Aqil Agha

Aqil Agha al-Hasi Agha
Sketch of Aqil Agha in 1848 by William Francis Lynch
Native name	عقيل آغا الحاسي
Born	Ca. 1820 (year unknown) Gaza or Nazareth area, Sidon Eyalet, Ottoman Empire
Died	1870 Shefa-Amr area, Beirut Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Buried	I'billin, Beirut Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire
Years of service	1840–1844 1847–1852 1855–1863 1866–1870
Rank	Captain of Bashi-bazouk
Unit	Hawwara/Hanadi Irregulars
Battles/wars	Peasants' revolt in Palestine (1834) Hauran Rebellion (1852) Battle of Hattin (1857)
Relations	Musa Agha al-Hasi (father) Salih Agha al-Hasi (brother) Ali al-Hasi (brother) Quwaytin Agha al-Aqili (son)

Aqil Agha al-Hasi (Arabic: عقيل آغا الحاسي, given name also spelled Aqil, Aqila, Akil or Akili; military title sometimes spelled Aga) (died 1870) was the strongman of northern Palestine in the mid-19th century, during Ottoman rule. He was originally a commander of Arab irregular soldiers, known as the Hawwara tribe, in the service of the Ottoman governors of Acre. His influence in the Galilee grew as he strengthened his alliances with the powerful Beni Sakhr and Anizzah tribes of Transjordan, and recruited unemployed Bedouin irregulars from Egypt into his own band of irregulars, who thenceforth became known as the Hanadi tribe. He was known by his men and Western travelers to be courageous, cunning and charismatic, all qualities that contributed to his rise as the de facto ruler of the Galilee.^[1]

Throughout his rule, Aqil remained at least nominally in service to the Ottoman Empire, which paid him for protecting the roads of northern Palestine from Bedouin raids and for maintaining the security of this region. He also exacted his own tolls on the local population in return for ensuring their security. His friendly ties with the European governments were partially due to his protection of the local Christian and Jewish communities in the Galilee, including his protection of Nazareth from the 1860 massacres that occurred in Ottoman Syria. Aqil's relationship with the authorities was generally tense and he rebelled directly or indirectly against their local representatives. As a consequence of this frayed relationship, Aqil's employment would frequently be terminated when his activities or influence perturbed the authorities and then reinstated when his services were needed. By the time of his death, his influence had declined significantly. He was buried in his Galilee stronghold of I'billin.

While Palestine had been under Ottoman rule from the early 16th century, direct imperial administrative rule was challenged by a series of local leaders who exhibited vast influence over local affairs between the 17th and 19th centuries. With the Empire embroiled in the Crimean War, the power vacuum created in the area in the wake of Zahir al-Umar's rule in the Galilee (1730–1775), Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar's rule (1776–1804), and Muhammad Ali's rule (1831–1840), was filled by Aqil.^[2] Aqil's demise represented the end of the last local obstacle to Ottoman centralization in Palestine.