Revolt in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: The Era of Shaykh Zahir Al-Umar

In the turbulent political and economic atmosphere of the eighteenth century when the Ottoman Empire was enfeebled and deeply wounded by internal corruption and attacked on three fronts by the Persian, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires, local leaders far from Istanbul began to take matters into their own hands. At first, these leaders only regulated local trade and tax collection, but soon, leaders like Shaykh Zahir al- Umar, a district tax collector in Palestine for the Ottoman government, saw opportunities to amass great wealth and power while providing autonomous government and safer roads to their local followers. Zahir first spread his control over northern Palestine, and later allied himself with Ali Bey of Egypt, a semi-independent leader who dreamed of re-establishing the Mamluk sultanate. When challenged by the Ottoman government, which was at the time at war with Catherine the Great s Russia (1768 74), Zahir and Ali Bey did not hesitate to ally themselves with Imperial Russia. A gripping and fascinating read, Dr. Ahmad Joudah s biography of Shaykh Zahir is crucial for scholars seeking to contextualize developments in modern Palestinian history within the power politics of the late Ottoman Empire.