Ain Dara, Battle of

The Battle of Ain Dara occurred in the village of Ain Dara, in Mount Lebanon in 1711, between the Qaysi and Yamani, two rival tribo-political factions. 

The Qays were led by Emir Haydar of the Shihab dynasty and consisted of the Druze clans of Jumblatt, Imad, Nakad Talhuq, and Abd al-Malik and the Maronite clan of Khazen. The Yamani faction was led by Mahmoud Abu Harmoush and consisted of the Druze Alam al-Din, Arslan and Sawaf clans. The Yamani faction also had backing from the Ottoman provincial authorities of Sidon and Damascus.

The battle ended in a rout of the Yamani faction and resulted in the consolidation of Qaysi political and fiscal domination over Mount Lebanon. The battle's outcome also precipitated a mass migration of pro-Yamani Druze nobility and peasants from Mount Lebanon to the eastern Hauran, in a mountainous area today known as Jabal al-Druze, solidifying the Maronite Christian population as the predominant populace in Mount Lebanon.