Jazzar Pasha

Ahmed Pasha al-Jazzar أحمد باشا الجزّار جزّار أحمد پاشا
Portrait of Jazzar Pasha, 1775
Wali of Sidon
In office May 1777 – April 1804
Monarchs	Abdul Hamid I Selim III
Preceded by	Zahir al-Umar
Succeeded by	Sulayman Pasha al-Adil
Wali of Damascus
In office March 1785 – 1786
Monarch	Abdul Hamid I
Preceded by	Husayn Pasha Battal
In office October 1790 – 1795
Monarch	Selim III
Preceded by	Ibrahim Deli Pasha
Succeeded by	Abdullah Pasha al-Azm
In office 1798–1799
Monarch	Selim III
Preceded by	Abdullah Pasha al-Azm
Succeeded by	Abdullah Pasha al-Azm
In office 1803 – April 1804
Monarch	Selim III
Preceded by	Abdullah Pasha al-Azm
Succeeded by	Ibrahim Pasha Qataraghasi
Personal details
Born	c. 1720s – 1730s Fatnica, Bosnia Eyalet, Ottoman Empire
Died	7 May 1804 Acre, Sidon Eyalet, Ottoman Empire
Resting place	Acre

Ahmed Pasha al-Jazzar (Arabic: أحمد باشا الجزّار, c. 1720–30s – 7 May 1804) was the Acre-based Ottoman governor of Sidon Eyalet from 1776 until his death in 1804 and the simultaneous governor of Damascus Eyalet in 1785–1786, 1790–1795, 1798–1799, and 1803–1804. Having left his native Bosnia as a youth, he began a military career in Egypt in the service of mamluk officials, eventually becoming a chief enforcer and assassin for Ali Bey al-Kabir, Egypt's practical ruler. He gained the epithet of al-Jazzar (the Butcher) for his deadly ambush on a group of Bedouin tribesmen in retaliation for the death of his first master in a Bedouin raid. Al-Jazzar fell out with Ali Bey in 1768 after refusing to take part in the assassination of another of his former masters. He ultimately fled to Syria, where he was tasked by the Ottomans with defending Beirut from a joint assault by the Russian Navy and Zahir al-Umar, the Acre-based ruler of northern Palestine. He eventually surrendered and entered Zahir's service before defecting from him and fleeing with stolen tax money.

After the Ottomans defeated and killed Zahir, they appointed al-Jazzar as their garrison commander in Acre. He pacified the Galilee and Mount Lebanon, which had been dominated by Zahir's kinsmen and the Druze forces of Yusuf Shihab, respectively. In 1776 or 1777, he was appointed governor of Sidon, but relocated the provincial capital to Acre, which he strongly fortified. In the following years, he defeated his erstwhile Shia Muslim ally, Nasif al-Nassar, consolidating his control over Jabal Amil (modern southern Lebanon). In 1785, al-Jazzar was appointed to his first of four terms as governor of Damascus, each time gaining more influence in the province's affairs in opposition to his rivals from the Azm family. In 1799, with the help of the British navy, al-Jazzar defended Acre from Napoleon, forcing the latter to withdraw from Palestine in disarray. His successful defense of Acre earned him prestige in the empire and made him well known in Europe.

Al-Jazzar died in office in 1804. He was ultimately succeeded in Acre by his mamluk Sulayman Pasha al-Adil; until his suppression of a mamluk revolt in 1789, al-Jazzar had appointed mamluks to senior posts in his military and administration. Al-Jazzar attempted to develop the areas under his control by improving road security and maintaining order. However, his domestic military expeditions and stringently enforced and exploitative taxation policies precipitated high emigration, although the cities of Acre and Beirut prospered. The former became a powerful regional center rivaling Damascus and until today contains many architectural works commissioned by al-Jazzar, such as its walls, the el-Jazzar Mosque and the Khan al-Umdan caravanserai.