Summary
Urban household of Jabal Nablus, originally from northern Syria, which emerged around 1700 as the Nimr family’s chief competitor, came closer than any other household to centralizing all of Jabal Nablus under its rule, and held the post of mutasallim longer than any other family in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, albeit inconsistently (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 496-526).
Details
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Hajj Salih Pasha Tuqan (d. 1742), the family’s most prominent eighteenth-century member, was appointed mutasallim of Jerusalem in 1709 and returned in 1723 as governor of the districts of Gaza, Nablus and Lajjun (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 496-526).
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In 1766 Mustafa Beik Tuqan maneuvered to have himself appointed subdistrict chief of Bani Sa’b in place of the Jayyusi clan — the first time an urban household directly controlled part of the hinterland by forcing out a rural clan — and in 1771 he was appointed mutasallim of Nablus (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 534-576).
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Khalil Beik Tuqan was mutasallim of Nablus in 1799, when rival leaders burned caravansary supplies in a calculated act to embarrass and undermine him (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 381-409).
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Under Musa Beik Tuqan (1801-1823) the family’s drive for hegemony through violence and intimidation embroiled Jabal Nablus in the civil war of 1817-1823; the Tuqans were defeated and Musa Beik was poisoned on November 20, 1823 (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 534-576).
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Control of the mutasallim post in 1840-1860 shifted between the Tuqans and the Abd al-Hadi family; Sulayman Beik Tuqan was qa’immaqam of Nablus in December 1849 (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 621-676).
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The Tuqans and Nimrs were commonly referred to as the Beikawat and the Aghawat respectively (Chapter 1, note 3) (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 677-843).
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Chapter 1’s notes distinguish the family’s political branch, descended from Salih Pasha Tuqan and carrying the appellation beik, from the khawaja branch, mainly involved in trade; Salih Pasha’s grandfather Hajj Mahmud was a rich merchant and his father Ibrahim Agha secured a za’ama and served as a commander in the pilgrimage caravan’s military contingent (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 844-1172).
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The notes also record Nimr’s argument that the Tuqans’ strong ties to the Ottoman government were in large part due to the clever way they claimed credit for the defense of Nablus during Zahir al-Umar’s sieges (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 844-1172).
Related pages
Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, Nimr family, Jarrar clan, Jabal Nablus, Timar