Zahir was the youngest of four sons born to Sheikh Umar al-Zaydani. Zahir's family, the Zaydani clan, were Sunni Muslim notables from the Qaisi tribal confederation based in the Tiberias area who had strong connections to the Arab-Bedouin tribesmen of Galilee, which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire. The proper transliteration of his given name is Ẓāhir, but in the local dialect of Arabic used in Galilee, his name was pronounced Ḍāhir. According to contemporary biographer Ahmad Hasan Joudah, 1689–1690 is the most likely year of his birth because he considers Sabbagh to be the most reliable source for Zahir's personal life. The date of his birth is not clear, with the dates 1686, 1689– listed as his birth year by Zahir's contemporary biographers Volney, Mikha'il Sabbagh and Khalil al-Muradi, respectively. Zahir was born in the village of Arraba (also called 'Arrabat al-Battuf) in central Galilee. 3.4 Relationship with religious minorities.2.4 Alliance with Ali Bey and war with Damascus.Zahir's founding of a virtually autonomous state in Palestine has made him a national hero among Palestinians today.
He and his family, the Zaydani clan, also patronized the construction of commercial buildings, houses of worship and fortifications throughout Galilee. The influx of immigrants from other parts of the empire stimulated the local economy and led to the significant growth of the Christian communities in Acre and Nazareth and the Jewish community in Tiberias.
Zahir's tolerance of religious minorities encouraged Christian and Jewish immigration to his domain. The aforementioned factors, along with Zahir's flexible taxation policies and his battlefield reputation made him popular among the local peasantry. For much of his rule, he oversaw a relatively efficient administration and maintained domestic security, although he faced and suppressed several rebellions by his sons. The wealth Zahir accumulated through monopolizing Palestine's cotton and olive oil trade to Europe financed his sheikhdom. The Ottoman Navy attacked his Acre stronghold in the summer of 1775 and he was killed outside of its walls shortly after. By then, however, Ali Bey had been killed, the Ottomans entered into a truce with the Russians, and the Sublime Porte felt secure enough to check Zahir's power. At the peak of his power in 1774, Zahir's autonomous sheikhdom extended from Beirut to Gaza and included the Jabal Amil and Jabal Ajlun regions. In 1771, in alliance with Ali Bey al-Kabir of Egypt Eyalet and with backing from the Russian Empire, Zahir captured Sidon, while Ali Bey's forces conquered Damascus, both acts in open defiance of the Ottoman sultan. He was often supported in these confrontations by the rural Shia Muslim clans of Jabal Amil. Zahir successfully withstood assaults and sieges by the Ottoman governors of the Sidon and Damascus provinces, who attempted to limit or eliminate his influence. In the mid-1760s, he reestablished the port town of Haifa nearby. He fortified Acre, and the city became a center of the cotton trade between Palestine and Europe. For much of his reign, starting in the 1730s, his domain mainly consisted of Galilee, with successive headquarters in Tiberias, Arraba, Nazareth, Deir Hanna and finally Acre, in 1746.
Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani (alternatively spelled Dhaher al-Omar or Dahir al-Umar) (Arabic language: ظاهر آل عمر الزيداني Ẓāhir āl-ʿUmar az-Zaydānī, 1689–90 – 21 August 1775) was the virtually autonomous Arab ruler of northern Palestine in the mid-18th century, while the area was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire. Salibi, Ali, Uthman, Sa'id, Ahmad, Salih, Sa'd al-Din, Abbas (surnames: al-Zahir) Governor of Sidon, Nablus, Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramla, Jaffa and Jabal Ajlun Artistic representation of Zahir al-Umar by Ziad Daher Zedani, 1990
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