User:Al Ameer son/Ahmad Maan

Ahmad ibn Mulhim ibn Yunus Ma'n was the paramount emir of the Druze from 1658 until his death. He was the last emir of the Ma'n dynasty, which had been the dominant power among the Druze of the Chouf district from the late 15th/early 16th century. Ahmad's granduncle Fakhr al-Din II was expanded Ma'nid control to all of modern Lebanon and many neighboring areas until his capture and execution by the Ottomans. Ahmad's father Mulhim drove out the Alam al-Din emirs who replaced Fakhr al-Din and reestablished Ma'nid control of southern Mount Lebanon. Ahmad and his brother Qurqumaz succeeded their father.

Ancestry

Ahmad was one of two sons of Mulhim Ma'n, the other being Qurqumaz. They were emirs of the Ma'n dynasty, who were long-established in the Chouf area of Mount Lebanon. The Chouf, with the neighboring Gharb, Matn, and Jurd districts constituted the so-called Druze Mountain, the southern portion of Mount Lebanon historically populated by the Druze.

Mulhim's uncle Fakhr al-Din II and his father Yunus gained Ottoman favor and were granted tax farms in the Druze Mountain. Their authority gradually expanded to the governorships and tax farms of the Sidon-Beirut and Safed sanjaks and by the 1620s all of Mount Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley and neighboring areas. In response to their growing autonomy, Fakhr al-Din and Yunus, along with most of their sons, were killed in battle by the Ottomans or executed. Mulhim survived and by 1635 salvaged Ma'nid tax farming rights in the Druze Mountain, defeating countering claims by the family's Druze rivals, the Alam al-Din dynasty and their backers in Damascus. Mulhim held these tax farms until his death in 1658.

Paramount emir of the Druze

Ahmad and his brother Qurqumaz succeeded their father as holders of the tax farms of the Druze Mountain. In September 1658 they were additionally given by the imperial government the tax farming rights over Safed, and this was renewed for another year in August 1659.

Bibliography

• Abu-Husayn, Abdul-Rahim (1999). "The Unknown Career of Ahmad Man". Archivum Ottomanicum. 17: 241–247.