Mutasarrif in the context of Hüdavendigâr Eyalet

The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861–1918, Arabic: مُتَصَرِّفِيَّة جَبَل لُبْنَان, romanized: Mutaṣarrifiyyat Jabal Lubnān; Ottoman Turkish: جَبَلِ لُبْنَان مُتَصَرِّفلِيغى, romanized: Cebel-i Lübnan Mutasarrıflığı) was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the 19th-century Tanzimat reform. After 1861, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian Mutasarrif (governor), which had been created as a homeland for the Maronites under European diplomatic pressure following the 1860 Druze–Maronite conflict. The Maronite Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon.

This system came during the era of Tanzimat reforms initiated by Sultan Abdulmejid I in an attempt to extricate the Ottoman State from its internal problems, and it was approved after the major sectarian strife of 1860 and the numerous massacres that occurred in Mount Lebanon, Damascus, the Beqaa Valley and Jabal Amil among Muslims and Christians in general, and the Druze and Maronites in particular; European powers utilized sectarian tensions to pressure the Sultan in a way that achieved their economic and ideological interests in the Arab East. The Mutasarrifate era is characterized by the spread of national consciousness, science and culture among the Lebanese, for many reasons, including: the spread of schools in numerous villages, towns and cities, and the opening of two large universities that are still among the oldest and most prestigious universities in the Middle East: the Syrian Evangelical College, which became the American University of Beirut, and Saint Joseph University.

The Sanjak of Najd (Arabic: لواء نجد) was a sanjak (second-level province) of the Ottoman Empire. The name is considered misleading, as it covered the al-Hasa region, rather than the much larger Najd region. It was part of the Baghdad vilayet from June 1871 to 1875, when it became part of the Basra Vilayet.

The mutasarrif was located in Hofuf, which was garrisoned by up to 600 men, the largest Ottoman force in the area.

The Conquest of al-Hasa was achieved by the forces of Ibn Saud with support from the Ikhwan in April 1913. The oasis of al-Hasa was conquered from an Ottoman garrison, which had controlled the area since 1871.

The Turks were worried by the strong forces that Ibn Saud had gathered in the area of pastures and wells between Riyadh and Kuwait. Jamal Pasha, the governor of Baghdad, threatened to send two battalions to Najd, saying that they would march from one end to the other. The emir of Riyadh answered daringly that he would soon make Jamal Pasha’s task easier by decreasing the distance the battalions had to cover before meeting him. Nadim Bey, the Turkish Mutasarrif of al-Hasa, sent his representative to Ibn Saud to discover his intentions. Ibn Saud claimed that he was going only to attack a tribe in Kuwait. Simultaneously he sent people to Hufuf to purchase a large amount of rice and dates. Through his agents in al-Hasa, the ruler of Najd learned of the location of the Turkish garrisons and established contacts with the local population. The Russian consulate in Basra reported back: