Aqil Agha al-Hasi (, given name also spelled Aqil, Aqila, Akil or Akili; military title sometimes spelled Aga) (died 1870) was the strongman of northern Palestine in the mid-19th century, during Ottoman rule. He was originally a commander of Arab irregular soldiers, known as the Hawwara tribe, in the service of the Ottoman governors of Acre. His influence in the Galilee grew as he strengthened his alliances with the powerful Beni Sakhr and Anizzah tribes of Transjordan, and recruited unemployed Bedouin irregulars from Egypt into his own band of irregulars, who thenceforth became known as the Hanadi tribe. He was known by his men and Western travelers to be courageous, cunning and charismatic, all qualities that contributed to his rise as the de facto ruler of northern Palestine.Van Der Steen, "Case Study 1: Akila Agha".
Throughout his rule, Aqil remained at least nominally in service to the Ottoman Empire, which paid him for protecting the roads of northern Palestine from Bedouin raids and for maintaining the security of this region. He also exacted his own tolls on the local population in return for ensuring their security. His friendly ties with the European governments were partially due to his protection of the local Christian and Jewish communities in the Galilee, including his protection of Nazareth from the 1860 massacres that occurred in Ottoman Syria. Aqil's relationship with the authorities was generally tense and he rebelled directly or indirectly against their local representatives. As a consequence of this frayed relationship, Aqil's employment would frequently be terminated when his activities or influence perturbed the authorities and then reinstated when his services were needed. By the time of his death, his influence had declined significantly. He was buried in his Galilee stronghold of I'billin.
While Palestine had been under Ottoman rule from the early 16th century, direct imperial administrative rule was challenged by a series of local leaders who exhibited vast influence over local affairs between the 17th and 19th centuries. With the Empire embroiled in the Crimean War, the power vacuum created in the area in the wake of Daher al-Umar's rule in the Galilee (1730–1775), Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar's rule (1776–1804), and Muhammad Ali's rule (1831–1840), was filled by Aqil.Schölch, 1984, pp. 459–462. Aqil's demise represented the end of the last local obstacle to Ottoman centralization in Palestine.
Early life and family Besides anecdotes provided in the writings of European consuls, most of the information on Aqil's life indirectly traces back to a history of the man written by Mikha'il Qa'war, a Nazareth clergyman. Aqil was born into a Bedouin family,Schölch, 1993, p. 199. known later as the Hanadi tribe. The actual Hanadi were an unrelated tribe that came to Palestine from Egypt during Egyptian rule in Palestine (1831–1840) and around 1840 joined Aqil's Hawwara tribesmen, who also had migrated from Egypt. The name "Hanadi" translates in Arabic as "Indians" and the Hanadi irregulars were referred to as such by the inhabitants of Palestine because of their dark skin.Finn 1878, p. 414.
Aqil's Hawwara tribesmen in the Galilee were not related to the well-known Hawwara tribe of Upper Egypt, who were noted for their "bravery, horsemanship, and equipments" according to the Palestine Exploration Fund.Macalister and Masterman, 1906, p. 222 The Hawwara of the Galilee were actually from the Ainawiyeh tribe of the Lower Egyptian desert region who had entered the service of Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar while the latter was based in Egypt in the late 18th century. They came with al-Jazzar to northern Palestine when al-Jazzar became the powerful Acre-based Ottoman governor of Sidon after the death of the Arab strongman of the Galilee, Daher al-Umar, in 1776. Al-Jazzar honored the Ainawiyeh tribesmen by giving them the name "Hawwara" to associate them with the famed Hawwara of Upper Egypt.
Aqil's father, Musa Agha al-Hasi, himself a commander of Hawwara irregulars in the service of Acre's Ottoman governors, had left Egypt for Gaza in 1814.Schölch, 1984, p. 462. He was not directly related to the Ainawiyeh or Hawwara tribes, but claimed descent from the Hawwara as a matter of convenience and prestige. Musa originally hailed from the al-Bara'asa tribe of Cyrenaica (modern-day eastern Libya).Abujaber, 1989, p. 35. Likewise, James Finn, the British consul in Jerusalem (1846–1863), claims Aqil's family was of Algerian or North African origin. Musa Agha resided in the Galilee around 1820 and married a Turkmen woman. Aqil was born to the couple in the Nazareth area. According to historian Adel Manna, Aqil was born in Gaza.Mattar, 2005, p. 347. Musa had two other sons, Ali and Salih.Macalister and Masterman, 1906, pp. 222-223. Musa died in Gaza in 1830.
Aqil's power base consisted of his tribesmen and alliances with other Bedouin tribes, who inhabited both sides of the Jordan River. Aqil's brother, Salih Agha, held substantial influence in the Haifa region. Mary Rogers, the sister of the English vice consul, described in detail a banquet in Shefa-Amr and a gazelle hunt at the invitation of Salih Agha,Rogers, 1865, p.196 ff.Schölch, 1993, p. 201, note 576 while another traveler witnessed the lavish wedding between a son of Salih Agha and a daughter of Aqil Agha on "the plains of I'billin", in circa 1857.Farley, 1858, p.317 ff. Aqil married off another of his daughters to a Bedouin sheikh (chieftain) in Gaza, paying the highest dowry registered at the time in Gaza: 11,000 piasters.Schölch, 1993, p. 206. The governor of Hebron was reported to be a brother-in-law of Aqil.Saulcy, de 1872, Vol. 1, p.159
Strongman of the Galilee
Consolidation of influence Like his father before him, Aqil served various masters, among whom was Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt. Aqil defected from Ibrahim Pasha's army and joined local rebels in the 1834 peasants' revolt against Egyptian conscription and disarmament measures, leading his Hawwara irregulars in the Galilee. At some point during the revolt, Aqil helped save the mostly Druze village of Isfiya from being destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha's troops after its inhabitants paid Aqil for protection.Trisdam, 1865, p. 112. As the revolt was suppressed, Aqil and his men left Palestine for Transjordan, where they sought the protection of that region's major Bedouin tribes. During his time in Transjordan he strengthened relations with these tribes.Manna, ed. Mattar, 2005, p. 199. When the Ottomans regained control of Palestine in 1840–1841, Aqil returned to the Lower Galilee and was commissioned as a captain of ten mounted irregulars.Macalister and Masterman, 1906, p. 287 He recruited Egyptian irregulars from the Hanadi tribe and others who were left unemployed following the Egyptian withdrawal. Together with Aqil's Hawwara, they became a formidable local force. In 1843, Aqil became the chief of irregulars, known as bashi-bazouk, in northern Palestine,Schölch, 1984, p. 462. and his command was expanded to fifty horsemen. Aqil's irregulars became known in the area as the Hanadi, although the group's tribal composition was mixed.
Aqil angered the kaimakam (district governor) of Acre, Muhammad Kubrisi, for his intervention in a dispute between two factions of the Catholic Church in Nazareth. One of the leaders of the Catholic factions, Sheikh Yusef Elias, had been dismissed by the church and subsequently entered Aqil's protection. He requested Aqil's intercession with Kubrisi, which was unsuccessful. When Sheikh Yusef decided to take matters into his own hands by raising a group of armed partisans in Nazareth, the church was compelled to restore his employment. Kubrisi believed Aqil had backed Sheikh Yusef's actions and accused Aqil of sedition. Kubrisi recalled Aqil and his Hawwara irregulars to Acre, verbally lambasted them and dismissed them all from service. Aqil was deeply insulted by Kubrisi's words and actions, and subsequently left for Transjordan where he sought the protection of Emir Fendi Al-Fayez of the Beni Sakhr tribe.
Aqil secured a durable alliance with the Beni Sakhr, consecrated through his marriage to a woman from the tribe. From Transjordan, he and his band of irregulars raided areas on both sides of the Jordan River until he was invited back to the Galilee by Acre's kaimakam in 1847. The latter had sought to neutralize Aqil and his allies' marauding activities, and thus pardoned Aqil. He was also given command of 75 bashi-bazouk in the Lower Galilee.Schölch, 1984, p. 463. Thereafter, he was commissioned with overseeing that region's security. In particular, the successive governors of Acre entrusted him with protecting the Galilee's trade routes and maintaining general security in the area, which he did successfully. With time, he became an unofficial mutasallim (tax collector) for much of northern Palestine, including the Jezreel Valley, Safad, Tiberias and Nazareth. The tax he collected was not on behalf of the authorities, but rather a tribute payment (khuwwa) to receive his protection. While this unofficial system proved successful in guaranteeing local security, later historians criticized it as akin to a protection racket.
Encounter with William F. Lynch
In 1848, Aqil assisted an expedition headed by US Navy captain William Francis Lynch to the Dead Sea, and became known in the United States and Europe through the publication of Lynch's book that year. Vivid descriptions of Aqil by Lynch are quoted at length in the works of Finn. Lynch's first encounter with Aqil was in the divan of Said Bey, the Ottoman kaimakam of Acre, and is recorded as follows:But what especially attracted my attention was a magnificent savage enveloped in a scarlet cloth pelisse richly embroidered with gold. He was the handsomest, and I soon thought also the most graceful being I had ever seen. His complexion was of a rich mellow indescribable olive tint, and his hair a glossy black; his teeth were regular and of the whitest ivory, and the glance of his eye was keen at times, but generally soft and lustrous. With the tarboosh upon his head which he seemed to wear uneasily, he reclined, rather than sat upon the opposite side of the divân, while his hand played in unconscious familiarity with the hilt of his yataghan. He looked like one who would be 'Steel amid the din of arms, and wax when with the fair.'Lynch, 1849, p. 127Finn 1878, p.415.
In this meeting, Said Bey had attempted to dissuade Lynch of his plans to travel to the Dead Sea, with Aqil remarking that the Bedouin of the Ghor (Jordan Valley) would "eat them up". Lynch's reply was that "they would find us difficult of digestion," but he suggested that as Aqil seemed to hold influence with these tribes, he would be prepared to pay him to make the trip a more peaceable one.
After the meeting ended, Lynch pursued Aqil to speak with him alone. He showed him his sword and revolver, which Aqil examined and declared to be the "Devil's invention". Lynch described the weaponry at the disposal of his men and asked Aqil if he thought it sufficient to make the journey to the Jordan, and Aqil replied that, "You will, if anyone can." Lynch later secured Aqil's accompaniment on the trip to the Dead Sea, through the intervention of an ex-Sharif of Mecca, describing the latter as "our counsellor, sagacious and prudent," and Aqil as, "the bold warrior and the admirable scout."Finn 1878, pp. 416–418.Lynch, 1850, p.130 Aqil and his Beni Sakhr allies quashed a party of Adwan Bedouin tribesmen when they attempted to rob Lynch's party. Lynch's record of Aqil's feat made him well known in Europe.
Hauran rebellion, imprisonment and escape