The Ottomans and British took advantage of Egypt's severely weakened position in Syria due to the heavy loss of troops and skilled officers in the 1838 revolt. After two years of diplomatic wrangling between Muhammad Ali, the Ottomans, Great Britain, France, and Russia, a war effort by an Ottoman-European alliance against Muhammad Ali's control over Syria was launched. Bashir's Druze and Christian rivals and dissidents to his rule in Mount Lebanon were courted and armed in an initiative by the British Foreign Secretary, Henry Palmerston. With British-Ottoman support, an alliance of sheikhs in Mount Lebanon, including the Abu Nakad, Abu'l Lama, Khazen, Shihab, Hubaysh and Dahdah clans, Khanjar al-Harfush, Ahmad Daghir, Yusuf al-Shantiri and Abu Samra Ghanim, launched a rebellion against Bashir and Ibrahim Pasha on 27 May 1840. Bashir managed to temporarily suppress the revolt by confiscating property from the rebels, issuing threats and offering tax reductions to uninvolved Druze sheikhs in return for their support. Most Druze did not join the revolt in its early stage due to its mostly Maronite or pro-Christian leadership based in Matn, Keserwan and the Sahil. By 13 July, Bashir informed the Egyptian authorities that the revolt was suppressed, and handed over 57 of the revolt's leaders and participants, including Haydar Abu'l Lama and Fransis al-Khazen, who were exiled to Upper Egypt. Bashir also had his sons and subordinate commanders collect the rebels' arms and redistribute most of them to his ally and kinsmen, Sa'd al-Din of Hasbaya.