Alawites, considered disbelievers by classical Sunni and Shi'ite theologians, faced periods of subjugation or persecution under various Muslim empires such as the Ottomans, Abbasids, Mamluks, and others. The establishment of the French Mandate of Syria in 1920 marked a turning point in Alawite history.

Jan 16, 2025 · An Alawite is any member of a minority esoteric sect of Islam living chiefly in Syria. The Assad family that ruled Syria from 1971 to 2024 are Alawites and made the community politically dominant there.

Jan 6, 2025 · Alawites in Syria are facing a violent backlash, stoking fears of wider sectarian instability in a divided Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.

Dec 29, 2017 · How did a minor and historically secretive sect of Islam, the Alawites, come to rule Syria, and what do they believe? International Review contributor Chris Gentry explores the religious and historical background of Syria's ruling class.

Jan 23, 2025 · Alawites served as the backbone of the former government’s military and intelligence command, but as a new Syria takes shape, the country’s largest minority group is struggling with its...

Dec 31, 2024 · For more than half a century, the fate of Syria’s Alawites was linked to their coreligionists and patrons in the Assad family. In 2011, their solidarity with Bashar al-Assad’s regime enabled him to hold off the rebellion and preserve his tottering rule until Russia intervened in …

The Alawites, also known as Alawis (ʿAlawīyyah Arabic: عَلَوِيَّةٌ) are an Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant particularly in the coastal regions or the areas near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Alawism is a sect which branched out …

Jul 30, 2019 · Alawites are not to be confused with Alevis, a Turkish Muslim minority. A majority of Syrians belong to Sunni Islam, as do almost 90% of all Muslims in the world. Historical Alawite heartlands lie in the mountainous hinterland of Syria’s Mediterranean coast in the country’s west, next to the coastal city of Latakia.

Alawites, considered disbelievers by classical Sunni and Shi'ite theologians, faced periods of subjugation or persecution under various Muslim empires such as the Ottomans, Abbasids, Mamluks, and others. The establishment of the French Mandate of Syria in 1920 marked a turning point in Alawite history.

Only about 10 to 12 percent of the population, Alawites are a minority within Syria’s Shia minority, and their heterodox faith differs greatly from mainstream Islam. But because its secret tenets...