Bashir Shihab II was a Lebanese emir who ruled the Emirate of Mount Lebanon between 1788 –1840. Born to a branch of the Shihab family which had converted from Sunni Islam, the religion of previous Shi
Portrait of Bashir Shihab II
Muhammad Ali and Bashir II
A 1961 Lebanese stamp portraying Bashir Shihab II (left) and Fakhr al-Din II (right) in commemoration of Lebanon's independence in 1946
Inner courtyard of Beiteddine Palace
The Kisrawan or Keserwan is a region between Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean coast, north of the Lebanese capital Beirut and south of the Ibrahim River. It is administered by the eponymous Keserwa
After the Ottoman conquest of the Levant in 1516, the Assaf lords of Kisrawan moved their headquarters to Ghazir (pictured in 1893), where they cultivated close ties with the Maronites of the district, particularly the Hubaysh family, at the expense of their Turkmen kinsmen.
The village of Faraya in the Kisrawan was settled by Shia Muslims from Baalbek in the early 16th century
The Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke, Kisrawan
Tanyus Shahin of the village of Rayfoun led the peasants of Kisrawan in revolt against their Khazen lords in 1859