American fashion model Bella Hadid is one of the few foreign celebrities who openly expresses her position on the Palestinian issue. She is one of the celebrities who always speaks about Israeli violations in Palestine. Of course, many praise Bella Hadid and her positions on this issue, as she comes from an important and powerful tribal family. Throughout history, this family held important positions in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.
Bella Hadid is the granddaughter of an important Palestinian leader, Zahir bin Omar al-Zaydani, known as Zahir al-Omar, who was a powerful leader who controlled the trade routes between Damascus and Nablus, and by 1750 Zahir al-Omar had assumed full control of Acre.
After taking control of the region and imposing his authority, Zahir al-Omar began strong development projects in the region and made significant contributions to cotton production, but he preferred to work with the Shiites instead of the Ottomans, which greatly disturbed the government of Istanbul. However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was that pirates… Malta obtained logistical services from the port of Acre, which was under the control of Zahir al-Omar, and thus the Ottoman anger increased over al-Omar. On the one hand, he was working with the Shiite forces in the region, and on the other hand, he was endangering the security of the Mediterranean by providing some logistical services to the pirates, but Zahir Al-Omar did not care about the Ottoman anger and continued his expansionist policy in Palestine and Lebanon.
The governor of the Ottoman Empire in Damascus, Othman Pasha, sent a letter to Zahir al-Omar, ordering him to obey the Sultan and send the annual tribute. Here it should be noted that al-Omar was not a direct enemy of the Ottomans, as a number of his family members were working in high-ranking positions in Istanbul, and the Ottomans did not ask him to do so. Giving up his position or authority in Palestine and Lebanon. Rather, they wanted him to pay the annual tribute, prove loyalty and not cooperate with the enemies of the Ottoman Empire, but things did not go well.
While the delegations were negotiating, and the governor of Damascus was trying to reach an agreement with Al-Omar, the forces of Othman Pasha clashed with the forces of Zahir Al-Omar, and this secondary clash disrupted everything, making Al-Omar officially a “rebel.” Rebellion was one of the most difficult crimes that could be tolerated in the country. The time of the Ottoman Empire.
Al-Omar was smart, so he secured himself, and requested support from the Russian Navy and the Egyptian administration against the incoming Ottoman forces. The Ottomans sent the governor of Damascus, Othman Pasha, the commander of the Quds Forces in the Ottoman army, and Tsar Ahmed Pasha, in a major campaign aimed at eliminating Zahir Al-Omar’s rebellion.
Before we continue telling the story of Zahir al-Omar, we should stop for a moment at Tsar Ahmed Pasha, as he was the leader who stood before the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in Palestine. Bonaparte led a major campaign in which many areas that were under Ottoman control fell, and upon his arrival in Palestine Napoleon placed He set his sights on Acre, and decided to launch a campaign against this city and control it.
Bella Hadid (AFP)
Akka Castle
At that time, Ahmed Pasha’s camp was in Acre, and Napoleon, who was proud of his achievements, decided to take control of Acre Castle within 24 hours and continue his invasion. He did not believe that Ahmed Pasha’s camp could confront him due to his old age.
Napoleon ordered his army to begin the attack on March 19, 1799. At first, the castle was bombarded with cannons, and after that, the first attack was made through open cracks in the castle walls, but the end result was a great disappointment for the French army.
At the beginning of the attack, the French committed with the Ottoman soldiers what could be a “Turkish massacre” in every sense of the word. Despite this, the Tsar’s soldiers were able to stand firm and absorb the shock, before they were able to eliminate the entire French unit that launched the first attack on the Acre Citadel.
Napoleon sent his soldiers to attack again the day after the first attack, but he also failed to obtain the results he wanted, so he changed his plan to control the castle. The new plan was to bomb the walls of the castle until large gaps were created that could allow a large army to enter to storm, and indeed The artillery bombardment of the castle continued for a long time before Napoleon’s army began its new attack.
During this period, the Caesar was preparing plans to confront Napoleon inside the castle. Indeed, he was able to set up ambushes and equip his army well to resist the French attack, and his forces were able to inflict a major defeat on Napoleon Bonaparte, which forced him to retreat.
A drawn picture of Zahir Al-Omar (The Independent Turkish)
Zahir Al-Omar defeats Tsar Ahmed Pasha with Russian help
After the Ottomans entrusted Ahmed Pasha with the task of eliminating Zahir al-Omar’s rebellion, the latter resorted to requesting support from the Russians, who responded immediately and sent, for the first time in Russian history, a military force to the heart of the Middle East and took control of Beirut.
One of the points that weakened the Tsar in the face of age was that Ahmed Pasha was fighting on two fronts, the first against the Russians, and the other against the Druze.
But what Al-Omar did not take into account was an agreement between the Ottomans and the Russians, concluded in 1774, and thus the Russians abandoned their support for Zahir Al-Omar, who asked for forgiveness from the Ottomans, and Sultan Abdul Hamid I actually responded to his request, wanting to stop the fighting and prevent further losses.
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Although the Istanbul government issued an official pardon for Al-Omar after all that had happened, he did not later admit to what he had done, and sent a letter to the Sheikh of Islam, in which he told him that he had not betrayed the Ottoman Empire, and his war was not against the Ottomans, but rather his war was against the governor of Damascus, Othman. Pasha, who accused him of being the one who caused all these problems, and who strained his relationship with Istanbul.
Things calmed down for a short time, before Al-Omar started a new rebellion against the Ottoman rule. Here, Istanbul realized that his goal in requesting amnesty was to gain more time, and decided to eliminate him in any way possible. In order to carry out this mission, the Ottomans sent the Algerian commander Ghazi Hassan Pasha. He was one of the most powerful admirals of that era, and Al-Jazairi set a goal before his eyes, which was to bring the head of Zahir al-Omar to Istanbul.
An expressive drawing of the Algerian leader Ghazi Hassan Pasha with his famous lion (Turkish Independent)
The name of Ghazi Pasha of Algeria was frightening. Indeed, he led a large army and headed towards Palestine. He defeated Zahir al-Omar’s forces in a bitter defeat, and besieged him in the castle of Acre, where he was holed up with his forces. During the clashes, al-Omar was shot dead, and when his body was brought to Ghazi Pasha of Algeria, he cut off his head and sent it away. To the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul, and that was in 1775.
This is the entire story of Zahir al-Omar, who ruled in Palestine for more than two decades, but in fact, the al-Omar family is not a family of Palestinian origin as is rumored in the media, but rather their origins go back to Medina, before they immigrated to Syria, and then to Palestine, which they ruled for a period of time. .
Of course, the story of Zahir Al-Omar, his rebellion, the killing of a large number of people, and the Russians bringing him to Beirut, all of this does not detract anything from the “noble” position of his granddaughter Bella Hadid.
Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The Independent Turkish newspaper.
