Mansur Shihab

Mansur Shihab was the Emir of Mount Lebanon between 1754 and 1770. He and his brother Ahmad took the reins of power from their ailing brother Mulhim Shihab and ruled jointly until Mansur became the sole emir after winning a power struggle with Ahmad in 1763. Mansur aligned himself with Daher al-Umar and Ali Bey, the autonomous rulers of Galilee and Egypt, respectively, in their rebellion against the Ottomans. Mansur was subsequently forced by the Druze sheikhs of Mount Lebanon to step down in favor his nephew Yusuf Shihab after Daher and Ali Bey were defeated in 1770.

Family Mansur was born in 1714. His father was Haydar Shihab, the Emir of Mount Lebanon, a semi-autonomous region in the Ottoman province of Sidon. They belonged to the Shihab dynasty which succeeded the Ma'an dynasty as the rulers of Mount Lebanon.

Emir of Mount Lebanon After Haydar died in 1732,

Although Mansur and Ahmad had ended their dispute, Mulhim's son Yusuf Shihab, had declared his support for Ahmad and sought shelter with Mansur's ally, Sheikh Ali Jumblatt. Jumblatt attempted to mediate the dispute between the uncle and nephew, but Mansur dismissed the gesture and seized Yusuf's properties. Jumblatt subsequently defected from Mansur's camp and gave his backing to Yusuf, who also approached Uthman Pasha al-Kurji, the governor of Damascus for support. Uthman Pasha instructed his son, the governor of Tripoli to assign Yusuf authority over the fiefs of Byblos and Batroun, which became Yusuf's base of operations against Mansur, who was based further south in the Shuf. The defeat of Ali Bey and Daher prompted the Ottoman authorities to punish Mansur for siding with them. This consequently brought a withdrawal of confidence for Mansur from the Druze clans. He was dismissed and succeeded by Yusuf in 1770. Mansur died in 1774.