The Turabay dynasty () was a Bedouin family of emirs in northern Palestine who served as the (tax farmers) and (district governors) of Lajjun Sanjak during Ottoman rule in the 16th–17th centuries. The sanjak (district) spanned the towns of Lajjun, Jenin and Haifa, and the surrounding countryside. The progenitors of the family had served as chiefs of Marj Ibn Amer (the Plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel Valley) under the Egypt-based Mamluks in the late 15th century.
During the conquest of the Levant and Egypt by the Ottoman Empire in 1516–1517, the Turabay chief Qaraja and his son Turabay aided the forces of Ottoman Sultan Selim I. The Ottomans kept them in their Mamluk-era role as guardians of the strategic Via Maris and Damascus–Jerusalem highways and rewarded them with tax farms in northern Palestine. Their territory became a sanjak in 1559 and Turabay's son Ali became its first governor. His brother Assaf was appointed in 1573, serving for ten years before being dismissed and exiled to Rhodes for involvement in a rebellion. His nephew Turabay was appointed in 1589 and remained in office until his death in 1601. His son and successor Ahmad, the most prominent chief of the dynasty, ruled Lajjun for nearly a half-century and repulsed attempts by the powerful Druze chief and Ottoman governor of Sidon-Beirut and Safed, Fakhr al-Din Ma'n, to take over Lajjun and Nablus in the 1620s. He consolidated the family's alliance with the Ridwan and Farrukh governing dynasties of Gaza and Nablus, which remained intact until the dynasties' demise toward the end of the century.
As and the Turabays were entrusted with collecting taxes for the Ottomans, quelling local rebellions, acting as judges, and securing roads. They were largely successful in these duties, while keeping good relations with the peasantry and the village chiefs of the sanjak. Although in the 17th century several of their emirs lived in the towns of Lajjun and Jenin, the Turabays largely preserved their nomadic way of life, pitching camp with their Banu Haritha tribesmen near Caesarea in the winters and the plain of Acre in the summers. The eastward migration of the Banu Haritha to the Jordan Valley, Ottoman centralization drives, and diminishing tax revenues brought about their political decline and they were permanently stripped of office in 1677. Members of the family remained in Jenin at the close of the 17th century, and descendants continue to live in present-day northern Israel and Palestine.
History
The Turabays were the preeminent house of the Bedouin Banu Haritha tribe, a branch of the Sinbis, which itself stemmed from the large, ancient tribe of Tayy. During Mamluk rule in Palestine (1260s–1516), the Haritha were mentioned as living in Jenin and its environs by the 13th-century historian Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari. In the 1390s, the emir of the Haritha backed the rebel governor Mintash of Syria against Sultan Barquq of Egypt with 1,000 iron-clad horsemen. In the chaotic aftermath of Timur's invasion of Syria in 1400-1401, the Haritha emir confiscated the grain harvest of Mamlakat Safad (the province of Safed), leading to clashes that ended with Mamluk army fatalities. Sultan an-Nasir Faraj appeased the emir with a (robe of honor) but captured him in a ruse the next year and had him executed. The Mamluks co-opted the Haritha and the (commander) of the tribe led a contingent of his warriors in the Mamluk army encamped in Safed in 1419-1420.
In the late 15th century, Turabay, the eponymous progenitor of the dynasty, is mentioned as the emir of the Haritha and oversaw the Marj Ibn Amer plain (commonly known today as the Jezreel Valley), an (subdistrict) of Mamlakat Safad. By this time, the Haritha had long dominated the regions of Marj Ibn Amer and northern Jabal Nablus (Samaria), which collectively became referred to in Arabic as (). Turabay was executed by the Mamluk authorities in 1480 and replaced with his son Qaraja.
Early relations with the Ottomans In 1516 the Ottoman sultan Selim I () launched an invasion of the Mamluk empire. After the Ottomans routed the Mamluks at the Battle of Marj Dabiq, Qaraja made contact with Selim. Qaraja's son Turabay joined Selim's forces and participated in the subsequent conquest of Mamluk Egypt. On 8 February 1517, after his victory over the Mamluks, Selim wrote to Qaraja from Cairo, ordering him to capture Mamluk officials fleeing Egypt, transfer captive commanders to the sultan, and execute regular soldiers. On 2 February 1518, Qaraja paid homage to Selim in Damascus, where the sultan had stopped on his return to the imperial capital Constantinople.
The Ottomans' most significant challenge in governing the Levant became the subjugation of the region's eastern desert and western mountainous peripheries. Selim entrusted the Turabays and the Beqaa Valley-based Bedouin Hanash emirs with the pacification of Bedouin tribes and the security of the Hajj pilgrimage route, which passed through the Syrian desert leading to the Hejaz (western Arabia, where Mecca is located). Qaraja held the title of (), highlighting his role as the protector of the Via Maris, the Mediterranean coastal road between Cairo and Damascus which cut through Marj Ibn Amer, and the road connecting Damascus to Jerusalem via Jenin and Nablus. In the Ottoman provincial system the part of Marj Ibn Amer around the Daughters of Jacob Bridge remained under Safed's direct administration in the newly formed Safed Sanjak of Damascus Eyalet; much of the original , along with the coastal of Atlit, was administered separately as the 'Iqta of Turabay'. The area's separation from Safed Sanjak was done to reward or pacify the Turabays.
The Ottoman (provincial governor) of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali, captured and executed Qaraja in 1519, along with three Bedouin chiefs from the area of Nablus. The execution was likely connected to an earlier attack by Bedouin tribesmen against a Muslim pilgrim caravan returning to Damascus from the Hajj in Mecca. After the death of Selim in 1520, Janbirdi revolted and declared himself sultan. Under the leadership of Turabay, the family fought alongside the Ottomans against the rebels. According to the historian Muhammad Adnan Bakhit, this demonstrated the family's loyalty to the Ottomans. The historian Abdul-Rahim Abu-Husayn suggests additional motivations for their fight against Janbirdi, including the latter's support from the Gaza and Ramla-area rival Bedouin tribes of Banu Ata, Banu Atiyya and the Sawalim, the family's grudge against Janbirdi for executing Qaraja, and bribes by the governor of Egypt, Khair Bey. With the suppression of Janbirdi's revolt in 1521, Turabay gained the confidence of the Ottomans. He was entrusted in 1530/31 with overseeing the construction of the Ukhaydir fort in the Hejaz on the Hajj route. A further testament to Ottoman favor was Turabay's large (tax farm), which spanned several subdistricts in the sanjaks of Safed, Damascus and Ajlun, the revenues of which amounted to 516,855 .
There may have been tensions between Turabay and Sinan Pasha al-Tuwashi, the of Damascus in 1545–1548, and the latter's successors. In 1552 the Turabays were accused of rebellion for acquiring illegal firearms and the authorities warned the (sanjak governors) of Damascus Eyalet to prohibit their subjects dealings with the family. A nephew of Turabay was sent to Damascus to secure a pardon for the family. The information about this event is unclear, and the motivation for the purported rebellion unknown. The Sublime Porte (Ottoman imperial government) ordered the of Damascus to punish the family and Turabay may have been killed as a consequence.
Early governors of Lajjun The Iqta of Turabay was transformed into a sanjak, called Lajjun Sanjak after its center, Lajjun, in 1559. Turabay's son Ali was appointed its , becoming the first member of the family to hold the office. Under his leadership, the Turabays once again entered into a state of rebellion by acquiring firearms and Ali was replaced by an imperial official, Kemal Bey, in 1564. Three years later the Porte ordered the arrest and imprisonment of a member of the family for stockpiling arms.
Ali was succeeded as head of the family by his brother Assaf, who worked to reconcile with the Ottomans by demonstrating his obedience to the Porte. He allied with the of Gaza, Ridwan Pasha, who lobbied on his behalf to the Porte, writing that Assaf safeguarded the road between Cairo and Damascus. The Porte responded in 1571 that if he continued to be obedient he would be granted the sultan's favor. Two years later he was appointed of Lajjun. As well as Lajjun, in 1579, Assaf requested the governorship of Nablus, promising to pay the sanjak's tax arrears and build a watchtower between Qaqun and Jaljulia to secure that part of the highway from brigands. The Porte denied his request, wary of his growing strength in the region.
Assaf was dismissed in 1583. The information about his dismissal is inconsistent in the Ottoman government records. One version is that Arab tribes in northern Palestine were in a state of rebellion at the time and the authorities believed Assaf was involved in their revolt. The historian Moshe Sharon posits that Assaf had become intolerably powerful to the Porte. At an unspecified point after his dismissal, he was exiled to Rhodes but was allowed to return in 1589. In an alternative version, he went into hiding and his son was exiled and the two were pardoned in 1589. In any case, Assaf was not reinstated as .
During his absence, an impostor, referred to in Ottoman documents as "ʿAssāf the Liar", had gained control of the sanjak. He went to Damascus to lobby its , Muhammad Pasha, to legalize his rule. Despite Muhammad Pasha's support, Assaf the Liar was arrested and executed on the orders of the Porte in October 1590. The Porte then appointed a member of the Turabay family, Turabay ibn Ali, as . The latter was a nephew of the actual Assaf, who lodged an unsuccessful complaint against Turabay in March 1592 for allegedly seizing from Assaf 150,000 coins, 300 camels and 2,500 calves. According to Abu-Husayn, Turabay demonstrated "a special capability" and the Ottomans had "confidence" in him. In 1594 he served as a temporary replacement for the of Gaza, Ahmad Pasha ibn Ridwan, while the latter was away leading the Hajj pilgrim caravan and continued to govern Lajjun until his death in 1601. By this time, the Banu Haritha's dwelling areas spanned the coastal plain of Palestine around Qaqun to Kafr Kanna in the Lower Galilee and the surrounding hinterland.
Governorship of Ahmad
Turabay was succeeded as of Lajjun by his son Ahmad Bey, the "greatest leader" of the dynasty, according to Sharon. Five years after Ahmad took office, the Druze emir Fakhr al-Din Ma'n became governor of neighboring Safed. Fakhr al-Din had already been in control of the ports of Sidon and Beirut, and southern Mount Lebanon as the of Sidon-Beirut; with the appointment to Safed, his control was extended to the port of Acre and the Galilee. Abu-Husayn notes that "this had the effect of bringing the two chiefs, as immediate neighbors, into direct confrontation with one another". During the rebellion of Ali Janbulad, a Kurdish chief and governor of Aleppo, and Fakhr al-Din against the Ottomans in Syria in 1606, Ahmad generally remained neutral. However, he welcomed the supreme commander of the Ottoman forces in the region, Yusuf Sayfa, in Haifa after the rebels ousted him from Tripoli. Janbulad demanded Ahmad execute Yusuf, but he refused, and Yusuf made his way to Damascus. Later, Ahmad ignored summons to join the imperial army of Grand Vizier Murad Pasha, who suppressed the rebellion in 1607. Interested in weakening his powerful neighbor to the north, Ahmad joined the government campaign of Hafiz Ahmed Pasha against Fakhr al-Din and his Ma'n dynasty in Mount Lebanon in 1613–1614, which prompted the Druze chief's flight to Europe.