Tanyus Shahin

Tanyus Shahin Saadeh al-Rayfouni (also spelled Tanios Chahine Saadé Al Rayfouné, given name also spelled Taniyus or Tanius) (1815–1895) was a Maronite muleteer from Mount Lebanon who led a peasants' revolt in the area of Keserwan in 1859. He managed to drive out Keserwan's nobility, the Khazen family, and declared a peasants' republic. Shahin became a popular figure among Christian commoners, many of whom considered him the guardian of their interests, a view which Shahin promoted.

He was a principal belligerent in the battle of Beit Mery between local Maronites and Druze, which became the first major confrontation of the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war. He claimed he could raise an army of 50,000, although he did not participate further in the war. Following the war's end after international intervention, Shahin relinquished his republic and worked in the judiciary of his home village, Rayfoun.

Early life and character
According to historian Elizabeth Thompson, there are sparse biographical details available about Shahin. He was born to a Maronite family in the village of Rayfoun in the Keserwan area of Mount Lebanon in 1815. According to Thompson, Shahin may have been literate as indicated by his early career as an artisan and an entrepreneur, while Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi describes him as "half-literate". Prior to leading the 1859 peasant revolt in Keserwan, Shahin was a blacksmith and a muleteer who transported goods throughout Keserwan.

Shahin was tall and of muscular build, and was well-known in Keserwan for delivering sermon-like speeches at village meetings, and for his violent temper, according to Salibi. He acted as a local shaykh shabab (leader of young men), a title that carried honor and typically denoted a village strongman who derived power from his following of armed men. He was admired and respected by the peasants of Keserwan, some of whom considered him their "redeemer". According to a local chronicler, residents "prepared grand receptions for him amid joy and celebrations" when he entered a local village. Various European diplomats described him as a "ruffian of despicable character" and as dishonest, while some clergymen also regarded him as deceitful.

Uprising in Keserwan
Peasant anger in Keserwan had been building since the mid-19th century, due to a number of factors, including the burdens of corvée that had been imposed during the rule of Emir Bashir Shihab II, general economic hardship, and the decreasing availability of land. The Maronite Khazen family traditionally served as the sheikhs (chiefs) of Keserwan, although their power had been significantly rolled back during Emir Bashir's rule. The Khazens opposed the creation of the "Double Qaimaqmate" in Mount Lebanon in the 1840s and were incensed at the appointment of a sheikh from the mixed Druze-Christian Abu'l Lama family as the qaimaqam of the Maronite section of the Qaimaqamate. The Khazens feared that such an appointment would formally subordinate them to the Abu'l Lama sheikhs. Following the Abu'l Lama sheikh's death in 1854, his successor Bashir Ahmad Abu'l Lama attempted to further reduce the Khazens' influence, prompting the Khazens to stir the peasants to revolt against Bashir Ahmad. The revolt against Bashir Ahmad soon turned against the Khazen sheikhs and their feudal allies. The peasant subjects of the Khazen sheikhs had long been wary of their rule due to the excessive taxes they imposed as well as the additional gifts the peasants were virtually obligated to give the sheikhs, which many peasants considered humiliating.

In early 1858, a group of Keserwani peasants lodged a formal complaint against the Khazens to Khurshid Pasha, the governor of Beirut. Later, in March 1858, the Khazens held a summit for the people Keserwan to garner support for their nomination of a new qaimaqam. Instead, the peasants participating in the summit voiced their dissent against the Khazens and in October, several Keserwani villages entered into an alliance against Khazen tyranny. Shahin was chosen by this alliance of peasants as their leader in December, and was declared Wakil Awwal (First Delegate).

In January 1859, Shahin intensified the armed revolt against the Khazen sheikhs and with 800 of his peasant fighters, he besieged the Khazens during a summit they were holding in Ghosta. The siege prompted the sheikhs to flee the village, and the peasants under Shahin subsequently plundered the Khazens' estates. Shahin and his men proceeded to attack the Khazens in other villages with little blood spilled in the process, with the exception of the wife and daughter of a Khazen sheikh who were killed in Ajaltoun in July during a raid on their home by the peasants. The Maronite Patriarch condemned their killing as a "horrific crime". Silk and wheat warehouses belonging to the sheikhs were plundered and the goods were redistributed among the peasants of Keserwan. By July, the Khazens had been routed and between 500 and 600 family members had fled to Beirut in an impoverished state. Shahin broadened the peasants' main demands of tax relief and refunds for the illegal payments they had previously paid to the Khazen sheikhs to also include political and legal reforms. Shahin cited the Edict of Gülhane, which mandated equality for all Ottoman citizens.

Establishment of republic
Following his victory over the Khazen sheikhs, Shahin and the peasants of Keserwan formed a government, with Shahin declaring a republic (jumhuriyya). He became known as the Wakil 'Amm (General Delegate), and in the fall of 1859 moved the headquarters of the rebellion from the coastal village of Zouk Mikael to his hometown of Rayfoun in the mountains. Although revolts were relatively commonplace in Mount Lebanon, the ousting of a noble family by their peasant subjects was unprecedented. The government consisted of a 100-member council made up of representatives from the villages of Keserwan. Over half of the representatives were peasants who did not own land, 32 were relatively well-to-do farmers, ten were clergymen and three were merchants or lenders. Shahin, who by this point oversaw a 1,000-strong militia, exercised power through seizing arms, ensuring the upholding of the law and establishing security on the roads. He disciplined dissidents suspected of betraying the government and issued decrees in the name of the public. He also entered into negotiations with the Khazen sheikhs, but they reached a stalemate.

The main villages that supported Shahin's government were Rayfoun, Ajaltun, Ashqut, al-Qlayat and Mazraat Kfar Dabyan. The representatives of these villages were able to gain the solidarity of other villages by persuading their inhabitants through both peaceful and coercive means that they were all a part of single community with a united purpose. Some villages, such as Ghosta, Aramun, Ghazir and Ftuh opposed Shahin and his revolt. Shahin's popularity among the Christian peasants of Mount Lebanon grew as he came to be viewed as their savior from both the Druze nobles and the traditional Maronite elites. This reputation was further solidified after Shahin's men backed Christian residents in a clash with Druze residents in the mixed village of Beit Meri in Metn in August 1859.

The Khazens demanded the restoration of their rule in Keserwan and lodged complaints to the Ottoman government about property stolen or damaged by the peasantry. The Ottomans launched an investigation in Keserwan, but in their interviews with the peasants, all claimed that they were unaware of looting and other crimes, while representatives of Shahin denied that they were rebels, insisting that they only sought the implementation of the Tanzimat reforms and the restoration of law and order. In petitions to the Maronite Patriarchate, the peasants demanded compensation by the Khazens for taxes that were illegally extorted from them, an abolition to the traditional gift-giving required of the peasants, the abolition of marriage taxes levied by the Khazens and an end to the practice of beating peasants, among other demands. Shahin nominally recognized the Maronite Patriarchate as the ultimate arbiter of disputes, but consistently urged them to honor their obligations to the "ahali" (commoners). In one incident he or his men fired shots toward the patriarch's headquarters in Bkirki for hosting a number of Khazens who were seeking refuge there. In March 1859, Shahin rebuffed the church's request to make an agreement with the Khazen sheikhs, citing the need to first "consult with all the ahali and all the villages".

Shahin's rise generally confused the Ottoman government because Shahin used the Tanzimat to legitimize his revolt. The Ottomans did not consider the religious equality called for by the Tanzimat reforms to translate into class equality, which is how Shahin interpreted it. Moreover, the Ottomans did not countenance that a semi-literate Arabic-speaking peasant from a rural region such as Keserwan would serve as a representative of the Tanzimat. They reacted to Shahin's revolt negatively, although the provincial Ottoman authorities of Beirut generally felt powerless to act against the peasant rebels due to a lack of funds and forces on the ground. Khurshid Pasha sympathized more with the Khazen sheikhs and in a letter to the Patriarchate accused Shahin of using "deceit to lead astray the minds of the people and to seduce them into following his evil ways". The principal focus of the Ottoman authorities in Lebanon was containing Shahin's revolt. However, later historians of Lebanon accused Khurshid Pasha of at least tacitly supporting Shahin in order to break communal solidarity.

Khurshid Pasha dispatched Emir Yusuf Ali Murad, a Maronite sheikh from the Abu'l Lama family, to rein in peasant rebels in Jubayl, but Shahin sent a letter warning Emir Yusuf not to "intervene in the affairs" of Jubayl because the "Christians of Jubayl were united with the ahali of Keserwan" and claimed that "all the Christians of Syria have made common cause". He condemned Emir Yusuf for aligning himself with the ousted sheikhs and his "Druze relatives" and accused him of attempting to "subjugate the Christians after we achieved our [freedom]". He threatened Emir Yusuf to "return without delay" and that if he "desires a fight, we are more eager than you, and we are not afraid". Shahin's confidence in the support he received from the Christian peasantry of Keserwan and other parts of Mount Lebanon and his challenge to Emir Yusuf through a populist sectarian approach alarmed the Maronite elites, the church and the Ottoman authorities.

In response to a Maronite priest's complaints about harassment by Shia Muslims against Christians, Shahin's men attacked and plundered Shia villages and travelers in Jubayl and demanded that Shia villages convert to Christianity to avoid assault. The Shia residents of Jubayl protested these assaults in June 1859. While Shahin's actions further frustrated the local elites, Christian, Muslim and Druze alike, his reputation as the defender of Christian rights was bolstered at the popular level.

Civil war in Mount Lebanon
Between March and May 1860, several retaliatory tit-for-tat killings and attacks of sectarian nature between Druzes and Christians had been occurring throughout Mount Lebanon and its immediate environs. In late May, Shahin and some 300 of his men entered the village of Naccache from Rayfoun to seize silk owned by a noble family of Keserwan. However, instead of returning to Rayfoun, they proceeded to enter the village of Antelias in the al-Sahil district adjacent to Beirut. Shahin's entrance into Antelias was considered a provocation by the Druze who feared that the presence of the Keserwani fighters threatened the Druze residents of the nearby mixed Druze-Maronite Metn district. Many Christians in turn viewed the deployment of Khurshid Pasha's troops to the Keserwani village of Hazmiyeh on 26 May as a provocation because they suspected Khurshid of being allied with the Druze. Shahin's stated purpose was to protect the Christian Shihab emirs based in the village of Baabda (near Antelias).

The Shihab emirs requested Shahin and his men withdraw from Baabda's vicinity to avoid conflict. However, on 29 May, clashes occurred in the Metn village of Beit Mery between its Druze and Christian residents and led to the participation of their respective coreligionists from other villages. By 30 May, the Druze had defeated the Keserwanis in Beit Meri, and the fighting spread throughout the Metn district, with 35–40 Christian villages being burned. According to Lebanese historian, Leila Tarazi Fawaz, the Keserwani fighters proved to be undisciplined and ineffective against the more experienced, unified and organized Druze forces.

The fighting in Metn spread throughout Mount Lebanon and its surrounding area, becoming a civil war mainly between the Druze and the Christians. Shahin claimed he was able to raise 50,000 fighters to fight the Druze, and Christians from areas outside of Keserwan appealed for his help. However, when his men were halted by Ottoman forces in the Metn, Shahin and other Maronite militia leaders largely restricted their operations to guarding their areas of origin. In mid-June, when Zahle, the last Christian stronghold, was besieged by the Druze, Shahin did not send reinforcements and the town fell. This all but consolidated a Druze victory in Mount Lebanon.

Later life and death
French-led international intervention ended the war and order was restored in 1861. Yusuf Karam, a local Maronite leader who acquired a degree of popularity during the war and backing from the Maronite Patriarchate and the French government, was appointed the Qaimaqam of the Christians in Mount Lebanon after the war's end. Shahin opposed Karam, who in a bid to reconcile the Maronite community, issued orders for the peasants of Keserwan to restore properties seized from the nobility and compensate them for their losses. Shahin was backed by Emir Majid Shihab, who sought to replace Karam as Qaimaqam.

Later in 1861, Shahin relinquished the republic he set up in Keserwan. Subsequent to his retirement from politics, Shahin served as a judicial official in Rayfoun. There, in 1895, he died in relative obscurity. He left no memoirs about his role in the civil war.