, from obscure origins to their demise after the 1860 civil war, has been described in numerous monograph studies.
- ^ Winter, 2010, p. 5 (Argument).
- ^ Winter, 2010, pp. 31, 32.
- ^ The Shiaa Emirates of Ottoman Syria (Mid-17th–Mid-18th Century), Stefan Helmut Winter, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois August 2002, page 15.