Emir Bashir II of the Shihab dynasty, who later became the ruler of the Mount Lebanon Emirate, started building the palace in 1788 at the site of the Druze hermitage (hence the palace's name, translating as "House of Faith"), indicating that the town was initially populated by Druze before Bashir lived in it. Bashir moved the headquarters of the emirate from Deir al-Qamar to Beit ed-Dine by 1811. He ruled from the palace he built, known as the Beiteddine Palace, which he supplied with water by building a lengthy canal connecting the palace to the Safa River.
