Bashir Shihab II
In 1810, Sulayman and his allies in Mount Lebanon, Emir Bashir Shihab II and Sheikh Bashir Jumblatt, responded to an appeal by Kunj Yusuf Pasha, "wali" of Damascus, for military backing to counter an impending invasion of Damascus by Wahhabi tribesmen who had entered the Hauran plain south of the city. Sulayman assembled what was left of his troops, including Maghrebi, Kurdish, Turkish, Arab and Albanian soldiers, while Emir Bashir brought with him a multi-confessional force of Sunni and Shia Muslim, Druze and Christian warriors from Lebanon and the coalition mobilized at Tiberias. By the time they crossed the Jordan River and reached Quneitra, Kunj Yusuf sent them a request to withdraw on account of the Wahhabis' sudden retreat to the Hejaz.