Daher El-Omar
Encyclopedia : D : DA : DAH : Daher El-Omar
Daher El-Omar (died 1775), the Arab-Bedouin ruler of the Galilee district at Palestine in the 18th century. Founder of modern Haifa, he fortified many cities, among them Acre.
Daher was born to an Arab-Bedouin tribe in the Galilee district, which at that time was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Soon enough Daher came to the rank of Sheikh and leader of his tribe. At first he became the ruler of Safed area but quickly the borders of his territory reached Tiberias. Testimonies from that time tell the great admiration the people had for Daher, especially for his war against bandits on the roads.
Daher, in a similar way to many other local leaders under the Ottoman Empire, was disliked by the Ottoman administration. This contempt came to be realized and the Ottoman Sultan send an order to the governor of Damascus to end Daher rule in the Galilee. In September 1742 a military force led by the governor of Damascus came to the Galilee and put a siege over Tiberias. 83 days later the siege was removed due to Ramadan. In July 1743 the governor returned with a larger force with him. A month later the governor died of kidney disease and the siege was removed for good.
After the threat from the Ottoman administration was removed Daher turned again to expand his realm. Daher turned west and took control over crusader fortresses. Acre was taken over and fortified by Daher. When Haifa was conquered by Daher it wasn't suitable for defense so the city was ruined and rebuilt 3 km away with improved fortifications and new sea ports. Now with control over major sea ports in the area, Daher made contact with Maltese pirates. Daher and the pirates agreed to trade in the stolen goods they took, the pirates from different ships they looted and Daher from his looting of travelers to Damascus and Mecca.
From 1769 to 1775 Daher got involved in a war that led to his fall. In 1750 his friend Ali Bey Al-Kabir was appointed the governor of Egypt and soon got into an argument with the Ottoman administration. Assassins were sent to kill Bey as fear of him attempting to rebel against the Ottoman Empire (1769). Bey as a response declared Egypt is an independent country. Daher helped Bey by blocking an Ottoman force heading to suppress the rebellion in Egypt. Bey, in 1771, sent a force of 30,000 to Damascus. After the troops got to Damascus (with the help of Daher) the commander of the troops turned against Bey and with the troops return to Egypt Bey fled to Acre to shelter under Daher protection. The combined forces of Daher, Bey and Russia (who was in war with the Ottoman Empire that time) occupied the majority of Israel. In 1773 Bey returned to Egypt but was defeated by the rebels and died. In 1774 the war between Russia and the Ottomans was over and Daher was left without any support, a year later the Ottomans put a siege over Acre and Daher died in an attempt to flee.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.