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(Redirected from Alawis)
:''For the Alaouite dynasty of Morocco see: Alaouite Dynasty, for the former state now in Yemen see Alawi (sheikhdom)''
The 'Alawites' are a Middle Eastern sect of Shi'ite Islam[2][3] prominent in Syria. ''Alawī'' is not to be confused with ''Alevi'', a different religious sect based in Turkey, although they share the same etymology.
The Alawi take their name from Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, also the 4th and last "rightly guided Caliph" of Islam. The French recognized the term Alawī when they occupied Syria in 1920. Historically, the Alawites have been called ''Nusayrī''s (Arabic: نصيريون), ''Nasiriyya'', and ''Ansariyya''. The term ''Nusayriyya'' became one of insult, and they themselves preferred to be called ''Alawiyya'' to show their reverence for Ali.
As Alawites practise religious secrecy, they generally claim they are Muslims. This may be especially the case of the non-initiated. The following summarises their belief.
:The basic doctrine of 'Alawite faith is the deification of 'Ali.[4] They consider themselves to be moderate Shi'ites, not much different from the Twelvers.[5]
The origin of the Alawites is disputed. According to some sources, they were originally ''Nusayrīya'', a sect that was an off-shoot of Twelver Shiites in the 9th century. The Alawites trace their origins to the eleventh Shia Imam, Hasan al Askari (d.873), and his pupil Ibn Nusayr (d.868).[6] Ibn Nusayr proclaimed himself the ''Bāb'' "Door" (representative) of the 11th Imam. The sect seems to have been organised by a follower of Ibn Nusayr's known as al-Khasibi who died in Aleppo in about 969. Al-Khasibi's grandson al-Tabarani moved to Latakia on the Syrian coast. There he refined the Nusayrī religion and, with his pupils, converted much of the local population.
In the 10th century Alawites were established during the Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo, but they were driven out when the dynasty fell in 1004 . In 1097, Crusaders initially attacked them, but later allied with them against the Ismailis. In 1120 , the Alawites were defeated by the Ismailis and Kurds, but three years later, they fought the Kurds successfully. In 1297, the Ismailiyya and Alawiyya tried to negotiate a merger, but it came to nothing.
Today Alawites exist as a minority but politically powerful, religious sect in Syria. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Syria and Lebanon came under French mandate. The French gave autonomy to Alawites and other minority groups and accepted Alawites into their colonial troops. Under the mandate, many Alawite chieftains supported the notion of a separate Alawite 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 28 February, 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 Alawites, was given to Turkey by the French, greatly angering the Alawite community and Syrians in general. Zaki al-Arsuzi, the young Alawite leader from Antioch in Iskandarun (later named the Hatay by the Turks) 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, when the Alawite provinces were united with Syria, Alawite followers of Sulayman al-Murshid tried to resist integration. He was captured and hanged by the newly independent Syrian government in Damascus in 1946.
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 Alawite officers, including Hafez al-Assad and Salah Jadid, helped the Ba'th Party take power in 1963 . In 1966 , Alawite-oriented military officers successfully rebelled and expelled the old Ba'ath that had looked to (Christian) Michel Aflaq and (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. In 1971 , al-Assad became president of Syria, a function that the Constitution only allows a Muslim to embrace. Thence, in 1974 , Imam Musa Sadr, leader of Twelver Shi'ites of Lebanon and founder of the Amal Movement, was asked to proclaim that he accepted the Alawites as real Muslims. Under the dictatorial but secular Assad regime, religious minorities were tolerated, political dissent was not. During an uprising led by the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in 1982 in the city of Hama, perhaps 20,000 were killed by the Syrian military.
After the death of Hafez al-Assad in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad maintained the outlines of his father's regime. Although Alawites 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, but there is clear Alawite domination of the highest levels of power.
Theologically, Alawites today claim to be Twelver Shi'ites,[2] but traditionally they have been designated as "extremists" (Arabic: غلاة ''ghulat'') and outside the bounds of Islam by the Muslim mainstream for their high level of devotion to Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib.[8] They have only one holy book, the Qur'an, but insist that without knowledge of the family of Muhammad, the Qur'an cannot be properly interpreted. Alawites study the book of Prophet Mohammad’s 5th descendant, Jafar as-Sādiq (''Al-Hayfat aš-Šarīf''), which has been translated into French and printed.
The Alawite religion has many similarities to Isma'ilism. The Alawites believe Imam Ali is the true Successor of Muhammad as well as in esoteric reading of the Qur'an. Unlike Ismailis, Alawites regard Imam Aiī as the purpose of life and the divine knowledge of the prophet Muhammad. The Alawite catechism is expressed in the formula:
:I turn to the door of knowledge.
:In order for the father to provide me with a key;
:Thus receiving the reward which is the knowledge of Imam Ali.
An Alawite prays in a manner patterned after the shahada:
:I testify that there is no god but God; Muhammad is his messenger and Ali ibn Abi Talib is his ''wali'' "protector/ally".
Each World Age, of which there are Seven in total, has an incarnation of God within it. Each world age thus has a person who is the base (''asa'') and one who is the utterer (''natiq''). The ''asa''s are Adam, Alexander, Khidir, Jacob, David, and possibly Paul and then Sulayman. The ''natiq''s are Habeel, Noah, Jacob, Moses, Solomon, Christ, and Muhammad. The true prophet of the set will disappear and leave a deputy behind who will administer for him until he returns. This is similar to occultation.
Imam Ali, Muhammad, and a third entity, Salman the Persian are important to the faith. Respectively, they are called the Idea, the Name, and the Door (to god). In Sura 6 of the ''Mujma', one of their texts, it is stated, "I make for the Door, I prostrate myself before Allah, I worship the essence."
Alawites do not accept converts or openly publish their texts, which are passed down from scholar to scholar. The vast majority of Alawites [the "Ammah") know little about the contents of their sacred texts or theology, which are guarded by a small class of male initiates (the "Khassah").[9] For Initiation, a person must be at least 15 and cannot be a non-Alawite.[10] They believe in metempsychosis; the soul of the pious ascends to the starry heavens via a series of transformations. The less pious souls require more transformations.[11]
Because only one book has been translated, outsiders know little about Alawite theology. Hanna Batatu's last book has a short but reliable section on Alawite doctrine, theology, and recent debates within the community. How sincere is this rejection of ''bida'' "innovation"? There is no way to tell, but it has a long tradition within the community. The French tried to pressure leading Alawite shaykhs to declare Alawiyya a separate religion during the early 1920s, but they lost their battle because many religious leaders refused to do so. After all, Alawites declare themselves to be Muslims in their catechism and believe that Muhammad is God's messenger.
Alawites try to follow the prime example left by Ali. Ali lived out of the eye of the public. Like Ali, the Alawites are too called names and rejected by the common, like Ali, Alawites also keep to themselves, and like Ali, they say that they too "worship God in private and not for show".
Although Alawites recognize the five pillars of Islam, they do not believe that anyone has the privilege of practising them because they are too pure to be performed by "any" soul. Alawites believe that there is no back door entrance to the gates of heaven (i.e. follow the five pillars and you receive the keys to heaven). Instead they believe that one should devote his life the way that the prophet Muhammed would have permitted by following the example of Ali.
The insistence on conformism has brought rich political rewards—Alawites enjoy all the rights of Muslims in Syria. Nevertheless, Alawites have paid a steep price for political success and for a share of political power and equality in the nation.
Alawites who have speculated on the success are considerably more optimistic about the percentage of Syrians who considered them Muslim than are their Druze counterparts. Several claim that 50% of Syrians or more accepted them as Muslims. The reason Alawites give for their success is that they try harder than the Druze to be like orthodox Muslims and to assimilate to the textbook version of Islam.
Evidently, the Assads go to great lengths to make sure that the different sects are equally represented in low-rank military posts, just as they try to divvy out unsensitive government posts among the various religious and ethnic groups of Syria.
Traditionally, Alawites live in the mountains along the Mediterranean coast of Syria; Latakia and Tartous are the region's principal cities. Alawites are also concentrated in the plains around Hama and Homs. Today Alawites also live in all major cities of Syria. They were never estimated at more than 11% of the Syrian population (which would be about 2 million people if true today). Orthodox Twelver Shi'a comprise an additional 10% of the population.
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 tens of thousands who live in the Hatay, Adana, and Mersin provinces of southern Turkey, where they are still called ''Nusayrī'' in order not to confuse them with Alevis.
There are an estimated 100.000 [12] Alawites who live in Lebanon, where the Taif Agreement of 1989 gave them two reserved seats in the Parliament (Alawites are recognized as one of the 18 official Lebanese sects). They live mostly in Tripoli and small villages in Akkar.
There are about 2000 Alawites living in the village of Ghajar, split between Lebanon and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, alongside Druzes.
1. "Allawites 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 Allawite Union, a council of 600 members that are elected every four years."[1]
2. "In their mountainous corner of Syria, the Alawis claim to represent the furthest extension of Twelver Shi'ism." Syria’s Alawis and Shi‘ism, by Martin Kramer
3. "But outside Iraq, Arab leaders are talking of a Shia "Crescent" that will run from Iran through Iraq to Lebanon via Syria, whose Alawite leadership forms a branch of Shia Islam." This election will change the world. But not in the way the Americans imagined, by Robert Fisk, The Independent, 29 January 2005, hosted by the robert-fisk.com, retrieved 21 October 2006
4. "The basic doctrine of 'Alawite faith is the deification of 'Ali. He is one member of a trinity corresponding roughly to the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
5. [2]
6. "Among the more possible explanations is that the name is derived from that of Mahommed ibn Nusair, who was an Isma`ilite follower of the eleventh imam of the Shiites at the end of the 9th century. This view has been accepted by Nosairi writers, but they transfer Ibn Nusair to the 7th century and make him the son of the vizier of Moawiya I."
7. "In their mountainous corner of Syria, the Alawis claim to represent the furthest extension of Twelver Shi'ism." Syria’s Alawis and Shi‘ism, by Martin Kramer
8. Alawites of Lebanon - Project Joshua
9. "The 'Alawi community is divided into the "Khassah", the initiated religious leaders who learn the mysteries of the religion, and the ignorant majority called "'Ammah"."
10. "Religion is restricted among the Nosairis to the initiated, who must be adults over fifteen years of age and of Nosairi parentage."
11. "The Nosairis are believers in metempsychosis. The pious Nosairi takes his rank among the stars, but the body of the impious undergoes many transformations."
12. [3]
★ Alawite State
★ Ibn Nusayr
★ Kitab al Majmu
★ Hafez al-Assad
★ Alawis in Turkey
★ Gnosticism
★ Neo-Platonism
★ Druze
★ Alevi
★ Islamic Education in Syria by Joshua Landis
★ Nosairi
★ T.E. Lawrence on Syrians, including Nosaris/Alawites
★ Ibn Taymiyya's Fatwa against the Nosairi A .pdf file
★ Nusayri
:''For the Alaouite dynasty of Morocco see: Alaouite Dynasty, for the former state now in Yemen see Alawi (sheikhdom)''
The 'Alawites' are a Middle Eastern sect of Shi'ite Islam[2][3] prominent in Syria. ''Alawī'' is not to be confused with ''Alevi'', a different religious sect based in Turkey, although they share the same etymology.
The Alawi take their name from Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, also the 4th and last "rightly guided Caliph" of Islam. The French recognized the term Alawī when they occupied Syria in 1920. Historically, the Alawites have been called ''Nusayrī''s (Arabic: نصيريون), ''Nasiriyya'', and ''Ansariyya''. The term ''Nusayriyya'' became one of insult, and they themselves preferred to be called ''Alawiyya'' to show their reverence for Ali.
| Contents |
| Creed |
| History |
| Religion |
| Population |
| References |
| See also |
| External links |
Creed
As Alawites practise religious secrecy, they generally claim they are Muslims. This may be especially the case of the non-initiated. The following summarises their belief.
:The basic doctrine of 'Alawite faith is the deification of 'Ali.[4] They consider themselves to be moderate Shi'ites, not much different from the Twelvers.[5]
History
Alawite man in Latakia, early 20th century.
In the 10th century Alawites were established during the Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo, but they were driven out when the dynasty fell in 1004 . In 1097, Crusaders initially attacked them, but later allied with them against the Ismailis. In 1120 , the Alawites were defeated by the Ismailis and Kurds, but three years later, they fought the Kurds successfully. In 1297, the Ismailiyya and Alawiyya tried to negotiate a merger, but it came to nothing.
Today Alawites exist as a minority but politically powerful, religious sect in Syria. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Syria and Lebanon came under French mandate. The French gave autonomy to Alawites and other minority groups and accepted Alawites into their colonial troops. Under the mandate, many Alawite chieftains supported the notion of a separate Alawite 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 28 February, 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 Alawites, was given to Turkey by the French, greatly angering the Alawite community and Syrians in general. Zaki al-Arsuzi, the young Alawite leader from Antioch in Iskandarun (later named the Hatay by the Turks) 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, when the Alawite provinces were united with Syria, Alawite followers of Sulayman al-Murshid tried to resist integration. He was captured and hanged by the newly independent Syrian government in Damascus in 1946.
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 Alawite officers, including Hafez al-Assad and Salah Jadid, helped the Ba'th Party take power in 1963 . In 1966 , Alawite-oriented military officers successfully rebelled and expelled the old Ba'ath that had looked to (Christian) Michel Aflaq and (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. In 1971 , al-Assad became president of Syria, a function that the Constitution only allows a Muslim to embrace. Thence, in 1974 , Imam Musa Sadr, leader of Twelver Shi'ites of Lebanon and founder of the Amal Movement, was asked to proclaim that he accepted the Alawites as real Muslims. Under the dictatorial but secular Assad regime, religious minorities were tolerated, political dissent was not. During an uprising led by the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in 1982 in the city of Hama, perhaps 20,000 were killed by the Syrian military.
After the death of Hafez al-Assad in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad maintained the outlines of his father's regime. Although Alawites 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, but there is clear Alawite domination of the highest levels of power.
Religion
Theologically, Alawites today claim to be Twelver Shi'ites,[2] but traditionally they have been designated as "extremists" (Arabic: غلاة ''ghulat'') and outside the bounds of Islam by the Muslim mainstream for their high level of devotion to Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib.[8] They have only one holy book, the Qur'an, but insist that without knowledge of the family of Muhammad, the Qur'an cannot be properly interpreted. Alawites study the book of Prophet Mohammad’s 5th descendant, Jafar as-Sādiq (''Al-Hayfat aš-Šarīf''), which has been translated into French and printed.
The Alawite religion has many similarities to Isma'ilism. The Alawites believe Imam Ali is the true Successor of Muhammad as well as in esoteric reading of the Qur'an. Unlike Ismailis, Alawites regard Imam Aiī as the purpose of life and the divine knowledge of the prophet Muhammad. The Alawite catechism is expressed in the formula:
:I turn to the door of knowledge.
:In order for the father to provide me with a key;
:Thus receiving the reward which is the knowledge of Imam Ali.
An Alawite prays in a manner patterned after the shahada:
:I testify that there is no god but God; Muhammad is his messenger and Ali ibn Abi Talib is his ''wali'' "protector/ally".
Each World Age, of which there are Seven in total, has an incarnation of God within it. Each world age thus has a person who is the base (''asa'') and one who is the utterer (''natiq''). The ''asa''s are Adam, Alexander, Khidir, Jacob, David, and possibly Paul and then Sulayman. The ''natiq''s are Habeel, Noah, Jacob, Moses, Solomon, Christ, and Muhammad. The true prophet of the set will disappear and leave a deputy behind who will administer for him until he returns. This is similar to occultation.
Imam Ali, Muhammad, and a third entity, Salman the Persian are important to the faith. Respectively, they are called the Idea, the Name, and the Door (to god). In Sura 6 of the ''Mujma', one of their texts, it is stated, "I make for the Door, I prostrate myself before Allah, I worship the essence."
Alawite Sheikhs.
Because only one book has been translated, outsiders know little about Alawite theology. Hanna Batatu's last book has a short but reliable section on Alawite doctrine, theology, and recent debates within the community. How sincere is this rejection of ''bida'' "innovation"? There is no way to tell, but it has a long tradition within the community. The French tried to pressure leading Alawite shaykhs to declare Alawiyya a separate religion during the early 1920s, but they lost their battle because many religious leaders refused to do so. After all, Alawites declare themselves to be Muslims in their catechism and believe that Muhammad is God's messenger.
Alawites try to follow the prime example left by Ali. Ali lived out of the eye of the public. Like Ali, the Alawites are too called names and rejected by the common, like Ali, Alawites also keep to themselves, and like Ali, they say that they too "worship God in private and not for show".
Although Alawites recognize the five pillars of Islam, they do not believe that anyone has the privilege of practising them because they are too pure to be performed by "any" soul. Alawites believe that there is no back door entrance to the gates of heaven (i.e. follow the five pillars and you receive the keys to heaven). Instead they believe that one should devote his life the way that the prophet Muhammed would have permitted by following the example of Ali.
The insistence on conformism has brought rich political rewards—Alawites enjoy all the rights of Muslims in Syria. Nevertheless, Alawites have paid a steep price for political success and for a share of political power and equality in the nation.
Alawites who have speculated on the success are considerably more optimistic about the percentage of Syrians who considered them Muslim than are their Druze counterparts. Several claim that 50% of Syrians or more accepted them as Muslims. The reason Alawites give for their success is that they try harder than the Druze to be like orthodox Muslims and to assimilate to the textbook version of Islam.
Evidently, the Assads go to great lengths to make sure that the different sects are equally represented in low-rank military posts, just as they try to divvy out unsensitive government posts among the various religious and ethnic groups of Syria.
Population
Group of Alawite women in traditional costumes, Syria, 1920s.
Two Alawites around the turn of the last century.
Traditionally, Alawites live in the mountains along the Mediterranean coast of Syria; Latakia and Tartous are the region's principal cities. Alawites are also concentrated in the plains around Hama and Homs. Today Alawites also live in all major cities of Syria. They were never estimated at more than 11% of the Syrian population (which would be about 2 million people if true today). Orthodox Twelver Shi'a comprise an additional 10% of the population.
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 tens of thousands who live in the Hatay, Adana, and Mersin provinces of southern Turkey, where they are still called ''Nusayrī'' in order not to confuse them with Alevis.
There are an estimated 100.000 [12] Alawites who live in Lebanon, where the Taif Agreement of 1989 gave them two reserved seats in the Parliament (Alawites are recognized as one of the 18 official Lebanese sects). They live mostly in Tripoli and small villages in Akkar.
There are about 2000 Alawites living in the village of Ghajar, split between Lebanon and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, alongside Druzes.
References
1. "Allawites 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 Allawite Union, a council of 600 members that are elected every four years."[1]
2. "In their mountainous corner of Syria, the Alawis claim to represent the furthest extension of Twelver Shi'ism." Syria’s Alawis and Shi‘ism, by Martin Kramer
3. "But outside Iraq, Arab leaders are talking of a Shia "Crescent" that will run from Iran through Iraq to Lebanon via Syria, whose Alawite leadership forms a branch of Shia Islam." This election will change the world. But not in the way the Americans imagined, by Robert Fisk, The Independent, 29 January 2005, hosted by the robert-fisk.com, retrieved 21 October 2006
4. "The basic doctrine of 'Alawite faith is the deification of 'Ali. He is one member of a trinity corresponding roughly to the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
5. [2]
6. "Among the more possible explanations is that the name is derived from that of Mahommed ibn Nusair, who was an Isma`ilite follower of the eleventh imam of the Shiites at the end of the 9th century. This view has been accepted by Nosairi writers, but they transfer Ibn Nusair to the 7th century and make him the son of the vizier of Moawiya I."
7. "In their mountainous corner of Syria, the Alawis claim to represent the furthest extension of Twelver Shi'ism." Syria’s Alawis and Shi‘ism, by Martin Kramer
8. Alawites of Lebanon - Project Joshua
9. "The 'Alawi community is divided into the "Khassah", the initiated religious leaders who learn the mysteries of the religion, and the ignorant majority called "'Ammah"."
10. "Religion is restricted among the Nosairis to the initiated, who must be adults over fifteen years of age and of Nosairi parentage."
11. "The Nosairis are believers in metempsychosis. The pious Nosairi takes his rank among the stars, but the body of the impious undergoes many transformations."
12. [3]
See also
★ Alawite State
★ Ibn Nusayr
★ Kitab al Majmu
★ Hafez al-Assad
★ Alawis in Turkey
★ Gnosticism
★ Neo-Platonism
★ Druze
★ Alevi
External links
★ Islamic Education in Syria by Joshua Landis
★ Nosairi
★ T.E. Lawrence on Syrians, including Nosaris/Alawites
★ Ibn Taymiyya's Fatwa against the Nosairi A .pdf file
★ Nusayri
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