As'ad Pasha al-Azm

As'ad Pasha al-Azm ( ; 1706 – March 1758) was the governor of Damascus under Ottoman rule from 1743 to his deposition in 1757. He was responsible for the construction of several architectural works in the city and other places in Syria. Asad was the grandson of Ibrahim al-'Azm, "a rural notable possibly of Turkish stock", or of an Arab origin from Hauran according to Abd al-Rahman al-Fasi, who was sent to Ma'arrat al-Nu'man to restore order in the mid-seventeenth century; One of his brothers was Sa'deddin Pasha al-Azm. As'ad governed Hama as a tax collector for a number of years,

Governor of Damascus As'ad Pasha succeeded his father as governor of Damascus in 1743. Throughout the first half of the 18th century, the janissary corps in Damascus challenged the al-Azm family rule in Damascus, but in 1746, As'ad Pasha crushed the local janissaries. This enabled him to secure his authority in the city.

He was favored by the Ottoman authorities in Istanbul because of his successes in the protection of the Syrian pilgrim caravan that annually left for Mecca and Medina during the Hajj. In his dealings with the Bedouin tribes along the caravan route in the Syrian Desert and the Hejaz, As'ad Pasha either utilized force to subdue them or bought them off. The security of the pilgrim caravan was of prime importance to the Ottoman sultan in his capacity as "Protector of the Two Holy Sanctuaries," especially after the consistent failure of the Janissaries to protect the caravan.

When locust swarms devastated the harvests of interior Syria, As'ad Pasha used it as a pretext to launch raids against Druze communities in the Bekaa Valley, plundering their crops which he placed on the market in Damascus. During his governorship, As'ad Pasha relaxed restraints on Arab Christians; for instance, he allowed them to drink alcohol in public. He used his family's great wealth to construct the Azm Palace in Damascus in 1750. Serving as a joint residence and guesthouse, the palace was a monument to 18th-century Arab architecture. His rule represented the apex of al-Azm influence in the Levant as at that time, the members of the family administered Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Tripoli, Sidon, and for a short period, Mosul.

Death After being deposed, As'ad Pasha was assigned to Aleppo Eyalet and a month after, was appointed Governor of Egypt. In late 1757, the Hajj pilgrim caravan was annihilated. The Ottomans accused As'ad Pasha of inciting the Bedouin to attack the caravan in response to his deposition earlier that year. A Georgian mamluk (slave soldier) of As'ad Pasha, Uthman Pasha al-Kurji, then led Ottoman authorities to the whereabouts of his master's treasures and was rewarded with the governorship of Damascus in 1760.