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For the Alaouite dynasty of Morocco see: Alaouite Dynasty, for the former state now in Yemen see Alawi (sheikhdom)

Alawi

Alawi falconer in Banyas, Syria, during World War II.
Total population
More than 2 million
Founder
Ibn Nuṣayr
Regions with significant populations
Syria	About 1.35 million
Lebanon	An estimated 100.000
Turkey	Tens of thousands, in regions that were formerly part of Syria
Golan Heights	About 2000 live in Ghajar, a Syrian village under Israeli occupation in the Golan Heights
Australia	There is a considerable Alawi community in Australia, but the exact number is unclear
Religions
Shia Islam
Scriptures
Qur'an, Kitab al Majmu
Languages
Arabic, Turkish

Part of a series on Shia Islam
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The Alawis (Template:Lang-ar‘Alawīyyah) — also known as Nuṣayrī (Template:Lang-ar), an-Naṣīriyyah, and al-Anṣāriyyah, or in English as Alawites — are a ethnoreligious group, a prominent minority in Syria, that describe themselves as a sect of Shī‘ah Islam. Alawi are distinct from Alevi religious sect based in Turkey, although they share the same etymology, and may share a common origin.

The Alawis take their name from ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, cousin and son-in-law of Muḥammad, who was the first Shi'a Imam and the 4 and last "Rightly Guided Caliph" of Sunni Islam. There are four Alawi confederations — Kalbiyah, Khaiyatin, Haddadin, and Matawirah — each divided into tribes. Alawis are concentrated in the Latakia region of Syria, extending north to Antioch (Antakya), Turkey, and with pockets in and around or in Hims and Hama.

History

The origin of the Alawis is disputed. Some believe Alawis appear to be descendants of people who lived in this region at the time of Alexander the Great. The Alawis themselves trace their origins to the eleventh Imām, Hassan al-‘Askarī (d. 873), and his pupil ibn Nuṣayr (d. 868).

The sect seems to have been organised by a follower of Muḥammad ibn Nuṣayr known as al-Khasibi, who died in Aleppo in about 969. Al-Khasibi's grandson, al-Tabarani, moved to Latakia on the Syrian coast. Under the Ottoman Empire they were badly treated and resisted an attempt to convert them to Sunni Islam. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Syria and Lebanon came under French mandate. The French recognized the term "Alawi" when they occupied Syria in 1920. The French gave autonomy to the Alawi and other minority groups and accepted them into their colonial troops. Under the mandate, many Alawi chieftains supported the notion of a separate Alawi nation and tried to convert their autonomy into independence. A territory of "Alaouites" was created in 1925. In May 1930, the Government of Latakia was created; it lasted until February 28, 1937, when it was incorporated into Syria.

In 1939, a portion of northwest Syria, the Sanjak of Alexandretta, now Hatay, that contained a large number of Alawis, was given to Turkey by the French, greatly angering the Alawi community and Syrians in general. Zaki al-Arsuzi, the young Alawi leader from Iskandarun province in the Sanjak of Alexandretta, who led the resistance to the annexation of his province to the Turks, later became a founder of the Ba'ath Party along with the Eastern Orthodox Christian schoolteacher Michel Aflaq. After World War II, Salman Al Murshid played a major role in uniting the Alawi province with Syria. He was executed by the newly independent Syrian government in Damascus on December 12, 1946 only three days after a hasty political trial.

Syria became independent on April 16, 1946. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Syria endured a succession of military coups in 1949, the rise of the Ba'th Party, and unification of the country with Egypt in the United Arab Republic in 1958. The UAR lasted for three years and broke apart in 1961, when a group of army officers seized power and declared Syria independent again. A further succession of coups ensued until a secretive military committee, which included a number of disgruntled Alawi officers, including Hafez al-Assad and Salah Jadid, helped the Ba'th Party take power in 1963. In 1966, Alawi-oriented military officers successfully rebelled and expelled the old Ba'ath that had looked to the Christian Michel Aflaq and the Sunni Muslim Salah al-Din al-Bitar for leadership. They promoted Zaki al-Arsuzi as the "Socrates" of their reconstituted Ba'ath Party.

In 1970, then-Air Force Colonel Hafez al-Assad took power and instigated a "Correctionist Movement" in the Ba'ath Party. His coming to power has been compared to "an untouchable becoming maharajah in India or a Jew becoming tsar in Russia — an unprecedented development shocking to the majority population which had monopolized power for so many centuries."

In 1971, al-Assad became president of Syria, a function that the Constitution allows only a Muslim to hold. Then, in 1974, Musa Sadr, leader of the Twelvers of Lebanon and founder of the Amal Movement, proclaimed that ‘Alawīs are Twelvers. Under the dictatorial but secular Assad regime, religious minorities were tolerated, political dissent was not.

After the death of Hafez al-Assad in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad maintained the outlines of his father's regime. Although the Alawis predominate among the top military and intelligence offices, the civilian government and national economy is largely led by Sunnis, who represent about 70% of Syria's population. The Assad regime is careful to allow all of the religious sects a share of power and influence in the government. Today the Alawis exist as a minority but politically powerful sect in Syria.

Beliefs of the Alawis

Alawis are self-described Shi'i Muslims, and have been called Shia by other sources including the highly infuential Lebanese Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr of Lebanon. On the other hand, conservative Sunnis do not always recognize Alawi as Muslims. At least one source has compared them to Bah'is, Babis, Bektashis, Qadiyanis, and "similar groups that have arisen within the Muslim community," and declared that "it has always been the consensus of the Muslim Ulama, both Sunni and Shi'i, that the Nusairi are kuffar and mushrikun ."

Heterodox

Many of the tenets of the faith are secret and known only to a select few Alawi. In the 19th and 20th centuries, however, an Alawite named Sulaiman al-Adni converted to Christianity and compiled a book called Al-Bakurah as-Suliamaniya fi Kashf Asrar ad-Diyanah an-Nusairiyah (The First Fruits of Sulaiman in Revealing the Secrets of the Nusairi Religion) in 1863. Orientalists like Louis Massignon gained access to a number of Nusairi manuscripts.

Until fairly recently Alawis were referred to as "Nusairis", named after Abu Shu'ayb Muhammad ibn Nusayr (d. ca 270 h, 863 AD) who is reported to have attended the circles of the last three Imams of the prophet Muhammad's line. He proclaimed himself the Bab (door; that is the sole means of access to the esoteric knowledge of the Imam in the Imam's absence), a prophet (nabi) and Messengers of Islam (rasul). According to a hostile source, the term "`Alawi" was first used by Western scholars in the nineteenth century. In September 1920, French occupational forces instituted the policy of referring to them by the term "`Alawi". Nusiris have allegedly "generally preferred" to be called `Alawis, because of its association with `Ali ibn Abi Talib, rather than Abu Shuaib Muhammad Ibn Nausir.

Orthodox

Some sources have suggested that the non-Muslim nature of many of the historical Alawi beliefs notwithstanding, Alawi beliefs may have changed in recent decades. In the early 1970s a booklet entitled al-`Alwaiyyun Shi'atu Ahl al-Bait (The Alawis are Followers of the Household of the Prophet), was issued in which doctrines of the Imami Shi'ah were described as 'Alawi, and which was "signed by of numerous `Alawi` men of religion". This book and Musa Sadr's proclamation have led one scholar to wonder whether "a mass conversion from Nusairism to Shi'ah Islam" has taken place. Another scholar suggests that factors such as the high profile of Alawi in Syria, the strong aversion of the Muslim majority to apostacy, and the relative lack of importance of religious doctrine to Alawi identity may have induced Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad and his sucessor son to press their fellow Alawi "to behave like "`regular Muslims`, shedding or at least concealing their distinctive aspects."

Alawis have their own scholars, referred to as shaikhs, although more recently there has been a movement to bring Alawism and the other branches of Twelver Islam together through educational exchange programs in Syria and Qumm.

Population

Traditionally Alawis live in the mountains along the Mediterranean coast of Syria. Latakia and Tartous are the region's principal cities. Alawis are also concentrated in the plains around Hama and Homs. They were divided into four confederations — Kalbiyah, Khaiyatin, Haddadin, and Matawirah — each divided into tribes.

Today, Alawis also live in all major cities of Syria. They were never estimated as more than 20% of the Syrian population (which would be about 3 million people if true today).

Before 1953, they had reserved seats in the Syrian Parliament, like all other religious communities. After that, including for the 1960 census, there were only general Muslim and Christian categories, without mention of subgroups in order to reduce "communalism" (taïfiyya).

There are an estimated 100,000 Alawis in Lebanon, where they are recognized as 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 the Parliament. Lebonese Alawis live mostly in Tripoli and small villages in Akkar.

There are 2 million Alawis who live in the Hatay, Adana and Mersin provinces of Southern Turkey.

There are also about 2000 Alawis living in the village of Ghajar, split between Lebanon and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, alongside Druze.

References

1. ^ Alawi Islam
2. "Tharwa Project". The Alawis have been present in modern-day Lebanon since the 16th century and are estimated to number 100,000 today, mostly in Akkar and Tripoli. The sect is managed through the Islamic Alawi Union, a council of 600 members that are elected every four years.
3. "CIA - The World Factbook - Syria".
4. ' "Alawi Islam". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2008-05-31. Their prayer book, the source of religious instruction, is the Kitāb al-Majmu, believed to be derived from Ismā'īlī writings. Alawis study the Qur'ān and recognize the five pillars of Islam, which they interpret in a wholly allegorical sense to fit community tenets.
5. Kramer, Martin. "Syria's Alawis and Shi'ism". In their mountainous corner of Syria, the 'Alawī claim to represent the furthest extension of Twelver Shi'ism.
6. Fisk, Robert. "This election will change the world. But not in the way the Americans imagined". The Independent UK. Retrieved 2006-10-21. But outside Iraq, Arab leaders are talking of a Shia "Crescent" that will run from Iran through Iraq to Lebanon via Syria, whose Alawi leadership forms a branch of Shia Islam.
7. Kaplan, Robert (1993-02). "Syria: Identity Crisis". TheAtlantic.com. The term "'Alawī" means "follower of Ali," the martyred son-in-law of Mohammed who is venerated by millions of Shi'ites in Iran and elsewhere. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. Encyclopaedia Britannica
9. "Alawi Islam in the 11 Encyclopædia Brittanica". 1911. Among the more possible explanations is that the name is derived from that of Muhommed ibn Nusair, who was an Isma'ilite follower of the eleventh imam of the Shiites at the end of the 9 century. This view has been accepted by Nosairi writers, but they transfer Ibn Nusair to the 7 century and make him the son of the vizier of Moawiya I.
10. Seale, Patrick. Asad Of Syria : The Struggle For The Middle East / Patrick Seale With The Assistance Of Maureen McConville. Seale, Patrick. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1989, c1988.
11. ^ Kaplan, Robert (1993-02). "Syria: Identity Crisis". TheAtlantic.com. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. Kaplan, Robert (1993-02). "Syria: Identity Crisis". TheAtlantic.com. But the coup of 1970, which brought an Alawi air force officer, Hafez al-Assad, to power, was what finally ended the instability that had reigned in Syria since the advent of independence. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. ^ Kaplan, Robert (1993-02). "Syria: Identity Crisis". TheAtlantic.com. Today, those Muslims called Alawīs are brothers of those Shi'ites called Mutawallis by the malicious. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. Kramer, Martin. "Syria's Alawis and Shi'ism". In their mountainous corner of Syria, the 'Alawī claim to represent the furthest extension of Twelver Shi'ism.
15. Fisk, Robert. "This election will change the world. But not in the way the Americans imagined". The Independent UK. Retrieved 2006-10-21. But outside Iraq, Arab leaders are talking of a Shia "Crescent" that will run from Iran through Iraq to Lebanon via Syria, whose Alawi leadership forms a branch of Shia Islam.
16. ^ Abd-Allah, Umar F., Islamic Struggle in Syria, Berkeley : Mizan Press, c1983, p.43-48
17. al-Askari, As-Sayyid Abdul-Hussain Mahdi Al Alawiyun aw an-Nusairiyun n.p. 1400/1980, p.7, 28,32, 43, 58]
18. Rubin, Barry, The Truth about Syria, by Barry Rubin, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, p.49
19. http://www.tharwaproject.com/node/2127 TDS (dead link)

External links

• Islamic Education in Syria by Joshua Landis
• Nosairi
• T. E. Lawrence on Syrians, including Nosaris/’Alawīs
• Ibn Taymiyya's Fatwa against the Nosairi A .pdf file
• Nusayri

• Islamic sects
• Shi'a Islam
• Ethnoreligious groups
• Arab groups
• Alawites
• Esoteric schools of thought
• Islamic mysticism
• Fertile Crescent