of the general Jigalazade Sinan Pasha for refusing join the campaign against the Safavids. Rebellion Control of Syria Ali acted as a stand-in for his uncle Huseyn while the latter was fighting on the Safavid front. He had already established a reputation across Syria as "an experienced leader, an able, generous man" according to Griswold. His rebellion against the Ottoman authorities was expressly launched as a bid to avenge his uncle, whom he declared to have been unjustly executed; he insisted that he was not revolting against the sultan, but rather fighting as a loyal subject against the sultan's advisers and viziers—not least Jigalazade Sinan Pasha—whom he collectively accused of injustice. His cause for revenge gained wide currency among his Kurdish tribal kin and more generally throughout Syria. He engaged in a six-month struggle against local opponents in northern Syria and became the unofficial power in Aleppo. In May 1606 he had lodged a formal request to the imperial government for the governorship of Aleppo and a vizier post in Constantinople and pledged 10,000 troops to the Ottoman campaign against the Safavids. The Porte responded to Ali's activities by encouraging and providing assistance to the beylerbey of Tripoli, Yusuf Sayfa, a natural opponent of Ali. As a result, Yusuf, a Kurdish chieftain with a local power base in his province and a career Ottoman official, sensed a dual opportunity: he could neutralize the Janbulads, whose hegemony he feared, and in the process gain significant prestige with the sultan for suppressing Ali without the costly intervention of an imperial army. The Porte agreed to Yusuf's request to head a campaign against Ali and promoted him to serdar (commander-in-chief) of Damascus. In a short battle near Hama on 24 July, Ali routed Yusuf's forces, which included the armies of Tripoli, Damascus and Hama, and put Yusuf to flight. While Yusuf escaped to Tripoli, the bulk of his allies joined Ali, who financially rewarded them to ensure their loyalty. He proceeded to plunder the countryside of Tripoli. To destroy Yusuf's remaining influence in Syria, Ali formed an alliance with Fakhr al-Din Ma'n, a Druze chieftain in Mount Lebanon and sanjak-bey of Sidon-Beirut and Safad, who was Yusuf's in-law and principal rival. One of the commanders of the Damascus Janissaries, Kiwan ibn Abdullah, seeking to undermine a rival Damascene commander, encouraged Fakhr al-Din to accept's Ali entreaty. Ali and Fakhr al-Din met in the