Daher al-Umar
Ottoman Pasha (1689/90–1775)
Daher al-Umar al-Zaydani, alternatively spelled Zahir al-Umar or Dahir al-Umar (Arabic: ظاهر العمر الزيداني, romanized: Ẓāhir al-ʿUmar az-Zaydānī, 1689/90 – 21 or 22 August 1775), was the paramount sheikh of the Zayadina family and ruler of northern Palestine from the 1730s until his death in 1775, during Ottoman rule. At his zenith in 1774, he controlled the Syrian coast from Jaffa to Sidon, though formal recognition of his status was limited to that of a multazim (tax farmer).
In 1730, Daher took over Tiberias and by c. 1740, Safed and Nazareth. He and his family fortified these towns and other Galilee villages, most notably Deir Hanna, helping them withstand sieges by the governor of Damascus, Sulayman Pasha al-Azm, in 1742–1743. By then, Daher controlled the area's cotton crop and eventually monopolized its high-demand trade with the French, amassing substantial wealth. In 1750, he made the outlet of this trade, the ruined port village of Acre, into his capital, developing it into Syria's third largest city. He expanded into Haifa and its environs in the 1760s, bringing him into conflict with the governor of Damascus, Uthman Pasha al-Kurji. Daher allied with Egypt's mamluk ruler, Ali Bey, and the Shias of southern Lebanon. Their military campaigns ousted Uthman Pasha and his son from Damascus and Sidon, culminating with Daher's victory at Lake Hula and occupation of Sidon in 1771.
Daher's fortunes turned in 1772 with the ouster of Ali Bey by his deputy Abu al-Dhahab.
The public source identifies “Daher al-Umar” as ottoman Pasha (1689/90–1775). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Daher, al-Umar and Ottoman.
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This entry incorporates text from “Daher al-Umar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.