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74-675: Marwan Hadid , who came from a wealthy Sunni family from Hama , Syria, studied in Egypt and became influenced by the hardline cleric Sayyid Qutb . His calls for jihad against the ruling Baath Party in Syria were rejected by the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria , dominated by moderates and afraid of the consequences of a violent confrontation with the regime, although some Brotherhood members such as Adnan Saadeddine and Saʽid Ḥawwa tacitly supported him. Hadid came to prominence for his role in

148-622: A Jew becoming tsar in Russia—an unprecedented development shocking to the Sunni majority population which had monopolized power for so many centuries." In 1971, al-Assad declared himself president of Syria, a position the constitution at the time permitted only for Sunni Muslims. In 1973, a new constitution was adopted, replacing Islam as the state religion with a mandate that the president's religion be Islam, and protests erupted. In 1974, to satisfy this constitutional requirement, Musa as-Sadr (a leader of

222-617: A campaign against Saleh al-Ali's forces in the Alawi Mountains. His forces entered al-Ali's village of Al-Shaykh Badr, arresting many Alawi leaders; however, al-Ali fled to the north. When a large French force overran his position, he went underground. Despite these instances of opposition, the Alawites mostly favored French rule and sought its continuation beyond the mandate period. When the French began to occupy Syria in 1920, an Alawite State

296-531: A concession by the French to the National Bloc (the party in power in the semi-autonomous Syrian government). The law went into effect in 1937. In 1939, the Sanjak of Alexandretta (now Hatay ) contained a large number of Alawites. The Hatayan land was given to Turkey by the French after a League of Nations plebiscite in the province. This development greatly angered most Syrians; to add to Alawi contempt, in 1938,

370-431: A highly secretive and esoteric sect, Nusayri religious priests tend to conceal their core doctrines, which are only introduced to a chosen minority of the sect's adherents. Alawites have also adopted the practice of taqiya to avoid victimization. Alawite doctrine incorporates elements of Phoenician mythology , Gnosticism , neo-Platonism , Christian Trinitarianism (for example, they celebrate Mass including

444-606: A major role in uniting the Alawite province with Syria. He was executed by the Syrian government in Damascus on 12 December 1946, only three days after a political trial. Syria became independent on 17 April 1946. In 1949, after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , Syria experienced a number of military coups and the rise of the Ba'ath Party. In 1958, Syria and Egypt were united by a political agreement into

518-460: A plot to absorb their ethno-religious identity into Iran's Twelver Shia umbrella and spread religious extremism in the country. Alawites and their beliefs have been described as "secretive" (Yaron Friedman, for example, in his scholarly work on the sect, has written that the Alawi religious material quoted in his book came only from "public libraries and printed books" since the "sacred writings" of

592-484: A role model for Islamic activism." This Syria biography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Alawite The Alawites , also known as Nusayrites , are an Arab ethnoreligious group that live primarily in the Levant and follow Alawism , a religious sect that splintered from early Shia Islam as a ghulat branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib ,

666-451: A separate Alawite nation, and tried to convert their autonomy into independence. The French Mandate Administration encouraged Alawites to join their military forces, in part to provide a counterweight to the Sunni majority (which was more hostile to their rule). According to a 1935 letter by the French minister of war, the French considered the Alawites and the Druze the only " warlike races " in

740-602: A significant Alawite presence developed in the mountains east of Latakia and Jableh during the Mamluk period (1260s–1516). According to Bar Hebraeus , many Alawites were killed when the Crusaders initially entered Syria in 1097; however, they tolerated them when they concluded they were not a truly Islamic sect. They even incorporated them within their ranks, along with the Maronites and Turcopoles . Two prominent Alawite leaders in

814-623: A significant minority in the Hatay Province of Turkey and northern Lebanon . There is also a population living in the village of Ghajar in the Golan Heights , where there had been two other Alawite villages ( Ayn Fit and Za'ura ), before the Six-Day War . The Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast, which are also inhabited by Sunnis , Christians , and Ismailis . They are often confused with

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888-544: A spokesperson for Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra . Marwan Hadid Marwan Khalid Hadid (1934–1976) (Arabic: مروان حديد) was an influential militant leader and preacher of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Syria . Hadid led a "hardline insurgent current" of the Brotherhood, and his "endeavors throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s led to the growth of a nationwide network of Islamist militants who wanted to push

962-458: A third of 250,000 young Alawite men of fighting age has been killed in the conflict by 2015, due to being disproportionately sent to fight in the frontlines by the Assad government. In April 2017, a pro-opposition source claimed 150,000 young Alawites had died. Another report estimates that around 100,000 Alawite youths were killed in combat by 2020. Many Alawites feared significant danger during

1036-523: Is a forgery. Even during this time of increased Alawite rights, the situation was still so bad for the group that many women had to leave their homes to work for urban Sunnis. In May 1930, the Alawite State was renamed the Government of Latakia in one of the few concessions by the French to Arab nationalists before 1936. Nevertheless, on 3 December 1936, the Alawite State was re-incorporated into Syria as

1110-527: Is interesting to note that in the above-mentioned petitions of 1892 and 1909 the Nuṣayrīs called themselves the 'Arab Alawī people' (ʿArab ʿAlevī ṭāʾifesi) 'our ʿAlawī Nuṣayrī people' (ṭāʾifatunā al-Nuṣayriyya al-ʿAlawiyya) or 'signed with Alawī people' (ʿAlevī ṭāʾifesi imżāsıyla). This early self-designation is, in my opinion, of triple importance. Firstly, it shows that the word 'Alawī' was always used by these people, as ʿAlawī authors emphasize; secondly, it hints at

1184-749: Is likely the Alawite presence in Latakia dates to Tabarani's lifetime, it is unclear if Alawite teachings spread to the city's mountainous hinterland, where the Muslim population generally leaned toward Shia Islam, in the eleventh century. In the early part of the century, the Jabal al-Rawadif (part of the Syrian Coastal Mountains around Latakia) were controlled by the local Arab chieftain Nasr ibn Mushraf al-Rudafi, who vacillated between alliance and conflict with Byzantium. There

1258-509: Is nothing in the literary sources indicating al-Rudafi patronized the Alawites. To the south of Jabal al-Rawadif, in the Jabal Bahra, a 13th-century Alawite treatise mentions the sect was sponsored by the Banu'l-Ahmar, Banu'l-Arid, and Banu Muhriz , three local families who controlled fortresses in the region in the 11th and 12th centuries. From this southern part of the Syrian coastal mountain range,

1332-460: Is now generally regarded as antiquated, and has even come to have insulting and abusive connotations. The term is frequently employed as hate speech by Sunni fundamentalists fighting against Bashar al-Assad 's government in the Syrian civil war , who use its emphasis on Ibn Nusayr in order to insinuate that Alawi beliefs are "man-made" and not divinely inspired. Nekati Alkan argued in an article that

1406-593: The 1964 Hama riot . He and his followers obtained training from Palestinian militants encamped in Lebanon and especially Jordan. After the Black September events in 1970, they returned to Syria determined to put into practice what they had learned against Baath leaders. Hadid and his followers gained influence with the Brotherhood after the Syrian Constitution of 1973 , which was deemed too secular by Islamists. He

1480-573: The Alawite revolt (1834–35) against the Egyptian rule of the region, which was later suppressed by the Governor of Homs . By the mid-19th century, the Alawite people, customs and way of life were described by Samuel Lyde , an English missionary among them, as suffering from nothing except a gloomy plight. The 19th century historian Elias Saleh described the Alawites as living in a "state of ignorance" and having

1554-696: The Alevis , a distinct religious sect in Turkey. Some Alawites identify as a separate ethnoreligious group while others see themselves as a part of the wider Muslim community . The Quran is only one of their holy books and texts, and their interpretation thereof has very little in common with the Shia Muslim interpretation but is in accordance with the early Batiniyya and other ghulat sects. Alawite theology and rituals sharply differ from Shia Islam in several important ways. For instance, various Nusayrite rituals involve

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1628-663: The Arameans , Canaanites , Hittites , and Mardaites . Many prominent Alawite tribes are also descended from 13th century settlers from Sinjar . In his Natural History , Book V, Pliny the Elder said: We must now speak of the interior of Syria. Coele Syria has the town of Apamea , divided by the river Marsyas from the Tetrarchy of the Nazerini . The "Tetrarchy of the Nazerini" refers to

1702-569: The Byzantine Empire ). Al-Tabarani succeeded his mentor al-Jilli of Aleppo as head missionary in Syria and became "the last definitive scholar of Alawism", founding its calendar and giving Alawite teachings their final form, according to the historian Stefan Winter . Al-Tabarani influenced the Alawite faith through his writings and by converting the rural population of the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range. Winter argues that while it

1776-526: The Coastal Mountains of Syria wherein they established a distinct community. Nusayri creed views Ali , companion of the Prophet Muhammad, as "the supreme eternal God" and consists of various gnostic beliefs. Nusayrite doctrine regards the souls of Alawites as re-incarnations of "lights that rebelled against God." Alawite beliefs have never been confirmed by their modern religious authorities. As

1850-482: The Syrian Civil War which began in 2011, the Ba'athist state imposed forced conscription of able-bodied men, mainly the youth. Due to the Assad government's fear of mass defections in military ranks, it prefers to send Alawite recruits for active combat on the frontlines and the conscriptions disproportionately targeted Alawite regions. This has resulted in a large number of 'Alawite casualties and Alawite villages in

1924-437: The Syrian opposition and preventing their community from being perceived as being associated with the Assad government. Some have claimed many Alawite loyalists fear a negative outcome for the government may result in an existential threat to their community. In May 2013, pro-opposition SOHR stated that out of 94,000 Syrian regime soldiers killed during the war, at least 41,000 were Alawites. Reports estimate that up to

1998-484: The United Arab Republic . The UAR lasted for three years, breaking apart in 1961 , when a group of army officers seized power and declared Syria independent. A succession of coups ensued until, in 1963 , a secretive military committee (including Alawite officers Hafez al-Assad and Salah Jadid ) helped the Ba'ath Party seize power. In 1966, Alawite-affiliated military officers successfully rebelled and expelled

2072-465: The " first Imam " in the Twelver school, as the physical manifestation of God. The group was founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century. Ibn Nusayr was a disciple of the tenth Twelver Imam, Ali al-Hadi and of the eleventh Twelver Imam, Hasan al-Askari . For this reason, Alawites are also called Nusayris . Surveys suggest Alawites represent an important portion of the Syrian population and are

2146-450: The "Alawi" appellation was used in an 11th century Nusayri book and was not a 20th century invention. The following quote from the same article illustrates his point: "As to the change from "Nuṣayrī" to "ʿAlawī": most studies agree that the term "ʿAlawī" was not used until after WWI and probably coined and circulated by Muḥammad Amīn Ghālib al-Ṭawīl, an Ottoman official and writer of the famous Taʾrīkh al-ʿAlawiyyīn (1924). In actual fact,

2220-770: The 1979 Aleppo Artillery School massacre , the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria faced a crackdown and formally declared war on the Baath regime. However, its involvement in violent attacks after this date was limited and its talks with the Baathist government likely continued. In 1980, the Syrian Islamic Front (SIF), "an umbrella group consisting of the Brotherhood, the Fighting Vanguard and the Brotherhood’s former Damascus wing"

2294-550: The Alawi "are kept secret" ); some tenets of the faith are kept secret from most Alawi and known only to a select few, they have therefore been described as a mystical sect. Alawite doctrines originated from the teachings of Iraqi priest Muhammad ibn Nusayr who claimed Prophethood and declared himself as the " Bāb (door) of the Imams " and attributed divinity to Hasan al-Askari . Al-Askari denounced Ibn Nusayr and Islamic authorities expelled his disciples, most of whom emigrated to

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2368-568: The Alawites continued to play a significant role in the Syrian military and later in the Ba'ath Party . Since Hafiz al Assad's seizure of power during the 1970 coup ; the Ba'athist state has enforced Assadist ideology amongst Alawites to supplant their traditional identity. During the Syrian revolution , communal tensions were further exacerbated, as the country was destabilized into a full-scale civil war. In older sources, Alawis are often called "Ansaris". According to Samuel Lyde , who lived among

2442-405: The Alawites during the mid-19th century, this was a term they used among themselves. Other sources indicate that "Ansari" is simply a Western error in the transliteration of "Nusayri". Alawites historically self-identified as Nusayrites, after their religious founder Ibn Nusayr al-Numayri. However, the term "Nusayri" had fallen out of currency by the 1920s, as a movement led by intellectuals within

2516-841: The Arabic triliteral root n-ṣ-r such as the subject naṣer in Eastern Aramaic which means " keeper of wellness ". Ibn Nusayr and his followers are considered the founders of the religion. After the death of the Eleventh Imam, al-Askari, problems emerged in the Shia Community concerning his succession, and then Ibn Nusayr claimed to be the Bab and Ism of the deceased Imam and that he received his secret teachings. Ibn Nusayr and his followers' development seems to be one of many other early ghulat mystical Islamic sects, and were apparently excommunicated by

2590-638: The Ba’ath Party old guard followers of Greek Orthodox Christian Michel Aflaq and Sunni Muslim Salah ad-Din al-Bitar , calling Zaki al-Arsuzi the " Socrates " of the reconstituted Ba'ath Party. In 1970, Air Force General Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, took power and instigated a "Corrective Movement" in the Ba'ath Party. The coup of 1970 ended the political instability which had existed since independence. Robert D. Kaplan compared Hafez al-Assad's coming to power to "an untouchable becoming maharajah in India or

2664-470: The Brotherhood into an open confrontation with the [Baath] regime ." He was captured and died in prison in 1976. Historian Eugene Rogan characterized Hadid as "one of Hama 's most charismatic imams (mosque prayer leaders) in the 1960s and said that he "was particularly successful in recruiting students to the Islamic underground movement." "For many of the young Islamists, Hadid was an inspiration and

2738-512: The Fighting Vanguard include: Large scale fighting between the Muslim Brotherhood, Fighting Vanguard and the regime in the early 1980s resulted in major losses for the former. In February 1982, an uprising broke out in Hama, led by militants joined by many civilians, which was brutally crushed by the regime with tens of thousands dead. The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria never recovered. The Fighting Vanguard collapsed after Uqlah's capture in late 1982. After

2812-497: The Fighting Vanguard's formal leader, Hisham Jumbaz, or its field commando in Aleppo. Besides those listed here, various "prominent security officers, Ba’athist politicians, university professors affiliated with the ruling party, high-ranking civil servants" were also assassinated by the Fighting Vanguard. According to one estimate, 300 Ba'ath supporters were assassinated in Aleppo alone by Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers. Attacks committed by

2886-533: The French forces at Al-Shaykh Badr, inflicting more than 35 casualties. After this victory, al-Ali began organizing his Alawite rebels into a disciplined force, with its general command and military ranks. The Al-Shaykh Badr skirmish began the Syrian Revolt of 1919 . Al-Ali responded to French attacks by laying siege to (and occupying) al-Qadmus , from which the French had conducted their military operations against him. In November, General Henri Gouraud mounted

2960-617: The Mandate territories. Between 1926 and 1939, the Alawites and other minority groups provided the majority of the locally recruited component of the Army of the Levant —the designation given to the French military forces garrisoning Syria and the Lebanon. The region was home to a mostly-rural, heterogeneous population. The landowning families and 80 percent of the population of the port city of Latakia were Sunni Muslims; however, in rural areas 62 percent of

3034-496: The Muslim Brotherhood. While the Muslim Brotherhood condemned some Fighting Vanguard attacks and had a policy of expelling its members if they joined the Fighting Vanguard, in practice in some cities—especially Hama—the local Muslim Brotherhood maintained close links with the Fighting Vanguard. As the Fighting Vanguard's assassination campaign continued in the late 1970s, a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood left thousands of its members and their families arrested and tortured and most of

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3108-608: The Ottoman Empire, the Alawites would again experience significant persecution; especially in Aleppo when a massacre occurred in the Great Mosque of Aleppo on 24 April 1517. The massacre was known as the "Massacre of the Telal" ( Arabic : مجزرة التلل ) in which the corpses of thousands of victims accumulated as a tell located west of the castle . The horrors of the massacre which caused

3182-648: The Ottomans employed a number of Alawite leaders as tax collectors under the iltizam system. Between 1809 and 1813, Mustafa Agha Barbar , the governor of Tripoli, attacked the Kalbiyya Alawites with "marked savagery." Some Alawites supported Ottoman involvement in the Egyptian-Ottoman Wars of 1831–1833 and 1839–1841 , and had careers in the Ottoman army or as Ottoman governors. Moreover, they even initiated

3256-515: The Shia representatives of the 12th Hidden Imam. The Alawites were later organised during Hamdanid rule in northern Syria (947–1008) by a follower of Muhammad ibn Nusayr known as al-Khaṣībī , who died in Aleppo about 969, after a rivalry with the Ishaqiyya sect, which claimed also to have the doctrine of Ibn Nusayr. The embrace of Alawism by the majority of the population in the Syrian coastal mountains

3330-499: The Syrian Civil War; particularly from Islamic groups who were a part of the opposition , though denied by secular opposition factions. Alawites have also been wary of the increased Iranian influence in Syria since the Syrian civil war , viewing it as a threat to their long-term survival due to Khomeinist conversion campaigns focused in Alawite coastal regions. Many Alawites, including Assad loyalists, criticize such activities as

3404-481: The Syrian military. According to Patrick Seale, the organization had access to information via a highly placed mole in the Air Force Intelligence Directorate . They did not take responsibility or publicize the attacks, which were initially blamed on Syria's rival, Iraq. The organization operated in cells to reduce the risk of discovery but this strategy also led to tensions between different wings of

3478-813: The Turkish military went into İskenderun and expelled most of the Arab and Armenian population. Before this, the Alawite Arabs and Armenians comprised most of the province's population. Zaki al-Arsuzi , a young Alawite leader from Iskandarun province in the Sanjak of Alexandretta who led the resistance to the province's annexation by the Turks, later became a co-founder of the Ba'ath Party with Eastern Orthodox Christian schoolteacher Michel Aflaq and Sunni politician Salah ad-Din al-Bitar . After World War II, Sulayman al-Murshid played

3552-579: The Twelvers of Lebanon and founder of the Amal Movement , who had unsuccessfully sought to unite Lebanese Alawites and Shiites under the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council) issued a fatwa that Alawites were a community of Twelver Shiite Muslims. Throughout the 1970 ‘s the Muslim Brotherhood led anti-Ba'athist Islamic revolts , culminating in the 1982 Hama massacre . After the outbreak of

3626-441: The coastal areas have suffered immensely as a result of their support for the Assad government. Many Alawites, particularly the younger generation who believes that the Ba'athists have held their community hostage, have reacted with immense anger at Assad government's corruption and hold the government responsible for the crisis. There have been rising demands across Alawite regions to end the conflict by achieving reconciliation with

3700-440: The community during the French Mandate sought to replace it with the modern term "Alawi". They characterised the older name (which implied "a separate ethnic and religious identity") as an "invention of the sect's enemies", ostensibly favouring an emphasis on "connection with mainstream Islam"—particularly the Shia branch. The French also popularised the new term by officially categorising them as "Alawites". As such, "Nusayri"

3774-408: The community had commonly self-identified as "Nusayris", emphasizing their connections to Ibn Nusayr . French administration prescribed the label "Alawite" to categorise the sect alongside Shiism in official documents. French recruited a large number of minorities into their armed forces and created exclusive areas for minorities, including the Alawite State . Alawite State was later dismantled, but

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3848-443: The consecration of bread and wine); blending them with Muslim symbolism and has, therefore, been described as syncretic . Alawite Trinity envisions God as being composed of three distinct manifestations, Ma'na (meaning), Ism (Name) and Bab (Door); which together constitute an "indivisible Trinity". Ma'na symbolises the "source and meaning of all things" in Alawite mythology. According to Alawite doctrines, Ma'na generated

3922-641: The drinking of wine and the sect does not prohibit the consumption of alcohol on its adherents. As a creed that teaches the symbolic/esoteric reading of Qur'anic verses , Nusayrite theology is based on the belief in reincarnation and views Ali as a divine incarnation of God. Moreover, Alawite clergy and scholarship insist that their religion is also theologically distinct from Shi'ism . Alawites have historically kept their beliefs secret from outsiders and non-initiated Alawites, so rumours about them have arisen. Arabic accounts of their beliefs tend to be partisan (either positively or negatively). However, since

3996-439: The early 2000s, Western scholarship on the Nusayrite religion has made significant advances. At the core of the Alawite creed is the belief in a divine Trinity, comprising three aspects of the one God. The aspects of the Trinity are Mana (meaning), Ism (Name) and Bab (Door). Nusayrite beliefs hold that these emanations underwent re-incarnation cyclically seven times in human form throughout history. According to Alawites,

4070-413: The end of its campaign in Syria, some former members of the Fighting Vanguard joined the Afghan Arabs and played a role in the formation of Al-Qaeda . Abu Mus’ab al-Suri was a member of the group and later became a leading Al-Qaeda ideologue. Others were involved in the Syrian civil war , including Abu Khalid al-Suri and Abul-Abbas a-Shami, founding members of Ahrar al-Sham , and Abu Firas al-Suri ,

4144-447: The fall of the Ottoman Empire, Syria and Lebanon were placed by the League of Nations under the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon . On 15 December 1918, Alawite leader Saleh al-Ali called for a meeting of Alawite leaders in the town of Al-Shaykh Badr , urging them to revolt and expel the French from Syria. When French authorities heard about the meeting, they sent a force to arrest Saleh al-Ali. He and his men ambushed and defeated

4218-424: The following centuries, credited with uplifting the group, were Shaykhs al-Makzun (d. 1240) and al-Tubani (d. 1300), both originally from Mount Sinjar in modern Iraq. In the 14th century, the Alawites were forced by Mamluk Sultan Baibars to build mosques in their settlements, to which they responded with token gestures described by the Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta . During the reign of Sultan Selim I , of

4292-553: The immigration of the survivors to the coastal region are documented at the National and University Library in Strasbourg . The Ottoman Empire took aggressive actions against Alawites, due to their alleged "treacherous activities" as "they had a long history of betraying the Muslim governments due to their mistrust towards Sunnis." The Alawis rose up against the Ottomans on several occasions, and maintained their autonomy in their mountains. In his book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom , T. E. Lawrence wrote: The sect, vital in itself,

4366-406: The leadership in exile. With the moderate leadership out of the picture, the Fighting Vanguard grew in strength and numbers. In the late 1970s, the Muslim Brotherhood was negotiating with the Baath government to release its members from jail and obtain a place in the government for a cessation of attacks, even though its control over the Fighting Vanguard's activities was limited. In the aftermath of

4440-402: The membership growth. Although the Fighting Vanguard targeted prominent representatives of the Ba'ath Party of Alawite , Sunni, and Christian faith, its first leader Marwan Hadid particularly hated Alawites—whom he blamed for the regime—and most targets of the organization were Alawite. Adnan Uqlah ordered a sectarian massacre of mostly Alawite military cadets in 1979 without the permission of

4514-422: The name 'Alawī' appears as early as in an 11th century Nuṣayrī tract as one the names of the believer (…). Moreover, the term 'Alawī' was already used at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 the Belgian-born Jesuit and Orientalist Henri Lammens (d. 1937) visited a certain Ḥaydarī-Nuṣayrī sheikh Abdullah in a village near Antakya and mentions that the latter preferred the name 'Alawī' for his people. Lastly, it

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4588-424: The negative traits of "laziness, lying, deceitfulness, inclination to robbery and bloodshed, and backstabbing." By the 1870s, Alawite bandits were impaled on spikes and left on crossroads as a warning, according to the historian Joshua Landis . Early in the 20th century, the mainly-Sunni Ottoman leaders were bankrupt and losing political power; the Alawites were poor peasants . After the end of World War I and

4662-408: The next year. He was rumored to have been tortured and poisoned, and his death caused outrage not only from his followers but some in the Brotherhood. The Fighting Vanguard was most successful from 1976 to 1980. The Syrian government condemned the Muslim Brotherhood for all Fighting Vanguard attacks, and the organization's violent campaign provided the pretext it had been seeking for the destruction of

4736-436: The organization. By 1979 there were strategic disputes between fighters from Hama and Aleppo, who wanted to increase attacks on the regime, and those from Damascus who wanted to avoid doing more harm than good. Uqlah, who effectively led the Vanguard from the Aleppo massacre until his arrest in late 1982, brought on many more; including younger recruits. The financial resources, weapons, and training capacity did not keep pace with

4810-484: The population were Alawite. According to some researchers, there was considerable Alawite separatist sentiment in the region, their evidence is a 1936 letter signed by 80 Alawi leaders addressed to the French Prime Minister which said that the "Alawite people rejected attachment to Syria and wished to stay under French protection." Among the signatories was Sulayman Ali al-Assad , father of Hafez al-Assad. However, according to Associate Professor Stefan Winter , this letter

4884-411: The reformation of the Nuṣayrīs, launched by some of their sheikhs in the 19th century and their attempt to be accepted as part of Islam; and thirdly, it challenges the claims that the change of the identity and name from 'Nuṣayrī' to 'ʿAlawī' took place around 1920, in the beginning of the French mandate in Syria (1919–1938)." The Alawites are distinct from the Alevi religious sect in Turkey, although

4958-410: The seventh incarnation of the trinity consists of Ali, Muhammad and Salman al-Farisi . Alawites, considered disbelievers by classical Sunni and Shi'ite theologians, faced periods of subjugation or persecution under various Muslim empires such as the Ottomans, Abbasids, Mamluks, and others. The establishment of the French Mandate of Syria in 1920 marked a turning point in Alawite history. Until then,

5032-404: The terms share a common etymology and pronunciation. The origin of the genetics of Alawites is disputed. Local folklore suggests that they are descendants of the followers of the eleventh Imam, Hasan al-Askari (d. 873) and his pupil, Ibn Nusayr (d. 868). During the 19th and 20th centuries, some Western scholars believed that Alawites were descended from ancient Middle Eastern peoples such as

5106-429: The western region, between the Orontes and the sea, which consists of a small mountain range called Alawi Mountains bordered by a valley running from south-east to north-west known as Al-Ghab Plain ; the region was populated by a portion of Syrians, who were called Nazerini. However, scholars are reluctant to link between Nazerini and Nazarenes . Yet, the term "Nazerini" can be possibly connected to words which include

5180-421: Was able to recruit more followers and organize them into cells to carry out assassinations of representatives of the regime. The ultimate goal was to entice the government into a crackdown severe enough to draw the Brotherhood's leadership into supporting armed struggle. Hadid went into hiding in Damascus but the Baath security apparatus prioritized hunting him down and he was arrested in June 1975 and died in prison

5254-402: Was clannish in feeling and politics. One Nosairi would not betray another, and would hardly not betray an unbeliever. Their villages lay in patches down the main hills to the Tripoli gap. They spoke Arabic, but had lived there since the beginning of Greek letters in Syria. Usually they stood aside from affairs, and left the Turkish Government alone in hope of reciprocity. During the 18th century,

5328-537: Was created in the coastal and mountain country comprising most Alawite villages. The division also intended to protect the Alawite people from more powerful majorities, such as the Sunnis. The French also created microstates , such as Greater Lebanon for the Maronite Christians and Jabal al-Druze for the Druze . Aleppo and Damascus were also separate states. Under the Mandate, many Alawite chieftains supported

5402-543: Was formed by exiled leaders as an attempt to contain the Fighting Vanguard, but it fell apart in 1981 when Adnan Uqlah , the leader of the Vanguard, found out that the Brotherhood was negotiating to bring secular Baath opponents on board. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood, the Fighting Vanguard rejected democracy and political pluralism. The members of the Vanguard were screened and well trained. Besides specific training, most had prior military experience as conscripts or volunteers in

5476-564: Was likely a protracted process occurring over several centuries. Modern research indicates that after its initial establishment in Aleppo, Alawism spread to Sarmin , Salamiyah , Homs and Hama before becoming concentrated in low-lying villages west of Hama, including Baarin , Deir Shamil , and Deir Mama , the Wadi al-Uyun valley, and in the mountains around Tartus and Safita . In 1032, al-Khaṣībī's grandson and pupil, Abu Sa'id Maymun al-Tabarani (d. 1034), moved to Latakia (then controlled by

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