""The Ottoman Empire conquered the Levant in 1516, yet the desolate area of Tyre remained untouched for another ninety years until the beginning of the 17th century, when the leadership at the Sublime Porte appointed the Druze leader Fakhreddine II as Emir to administer Jabal Amel (modern-day South Lebanon).He encouraged the systematically discriminated Shiites - known as the Metwalis - to settle near Tyre in order to secure the road to Damascus, and thus laid the foundation of Rashidieh's 19th century demographics.