In 1892 he was designated mudīr ('director') of the Far West Directorate (Nāḥyat al-Ġarb al-Aqṣā), in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate. He resigned in 1893 after a conflict with the mutaṣarrif Na'ūm Pāšā (Naum Pasha). Arslan joined the Freemasonry on 24 August 1889.[5]