View source for Alawites

{{short description|A sect centred in Syria}}
{{About||the mainly Turkish Shia religious group|Alevism|the descendants of Ali ibn Abi Talib|Alids|the royal house of Morocco, who practice [[Sunni Islam]]|Alawi dynasty|other uses|Alawi (disambiguation)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox Religious group|
| group = Alawites
| image= {{multiple image
| caption_align     = center
| border            = infobox
| direction         = vertical
| image1            = Zulfiqar with inscription.svg
| alt1              =
| thumbtime1        =
| caption1          = [[Zulfiqar]], the stylised representation of the sword of Ali, is a crucial symbol for both Alawites and Shias
| image2            = Khidr-Heiligum Samandag.jpg
| alt2              =
| thumbtime2        =
| caption2          = The [[Shrine of Khidr]], located near the [[Syria-Turkey border]], is a typical Alawite shrine with its white color and dome.
}}
| caption =
| founder = [[Ibn Nusayr|Ibn Nuṣayr]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mohammad-nosayr|title=MOḤAMMAD B. NOṢAYR | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica |publisher=electricpulp.com}}</ref> and [[Al-Khaṣībī]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kasibi|title=ḴAṢIBI | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica |publisher=electricpulp.com}}</ref>
| region1={{flagcountry|Syria}}
| population = Approx. 4 million<ref>{{cite web |title=The Politics of Sectarian Insecurity: Alawite 'Asabiyya and the Rise and Decline of the Asad Dynasty of Syria - University of Otago |url=https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/esploro/outputs/doctoral/The-Politics-of-Sectarian-Insecurity-Alawite/9926479007601891 |website=www.otago.ac.nz}} page 6</ref>
| pop1 = Between 2 and 3 million<ref>{{cite web |title=The 'secretive sect' in charge of Syria |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18084964 |website=BBC News |access-date=13 April 2021 |date=17 May 2012}}</ref>
| region2={{flagcountry|Turkey}}
| pop2 = 500,000 to 1 million<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/10/201210217225938535.html|title=Syria strife tests Turkish Alawites|first=Matthew|last=Cassel}}</ref><ref name="telegraph">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/02/who-are-the-alawites/|title=Who are the Alawites?|website=The Telegraph|date=3 April 2016|last1=Spencer|first1=Richard}}</ref>
| region3={{flagcountry|Argentina}}
| pop3 = 180,000<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11562-017-0405-7 | doi=10.1007/s11562-017-0405-7 | title='Alawis in Argentina: Religious and political identity in the diaspora | year=2018 | last1=Montenegro | first1=Silvia | journal=Contemporary Islam | volume=12 | pages=23–38 | s2cid=255312769 | hdl=11336/76408 | hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>''[[Islam in Argentina#Early Muslim immigration|"Early_Muslim_immigration in Argentina"]]'', in: ''‘Early_Muslim_immigration '', Published: 18 December 2022</ref>
| region4={{flagcountry|Lebanon}}
| pop4 = 150,000<ref name="repost1">[http://www.repost.us/article-preview/#!hash=0467cbf01990a23ab00bfe1a45696310] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806071752/http://www.repost.us/article-preview |date=6 August 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2005/Apr-30/4206-lebanese-allawites-welcome-syrias-withdrawal-as-necessary.ashx#axzz2xTGie9Fr |title= Lebanese Allawites welcome Syria's withdrawal as 'necessary' |journal=The Daily Star |date=30 April 2005 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon%E2%80%99s-alawi-minority-struggles-%E2%80%98nation%E2%80%99-sects|title=Lebanon's Alawi: A Minority Struggles in a 'Nation' of Sects |publisher=Al Akhbar English |date=8 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024011/http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon%E2%80%99s-alawi-minority-struggles-%E2%80%98nation%E2%80%99-sects |access-date=6 July 2012 |archive-date=4 March 2016 }}</ref>
| region5={{flagcountry|Germany}}
| pop5 = 70,000<ref>''[http://remid.de/info_zahlen/islam "Mitgliederzahlen: Islam"]'', in: ''Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst|Religionswissenschaftliche Medien- und Informationsdienst e. V. (Abbreviation: REMID)'', Retrieved 13 February 2017</ref><ref>''[http://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/76744/umfrage/anzahl-der-muslime-in-deutschland-nach-glaubensrichtung "Anzahl der Muslime in Deutschland nach Glaubensrichtung im Jahr 2015* (in 1.000)"]'', in: ''[[Statista]] GmbH'', Retrieved 13 February 2017</ref>
| region6=Lebanon/[[Golan Heights]]
| pop6 = 2,824 live in [[Ghajar]], most with dual [[Syrian nationality law|Syrian]] and [[Israeli citizenship]]<ref>[https://unifil.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/20170113presskit.pdf UNIFIL Press Kit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814061451/https://unifil.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/20170113presskit.pdf |date=14 August 2021 }} p.6</ref>
| region7={{flagcountry|Australia}}
| pop7 = 25,000{{efn|Approximately 2% of [[Lebanese Australian|Lebanese-born people in Australia]]}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J5Edz2OlQNMC|title=Arab-Australians today: citizenship and belonging|author=Ghassan Hage|edition=Paperback|publisher=Melbourne University Publishing|year=2002|isbn=0-522-84979-2|page=40}}</ref>
| langs = [[Levantine Arabic]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]] and other languages in diaspora.
}}
The '''Alawites''',{{efn|{{langx|ar|علوية|translit=ʿAlawiyya}}}} also known as '''Nusayrites''',{{Efn|{{langx|ar|نصيرية|translit=Nuṣayriyya}}}} are an [[Arabs|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.<ref name="urlHandbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set - Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Linda Gale Jones - Google Książki">{{cite book |author1=Madeleine Pelner Cosman |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Jf5t1vFw1QC&pg=PA407 |title=Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set |author2=Linda Gale Jones |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4381-0907-7 |pages=406, 407 |chapter=The Nusayriyya Alawis |quote=The Alawis are a sect of extremist (''ghuluw'') Shiism, so called because of their doctrine of the deification of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the nephew of the prophet Muhammad. The movement was founded in the mid-ninth century by Muhammad ibn Nusayr al-Namiri, who also proclaimed that the 10th of the 12 Shiite imams, Ali ibn Hadi, possessed a divine nature. Alawi doctrine is secret, esoteric, and Gnostic in nature.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Alawites and the Fate of Syria |url=https://origins.osu.edu/article/alawites-and-fate-syria?language_content_entity=en |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=Origins | date=12 November 2013 |publisher=The Ohio State University |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Feldman">{{Cite book |last=Feldman |first=Noah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ODu-DwAAQBAJ&dq=alawites+are+arabs&pg=PA79 |title=The Arab Winter: A Tragedy |date=2020-05-12 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-20144-3 |language=en}}</ref> Alawites venerate [[Ali|Ali ibn Abi Talib]], the "[[Imamate in Shia doctrine|first Imam]]" in the [[Twelver Shi'ism|Twelver]] school, as the physical manifestation of God.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nisan |first=Mordechai |title=Minorities in the Middle East |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7864-1375-1 |edition=2nd |pages=116 |chapter=6: Alawites: To Power and the Unknown |quote='Alawite religious faith, that is the belief-system of the Nusairi sect, is rooted in a doctrine whose ideas reflect multiple theological and philo-sophical influences. ... Greek or gnostic conceptions of the divinity intersperse with human incarnation as a key element in its theology.}}</ref><ref>Sources:
* {{cite book |author1=Madeleine Pelner Cosman |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Jf5t1vFw1QC&pg=PA407 |title=Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set |author2=Linda Gale Jones |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4381-0907-7 |pages=407 |chapter=The Nusayriyya Alawis |quote=Alawi doctrine is secret, esoteric, and Gnostic in nature. They believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib is the supreme eternal God...}}
* {{Cite book |title=Parts and Wholes |publisher=LIT Verlag |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-643-90789-9 |editor-last=Prager |editor2-last=Prager |editor3-last=Spenger |editor-first=Laila |editor2-first=Michael |editor3-first=Guido |pages=146 |quote=A major difference between the Shia and the Alawi, however, is that the latter worship Ali as a manifestation of the divine essence and believe in the reincarnation and transmigration of souls.}}</ref> The group was founded by [[Ibn Nusayr]] during the 9th century.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Madeleine Pelner Cosman |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Jf5t1vFw1QC&pg=PA407 |title=Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set |author2=Linda Gale Jones |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4381-0907-7 |pages=406, 407 |chapter=The Nusayriyya Alawis}}</ref> 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'''''.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Gisela Procházka-Eisl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ixl3NcvAixAC&pg=PA20 |title=The Plain of Saints and Prophets: The Nusayri-Alawi Community of Cilicia (Southern Turkey) and Its Sacred Places |author2=Stephan Procházka |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-447-06178-0 |page=20 |quote=...for nearly a millennium the term by far most often used in both Oriental and Western sources for this group has been 'Nusayri'.}}</ref>
Surveys suggest Alawites represent an important portion of the [[Syrians|Syrian population]] and are 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|Ayn Fit]] and [[Za'ura, Syria|Za'ura]]), before the [[Six-Day War]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mara'i |first=Tayseer |last2=Halabi |first2=Usama R. |date=1992 |title=Life under Occupation in the Golan Heights |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2537689 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=78–93 |doi=10.2307/2537689 |issn=0377-919X}}</ref> The Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast, which are also inhabited by [[Sunni]]s, [[Christianity in Syria|Christians]], and [[Ismailis]]. They are often confused with the [[Alevism|Alevis]], a distinct religious sect in Turkey.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Zhigulskaya |first1=Darya |title=Alevis vs. Alawites in Turkey: From the General to the Specific|journal=International Journal of Humanities and Education |volume=5 |issue=10 |pages=195–206}}</ref>
Some Alawites identify as a separate ethnoreligious group while others see themselves as a part of the wider [[Ummah|Muslim community]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-02-08 |title=What does it mean to be Alawite, and why does it matter in Syria? |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/world-now/story/2012-02-07/what-does-it-mean-to-be-alawite-and-why-does-it-matter-in-syria |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> 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 the drinking of [[wine]] and the sect does not prohibit [[Alcoholic beverage|the consumption of alcohol]] on its adherents.<ref name="urlJourney to the End of Islam - Michael Knight - Google Książki">{{cite book|author=Michael Knight|title=Journey to the End of Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9XM4AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA128|date=10 December 2009|publisher=Soft Skull Press|isbn=978-1-59376-552-1|page=128}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> As a creed that teaches the symbolic/esoteric reading of [[Āyah|Qur'anic verses]], Nusayrite theology is based on the belief in [[reincarnation]] and views Ali as a divine incarnation of God.<ref name="Atwan2015">{{cite book|author=Abdel Bari Atwan|title=Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgTjBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT58|year=2015|publisher=Saqi|isbn=978-0-86356-101-6|page=58}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Tom |first1=Heneghan |date=24 December 2011 |title=Who are the Alawites? |website=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307225030/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref> Moreover, Alawite [[clergy]] and scholarship insist that their religion is also theologically distinct from [[Shi’ism|Shi'ism]].{{Efn|
* {{Cite book |last=van Dam |first=Nikolaos |title=Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78453-797-5 |location=New York, USA |chapter=Introduction: Greater Syria or Bilad al-Sham}}}}
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).<ref name=YFNAIRHI2010:68>[[#YFNAIRHI2010|Friedman, ''Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs'', 2010]]: p.68</ref> However, since the early 2000s, [[Western world|Western]] scholarship on the Nusayrite religion has made significant advances.<ref name=YFNAIRHI2010:67>[[#YFNAIRHI2010|Friedman, ''Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs'', 2010]]: p.67</ref> 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 [[Emanationism|emanations]] underwent [[Reincarnation|re-incarnation]] cyclically seven times in human form throughout history. According to Alawites, the seventh incarnation of the trinity consists of Ali, Muhammad and [[Salman al-Farisi]].<ref name="auto2">{{Cite book |last=Ismail |first=Raihan |title=Saudi Clerics and Shī'a Islam |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-023331-0 |location= New York, NY |pages=67}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite book |last=Moosa |first=Matti |title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-8156-2411-5 |edition=1st |location=Syracuse, New York |pages=311–312}}</ref>
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 for Syria and the Lebanon|French Mandate of Syria]] in 1920 marked a turning point in Alawite history. Until then, 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.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite web |last=Carlos BC |first=Juan |date=9 December 2021 |title=The Assad Family Has Been Shaping Syria for 50 Years |url=https://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/juan-carlos-bc-syria-news-bashar-al-assad-syrian-president-arab-world-news-83492/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209173612/https://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/juan-carlos-bc-syria-news-bashar-al-assad-syrian-president-arab-world-news-83492/ |archive-date=9 December 2021 |website=Fair Observer}}</ref> [[French Republic (1870-1940)|French]] recruited a large number of minorities into their armed forces and created exclusive areas for minorities, including the [[Alawite State]]. The Alawite State was later dismantled, but the Alawites continued to play a significant role in the [[Syrian Armed Forces|Syrian military]] and later in the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|Ba'ath Party]]. Since Hafiz al Assad's seizure of power during the [[Corrective Movement (Syria)|1970 coup]], the [[Ba'athist regime|Ba'athist state]] has enforced [[Assadism|Assadist ideology]] amongst Alawites to supplant their traditional identity.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rosen |first=Nir |date=10 October 2011 |title=Assad's Alawites: The guardians of the throne |work=Al Jazeera |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2011/10/10/assads-alawites-the-guardians-of-the-throne |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622012706/https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2011/10/10/assads-alawites-the-guardians-of-the-throne/ |archive-date=22 June 2023|quote=The state – even “Assadism” – supplanted the Alawite religion as the focus of their identity...To be accepted as leader, Assad had to persuade Sunnis and Alawites alike that Alawites were, in fact, mainstream Muslims... Alawites struck a bargain; they lost their independence and had to accept the myth that they were “good Muslims”.. Assadism then filled the gap left by the negation of traditional Alawite identity. The loss of the traditional role of community leaders fragmented Alawites, preventing them from establishing unified positions and from engaging as a community with other Syrian sects – reinforcing sectarian fears and distrust.}}</ref> During the [[2011 Syrian revolution|Syrian revolution]], communal tensions were further exacerbated, as the country was destabilized into a [[Syrian civil war|full-scale civil war.]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223|title=Who are the Alawites?|website=Reuters|date=24 December 2011|last1=Tom|first1=Heneghan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307225030/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Rosen |first=Nir |date=10 October 2011 |title=Assad's Alawites: The guardians of the throne |work=Al Jazeera |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2011/10/10/assads-alawites-the-guardians-of-the-throne |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622012706/https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2011/10/10/assads-alawites-the-guardians-of-the-throne/ |archive-date=22 June 2023}}</ref>
== Etymology ==
In older sources, Alawis are often called "Ansaris". According to [[Samuel Lyde]], who lived among 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".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnDP09R4s_0C&pg=PA97|title=Initiates and The People Part 2, May 1929 to June 1930|first=R. Swinburne|last=Clymer|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|date=1 April 2003|isbn=978-0-7661-5376-9}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="telegraph-secret">{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8684113/Secretive-sect-of-the-rulers-of-Syria.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Christopher | last=Howse | title=Secretive sect of the rulers of Syria | date=5 August 2011}}</ref> Alawites historically self-identified as Nusayrites, after their religious founder Ibn Nusayr al-Numayri.<ref name="auto3"/> However, the term "Nusayri" had fallen out of currency by the 1920s, as a movement led by intellectuals within the community during the French [[Mandate system|Mandate]] sought to replace it with the modern term "Alawi".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Matti Moosa|title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects|date=1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=9780815624110|page=262}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://spectator.org/archives/2013/01/24/anti-islamism-in-an-islamic-ci |title=Anti-Islamism in an Islamic Civil War |last=al-Tamimi |first=Aymenn Jawad |date=24 January 2013 |magazine=The American Spectator |access-date=4 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925174813/http://spectator.org/archives/2013/01/24/anti-islamism-in-an-islamic-ci |archive-date=25 September 2013 }}</ref> The French also popularised the new term by officially categorising them as "Alawites".<ref name="auto3"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Baltacioglu-Brammer |first=Ayse |date=13 November 2013 |title=Alawites and the Fate of Syria |url=https://origins.osu.edu/article/alawites-and-fate-syria |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125172900/https://origins.osu.edu/article/alawites-and-fate-syria |archive-date=25 January 2014}}</ref> As such, "Nusayri" 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/zahran-alloush/|title=Zahran Alloush: His Ideology and Beliefs|last=Landis|first=Joshua|date=15 December 2013|publisher=Syria Comment|access-date=24 December 2013|archive-date=25 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325123621/http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/zahran-alloush/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Nekati Alkan argued in an article that 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: <blockquote>"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 Empire|Ottoman]] official and writer of the famous ''Taʾrīkh al-ʿAlawiyyīn'' (1924). In actual fact, 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 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 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)."<ref>See, Alkan, N. (2012) and the references cited therein. Alkan, N. Fighting for the Nuṣayrī Soul: State, Protestant Missionaries and the ʿAlawīs in the Late Ottoman Empire, Die Welt des Islams, 52 (2012) pp. 23–50.</ref></blockquote>
The Alawites are distinct from the ''[[Alevi]]'' religious sect in Turkey, although the terms share a common etymology and pronunciation.<ref name="The Weekly Standard">{{cite web|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/erdogan-iran-syrian-alawites-and-turkish-alevis_634834.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330231354/http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/erdogan-iran-syrian-alawites-and-turkish-alevis_634834.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 March 2012 |title=Erdogan, Iran, Syrian Alawites, and Turkish Alevis |work=The Weekly Standard |date=29 March 2012 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref><ref name="Otto Harrassowitz Verlag">{{cite book|author1=Gisela Procházka-Eisl|author2=Stephan Procházka|title=The Plain of Saints and Prophets: The Nusayri-Alawi Community of Cilicia (Southern Turkey) and Its Sacred Places|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ixl3NcvAixAC&pg=PA20|year=2010|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-06178-0|page=20}}</ref>
== Genealogical origin theories ==
[[File:Alawite falconer.jpg|thumb|alt=Man holding a falcon, in the centre of a group of people|Alawite [[falconry|falconer]] photographed by [[Frank Hurley]] in [[Baniyas]], [[Syria]] during [[World War II]].]]
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).<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Nosairis|volume=19|page=821 }}</ref> During the 19th and 20th centuries, some Western scholars believed that Alawites were descended from ancient [[Middle East]]ern peoples such as the [[Arameans]], [[Canaan#Canaanites|Canaanites]], [[Hittites]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Samuel Lyde|title=The Asian Mystery Illustrated in the History, Religion, and Present State of the Ansaireeh Or Nusairis of Syria|url=https://archive.org/details/asianmysteryill00lydegoog|year=1860|publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts|page=[https://archive.org/details/asianmysteryill00lydegoog/page/n65 49]}}</ref><ref>''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute'' (London, 1911), p.241.</ref> and [[Mardaites]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mordechai Nisan|title=Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and Self-Expression, 2d ed.|date=1 January 2002|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5133-3|pages=114–15}}</ref> Many prominent Alawite tribes are also descended from 13th century settlers from [[Sinjar]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Matti Moosa|title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects|date=1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2411-0|pages=256, 270}}</ref>
In his [[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]], Book V, [[Pliny the Elder]] said:
{{blockquote|We must now speak of the interior of Syria. [[Coele Syria]] has the town of [[Apamea, Syria|Apamea]], divided by the river [[Orontes River#Names|Marsyas]] from the Tetrarchy of the [[wikt:Nazerini|Nazerini]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Pliny the Elder|title=Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrJ0CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA273|year=2015|publisher=Delphi Classics|page=273}}</ref>}}
The "Tetrarchy of the Nazerini" refers to the western region, between the Orontes and the sea, which consists of a small mountain range called [[Syrian Coastal Mountain Range|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.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Edme Mentelle]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L44X29n2n6AC&pg=PA199|title=Encyclopédie méthodique. Géographie ancienne, par M. Mentelle, historiographe de monseigneur comte d'Artois, censeur royal, de l'Académie d'histoire de Madrid, de celle de Rouen|publisher=chez Panckoucke|year=1792|language=fr|page=199}}</ref> However, scholars are reluctant to link between Nazerini and [[Nazarene (sect)|Nazarenes]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Ray Pritz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vh84AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA17|title=Nazarene Jewish Christianity: From the End of the New Testament Period Until Its Disappearance in the Fourth Century|publisher=Brill Archive|year=1988|pages=17–18|isbn=9004081089}}</ref> Yet, the term "Nazerini" can be possibly connected to words which include the Arabic [[triliteral root]] ''[[wiktionary:نصر|n-ṣ-r]]'' such as the subject ''naṣer'' in [[Eastern Aramaic]] which means "''keeper of wellness''".<ref>{{cite book|author=John Jandora|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni3cCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA119|title=No Carpenter From Nazareth?|publisher=Llumina Press|year=2015|page=119|isbn=9781625502506}}</ref>
== History ==
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 the Shia representatives of the 12th Hidden Imam.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://goaloflife.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/the-nuc59fayrc4ab-_alawc4abs-_-an-introduction-to-the-religion-history-and-identity-of-the-leading-minority-in-syria-islamic-history-and-civilization.pdf|title=Friedman, ''Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs,'' 2010}}</ref>
The Alawites were later organised during [[Hamdanid dynasty|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.<ref name="halm" /> The embrace of Alawism by the majority of the population in the Syrian coastal mountains was likely a protracted process occurring over several centuries.{{sfn|Winter|2016|p=30}} 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]].{{sfn|Winter|2016|p=29}}
In 1032, al-Khaṣībī's grandson and pupil, Abu Sa'id Maymun al-Tabarani (d. 1034), moved to [[Latakia]] (then controlled by 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 (historian)|Stefan Winter]].{{sfn|Winter|2016|pp=27–28}} Al-Tabarani influenced the Alawite faith through his writings and by converting the rural population of the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range.<ref name="halm">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5jO3QzVtPUC&pg=PA28|title=Shi'ism|first= Heinz|last= Halm|page=157 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-1888-0|year=2004}}</ref> Winter argues that while it 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 is nothing in the literary sources indicating al-Rudafi patronized the Alawites.{{sfn|Winter|2016|p=28}} 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.{{sfn|Winter|2016|p=28}} From this southern part of the Syrian coastal mountain range, a significant Alawite presence developed in the mountains east of Latakia and [[Jableh]] during the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] period (1260s–1516).{{sfn|Winter|2016|p=29}}
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.<ref name="Syracuse University Press">{{cite book|author1=Matti Moosa|title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects|date=1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2411-0|pages=269–71}}</ref> They even incorporated them within their ranks, along with the [[Maronites]] and [[Turcopoles]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.realmofhistory.com/2020/03/23/crusades-facts-medieval/|title=History of the Crusades: Origins, Politics, and Crusaders|website=Realm of History|date=23 March 2020|access-date=14 May 2020|archive-date=28 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328043355/https://www.realmofhistory.com/2020/03/23/crusades-facts-medieval/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Two prominent Alawite leaders in the following centuries, credited with uplifting the group, were Shaykhs [[Al-Makzun al-Sinjari|al-Makzun]] (d. 1240) and al-Tubani (d. 1300), both originally from [[Mount Sinjar]] in modern Iraq.<ref name="Syracuse University Press"/>
In the 14th century, the Alawites were forced by Mamluk Sultan [[Baybars|Baibars]] to build mosques in their settlements, to which they responded with token gestures described by the Muslim traveller [[Ibn Battuta]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pipes |first1=Daniel |author-link1=Daniel Pipes|title=Greater Syria|date=1992|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-536304-3|page=161|quote="Every village built a mosque far from the houses, which the villagers neither enter nor maintain. They often shelter cattle and asses in it. Often a stranger arrives and goes to the mosque to recite the [Islamic] call to prayer; then they yell to him, 'Stop braying, your fodder is coming.' " [Ibn Battuta]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Matti Moosa|title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects|date=1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2411-0|pages=270–1}}</ref>
=== {{anchor|Under the Ottoman Empire}}Ottoman Empire ===
During the reign of [[Selim I|Sultan Selim I]], of the Ottoman Empire, the Alawites would again experience significant persecution;<ref>{{cite book|author1=Matti Moosa|title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects|date=1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2411-0|page=275}}</ref> 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" ({{langx|ar|مجزرة التلل}}) in which the corpses of thousands of victims accumulated as a [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]] located west of the [[Citadel of Aleppo|castle]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sy-center.net/?p=1512|title=Ottoman Empire massacre against Alawites|work=Syrian Center for Studies|date=9 May 2017|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=23 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423182731/http://sy-center.net/?p=1512|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=June 2022|reason=The cited article claims that the events were reported in an Ottoman letter preserved in the French National library in Strasbourg. However, the article fails to cite the letter properly as it does not provide any further information about the alleged letter, not even a title or any sort of identification number.|certain=yes}} The horrors of the massacre which caused the immigration of the survivors to the coastal region are documented at the [[National Academic Library (Strasbourg)|National and University Library]] in [[Strasbourg]].{{cn|date=November 2023}}
The [[Ottoman Empire]] took aggressive actions against Alawites,{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} due to their alleged "treacherous activities" as "they had a long history of betraying the Muslim governments due to their mistrust towards Sunnis."<ref>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East''. With the assistance of Maureen McConville. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989, c1988.</ref> 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:
{{Blockquote|The sect, vital in itself, 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.<ref>{{cite book|author-first=T. E. |author-last=Lawrence |author-link=T. E. Lawrence |url=http://telawrence.net/telawrencenet/works/spw/sp_05_058.htm |title=Seven Pillars of Wisdom |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717202828/http://telawrence.net/telawrencenet/works/spw/sp_05_058.htm |archive-date=17 July 2007 |volume=Book 5 |chapter=58}}</ref>}}
During the 18th century, 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."<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Matti |author-last1=Moosa |title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects |date=1987 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2411-0 |page=276}}</ref> Some Alawites supported Ottoman involvement in the Egyptian-Ottoman Wars of [[Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–33)|1831–1833]] and [[Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–41)|1839–1841]],<ref>{{cite journal |author-first=Stefan |author-last=Winter |title=La révolte alaouite de 1834 contre l'occupation égyptienne: perceptions alaouites et lecture ottomane |language=fr |journal=Oriente Moderno |volume=79 |issue=3 |year=1999 |pages=60–71 |doi=10.1163/22138617-07903006 }}</ref> and had careers in the Ottoman army or as Ottoman governors.<ref>{{cite book |first=Stefan |last=Winter |chapter=The Nusayris before the Tanzimat in the Eyes of Ottoman Provincial Administrators, 1804–1834 |editor-first=Thomas |editor-last=Philipp |editor2-first=Christoph |editor2-last=Schumann |title=From the Syrian Land to the States of Syria and Lebanon |location=Würzburg |publisher=Ergon |year=2004 |pages=97–112 |isbn=3-89913-353-6 }}</ref> Moreover, they even initiated the [[Alawite revolt (1834–35)]] against the Egyptian rule of the region, which was later suppressed by the Governor of Homs{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}.
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.<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Matti |author-last1=Moosa |title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects |date=1987 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2411-0 |page=277}}</ref> The 19th century historian Elias Saleh<!--Q41600195--> described the Alawites as living in a "state of ignorance" and having the negative traits of "laziness, lying, deceitfulness, inclination to robbery and bloodshed, and backstabbing."<ref>{{Cite book |title=آثار الحقب في لاذقية العرب |publisher=دار الفارابي |edition=1st |volume=One |pages=161 |language=ar |trans-title=The traces of the eons in the Latakia of the Arabs |script-chapter= |trans-chapter=}}</ref> By the 1870s, Alawite bandits were impaled on spikes and left on crossroads as a warning, according to the historian [[Joshua Landis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-price-of-loyalty-in-syria.html?_r=0 |title=The Price of Loyalty in Syria |website=The New York Times |date=19 June 2013}}</ref>
Early in the 20th century, the mainly-Sunni Ottoman leaders were bankrupt and losing political power; the Alawites were poor [[peasant]]s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mzuJAO7gTmoC&pg=PA101 |title=Inside the Arab World – |author-first=Michael |author-last=Field |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=1 March 1996 |isbn=978-0-674-45521-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Stratfor |url=http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110504-making-sense-syrian-crisis |title=Making Sense of the Syrian Crisis |publisher=Stratfor |date=5 May 2011 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref>
=== French Mandate period ===
[[File:Flag of the Alawite State (1920–1936).svg|thumb|upright|One form of the flag of the Sanjak of Latakia or [[Alawite State]] in northwest Syria under French colonial rule, ca. 1920–1936.]]
After the end of World War I and 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 the French forces at Al-Shaykh Badr, inflicting more than 35 casualties.<ref name="Moosa">{{cite book|author-last=Moosa |author-first=Matti |title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=0-8156-2411-5 |pages=282–283 |year=1987}}</ref> 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 [[Al-Ali Revolt|Syrian Revolt of 1919]].<ref name="Moosa" /><ref name="Moubayed">{{cite book|author-last=Moubayed |author-first=Sami M. |author-link=Sami Moubayed |title=Steel & Silk: Men & Women Who Shaped Syria 1900–2000 |publisher=Cune Press |isbn=1-885942-41-9 |pages=363–364 |year=2006}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Moosa" /> In November, General [[Henri Gouraud (French Army officer)|Henri Gouraud]] mounted 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.<ref name="Moosa" />
Despite these instances of opposition, the Alawites mostly favored French rule and sought its continuation beyond the mandate period.{{sfn|Pipes|1992|pp=166–168}}
==== {{anchor|Alawite state}}Alawite State ====
[[File:French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon map en.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|alt=Multicoloured map|Map of French Mandate states in 1921–22 (Alawite State in purple).]]
When the French began to occupy Syria in 1920,<ref name="Kaplan">{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199302/kaplan |title=Syria: Identity Crisis |author-last=Kaplan |author-first=Robert |date=February 1993 |work=The Atlantic}}</ref> an [[Alawite State]] 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 [[microstate]]s, such as [[Greater Lebanon]] for the [[Maronites|Maronite Christians]] and [[Jabal al-Druze State|Jabal al-Druze]] for the [[Druze]]. Aleppo and Damascus were also separate states.<ref name="L">Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley. ''Syria and Lebanon Under French Mandate''. London: Oxford University Press, 1958.</ref> Under the Mandate, many Alawite [[Chieftainship|chieftains]] supported 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 the Mandate territories.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oawsAQAAIAAJ|title=The Levant: a fractured mosaic |author= William W. Harris |publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers|isbn=978-1-55876-264-0|year=2003}}</ref> 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.<ref>Christopher M. Andrew, page 236 "France Overseas. The Great War and the Climax of French Imperial Expansion", 1981 Thames and Hudson Ltd, London</ref>
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 the population were Alawite. According to some researchers, there was considerable Alawite separatist sentiment in the region,<ref name="K" /> 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.<ref name="K">Khoury, Philip S. ''Syria and the French Mandate: The Politics of Arab Nationalism, 1920–1945''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.</ref> However, according to Associate Professor [[Stefan Winter (historian)|Stefan Winter]], this letter is a forgery.<ref name="Winter">{{cite web|url=https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/asad-petition-1936-bashars-grandfather-pro-unionist-stefan-winter|title=The Asad Petition of 1936: Bashar's Grandfather Was Pro-Unionist By Stefan Winter|last=Winter|first=Stefan|date=June 2016|work=Joshualandis |ref=none}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Pipes|1992|p=165}}
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.<ref name="K" /> Nevertheless, on 3 December 1936, the Alawite State was re-incorporated into Syria as a concession by the French to the [[National Bloc (Syria)|National Bloc]] (the party in power in the semi-autonomous Syrian government). The law went into effect in 1937.<ref name="S">Shambrook, Peter A. ''French Imperialism in Syria, 1927–1936''. Reading: Ithaca Press, 1998.</ref>
[[File:Gleaning Alawite woman.jpg|thumb|alt=Woman bent over, picking up leftover grain|Alawite woman [[gleaning]] in 1938]]
In 1939, the [[Sanjak of Alexandretta]] (now [[Hatay Province|Hatay]]) contained a large number of Alawites. The Hatayan land was given to Turkey by the French after a League of Nations [[Referendum|plebiscite]] in the province. This development greatly angered most Syrians; to add to Alawi contempt, in 1938, the Turkish military went into [[İskenderun]] and expelled most of the [[Arab people|Arab]] and [[Armenians|Armenian]] population.<ref name=JackKalpakian>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmlX4Y7PMjgC&pg=PA130|title=Identity, Conflict and Cooperation in International River Systems|author=Jack Kalpakian |edition=Hardcover|publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=0-7546-3338-1 |page=130}}</ref> Before this, the Alawite Arabs and Armenians comprised most of the province's population.<ref name=JackKalpakian /> [[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 Church|Eastern Orthodox Christian]] schoolteacher [[Michel Aflaq]] and Sunni politician [[Salah al-Din al-Bitar|Salah ad-Din al-Bitar]].
After World War II, [[Sulayman al-Murshid]] played 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.
=== After Syrian independence ===
[[File:F-assad.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Formal family portrait, with parents seated in front and five grown children (four sons and a daughter) standing|The [[al-Assad family]]]]
Syria became independent on 17 April 1946. In 1949, after the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], Syria experienced a number of military [[Coup d'état|coups]] and the rise of the Ba'ath Party.
In 1958, Syria and Egypt were united by a political agreement into the [[United Arab Republic]]. The UAR lasted for three years, breaking apart [[1961 Syrian coup d'état|in 1961]], when a group of army officers seized power and declared Syria independent.
A succession of coups ensued until, [[1963 Syrian coup d'état|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 the Ba’ath Party old guard followers of [[Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch|Greek Orthodox]] Christian [[Michel Aflaq]] and Sunni Muslim [[Salah al-Din al-Bitar|Salah ad-Din al-Bitar]], calling [[Zaki al-Arsuzi]] the "[[Socrates]]" of the reconstituted Ba'ath Party.
In 1970, [[Syrian Air Force|Air Force]] General Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, took power and instigated a [[Corrective Movement (Syria)|"Corrective Movement"]] in the Ba'ath Party. The coup of 1970 ended the political instability which had existed since independence.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199302/kaplan|title=Syria: Identity Crisis |last=Kaplan|first=Robert|date=February 1993|work=The Atlantic }}</ref> [[Robert D. Kaplan]] compared Hafez al-Assad's coming to power to "an [[Dalit|untouchable]] becoming [[maharaja]]h in India or a Jew becoming [[tsar]] in Russia—an unprecedented development shocking to the Sunni majority population which had monopolized power for so many centuries."<ref name="Kaplan" /> 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.<ref>Seale, Patrick. ''Asad, the Struggle for the Middle East''. University of California Press, 1989, p.173.</ref> In 1974, to satisfy this constitutional requirement, [[Musa al-Sadr|Musa as-Sadr]] (a leader of 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)<ref name="mideastmonitor.org">Riad Yazbeck. "[http://www.mideastmonitor.org/issues/0808/0808_2.htm#_ftn1 Return of the Pink Panthers?] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219114105/http://www.mideastmonitor.org/issues/0808/0808_2.htm#_ftn1 |date=19 February 2012 }}" ''Mideast Monitor''. Vol. 3, No. 2, August 2008.</ref> issued a [[fatwa]] that Alawites were a community of Twelver Shiite Muslims.<ref name="Glasse">''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'' by Cyril Glasse, Altamira, 2001, p.36–7</ref> Throughout the 1970s the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] led anti-Ba'athist [[Islamist uprising in Syria|Islamic revolts]], culminating in the 1982 [[1982 Hama massacre|Hama massacre]].
=== Syrian Civil War ===
After the outbreak of 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 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'athism|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 the [[Syrian opposition]] and preventing their community from being perceived as being associated with the Assad government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lazkani |first=Alimar |date=4 August 2020 |title=No Homeland, No Future: Alawite Youth As the Backbone of the Assad Regime |url=https://www.arab-reform.net/publication/no-homeland-no-future-alawite-youth-as-the-backbone-of-the-assad-regime/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203043156/https://www.arab-reform.net/publication/no-homeland-no-future-alawite-youth-as-the-backbone-of-the-assad-regime/ |archive-date=3 February 2023 |journal=Arab Reform Initiative}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 April 2015 |title=ديلي تلغراف: الطائفة العلوية تدفع ثمنا باهظا لدعم الأسد |work=Arab 21 |url=https://arabi21.com/story/822591/%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%AB%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B8%D8%A7-%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003210133/https://arabi21.com/story/822591/%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%AB%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B8%D8%A7-%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AF |archive-date=3 October 2020}}</ref>
Some have claimed many Alawite loyalists fear a negative outcome for the government may result in an existential threat to their community.<ref>{{cite news|author1=YAROSLAV TROFIMOV|title=After Backing Regime, Syrian Minorities Face Peril|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-backing-regime-syria-minorities-face-peril-1436433540|access-date=15 July 2015|work=WSJ|date=9 July 2015}}</ref> In May 2013, pro-opposition [[Syrian Observatory for Human Rights|SOHR]] stated that out of 94,000 [[Syrian Arab Armed Forces|Syrian regime soldiers]] killed during the war, at least 41,000 were Alawites.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-deaths-idUSBRE94D0L420130514 |title=Death toll in Syria likely as high as 120,000: group |work=Reuters |date=14 May 2013}}</ref> Reports estimate that up to a third of 250,000 young Alawite men of fighting age has been killed in the [[Syrian Civil War|conflict]] by 2015, due to being disproportionately sent to fight in the frontlines by the Assad government.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Sherlock |first=Ruth |author-link=Ruth Sherlock |date=7 April 2015 |title=In Syria's war, Alawites pay heavy price for loyalty to Bashar al-Assad |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11518232/In-Syrias-war-Alawites-pay-heavy-price-for-loyalty-to-Bashar-al-Assad.html |access-date=15 July 2015 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 April 2015 |title=ديلي تلغراف: الطائفة العلوية تدفع ثمنا باهظا لدعم الأسد |work=Arab 21 |url=https://arabi21.com/story/822591/%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%AB%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B8%D8%A7-%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003210133/https://arabi21.com/story/822591/%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%AB%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B8%D8%A7-%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AF |archive-date=3 October 2020}}</ref> In April 2017, a pro-opposition source claimed 150,000 young Alawites had died.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170420-150000-alawites-killed-in-6-year-syria-war/|title=150,000 Alawites killed in 6-year Syria war|date=20 April 2017}}</ref> Another report estimates that around 100,000 Alawite youths were killed in combat by 2020.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lazkani |first=Alimar |date=4 August 2020 |title=No Homeland, No Future: Alawite Youth As the Backbone of the Assad Regime |url=https://www.arab-reform.net/publication/no-homeland-no-future-alawite-youth-as-the-backbone-of-the-assad-regime/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203043156/https://www.arab-reform.net/publication/no-homeland-no-future-alawite-youth-as-the-backbone-of-the-assad-regime/ |archive-date=3 February 2023 |journal=Arab Reform Initiative}}</ref>
Many Alawites feared [[:Category:Persecution of Alawites|significant danger]] during the Syrian Civil War; particularly from Islamic groups who were a part of the [[Syrian opposition|opposition]], though denied by secular opposition factions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2.11.4. Alawites |url=https://euaa.europa.eu/country-guidance-syria/2114-alawites |access-date=2022-10-06 |website=European Union Agency for Asylum |language=en}}</ref> Alawites have also been wary of the increased Iranian influence in Syria since [[Iranian intervention in the Syrian civil war|the Syrian civil war]], viewing it as a threat to their long-term survival due to [[Khomeinism|Khomeinist]] conversion campaigns focused in Alawite coastal regions. Many Alawites, including Assad loyalists, criticize such activities as a plot to absorb their ethno-religious identity into Iran's Twelver Shia umbrella and spread [[religious extremism]] in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tsurkov |first=Elizabeth |date=22 July 2019 |title=Between Regime and Rebels: A Survey of Syria's Alawi Sect |url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2019/07/22/between-regime-and-rebels-a-survey-of-syrias-alawi-sect/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331134409/https://www.nybooks.com/online/2019/07/22/between-regime-and-rebels-a-survey-of-syrias-alawi-sect/ |archive-date=31 March 2023 |website=The New York Review}}</ref>
== Beliefs ==
[[File:Celebrating Alawites.jpg|thumb|alt=Large group of people looking at the camera|Alawites celebrating at a festival in [[Baniyas]], Syria during [[World War II]].]]
Alawites and their beliefs have been described as "secretive"<ref name="BBC-secretive">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18084964 |title=The 'secretive sect' in charge of Syria|date=17 May 2012 |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=14 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="telegraph-secret" /><ref name="Reuters-secret" /><ref name=YFNAIRHI2010:68 /> (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 the Alawi "are kept secret"{{efn|Since the sacred writings of the Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs are kept secret by the members of the sect because of their sensitivity, it is important to note that the religious material used in this volume is only that which is accessible in public libraries and printed books.<ref name=YFNAIRHI2010:xii />}}{{efn|According to Alawite beliefs, women are not permitted to engage in religious studies.<ref>{{cite book|author=Barry Rubin|title=The Middle East: A Guide to Politics, Economics, Society and Culture|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|page=337|isbn=9781317455783}}</ref>}}); some tenets of the faith are kept secret from most Alawi and known only to a select few,<ref name=YFNAIRHI2010:xii>[[#YFNAIRHI2010|Friedman, ''Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs'', 2010: p.xii]]</ref> they have therefore been described as a [[Mysticism|mystical]] sect.<ref>{{cite book|author=John C. Rolland|title=Lebanon: Current Issues and Background|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-JVOKeNkllgC&pg=PA75|year=2003|publisher=Nova Publishers|isbn=978-1-59033-871-1|page=75}}</ref>
Alawite doctrines originated from the teachings of Iraqi priest [[Ibn Nusayr|Muhammad ibn Nusayr]] who claimed Prophethood and declared himself as the "''[[Bab (Shia Islam)|Bāb]]'' (door) of the [[Imamate in Twelver doctrine|Imams]]" and attributed divinity to [[Hasan al-Askari]]. Al-Askari denounced Ibn Nusayr and Islamic authorities expelled his disciples, most of whom emigrated to the [[Syrian Coastal Mountain Range|Coastal Mountains of Syria]] wherein they established a distinct community.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nisan |first=Mordechai |title=Minorities in the Middle East |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7864-1375-1 |edition=2nd |pages=115 |chapter=6: Alawites: To Power and the Unknown}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=L. Esposito |first1=John |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World vol. 1 |last2=Moosa |first2=Matti |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-19-509612-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=63, 64 |chapter=Alawiyyah}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Madeleine Pelner Cosman |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Jf5t1vFw1QC&pg=PA407 |title=Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set |author2=Linda Gale Jones |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4381-0907-7 |page=407 |chapter=The Nusayriyya Alawis}}</ref>
Alawite beliefs have never been confirmed by their modern religious authorities.<ref name="Yunis 1992, p. 63">'Abd al‑Latif al‑Yunis, Mudhakkirat al‑Duktur 'Abd al‑Latif al‑Yunis, Damascus: Dar al‑'Ilm, 1992, p. 63.</ref> As a highly secretive and esoteric sect,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Madeleine Pelner Cosman |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Jf5t1vFw1QC&pg=PA407 |title=Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set |author2=Linda Gale Jones |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4381-0907-7 |page=407 |chapter=The Nusayriyya Alawis}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Tom |first1=Heneghan |date=24 December 2011 |title=Who are the Alawites? |website=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307225030/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref> Nusayri religious priests tend to conceal their core doctrines, which are only introduced to a chosen minority of the sect's adherents.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tom |first1=Heneghan |date=24 December 2011 |title=Who are the Alawites? |website=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307225030/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref> Alawites have also adopted the practice of ''[[taqiya]]'' to avoid victimization.<ref name="telegraph-secret" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Tom |first1=Heneghan |date=24 December 2011 |title=Who are the Alawites? |website=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307225030/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref>
=== Theology and practices ===
Alawite doctrine incorporates elements of [[Phoenician mythology]], [[Gnostic]]ism, [[neo-Platonic|neo-Platonism]], [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Trinitarianism]] (for example, they celebrate [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] including the consecration of bread and wine); blending them with Muslim symbolism and has, therefore, been described as [[syncretic]].<ref name="YFNAIRHI2010:67" /><ref>{{cite book|title=The Plain of Saints and Prophets: The Nusayri-Alawi Community of Cilicia |author-last1=Prochazka-Eisl |author-first1=Gisela |author-last2=Prochazka |author-first2=Stephan |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-447-06178-0 |page=81|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag }}</ref><ref name=":1"/><ref name="auto"/>
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 the ''Ism'', which in turn built the ''Bab''. These beliefs are closely tied to the Nusayri doctrine of [[Reincarnation|re-incarnations]] of the Trinity.<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="auto1"/>
''The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World'' classifies Alawites as part of extremist Shia sects referred to as the ''[[ghulat]]'' which are unrelated to [[Sunni Islam]]; owing to the secretive nature of the Alawite religious system and hierarchy.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8684113/Secretive-sect-of-the-rulers-of-Syria.html |title=Secretive sect of the rulers of Syria |author-last=Howse |author-first=Christopher |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=5 August 2011 |access-date=16 December 2018 |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=L. Esposito |first1=John |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World vol. 1 |last2=Moosa |first2=Matti |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-19-509612-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=63–65 |chapter=Alawiyyah}}</ref> Due to their esoteric doctrines of strict secrecy, conversions into the community were also forbidden.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book |last=Nisan |first=Mordechai |title=Minorities in the Middle East |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7864-1375-1 |edition=2nd |pages=115, 116 |chapter=6: Alawites: To Power and the Unknown}}</ref>
Alawites do not believe in daily Muslim prayers (''[[salah]]''). The central tenet of Nusayrite creed is their belief of [[Ali|Ali ibn Abi Talib]] being an incarnation of God.<ref>{{cite book |author=Abdel Bari Atwan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgTjBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT58 |title=Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate |publisher=University of California Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-520-28928-4 |page=58}}</ref> Nusayrite testimony of faith translates as "There is no God but Ali."<ref>{{cite book |author=Abdel Bari Atwan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgTjBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT58 |title=Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate |publisher=University of California Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-520-28928-4 |location=Oakland, California, USA |page=58 |quote=The Alawite shahada (testimony) is that there is no God but Ali}}</ref>
==== Reincarnation ====
Alawites hold that they were originally stars or divine lights that were cast out of heaven through disobedience and must undergo repeated [[reincarnation]] (or [[metempsychosis]]<ref name= Plain>{{cite book |title=The Plain of Saints and Prophets: The Nusayri-Alawi Community of Cilicia |author-last1=Prochazka-Eisl |author-first1=Gisela |author-last2=Prochazka |author-first2=Stephan |year=2010 |isbn=978-3447061780 |page=82|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag }}</ref>) before returning to heaven.<ref name= Peters>{{cite book|title=The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Conflict and Competition, Volume II |author-last=Peters |author-first=F.E. |year=2009 |isbn=978-1400825714 |page=321|publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref> According to Nusayrite beliefs, females are excluded from re-incarnation.<ref>{{cite book |author=Abdel Bari Atwan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgTjBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT58 |title=Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate |publisher=University of California |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-520-28928-4 |location=Oakland, California, USA |page=58 |quote=The Alawites  celebrate the Christian festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Epiphany and believe in reincarnation (though not for women).}}</ref>
Alawite theologians divided history into seven eras, associating each era with one of the seven re-incarnations of the Nusayrite Trinity (''Ma'na'', ''Ism'', ''Bab''). The seven re-incarnations of the Trinity in the Alawite faith consists of:<ref name="auto4">{{Cite book |last=Moosa |first=Matti |title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-8156-2411-5 |edition=1st |location=Syracuse, New York |pages=312}}</ref>
* Abel, Adam, Gabriel
* Seth, Noah, Yail ibn Fatin
* Joseph, Jacob, Ham ibn Kush
* Joshua, Moses, Dan ibn Usbaut
* Asaf, Solomon, Abd Allah ibn Siman
* Simon Peter, Jesus, Rawzaba ibn al-Marzuban
* Ali, Muhammad, Salman al-Farisi
The last triad of re-incarnations in the Nusayri Trinity consists of Ali (''Ma'na''), Muhammad (''Ism'') and Salman al-Farsi (''Bab''). Alawites depict them as the sky, the sun and the moon respectively. They deify Ali as the "last and supreme manifestation of God" who built the universe, attributing him with divine superiority and believe that Ali created Muhammad, bestowing upon him the mission to spread Qur'anic teachings on earth.<ref name="auto4"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=L. Esposito |first1=John |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World vol. 1 |last2=Moosa |first2=Matti |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-19-509612-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=64 |chapter=Alawiyyah}}</ref><ref name="auto2"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nisan |first=Mordechai |title=Minorities in the Middle East |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7864-1375-1 |edition=2nd |pages=115, 117 |chapter=6: Alawites: To Power and the Unknown}}</ref>
The Israeli institution of [[Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies]] describes the Alawite faith as [[Philosemitism|Judeophilic]] and "[[Anti-Sunnism|anti-Sunni]]" since they believe that God's incarnations consist of [[Israelites|Israelite]] Prophet [[Joshua]] who conquered [[Canaan]], in addition to the fourth Caliph, [[Ali]]. This institution also denies the Arab ethnicity of Alawites even though Alawites themselves self-identify ethnically as Arabs <ref name="Feldman"/> and assert that Alawites claim to be Arabs because of a supposed "political expediency."<ref>{{cite web |date=4 May 2011 |title=The Alawites and Israel |url=https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/the-alawites-and-israel/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528052540/https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/the-alawites-and-israel/ |archive-date=28 May 2018 |access-date=27 May 2018 |work=[[Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies]] |quote=They don’t necessarily understand or publicly present themselves as ‘Arabs’, doing so only when it seems politically expedient.}}</ref>
==== Other beliefs ====
[[File:Alawiteman.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=Bearded man with sword in his belt|Alawite man in [[Latakia]], early 20th century.]]
Other beliefs and practices include: the [[consecration]] of wine in a secret form of [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] performed only by males; frequently being given [[Christian name]]s; entombing the dead in [[sarcophagi]] above ground; observing [[Epiphany (holiday)|Epiphany]], [[Christmas]]<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=David S. |author-last1=Sorenson |title=An Introduction to the Modern Middle East: History, Religion, Political Economy, Politics |date=3 December 2013 |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |isbn=978-0-8133-4922-0 |page=64}}</ref> and the feast days of [[John Chrysostom]] and [[Mary Magdalene]];<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Robert Brenton |author-last1=Betts |title=The Sunni-Shi'a Divide: Islam's Internal Divisions and Their Global Consequences |date=31 July 2013 |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |isbn=978-1-61234-522-2 |page=29 |edition=illustrated}}</ref> the only religious structures they have are the shrines of tombs;{{sfn|Pipes|1992|p=161}} the book ''[[Kitab al-Majmu]]'', which is allegedly a central source of Alawite doctrine,<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Mordechai |author-last1=Nisan |title=Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and Self-Expression |edition=2nd |date=1 January 2002 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5133-3 |page=116}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Charles George |author-last1=Herbermann |title=Encyclopaedia of sects & religious doctrines |volume=1 |date=2005 |publisher=Cosmo Publications |isbn=9788177559286 |pages=15–16 |edition=3rd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Nanny M. W. |author-last1=de Vries |author-first2=Jan |author-last2=Best |author-link2=Jan Best |title=Thamyris |publisher=[[Rodopi (publisher)|Rodopi]] |page=290}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Ian |author-last1=Strathcarron |title=Innocence and War: Mark Twain's Holy Land Revisited |date=2012 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-49040-3 |page=78 |edition=illustrated, reprint}}</ref> where they have their own trinity, comprising Mohammed, Ali, and [[Salman the Persian]].<ref name="telegraph"/>
In addition, they celebrate different holidays such as [[Old New Year]],{{efn|The Old New Year is celebrated on 13 January, and named as ''Gawzela'' Day ({{lang|ar|يوم القوزلة}}),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://golantimes.com/news/74442 |title=هل تعرف ما هو عيد القوزلة؟ |trans-title=Do you know what is the feast of Quzal? |website=golantimes.com |language=ar |date=14 January 2020}}</ref> as it means "Igniting the Fire" in [[Syriac language]].<ref>{{cite web |author=ياسين عبد الرحيم |url=https://www.syriac-union.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%81-%D9%82-%D9%8A.pdf |title=موسوعة العامية السورية |trans-title=Syrian colloquial encyclopedia |publisher=Syrian General Organization of Books |place=Damascus |language=ar |page=1884 |date=2012 |url-status=dead |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331112220/https://www.syriac-union.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%81-%D9%82-%D9%8A.pdf }}</ref>}} [[Akitu]],{{efn|The festival is celebrated on 17 April according to the [[Julian calendar]], which is based on 4 April in the [[Gregorian calendar]].<ref name="dkhlak"/>}} [[Eid al-Ghadir]], [[Mid-Sha'ban]] and [[Eid il-Burbara]].<ref name="dkhlak">{{cite web|url=https://dkhlak.com/facts-about-alawites/ |title=20 معلومة قد لا تعرفها عن العلويين |trans-title=20 facts you may not know about Alawites |website=dkhlak.com |language=ar |date=21 July 2016}}</ref> They also believe in [[intercession]] of certain legendary saints such as [[Khidr]] ([[Saint George]]) and [[Simeon Stylites]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/26/world/syrian-success-story-a-hated-minority-sect-becomes-the-ruling-class.html |title=Syrian success story: A hated minority sect becomes the ruling class |work=The New York Times |date=26 December 1986}}</ref>
==== Development ====
{{further|Al-Khasibi|Ibn Nusayr|Schools of Islamic theology#‘Alawism}}
Yaron Friedman and many researchers of Alawi doctrine write that the founder of the religion, Ibn Nusayr, did not necessarily believe he was representative of a splinter, rebel group of the Shias, but rather believed he held the true doctrine of the Shias, and most of the aspects that are similar to [[Christianity]] are considered more a coincidence and not a direct influence from it, as well as other external doctrines that were actually popular among Shia esoteric groups in Basra in the 8th century. According to Friedman and other scholars, the Alawi movement started as many other mystical ghulat sects with an explicit concentration on an allegorical and esoteric meaning of the [[Quran]] and other mystical practices, and not as a pure syncretic sect, though later, they embraced some other practices as they believed all religions had the same ''Batin'' core.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://goaloflife.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/the-nuc59fayrc4ab-_alawc4abs-_-an-introduction-to-the-religion-history-and-identity-of-the-leading-minority-in-syria-islamic-history-and-civilization.pdf|title=Friedman, ''The Nusayris-Alawis, An introduction to the religion, history and identity'': p.223–238}}</ref>
Journalist [[Robert F. Worth]] argues that the idea that the Alawi religion as a branch of Islam is a rewriting of history made necessary by the French colonialists' abandonment of the Alawi and departure from [[Syria]]. Worth describes the "first ... authentic source for outsiders about the religion" (written by Soleyman of Adana – a 19th-century Alawi convert to Christianity who broke his oath of secrecy on the religion) explaining that the Alawi (according to Soleyman) deified [[Ali]], venerated [[Jesus|Christ]], [[Muhammad]], [[Plato]], [[Socrates]], and [[Aristotle]], and held themselves apart from [[Muslims]] and [[Christians]], whom they considered [[Heresy|heretics]].<ref name=RFWRfO2016:82>[[#RFWRfO2016|Worth, ''A Rage for Order'', 2016]]: p.82</ref> According to Tom Heneghan:<blockquote>"Alawite religion is often called “an offshoot of Shi’ism,” Islam’s largest minority sect, but that is something like referring to Christianity as “an offshoot of Judaism.” Alawites broke away from Shi’ism over 1,000 years ago."</blockquote><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223|title=Who are the Alawites?|website=Reuters|date=24 December 2011|last1=Tom|first1=Heneghan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307225030/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-religion-alawites-idUSTRE7BM1J220111223 |archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref>
[[File:Alawite children in Antioch.jpg|thumb|alt=Adolescent boy standing in front of younger children|Alawite children in [[Antioch]] (now in Turkey), 1938.]]
According to a disputed letter, in 1936, six Alawi notables petitioned the French colonialists not to merge their Alawi enclave with the rest of Syria, insisting that "the spirit of hatred and fanaticism embedded in the hearts of the Arab Muslims against everything that is non-Muslim has been perpetually nurtured by the Islamic religion."<ref name=RFWRfO2016:85>[[#RFWRfO2016|Worth, ''A Rage for Order'', 2016]]: p.85</ref> However, according to associate professor Stefan Winter, this letter is a forgery.<ref name="Winter"/> According to Worth, later ''[[fatwa]]s'' declaring Alawi to be part of the Shia community were by Shia clerics "eager for Syrian patronage" from Syria's Alawi president [[Hafez al-Assad]], who was eager for Islamic legitimacy in the face of the hostility of Syria's Muslim majority.<ref name=RFWRfO2016:85 />
Yaron Friedman does not suggest that Alawi did not consider themselves Muslims, but does state that:
{{blockquote|The modern period has witnessed tremendous changes in the definition of the ʿAlawīs and the attitude towards them in the Muslim world. ... In order to end their long isolation, the name of the sect was changed in the 1920s from Nusạyriyya to ʿAlawiyya'. By taking this step, leaders of the sect expressed not only their link to Shīʿism, but to Islam in general.<ref name=YFNAIRHI2010:235>[[#YFNAIRHI2010|Friedman, ''Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs'', 2010]]: 235</ref>}}
According to [[Peter Theo Curtis]], the Alawi religion underwent a process of "Sunnification" during the years under Hafez al-Assad's rule, so that Alawites became not Shia, but effectively Sunni. Public manifestation or "even mentioning of any Alawite religious activities" was banned, as were any Alawite religious organizations or "any formation of a unified religious council" or a higher Alawite religious authority. "Sunni-style" mosques were built in every Alawite village, and Alawis were encouraged to perform [[Hajj]].<ref name=Padnos>{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/95722/syria-damascus-bashar-basil-al-assad-sunni-alawi|title=Peter Theo Curtis's Writing on The Twisted, Terrifying Last Days of Assad's Syria|first=Peter Theo|last=Curtis|date=4 October 2011|magazine=The New Republic}}</ref> It's also worth noting that the grand mosque in Qerdaha , the hometown of the Assad family, being dedicated to [[Abu Bakr|Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq]] who is venerated by Sunnis but not Shi'ites.
== Opinions on position within Islam ==
The Sunni [[Grand Mufti of Jerusalem]], [[Haj Amin al-Husseini]], issued a ''fatwa'' recognizing them as part of the [[Ummah|Muslim community]] in the interest of [[Arab nationalism]].<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Talhamy | first1 = Y. | title = The Fatwas and the Nusayri/Alawis of Syria | doi = 10.1080/00263200902940251 | journal = Middle Eastern Studies | volume = 46 | issue = 2 | pages = 175–194 | year = 2010 | s2cid = 144709130 }}</ref><ref name="Bar-AsherKootstra2002">{{cite book|author1=Me'ir Mikha'el Bar-Asher|author2=Gauke de Kootstra|author3=Arieh Kofsky|title=The Nuṣayr−i-ʻalaw−i Religion: An Enquiry into Its Theology and Liturgy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2bli4DyuHRIC&pg=RA1-PA153|year=2002|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-12552-0|pages=1}}</ref> However, classical Sunni scholars such as the Syrian historian [[Ibn Kathir]] categorized Alawites as [[Kafir|non-Muslim]] and [[mushrikeen]] ([[polytheist]]s), in their writings.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17085226|title=Syria crisis: Deadly shooting at Damascus funeral|work=BBC News|date=18 February 2012}}</ref><ref name="abdullah">Abd-Allah, Umar F., ''Islamic Struggle in Syria'', Berkeley : Mizan Press, c1983, pp. 43–48</ref> [[Ibn Taymiyya]], Ibn Kathir's mentor and arguably the most virulent anti-Alawite Sunni theologian, categorised Nusayrites as non-Muslims and listed them amongst the worst sects of polytheists.<ref>{{harvnb|Pipes|1992|p=163}}:"the Nusayris are more infidel than Jews or Christians, even more infidel than many polytheists. They have done greater harm to the community of Muhammad than have the warring infidels such as the Franks, the [[Mongol Empire|Turks]], and others. To ignorant Muslims they pretend to be Shi'is, though in reality they do not believe in God or His prophet or His book...Whenever possible, they spill the blood of Muslims...They are always the worst enemies of the Muslims...war and punishment in accordance with Islamic law against them are among the greatest of pious deeds and the most important obligations."</ref>
Through many of his ''[[Fatwa|fatawa]]'', Ibn Taymiyya described Nusayrites as "the worst enemies of the Muslims" who were far more dangerous than Crusaders and Mongols.<ref>{{harvnb|Pipes|1992|p=163}}</ref> Ibn Taymiyya also accused Alawites of aiding the [[Crusades]] and [[Mongol invasions]] against the [[Muslim world|Muslim World]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Matti Moosa|title=Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects|date=1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2411-0|pages=269–70}}</ref> Other Sunni scholars, such as [[Al-Ghazali]], likewise considered them as non-Muslims.{{sfn|Pipes|1992|pp=160–161|ps=: "apostacize in matters of blood, money, marriage, and butchering, so it is a duty to kill them." [Al-Ghazali]"}} [[Benjamin Disraeli]], in his novel ''[[Tancred (novel)|Tancred]]'', also expressed the view that Alawites are not Shia Muslims.<ref name=Disraeli>{{harvnb|Pipes|1992|p=162}}</ref>
Historically, Twelver Shia scholars (such as [[Shaykh Tusi]]) did not consider Alawites as Shia Muslims while condemning their heretical beliefs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-real-reason-why-iran-backs-syria-14999|title=The Real Reason Why Iran Backs Syria|first=Barak|last=Barfi|date=24 January 2016|website=The National Interest}}</ref>
In 2016, according to several international media reports, an unspecified number of Alawite community leaders released a "Declaration of an Alawite Identity Reform" (of the Alawite community). The manifesto presents Alawism as a current "within Islam" and rejects attempts to incorporate the Alawite community into Twelver Shiism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lecourrierdumaghrebetdelorient.info/syria/syria-the-alawite-identity-reform/|title=SYRIA – The Alawite 'Identity Reform' {{!}} The Maghreb and Orient Courier|date=20 April 2016 |language=en|access-date=2020-04-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-alawites-in-syrian-society-loud-silence-in-a-declaration-of-identity-re|title=The Alawites in Syrian Society: Loud Silence in a Declaration of Identity Reform|website=www.washingtoninstitute.org|language=en|access-date=2020-04-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Spencer|first=Richard|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/02/leaders-of-syrian-alawite-sect-threaten-to-abandon-bashar-al-ass/|title=Leaders of Syrian Alawite sect threaten to abandon Bashar al-Assad|date=2016-04-03|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2020-04-14|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref> The document was interpreted as an attempt by representatives of the Alawite community to overcome the sectarian polarisation and to distance themselves from the growing Sunni-Shia divide in the Middle East.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hellyer|first=H.A.|date=2016-04-06|title=Alawite Identity in Syria|url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/alawite-identity-in-syria/|access-date=2021-04-17|website=Atlantic Council|language=en-US}}</ref>
According to Matti Moosa,
<blockquote>The Christian elements in the Nusayri religion are unmistakable. They include the concept of trinity; the celebration of Christmas, the consecration of the [[Qurbana]], that is, the sacrament of the flesh and blood which Christ offered to his disciples, and, most importantly, the celebration of the Quddas (a lengthy prayer proclaiming the divine attributes of Ali and the personification of all the biblical patriarchs from [[Adam]] to [[Simon Peter]], founder of the Church, who is seen, paradoxically, as the embodiment of true Islam).<ref>Moosa, Matti. ''Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects'' (1988). quoted in [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/09/storm-over-syria/ "Storm Over Syria", Malise Ruthven]. nybooks.com 9 June 2011</ref></blockquote>
[[Barry Rubin]] has suggested that Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad and his son and successor [[Bashar al-Assad]] pressed their fellow Alawites "to behave like 'regular Muslims', shedding (or at least concealing) their distinctive aspects".<ref>{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Barry|title=The Truth about Syria|location=New York|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2007|page=[https://archive.org/details/truthaboutsyria00rubi_0/page/49 49]|isbn=978-1-4039-8273-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/truthaboutsyria00rubi_0/page/49}}</ref> During the early 1970s, a booklet, ''al-'Alawiyyun Shi'atu Ahl al-Bait'' ("The Alawites are Followers of the Household of the Prophet") was published, which was "signed by numerous 'Alawi' men of religion", described the doctrines of the [[Imami]] Shia as Alawite.<ref>{{cite book|last=Abd-Allah|first=Umar F.|title=Islamic Struggle in Syria|location=Berkeley|publisher=Mizan Press|year=1983 |pages=43–48|isbn=0-933782-10-1 }}</ref>
The [[Iran–Syria relations|relationship]] between Alawite-ruled [[Ba'athist Syria]] and [[Iran|Khomeinist Iran]] has been described as a "marriage of convenience"; due to the former being ruled by the [[Secularism|ultra-secularist]] [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|Arab Socialist Ba'ath party]] and the latter by the anti-secular Twelver Shi'ite clergy. The alliance was established during the [[Iran–Iraq War|Iran-Iraq war]] in the 1980s, when [[Hafez al-Assad]] backed Iran against his [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)|Iraqi Ba'athist]] rivals, departing from the consensus of the rest of the [[Arab world]]. Iranian-backed militant groups like [[Hezbollah]], [[Liwa Fatemiyoun|Fatemeyoun]], etc. have been acting as proxy forces for the [[Assad regime]] in various conflicts in the region; such as the [[Lebanese Civil War]], the [[2006 Lebanon War]] and the [[Syrian civil war|Syrian Civil War]].<ref name="CoFR">{{cite web |url=http://www.cfr.org/iran/syria-iran-mideast-conflict/p11122 |title=Syria, Iran, and the Mideast Conflict |author-last=Esther |author-first=Pan |date=18 July 2006 |work=Backgrounder |publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]]|access-date=30 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523091927/http://www.cfr.org/iran/syria-iran-mideast-conflict/p11122 |archive-date= 23 May 2011 |url-status= live}}</ref>
[[File:Alawitewomen.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Four women in traditional dress|Alawi women in Syria, early 20th century]]
Some sources have discussed the "Sunnification" of Alawites under the al-Assad regime.<ref name=dilemma /> [[Joshua Landis]], director of the Center for Middle East Studies, writes that Hafiz al-Assad "tried to turn Alawites into 'good' (read Sunnified) Muslims in exchange for preserving a modicum of secularism and tolerance in society". On the other hand, Al-Assad "declared the Alawites to be nothing but Twelver Shiites".<ref name=dilemma>[http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/2004/10/asads-alawi-dilemma.htm Syrian comment. Asad's Alawi dilemma], 8 October 2004</ref> In a paper, "Islamic Education in Syria", Landis wrote that "no mention" is made in Syrian textbooks (controlled by the Al-Assad regime) of Alawites, Druze, [[Ismailism|Ismailis]] or Shia Islam; Islam was presented as a monolithic religion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/Islamic%20Education%20in%20Syria.htm |title=Islamic Education in Syria: Undoing Secularism |publisher=[[Open University]] |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref>
Ali Sulayman al-Ahmad, chief judge of the Baathist Syrian state, has said:
{{blockquote|We are Alawi [[Muslims]]. Our book is the [[Qur'an]]. Our prophet is [[Muhammad]]. The [[Kaaba|Ka`ba]] is our [[qibla]], and our [[Dīn]] ''(religion)'' is [[Islam]].<ref name="Yunis 1992, p. 63" />}}
== Population ==
[[File:Alawite Distribution in the Levant.png|thumb|upright=1.3|Map showing the distribution (2012) of Alawites in the [[Northern Levant]].]]
=== Syria ===
Alawites have traditionally lived in the [[Syrian Coastal Mountain Range|Coastal Mountain Range]], along the Mediterranean coast of Syria. [[Latakia]] and [[Tartus]] are the region's principal cities. They are also concentrated in the plains around [[Hama]] and [[Homs]]. Alawites also live in Syria's major cities, and are estimated at 11 percent of the country's population.<ref name="Reuters-secret">{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-alawites-sect-idUSTRE8110Q720120202 |title=Syria's Alawites, a secretive and persecuted sect |work=Reuters |date=2 February 2012 |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/afp/2012/02/20/332152/Turbulent-history.htm |title=Turbulent history colors Syria's ruling Alawite Muslims' fight to keep power |work=China Post |date=9 July 2012 |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Syrians flee their homes amid fears of ethnic cleansing |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrians-flee-their-homes-amid-fears-of-ethnic-cleansing-7079802.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218030622/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrians-flee-their-homes-amid-fears-of-ethnic-cleansing-7079802.html |archive-date=2012-02-18 |url-access=limited |url-status=live | work=The Independent | first=Charlotte | last=McDonald-Gibson | date=18 February 2012}}</ref><ref name="al-monitor">{{cite web |url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/battle-for-syria-just-getting-st.html |title=It's Time to Engage Iran, Russia on Syria |publisher=al-monitor.com |access-date=6 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140410112312/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/battle-for-syria-just-getting-st.html |archive-date=10 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
There are four Alawite confederations—[[Kalbiyya]], Khaiyatin, Haddadin, and Matawirah—each divided into tribes based on their geographical origins or their main religious leader,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.etccmena.com/2017/08/13/al-nuseyriyeen-alawitesbetween-politics-and-clan-life/ |title=Alawites: Between Politics and Clan Life |publisher= Center for Environmental and Social Development }}</ref> such as Ḥaidarīya of Alī Ḥaidar, and Kalāziyya of Sheikh Muḥammad ibn Yūnus from the village Kalāzū near [[Antakya]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Muḥammad Amīn Ġālib aṭ-Ṭawīl|title=Tārīḫ al-ʿAlawiyyīn |edition=3rd |location=Beirut|year=1979|page=529}}</ref> Those Alawites are concentrated in the Latakia region of Syria, extending north to [[Antioch]] ([[Antakya]]), Turkey, and in and around Homs and Hama.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/12399/Alawite |title=ʿAlawite |access-date=17 January 2010}}</ref>
Before 1953, Alawites held specifically reserved seats in the [[People's Council of Syria|Syrian Parliament]], in common with all other religious communities. After that (including the 1960 census), there were only general Muslim and Christian categories, without mention of subgroups, to reduce [[sectarianism]] (''taifiyya'').
==== Golan Heights ====
There are also about 3,900 Alawites living in the village of [[Ghajar]], which is located on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied [[Golan Heights]]. In 1932, the residents of Ghajar were given the option of choosing their nationality, and overwhelmingly chose to be a part of Syria, which has a sizable Alawite minority.<ref name="NYTfence">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/world/middleeast/11lebanon.html|title=A New Fence Is Added to a Border Town Already Split|date=11 October 2006|work=The New York Times}}</ref> Before the [[Six-Day War|1967 Arab-Israeli War]], the residents of Ghajar were counted in the 1960 Syrian census.<ref name="GhajRid">{{cite web|last=Bar |first=Zvi |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1084425.html |title=Getting rid of Ghajar, Zvi Bar'el|work=Haaretz |date=10 May 2009 |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref> According to [[Joshua Project]], after Israel captured the [[Golan Heights]] from Syria, and after implementing Israeli civil law in 1981, the Alawite community chose to become Israeli citizens.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18805/IS|title=Alawite in Israel|author=Joshua Project}}</ref> However, according to [[Al-Marsad]], Alawites were forced to undergo a process of naturalisation.<ref name="ALmarsad">{{cite web |url=https://golan-marsad.org/majority-of-syrians-continue-to-refuse-israeli-citizenship/ |title=Majority of Syrians continue to refuse Israeli citizenship |date=8 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831152446/https://golan-marsad.org/majority-of-syrians-continue-to-refuse-israeli-citizenship/ |archive-date= 31 August 2020 |url-status= live}}</ref>
Before the 1967 war, Alawites in the Golan Heights lived mainly in three northern villages, [['Ayn Fit]], [[Za'ura, Syria|Za'ura]] and Ghajar.<ref name=PalestineStudies2000>{{cite journal |last1=Abu Fakhr|first1=Sakr|date=2000|title=Voices from the Golan|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=29|issue=4 |pages=5–36|url=https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/40836|bibcode=|doi=10.2307/2676559|jstor=2676559 }}</ref>
=== Turkey ===
{{Further|Minorities in Turkey#Religious minorities|l1=Religious minorities in Turkey|Shia Islam in Turkey}}
[[File:Shrine_of_Khidr.jpg|thumb|Shrine of Khidr in [[Samandağ|Samandag]], [[Turkey]]]]
To avoid confusion with the ethnic Turkish and Kurdish [[Alevism|Alevis]], the Alawites call themselves ''Arap Alevileri'' ("Arab Alevis") in [[Turkish language|Turkish]]. The term ''Nusayrī'', previously used in theological texts, has been revived in recent studies. A quasi-official name used during the 1930s by Turkish authorities was ''Eti Türkleri'' ("Hittite Turks"), to conceal their [[Arabs in Turkey|Arabic]] origins. Although this term is obsolete, it is still used by some older people as a [[euphemism]].
In 1939, the Alawites accounted for some 40 percent of the population of the province of [[İskenderun|Iskenderun]]. According to French geographer [[Fabrice Balanche]], relations between the Alawites of Turkey and the Alawites of Syria are limited. Community ties were broken by the [[Turkification]] policy and the decades-long closure of the [[Syria-Turkey border]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Balanche|first=Fabrice|title=The Alawi Community and the Syria Crisis|url=https://www.mei.edu/publications/alawi-community-and-syria-crisis|access-date=2021-04-17|website=Middle East Institute|language=en}}</ref>
The exact number of Alawites in Turkey is unknown; there were 185,000 in 1970.<ref>{{Cite book | title=State and rural society in medieval Islam: sultans, muqtaʻs, and fallahun | year=1997 | publisher=E.J. Brill | location=Leiden | isbn=90-04-10649-9 | page=162}}</ref> As [[Muslim]]s, they are not recorded separately from Sunnis. In the [[Demographics of Turkey#1965 census|1965 census]] (the last Turkish census where informants were asked about their [[First language|mother tongue]]), 185,000 people in the three provinces declared their mother tongue as [[Arabic language|Arabic]]; however, Arabic-speaking Sunnis and [[Arab Christians|Christians]] were also included in this figure. Turkish Alawites traditionally speak the same dialect of [[Levantine Arabic]] as Syrian Alawites. Arabic is preserved in rural communities and in [[Samandağ]]. Younger people in the cities of Çukurova and [[İskenderun]] tend to speak Turkish. The Turkish spoken by Alawites is distinguished by its [[Accent (sociolinguistics)|accents]] and [[vocabulary]]. Knowledge of the [[Arabic alphabet]] is confined to religious leaders and men who have worked or studied in [[Arab world|Arab countries]].
Alawites demonstrate considerable [[social mobility]]. Until the 1960s, they were bound to Sunni ''aghas'' (landholders) around Antakya and were poor. Alawites are prominent in the sectors of transportation and commerce and a large, professional middle class has emerged. Male [[exogamy]] has increased, particularly among those who attend universities or live in other parts of Turkey. These marriages are tolerated; however, female exogamy (as in other [[Patrilineality|patrilineal]] groups) is discouraged.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}
Alawites, like Alevis, have strong [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] political beliefs. However, some people in rural areas (usually members of notable Alawite families) may support secular, conservative parties such as the [[Democrat Party (Turkey, current)|Democrat Party]]. Most Alawites feel oppressed by the policies of the [[Presidency of Religious Affairs]] in Turkey (''Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı'').<ref>''Fellahlar'ın Sosyolojisi'', Dr. Cahit Aslan, Adana, 2005</ref><ref>''Arap Aleviliği: Nusayrilik'', Ömer Uluçay, Adana, 1999</ref>
There are religious festivals celebrated by Alawites in Turkey that have origins in the pre-Islamic periods, such as the [[Evvel Temmuz Festival]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=15 July 2024 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219021321/https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/binlerce-yillik-kadim-gelenek-evvel-temmuz-misafirlerini-bekliyor-haber-1528205 |date=7 November 2021 |language=tr |title=Binlerce yıllık kadim gelenek 'Evvel Temmuz' misafirlerini bekliyor |url=https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/binlerce-yillik-kadim-gelenek-evvel-temmuz-misafirlerini-bekliyor-haber-1528205 |url-status=live |work=[[Gazete Duvar]]}}<!-- auto-translated from Turkish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
=== Lebanon ===
[[File:Jabal Mohsen mosque.jpg|thumb|right|The Alawite Imam Ali Mosque in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli, Lebanon]]
There are an estimated 150,000<ref name="repost1" /><ref>{{cite web|author=Zoi Constantine |url=http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/pressures-in-syria-affect-alawites-in-lebanon |title=Pressures in Syria affect Alawites in Lebanon |work=The National|date=21 August 2011 |location=Abu Dhabi |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref> Alawites in Lebanon, where they have lived since at least the 16th century.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2005/Apr-30/4206-lebanese-allawites-welcome-syrias-withdrawal-as-necessary.ashx#axzz2njhPbwW1|title=Lebanese Allawites welcome Syria's withdrawal as 'necessary'|date=30 April 2005|newspaper=The Daily Star}}</ref> They are one of the 18 official Lebanese sects; due to the efforts of their leader, [[Ali Eid]], the [[Taif Agreement]] of 1989 gave them two reserved seats in Parliament. Lebanese Alawites live primarily in the Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood of [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]] and in 10 villages in the [[Akkar District]], and are represented by the [[Arab Democratic Party (Lebanon)|Arab Democratic Party]].<ref>[http://menassat.com/?q=en%2Fnews-articles%2F5210-tripoli-4] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100514032159/http://menassat.com/?q=en%2Fnews-articles%2F5210-tripoli-4|date=14 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/489c1be4c.html |title=Refworld &#124; Lebanon: Displaced Allawis find little relief in impoverished north |publisher=UNHCR |date=5 August 2008 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4896c47526.html |title=Refworld &#124; Lebanon: Displaced families struggle on both sides of sectarian divide |publisher=UNHCR |date=31 July 2008 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref> Their Mufti is Sheikh Assad Assi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yalibnan.com/2012/07/21/lebanon-muslim-leaders-held-a-summit-in-beirut/ |title=Lebanon Muslim leaders held a summit in Beirut &#124; World News Live from Lebanon |location=LB |publisher=Ya Libnan |date=21 July 2012 |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref> The [[Bab al-Tabbaneh–Jabal Mohsen conflict]] between pro-Syrian Alawites and anti-Syrian Sunnis has affected Tripoli for decades.<ref>{{cite web |author=David Enders, McClatchy Newspapers |url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/13/v-print/138757/syrian-violence-finds-its-echo.html |title=Syrian violence finds its echo in Lebanon &#124; McClatchy |publisher=Mcclatchydc.com |date=13 February 2012 |access-date=6 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603083656/http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/13/v-print/138757/syrian-violence-finds-its-echo.html |archive-date=3 June 2013}}</ref>
== Language ==
Alawites in Syria speak a special dialect (part of [[Levantine Arabic]]) famous for the usage of letter ([[qāf]]), but this feature is also shared with neighboring non-Alawite villages, such as [[Idlib]]. Due to foreign occupation of Syria, the same dialect is characterized by multiple borrowings, mainly from Turkish and then French, especially terms used for imported inventions such as television, radio, elevator (ascenseur), etc.
== See also ==
* [[List of Alawites]]
== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}
== Further reading ==
* {{cite encyclopedia | article = NOṢAYRIS | last = Bar-Asher | first = Meir M.| url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nosayris |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica | year = 2003 }}
* Kazimi, Nibras. ''Syria Through Jihadist Eyes: A Perfect Enemy'', Hoover Institution Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-8179-1075-4}}.
* {{cite book|last1=Friedman|first1=Yaron |title=The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs : An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria |date=2010 |publisher=Brill|location=Leiden, Boston |isbn=978-90-04-178922|url=https://goaloflife.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/the-nuc59fayrc4ab-_alawc4abs-_-an-introduction-to-the-religion-history-and-identity-of-the-leading-minority-in-syria-islamic-history-and-civilization.pdf |access-date=31 July 2016|ref=YFNAIRHI2010}}
* {{EI2 | last = Halm | first = Heinz | authorlink = Heinz Halm | title = Nuṣayriyya | volume = 8 | pages = 145–148 | url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0876}}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ixl3NcvAixAC&pg=PA20|title=The Plain of Saints and Prophets: The Nusayri-Alawi Community of Cilicia ... |first1=Gisela |last1=Procházka-Eisl |first2=Stephan |last2=Procházka |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |date= 11 August 2010|isbn=978-3-447-06178-0|ref=GPE2010}} RFWRfO2016
* {{cite book|last1=Worth|first1=Robert F.|title=A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS|date=2016|publisher=Pan Macmillan |page=82 |isbn=9780374710712|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PNOLCgAAQBAJ&pg=PP7|ref=RFWRfO2016}}
* {{cite book |last1=Winter |first1=Stefan |title=A History of the 'Alawis: From Medieval Aleppo to the Turkish Republic |date=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton and Oxford |isbn=9780691173894 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Suf-CwAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Al Marouf |first=Emil Abbas |title=History of Alawites in the Levant |publisher=Dar Al Amal & Al Salam |language=ar |year=2016 }}
== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{NIE Poster|year=1905|Ansaries}}
{{Islamic Theology|state=expanded|schools}}
{{Islam topics|state=collapsed}}
{{ghulat|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Alawites| ]]
[[Category:Arab ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Esoteric schools of thought]]
[[Category:Ethnoreligious groups in Asia]]
[[Category:Muslim ethnoreligious groups]]
[[Category:Islam in Syria]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Syria]]
[[Category:Islamic mysticism]]
[[Category:Ghulat sects]]
[[Category:Shia Islamic branches]]
[[Category:Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:Arab Muslims]]