Fakhr al-Din II

Fakhr al-Din II
فَخْرُ ٱلدِّينِ ٱلثَّانِي
Engraving of a portrait of Fakhr al-Din by Giovanni Mariti, 1787[a]
Sanjak-bey of Sidon-Beirut
In office December 1592 – 1606
Monarchs	Murad III (r. 1574–1595) Mehmed III (r. 1595–1603)
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Ali Ma'n
Sanjak-bey of Safed
In office July 1602 – September 1613
Monarchs	Mehmed III (r. 1595–1603) Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617)
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Muhammad Agha
Zabit (Nahiya governor) of Baalbek
In office 1625–unknown
Monarch	Murad IV (r. 1623–1640)
Preceded by	Yunus al-Harfush
Zabit of Tripoli Eyalet nahiyas[b]
In office 1632–1633
Monarch	Murad IV
Personal details
Born	c. 1572
Died	March or April 1635 (aged c. 63) Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Spouses	Daughter of Jamal al-Din Arslan ​ ​ (m. 1590)​ Daughter of a Qaysi Druze chieftain Alwa bint Ali Sayfa ​ (m. 1603)​ Khasikiya bint Zafir
Relations	Ma'n dynasty (paternal clan) Tanukh dynasty (maternal clan) Yunus Ma'n (brother)
Children	Ali Mansur Hasan Husayn Haydar Bulak Sitt al-Nasr (daughter) Fakhira (daughter)
Parents	Qurqumaz ibn Yunus Ma'n (father) Sitt Nasab (mother)
Occupation	Multazim of the following nahiyas: List Sidon and Beirut (1589–1611, 1628–1631) Chouf (1591–1600, 1628–1631) Acre (1593–1597, 1602–1612, 1628–1631) Southern Beqaa Valley (1593–1597) Shaqif and Bishara (1593–1598) Jurd and Matn (1594–1598, 1610, 1628–1631) Safed and Tiberias (1602–1612, 1628–1631) Hula and Shara (1603, 1606) Bsharri, Byblos, Batroun, Dinniyeh (1623–1631) Arqa, Akkar (1625–1631) Hisn al-Akrad and Safita (1626–1631) Jableh and Latakia (1628–1632)

Fakhr al-Din Ma'n (Arabic: فَخْر ٱلدِّين مَعْن, romanized: Fakhr al-Dīn Maʿn; c. 1572 – March or April 1635), commonly known as Fakhr al-Din II or Fakhreddine II (Arabic: فخر الدين الثاني, romanized: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Thānī),^[c] was the paramount Druze emir of Mount Lebanon from the Ma'n dynasty, an Ottoman governor of Sidon-Beirut and Safed, and the strongman over much of the Levant from the 1620s to 1633. For uniting modern Lebanon's constituent parts and communities, especially the Druze and the Maronites, under a single authority for the first time in history, he is generally regarded as the country's founder. Although he ruled in the name of the Ottomans, he acted with considerable autonomy and developed close ties with European powers in defiance of the Ottoman imperial government.

Fakhr al-Din succeeded his father as the emir of the Chouf mountains in 1591. He was appointed over the sanjaks (districts) of Sidon-Beirut in 1593 and Safed in 1602. Despite joining the rebellion of Ali Janbulad in 1606, Fakhr al-Din remained in his post and the Ottomans recognized his takeover of the Keserwan mountains from his rival Yusuf Sayfa. Seven years later, an imperial campaign was launched against him for allying with Tuscany and garrisoning the strategic fortresses of Shaqif Arnun and Subayba. He escaped and became an exile in Tuscany and Sicily. Upon his return in 1618, he resumed control of his former domains and within three years took over northern Mount Lebanon, which was predominantly Maronite. After Fakhr al-Din routed the governor of Damascus at the Battle of Anjar in 1623, he extended his control to the Beqaa Valley, the stronghold of his rivals, the Harfush dynasty. Fakhr al-Din proceeded to capture fortresses across central Syria, gained practical control of Tripoli and its eyalet, and acquired tax farms as far north as Latakia. Although he frequently attained government favor by timely forwarding of tax revenue, bribing officials, and using opportunities of mutual interest to eliminate local rivals, his outsized power and autonomy were considered a rebellion by the imperial government. A near-contemporary historian remarked that "the only thing left for him to do was to claim the Sultanate". He surrendered to the Ottomans during a siege of his Chouf hideout in 1633 and was executed in Constantinople two years later. In 1697 Fakhr al-Din's grandnephew was awarded a tax farm spanning southern Mount Lebanon. It was gradually expanded by the Ma'ns' marital relatives, the Shihabs, in 1711, and was a precursor to the Lebanese Republic.

According to the historian Kamal Salibi, Fakhr al-Din "combined military skill and eminent qualities of leadership with a keen business acumen and unusual powers of observation". During a period when the empire was in a long economic crisis, Fakhr al-Din's territories thrived, and Sidon in particular attained political significance for the first time in its modern history. He protected, promoted, and helped modernize commercial agriculture in his domains, inaugurating the lucrative silk trade of Mount Lebanon. By opening his port towns for European commerce, he facilitated the most significant European political and economic penetration of the Levantine coast since the 13th century. Fakhr al-Din's wealth, derived mainly from his tax farms, but also from extortion and counterfeiting, enabled him to invest in the fortifications and infrastructure needed to foster stability, order, and economic growth. His building works included palatial government houses in Sidon, Beirut and his Chouf stronghold of Deir al-Qamar, caravanserais, bathhouses, mills, and bridges, some of which remain extant. Tax farming financed his army of sekban mercenaries, which after 1623 mostly replaced the local peasant levies on which he previously depended. Christians prospered and played key roles under his rule, with his main enduring legacy being the symbiotic relationship he set in motion between Maronites and Druze, which proved foundational for the creation of a Lebanese entity.

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