a sheikh of the Banu Zaydan, a small family of Bedouin (nomadic Arab) origin which had abandoned nomadism under Zahir's grandfather, Salih, and settled as cultivators in the Tiberias area in the late 17th century. Zahir's mother was a member of the Sardiyya, a Bedouin tribe based in the Hauran. Around 1698, Umar was appointed, in effect, as the tax collector of the Safed (fiscal district) by Bashir Shihab, a powerful chief of the Druze in Mount Lebanon who was granted the , or limited-term tax farm, of the district by the governor of Sidon. The Sidon eyalet (province) spanned the Galilee, southern Mount Lebanon, and the adjacent Mediterranean coast. By 1703, Umar had grown powerful enough to be considered the "paramount sheikh of the Galilee" by the French vice-consul of Sidon, while his brothers Ali and Hamza were (holders of ) in the western Lower Galilee and the vicinity of Nazareth, respectively, around this time. Umar died in 1706 and was succeeded as head of the family by Zahir's eldest brother, Sa'd. The Zaydans were deposed from their by the governor of Sidon the following year, after the death of Bashir, but were restored by Bashir's successor, Haydar Shihab, when he defeated his Druze rivals for control of Bashir's former in 1711. The Zaydans occasionally transferred their to Zahir during his adolescence to help prevent the authorities from holding the practical accountable in the event of a default. Legal control of the Zaydani gave Zahir considerable power within his clan. Zahir's killing of a man from Tiberias during a brawl, in 1707, prompted Sa'd to move the family from the Tiberias area. They settled in Arraba, a village between the market towns of Tiberias, Safed, and Nazareth but away from the main highways, after being offered safe haven there by the chiefs of the Bedouin Banu Saqr tribe, who resided in the village. In Arraba, Zahir received a degree of formal education from a Muslim scholar, Abd al-Qadir al-Hifnawi. He also learned how to hunt and fight. When the nearby village of Bi'ina was attacked by the governor of Sidon sometime between 1713 and 1718, Zahir helped defend the village and evaded the governor's troops. According to contemporary chroniclers, this event, along with Zahir's moderate personality, made him a local folk hero. His martial talents gained him further respect among the peasantry throughout the 1720s. Sa'd and Zahir also