Touqan

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Touqan (Arabic: طوقان‎, also spelled Toukan, Tuqan, Tuqwan, and Tukan) is a prominent Palestinian and Jordanian family based in Nablus, Palestine and Al-Salt, Jordan.[1] Over the course of the Ottoman Empire, they were the only household to come close to centralizing the District of Nablus under their rule. Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries the Touqan family held the title of District Chief longer than any other local family.[2]

History

Origins

Palestinian historian Muhammad Muslih states the Touqan family traces its own descent to an ancient Arab tribe in Northern Arabia. For centuries, they settled in Transjordan, particularly in Ma'an and Eastern Jordan Valley. They claim to have settled in Nablus during the 12th century. Up to the 19th century, they headed the Qais tribal federation. The Qais and the Yamani Federation had a history of rivalry and warfare.[1] According to Palestinian historian Beshara Doumani, the Touqan family originated in Northern Syria, despite their rule throughout varying sectors of the Ottoman Empire.[2]

Power in Nablus

They served in the Ottoman army as officers during a military campaign into Palestine in 1657 which was meant to pacify the Jabal Nablus region. The Touqan settled in the city of Nablus and later in the 18th century contended over its control with the Nimr family who also served in the 1657 campaign. Their most prominent member at that time was Salih Pasha al-Touqan. Salih Pasha and his descendant intermarried with the Nimrs. However, internecine competition exacerbated by the provincial authorities in Damascus triggered a serious rift between both families.[2]

In 1766, Mustafa Bey Touqan maneuvered himself to be appointed the chief of the Nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Sa'b, driving the powerful Jarrar family from their post. This put the family on a collision course with the Jarrars and Dhaher al-Omar, the ruler of Acre, who responded with rebellion against the Ottoman authorities. This threat was magnified when the Governor of Damascus, Muhammad Pasha al-Azm, appointed Mustafa Bey as the sub-district chief of Nablus. The Jarrars' fears induced them to allow the forces of Dhaher al-Omar pass unimpeded through their territories in order to attack Nablus. Meanwhile, Mustafa Bey received help from the Nimrs and prepared the city's defenses. This turn of events cast the Touqans as loyal servants of the Ottoman Empire.[3]

Mustafa Bey accelerated the Touqans' drive for internal hegemony in Jabal Nablus through violence and intimidation, eventually embroiling Jabal Nablus in a civil war (1817–1823). With the blessing of the Ottoman Government, the Touqans imported mercenary soldiers and stationed them in a hastily built fortress in the Village of Junayd on the outskirts of Nablus. This triggered an increase in local opposition. After a series of bloody clashes the Touqans were defeated by the combined forces of the Jarrars and the Qasim Family (Chiefs of Jamma'in). Mustafa Bey was poisoned on November 20, 1823.[4]

Musa Bey Touqan, (the longest reigning Chief of Nablus since the late 17th-century) strove for centralization of the Nabulsi soap production by acquiring various soap factories. In September 1798, the Touqan family had arranged for the purchase of the Rukabiyya soap factory. Throughout early January of 1799, they consolidated their hold over the Uthmaniyya factory through a waqf exchange with a less wealthy branch of their family. Muhammad ibn Ali Touqan forced a waqf exchange of the entire Shafi'iyya soap factory from Qasim Shafi'i for the low sum of 150 piasters in 1801. In February 1807, Musa Bey gained control of the Ya'ishiyya factory from the Hanbalis after the leading member of the family died in severe debt. By December of 1811, the Touqans endowed two-thirds of the Shaytaniyya as a private family waqf, the implication being that this share was newly acquired. In another instance, Musa Bey persuaded Muhammad ibn Isma‘il Qadi-Shwayka to invalidate a previous sale of his right to use one quarter of the Bashawiyya soap factory to Muhammad Sa'id Bustamin (December 1815 – January 1816). By April of 1817, Musa Bey purchased the allegedly damaged Gharzaniyya after another waqf exchange within his own extended family.[5]

Musa Bey was assassinated by his rivals on December 20, 1823. This put an end to a prolonged period of conflict that eroded his family's material base. Many of the Touqans' key properties, including those that were endowed as family waqfs, were confiscated after Musa Bey's death. Soon after their occupation of the Levant in 1831, the Egyptians deported the leading figures of the Touqan family to Egypt and promoted the Abd al-Hadi family of Arrabah instead.[5] The only remaining leader of the family, Yusuf ibn Ahmad Touqan continued a small number of factories.

Today, the Touqan family still operates one of the two remaining soap factories in Nablus. The industry has been severely damaged by the circumstances of the Second Intifada.[6]

Influence in Salt

In the last quarter of the 19th century, Dawud Effendi Tuqan, a Palestinian scion of the Touqan family, settled in Salt in the Balqa region of Transjordan as a merchant. He soon took advantage of the increased Ottoman presence in the area, buying and building shops and warehouses for the sale and storage of commercial goods. Namely, his business was centered on selling products manufactured in Palestine to the local market and in turn reselling pastoral and agricultural products from Transjordan in Palestinian towns.[7]

Building on the commercial advantages of the Touqan family's trade network, Dawud Effendi soon diversified his activities to include monetary loans. He provided funding at a time when Transjordanians faced a need for monetary liquidity due to infrastructural developments. Between both businesses, the Touqan family in Salt had established a vast network of contacts with hundreds of herders and farmers in the Balqa District. With the newfound wealth of the Touqan family in Salt, a new commercial quarter developed in the city known as the Nabulsi Quarter. Dawud Effendi commissioned the construction of a large estate in the quarter alongside the manors of other prominent Nablus families.[7]

List of notable Touqan members

  • Ahmad Toukan - Former Prime Minister of Jordan.
  • Alia Touqan al-Hussein – Former Queen of Jordan.
  • Fadwa Tuqan – Palestinian contemporary poet.
  • Fawwaz Tuqan – Poet, novelist, writer and university professor in Jordan.
  • Ibrahim Tuqan – Palestinian contemporary poet.
  • Jafar Tukan – Award-winning architect in Jordan.
  • Khaled Toukan - Former Minister of Education (2000-2008) and current Minister of Energy (2011) in Jordan.
  • Samih Toukan - Founder of Yahoo!Maktoob and other online businesses.
  • Baha ud-Din Toukan - Former Jordanian Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom), Italy, Turkey and Egypt.
  • Farouk Khalil Toukan - Chairman of the Toukan Enterprise and active board member for various businesses.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Muslih, p.29.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Doumani, 1995, p.38.
  3. ↑ Doumani, 1995, pp.42-43.
  4. ↑ Doumani, 1995, p.44.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Doumani, 1995, p.186.
  6. ↑ Michael Phillips (March 11, 2008). "Nablus' olive oil soap: a Palestinian tradition lives on". Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). Retrieved 2008-03-27. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Rogan, pp.95-97.

Bibliography

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