family was extinct. They were succeeded by their relatives by marriage the Shihabs, freely elected by the Lebanese notables at a national conference. The Shihabs' ancestors were related to the Prophet's family. Evidently the Lebanese spirit of home rule was not entirely dead. Turkey, herself in danger of being destroyed by European powers, was content so long as the taxes were guaranteed. The Shihabs held the reigns of government until 1841, using the old techniques : bribing Ottoman officials^ rising against weak sultans, playing one chief or one party against another and thus maintaining their hold on the mountain, though they never adopted the Druze creed of their people. Yamanite opposition was crushed in 171 1 and the feudal system was reorganized with Shihab partisans at the helm. New family alignments developed as Druzes and Maronites contended for power.
Palestine came into prominence in the mid-eighteenth century under a bedouin governor, Zahir al-Umar. Zahir took Tiberias, Nablus, Nazareth and Acre, which he fortified, made his residence and used for exporting silk, cotton, wheat and other Palestinian products to foreign markets. A benevolent dictator, Zahir stamped out lawless- ness, encouraged agriculture and assumed a tolerant attitude towards his Christian subjects. His financial obligations to the Ottoman government he regularly met, for he realized that to the government it made no great difference who the agent was, Turk or Arab, so long as the cash was forth- coming. His downfall resulted from an alliance with an Egyptian rebel and dependence on a Russian fleet which helped him to take Sidon in 1772. The governor of Damas- cus, the Shihab amir of Lebanon and a Turkish squadron combined to blockade him in Acre, where his death was encompassed by Turkish gold.
Zahir was succeeded at Acre by a Bosnian ex-slave called Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar (the executioner). Al-Jazzar made his small state strong and prosperous, extended its borders
