When the insult to a man turns into the spark of a confrontation and a mountain becomes an arena for challenging a regular army, one of the most prominent chapters in the history of the Druze in the nineteenth century begins.
The episode dates back to 1837, when Sheikh Yahya al-Hamdan, the Sheikh of the Druze in Hauran, refused the request to conscript young men from the mountain into Ibrahim Pasha’s army, emphasizing the region's need for its sons to protect its land and people. The dispute escalated after the Governor of Damascus, Sharif Pasha, slapped al-Hamdan, turning the incident into a spark that ignited the refusal of conscription and the surrender of weapons, followed by a meeting in As-Suwayda where the decision to confront was made.
As the confrontations intensified, the fighters took refuge in the rugged terrain of Al-Lajat, where they fought fierce battles against the Egyptian campaigns, the most prominent of which was the Battle of Dama in February 1838, in which the Egyptian forces suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat.
Thus, the episode recalls a moment in history when Al-Lajat was not just rugged land, but a decisive factor in the course of the battle. The story of al-Hamdan, Al-Lajat, and Dama remains a testament to a phase in which the refusal of conscription and the surrender of arms was linked to a military confrontation whose effects extended to the mountain and the region.
