Umar al-Zaydani

Umar al-Zaydani (died 1706) was the paramount sheikh of the Zayadina, an Arab tribal family influential in the Galilee throughout the 18th century, and the multazim (tax farmer) of the Safed area from c. 1700 until his death. The paramount emir of the Druze, Bashir Shihab I, granted Umar the tax farm due to his and the Zayadina's well-established influence in the Galilee and their shared factional affiliation with the Shihabs. Umar's eldest son Sa'd al-Umar succeeded him as head of the family, but his youngest son, Daher al-Umar eventually superseded him and brought the Zayadina to the peak of their power as the strongman of northern Palestine between the 1730s/1740s and 1775.