Zahir al-Umar

Zahir al-Umar ظاهر العمر
Artistic representation of Zahir al-Umar by Ziad Daher Zedani, 1990
Governor of Sidon, Nablus, Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramla, Jaffa and Jabal Ajlun
In office 1774–1774
Preceded by	Darwish Pasha al-Kurji (Sidon)
Succeeded by	Jazzar Pasha (Sidon)
Sheikh of Acre and All Galilee Emir of Nazareth, Tiberias and Safad
In office 1768–1775
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Jazzar Pasha (Acre)
Multazim of Tiberias
In office 1730 – 1750s
Preceded by	Umar al-Zaydani
Succeeded by	Salibi al-Zahir
Multazim of Deir Hanna
In office 1761–1767
Preceded by	Sa'd al-Umar
Succeeded by	Ali al-Zahir
Personal details
Born	1689/1690 Arraba
Died	21 August 1775 Acre
Relations	Zaydani family
Children	Salibi, Ali, Uthman, Sa'id, Ahmad, Salih, Sa'd al-Din, Abbas (surnames: al-Zahir)
Parents	Umar al-Zaydani
Religion	Sunni Islam

Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani (alternatively spelled Dhaher al-Omar or Dahir al-Umar) (Arabic: ظاهر آل عمر الزيداني‎‎; Ẓāhir āl-ʿUmar az-Zaydānī, 1689/90 – 21 August 1775) was the virtually autonomous Palestinian Arab ruler of northern Palestine in the mid-18th century, while the area was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire. 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. He fortified Acre, and the city became a center of the cotton trade between Palestine and Europe. In the mid-1760s, he reestablished the port town of Haifa nearby.

Zahir successfully withstood assaults and sieges by the Ottoman governors of the Sidon and Damascus provinces, who attempted to limit or eliminate his influence. He was often supported in these confrontations by the rural Shia Muslim clans of Jabal Amil. 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. 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. 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. The Ottoman Navy attacked his Acre stronghold in the summer of 1775 and he was killed outside of its walls shortly after.