Who Are the ‘Alawis?

The ‘Alawis are a relatively small but ancient ethnic identity group of obscure origins whose Ba’th political party-processed leaders—mainly, the Asads, both father and son—have ruled Syria for approximately 40 years. There are approximately 1.3 million Alawis of which about a million live in Latakia, a province in the northwest of Syria that includes coastline and rugged mountains that hug the Mediterranean coast between Turkey and Lebanon. The Alawis comprise 12 percent of the Syrian population but make up two-thirds of Latakia. The “ Alawi Mountains” are due north of the Lebanese Shuf Mountains in which another ancient ethnic identity group, the Druze, dwell (see “Who Are the Druze?” at http://www.semp.us/biots/biot_176.html.)

Map of Syria, note Alawi Mountains, Latakia, and Qurdaha (Asad’s birth place) in the upper left quadrant of map.
Source: Front material. Patrick Seale: “Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East.” University of California Press, 1988.

Map of Syria and Lebanon in 1923.
Source: http://unimaps.com/syria/syria-lebanon1923/. Accessed July 4, 2005

Wahib al-Ghanim, a medical doctor trained in Antioch and Damascus, brought the Ba’th party’s vision of pan-Arabism (ba’th means ‘renaissance’ of the Arabs) to Latakia where he eventually settled to practice medicine. Dr. Ghanim learned the Ba’th vision from a Sorbonne-educated ‘Alawi from Antioch named Zaki al-Arsuzi and a Greek Orthodox Christian from Damascus’ named Michel ‘Aflaq. Rounding out the group of young Ba’th revolutionaries was Salah al-Din Bitar, a Sunni Muslim also educated at the Sorbonne. Together these men enthralled an entire generation of ‘Alawis, but “their biggest catch was a strong, lively village boy from Qurdaha, then at school in Latakia”—Hafiz al-Asad—who, as a minority himself, fit well with the Ba’th commitment to a heavy minority emphasis. (1)

Syria : Slinfah (in Jabal an Nusayriyah Mts.) Photo © M.Rejzek. Source: http://www.uochb.cas.cz/~natur/cerambyx/syria.htm. Accessed July 4, 2005

Syria: Bludan NW Damascus, Anti-Lebanon Mountains, 33.44N 36.07E. Photo © M.Rejzek.Source: http://www.uochb.cas.cz/~natur/cerambyx/syria.htm. Accessed July 4, 2005

NASA satellite photo of Alawi country. Source:
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/QuickView.pl?directory=ESC&ID=ISS007-E-17789.
Accessed July 4, 2005.

Many people believe that Alawis are Muslims, but it is not that simple. For example, when Syria’s new constitution was published on January 31, 1973, protests erupted because the document omitted to stipulate that the president of the republic should be a Muslim. Hafiz al-Asad said no problem, and directed addition of the clause. However, the question was then posed whether as an ‘Alawi he could legitimately be called a Muslim. To resolve this dilemma, Asad appealed to an influential Shi’i cleric, the Imam Musa al-Sadr, head of the Higher Shi’i Council in Lebanon, who issued a fatwa or religious ruling that the ‘Alawis were indeed a community of Shi’i Islam. A religious barrier to Asad’s presidency was thus removed. (Seale, p. 173) ‘Alawis, according to Daniel Pipes, “have a long history of claiming Islam when this suits their needs and ignoring it at other times.” (2)

The opinion of some religious scholars who have scraped together rare ‘Alawi manuscripts differs from Imam Musa al-Sadr’s fatwa that ‘Alawis are a community of Shi’i Islam. The ‘Alawi faith is a clear example of religious syncretism, they say, as it “combines and fuses elements of cults and creeds of very disparate and remote origins. Among these are various pagan beliefs (residues of ancient Mesopotamian and Syrian cults), as well as Persian, Christian, Gnostic, and Muslim—both Sunni and Shia—religious precepts and practices. All these components have been brought together in a syncretistic religious system that has assumed a heterodox Shia garb.” (3) Why is so little known about the ‘Alawis? The main reason for the world’s fragmentary knowledge of the ‘Alawis faith is that “since its beginnings, it has always been the secret faith of a self-conscious elite that zealously guarded its sectarian literature,” according to the scholars.

Caricature of Hafiz al-Asad, ‘Alawi president of Syria 1971-2000. Source: Book cover of Patrick Seale’s “Asad,” University of California Press, 1988

Hafiz al-Asad’s ‘Alawi mother, Na’isa. Source: Patrick Seale’s “Asad,” University of California Press, 1988, photos following p. 278.

Hafiz al-Asad’s ‘Alawi father, ‘Ali Sulayman, a peasant who rose to become a minor notable. Source: Patrick Seale’s “Asad,” University of California Press, 1988, photos following p. 278.

The ‘Alawis before 1920 were known as Nusayris after Muhammad b. Nusyr, a devotee of the tenth and eleventh Shi’i Imama, ‘Ali al-Hadi (died A.D. 868) and Hasan al-Askari (died A.D. 873). The Nusayri moniker confirms ‘Alawis Shi’i roots but does not exclude the ‘Alawis’ other roots in the Phoenician pagan circles of Late Antiquity and, especially, ancient Syrian Christianity. ‘Alawis, for example, “celebrate many Christian festivals, including Christmas, New Year's, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Palm Sunday. They honor many Christian saints: St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. George, St. John the Baptist, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Mary Magdalene. The Arabic equivalents of such Christian personal names as Gabriel, John, Matthew, Catherine, and Helen, are in common use. And ‘Alawis tend to show more friendliness to Christians than to Muslims,” according to Pipes. (2)

Pipes further notes that the French, upon their seizure of Syria following World War I, imposed the name change from Nusayris to Alawis. Why did the French do this? Pipes posits, “Whereas ‘Nusayri’ emphasizes the group's differences from Islam [e.g., “Nusayri Christians”], ‘Alawi’ suggests an adherent of ‘Ali (the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) and accentuates the religion’s similarities to Shi’i Islam. Consequently, opponents of the Asad regime habitually use [Nusayri], while supporters of the regime use [Alawi].” ‘Alawi is the term that ‘Alawis (also called ‘Alawites) usually apply to themselves.” (2) By either name, ‘Alawis “perceive themselves as the unique and only true monotheistic faith, distinct form the rest of Islam, including the Shi’a. The Muslims, for their part, have generally tended to regard them as heretics, outside the Muslim fold.” (Bar-Asher & Kofsy, p. 2).

Pipes continues: “The specifics of the ‘Alawi faith are hidden not just from outsiders but even from the majority of the 'Alawis themselves. In contrast to Islam, which is premised on direct relations between God and the individual believer, ‘Alawism permits only males born of two ‘Alawi parents to learn the religious doctrines…‘Alawis…reject Islam’s sacred law, the Shari’a, and therefore indulge in all manner of activities that Islamic doctrine strictly forbids. ‘Alawis ignore Islamic sanitary practices, dietary restrictions, sexual mores, and religious rituals. Likewise, they pay little attention to the fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimage ceremonies of Islam; indeed, they consider the pilgrimage to Mecca a form of idol worship.

“…Most striking of all, ‘Alawis have no prayers or places of worship; indeed they have no religious structures other than tomb shrines. Prayers take place in private houses, usually those of religious leaders. The fourteenth-century traveler Ibn Battuta described how they responded to a government decree ordering the construction of mosques: ‘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.’ Five centuries later another attempt was made to build mosques for the ‘Alawis, this time by the Ottoman authorities; despite official pressure, these were deserted, abandoned even by the religious functionaries, and once again used as barns.” (2)

Editor’s Note: Hafiz Asad’s commitment to pan-Arabism was as deep as his loathing of pan-Islamism. As an ‘Alawi, his syncretistic religious background made him a halting leader: how could he attack ethnic identity groups with whom his people had ancient ties? As a Ba’thist, he desperately worked to keep Arab Christians (e.g., Lebanese Maronites) in the fold as much as Arab Sunnis—the point was to unite Arabs regardless of religious or ethnic background. The three exceptions to his way of thinking and leading was in relation to the radical fundamentalist Islamist Muslim Brothers, whom he despised and ruthlessly exterminated in Syria; to Israel, which consistently stood in the way of his vision for Arab unity; and to the United States, which supported Israel and wooed Egypt, thus confounding his belief in the possibility of Arab unity.

Sources:

1. Patrick Seale: “Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East,” University of California Press, 1988, p. 29.

2. Daniel Pipes: The Alawi Capture of Power in Syria, 1989. Available online at: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/191. Accessed July 4, 2005.

3. Meir M. Bar-Asher & Aryeh Kofsky: “The Nusayri-‘Alawi Religion,” Brill Press, 2002.