the annual Hajj pilgrimage caravan to Mecca. As such, instead of a full-scale assault, he resolved to pressure the city to surrender Yusuf to him. Aware of the internal divisions among the Ottoman military factions in Damascus, Ali and Fakhr al-Din besieged the city. A skirmish was fought on 30 September 1606, in which the Damascenes were bested. The defeated troops retreated behind the city walls, refusing to hand over Yusuf. Ali ordered a three-day plunder of the city's suburbs; to avoid Damascus experiencing the same fate, Yusuf and the Damascene authorities, led by the kadi (head judge), and local merchants bribed Ali 125,000 gold piasters to withdraw. Ali agreed and further opened Damascus to free trade with foreign merchants. Meanwhile, Yusuf had escaped and taken refuge in Hisn al-Akrad (Krak des Chevaliers) near Homs. Ali and Fakhr al-Din proceeded north to besiege him, compelling Yusuf to sue for peace. The three leaders formed an alliance sealed by marital ties. Together they held absolute control of Syria, with Ali the strongest of the three. Nonetheless, Ali's supremacy over the eyalets of Aleppo, Tripoli and Damascus was reliant on his control of the Syrian emirs. Closer to his territorial power base Ali had the absolute loyalty of his Janbulad clan, followed by the Kurdish tribal beys and the nomadic Arabs of Kilis and Azaz. With the prospect of a full-scale civil war brewing in Anatolia and in the face of Ali's practical control of Syria, the Porte acceded to his request for the governorship of Aleppo, appointing him in September; his request for a vizierate was ignored. Ali practically proclaimed his sovereignty by having the Friday prayers read in his name, and likely minting coins as well. Alliance with Celali rebels of Anatolia To enforce his control over the Syrian emirs, Ali looked for allies among the Celali rebels of Anatolia. The Celali revolts were a series of rebellions beginning in the late 16th century. The revolts were precipitated by economic pressures in rural Anatolia stemming from overpopulation, a significant drop in the value of local silver and subsequent inflation, the inability of graduates from madrasas to find employment combined with the increasing availability of muskets among the peasantry. They posed a major challenge for the government, which was unable to suppress the revolts effectively. The government adopted a strategy in 1600 of temporarily accommodating rebel leaders through bribes or official