was a drawn-out process and the precise dating of the associated events is unclear. Although it administratively belonged to the Sidon Eyalet, Nazareth was controlled by the rural chiefs of Nablus Sanjak, a district of the Damascus Eyalet. The town was the residence of Zahir's first, Damascene wife and the hometown of his second wife. Through these connections, he forged good ties with its residents. They preferred Zahir, who had a reputation for religious tolerance, over the chiefs and merchants of Nablus, who they viewed as oppressive or extortionary. The dominant clans of Jabal Nablus, especially the Jarrar family, challenged Zahir's advance, recruiting the Saqr as allies. By then, the Saqr had become hostile toward Zahir, their ostensible junior partner, for stemming their raids against the peasants in his territories. Probably sometime after 1738, Zahir, backed by his kinsmen, Maghrebi mercenaries, and the residents of Nazareth, routed the Jarrar–Saqr coalition at the Marj Ibn Amer village of al-Rawda, near al-Mansi. Following his victory, Zahir called for reinforcements from the people of his domains to subdue Jabal Nablus. Among them were many residents of Nazareth, including Christian women who supplied the troops with food and water. Zahir's forces pursued the Jarrars to their throne village of Sanur, but withdrew after failing to capture its fortress. The defeat marked the limit of Zahir's influence south of Marj Ibn Amer and confirmed the Jarrars as the dominant force of Jabal Nablus over their rivals, the Tuqans. While the Jarrars and Zahir eventually concluded a truce, the former continued to mobilize the clans of Jabal Nablus to prevent Zahir's southward expansion. Confrontations and respite with Damascus Zahir's rise coincided with that of the Azm family, whose members governed Damascus Eyalet for over a quarter century, beginning with Isma'il Pasha al-Azm in 1725. The Azms often attempted to expand their control to the provinces of Tripoli and Sidon. Isma'il Pasha's brother, Sulayman Pasha al-Azm, became governor of Sidon in 1733, before taking up office in Damascus the following year. He opposed Zahir's buildup of power on the borders of his province and encroachments into the Nablus Sanjak. More alarming to the governor than Zahir's activities in Palestine were his incursions east of the Jordan River. In 1737 and 1738, he had launched raids into the Golan Heights and the Hauran plain, and attacked Damascus city. For threatening Damascus, the imperial government determined Zahir was a