Sulayman Pasha al-Azm

Sulayman Pasha al-Azm (; ; died August 1743) was the governor of Sidon Eyalet (1727–33), Damascus Eyalet (1733–38, 1741–43), and Egypt Eyalet (1739–40) under the Ottoman Empire. He belonged to the prominent Al-Azm family and was the uncle of As'ad Pasha al-Azm, who succeeded him as governor of Damascus, and Sa'deddin Pasha al-Azm, who also served as governor of Egypt.

Early life Sulayman Pasha al-Azm was the son of Ibrahim al-'Azm, "a rural notable possibly of Turkish stock", who was sent to Ma'arrat al-Nu'man to restore order in the mid-seventeenth century. Later in 1734–1735, al-Azm improved his reputation by embarking on a campaign of energetic reforms, abolishing unspecified abuses that harmed local artisans. The abundant wheat harvest that spring was critical to his rehabilitation in the eyes of the people of Damascus. Later in 1743, another bread riot occurred in Damascus, with hungry mobs attacking the courthouse, driving out the qadi and storming local bakeries. Al-Azm attributed the uprising to the tampering of the food supply by the grain owners, millers, and wholesalers. He issued threats to the above individuals and bread reappeared on the market immediately. In a show of gratitude to al-Azm, "The people prayed for His Excellency [the Governor]."

Conflict with Daher al-Umar and death

Beginning in the 1730s, Daher al-Umar, an Arab sheikh, emerged as a local strongman in the Galilee (administratively part of Sidon Eyalet), which Sulayman Pasha had opposed while he was wali of Sidon between 1728 and 1730. In the late 1730s, shortly before his dismissal as wali of Damascus, Sulayman Pasha commenced an expedition against Daher in the latter's headquarters in Tiberias. Sulayman's justification for attacking Daher was that the latter was an ally of the Bedouin tribes that threatened the safety of the annual Hajj caravan and was a potential obstacle to the collection of taxes in the Galilee. The fortifications of Tiberias prevented the city's fall, but in the fighting outside of its walls, Daher's brother Salih "Abu Dani" was captured by Sulayman's allies and later hanged in Damascus.

During Sulayman's second term as wali of Damascus, he renewed the campaign against Daher, who by then expanded his control to Safad, Nazareth, and the western Galilee.