The Advancement of a Druze Notable in the Ottoman Bureaucracy

The Rise of Mustafa Arslan and His Family in Late Nineteenth-Century Mount Lebanon

Abstract

This article examines the rise of Muṣṭafā Arslān (1848/49–1914) and his family in late nineteenth-century Ottoman Mount Lebanon. While scholars have substantiated the overall integration of the Arab provincial leaders into the late Ottoman bureaucracy, they have often emphasized the initiative of the reforming state, and neglected the changing nature of these local elites in their community during this period. The present analysis traces the Arslān family’s meteoric rise from their status as a noble but uninfluential local family to holding a dominant position in the politics of Mount Lebanon. Unlike the tax-farming local gentry of the previous era, such as the Junblāṭs, they secured their power by actively cooperating with the central government and pursuing their career in the bureaucracy. Moreover, they could extend their influence outside their locality through the network of the Ottoman administration, as manifested in the Arslāns’ greater control over the Druze community of the Ḥawrān district. Their political ascension reached its zenith in the wake of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. However, as these new political elites were raised by the bureaucracy, the chief members of the family, most notably Shakīb Arslān (1869–1946), increasingly acted as agencies of the central state, and were often in conflict with the local forces in Mount Lebanon.