Сириядағы Алауиттер діні

Sect centred in Syria

The Alawites, also known as Nusayrites, are an Arab ethnoreligious group that live primarily in the Levant and follow Alawism, a religious sect that splintered from early Shi'ism as a ghulat branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, revered as the first Imam in the Twelver school, as the physical manifestation of God. The group was founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century. 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. Surveys suggest Alawites represent an important portion of the 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. Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast, which are also inhabited by Sunnis, Christians, and Ismailis. They are often confused with the Alevis, a distinct religious sect in Turkey. Alawites identify as a separate ethnoreligious group. 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 the consumption of alcoholic drinks on its adherents. As a creed that teaches the symbolic/esoteric reading of Qur'anic verses, Nusayrite theology is based on the belief in reincarnation and views Ali as a divine incarnation of God. Moreover, Alawite clergy and scholarship insist that their religion is also theologically distinct from Shi'ism. 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). However, since the early 2000s, Western scholarship on the Nusayrite religion has made significant advances. 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 emanations underwent 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. 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. 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. French recruited a large number of minorities into their armed forces and created exclusive areas for minorities, including the Alawite State. Alawite State was later dismantled, but the Alawites continued to play a significant role in the Syrian military and later in the Ba'ath Party. Since Hafiz al Assad's seizure of power during the 1970 coup; the Ba'athist state has enforced Assadist ideology amongst Alawites to supplant their traditional identity. During the Syrian revolution, communal tensions were further exacerbated, as the country was destabilized into a full scale civil war.

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." Alawites historically self identified as Nusayrites, after their religious founder Ibn Nusayr al Numayri. 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. The French also popularised the new term by officially categorising them as "Alawites." 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. 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: "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 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)." The Alawites are distinct from the Alevi religious sect in Turkey, although the terms share a common etymology and pronunciation.

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. The Alawites were later organised during 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. 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. 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. 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 period (1260s–1516). 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. They even incorporated them within their ranks, along with the Maronites and Turcopoles. Two prominent Alawite leaders in the following centuries, credited with uplifting the group, were Shaykhs al Makzun (d. 1240) and al Tubani (d. 1300), both originally from Mount Sinjar in modern Iraq.

During the reign of Sultan Selim I, of the Ottoman Empire, the Alawites would again experience significant persecution; 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" (مجزرة التلل) in which the corpses of thousands of victims accumulated as a tell located west of the castle. Unreliable source: date=June 2022 The horrors of the massacre which caused the immigration of the survivors to the coastal region are documented at the National and University Library in Strasbourg. The Ottoman Empire took aggressive actions against Alawites, due to their alleged "treacherous activities" as "they had a long history of betraying the Muslim governments due to their mistrust towards Sunnis." 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:
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. 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." Some Alawites supported Ottoman involvement in the Egyptian Ottoman Wars of 1831–1833 and 1839–1841, and had careers in the Ottoman army or as Ottoman governors. 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. 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. The 19th century historian Elias Saleh 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." By the 1870s, Alawite bandits were impaled on spikes and left on crossroads as a warning, according to the historian Joshua Landis. Early in the 20th century, the mainly Sunni Ottoman leaders were bankrupt and losing political power; the Alawites were poor peasants.

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. 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 Syrian Revolt of 1919. 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. 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 microstates, such as Greater Lebanon for the Maronite Christians and Jabal al Druze for the Druze. Aleppo and Damascus were also separate states. Under the Mandate, many Alawite 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. 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. 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, However, according to Associate Professor Stefan Winter, this letter is a forgery. 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. 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. In 1939, the Sanjak of Alexandretta (now Hatay) contained a large number of Alawites. The Hatayan land was given to Turkey by the French after a League of Nations 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 and Armenian population. Before this, the Alawite Arabs and Armenians comprised most of the province's population. Robert D. Kaplan compared Hafez al Assad's coming to power to "an untouchable becoming maharajah 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." In 1974, to satisfy this constitutional requirement, 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) issued a fatwa that Alawites were a community of Twelver Shiite Muslims. Throughout the 1970 ‘s the Muslim Brotherhood led anti Ba'athist Islamic revolts, culminating in the 1982 Hama massacre.

After the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, 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'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. Some have claimed many Alawite loyalists fear a negative outcome for the government may result in an existential threat to their community. In May 2013, pro opposition SOHR stated that out of 94,000 Syrian regime soldiers killed during the war, at least 41,000 were Alawites. Reports estimate that up to a third of 250,000 young Alawite men of fighting age has been killed in the conflict by 2015, due to being disproportionately sent to fight in the frontlines by the Assad government. In April 2017, a pro opposition source claimed 150,000 young Alawites had died. Another report estimates that around 100,000 Alawite youths were killed in combat by 2020. Many Alawites feared significant danger during the Syrian Civil War; particularly from Islamic groups who were a part of the opposition, though denied by secular opposition factions. Alawites have also been wary of the increased Iranian influence in Syria since in the Syrian civil war, viewing it as a threat to their long term survival due to 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.

Alawites and their beliefs have been described as "secretive"); some tenets of the faith are kept secret from most Alawi and known only to a select few, they have therefore been described as a mystical sect. Alawite doctrines originated from the teachings of Iraqi priest Muhammad ibn Nusayr who claimed Prophethood and declared himself as the "Bāb (door) of the 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 Coastal Mountains of Syria wherein they established a distinct community. Nusayri creed views Ali 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." Alawite beliefs have never been confirmed by their modern religious authorities. As a highly secretive and esoteric sect, Nusayri religious priests tend to conceal their core doctrines, which are only introduced to a chosen minority of the sect's adherents. Alawites have also adopted the practice of taqiya to avoid victimization.

Alawite doctrine incorporates elements of Phoenician mythology, Gnosticism, neo Platonism, Christian Trinitarianism (for example, they celebrate Mass including the consecration of bread and wine); blending them with Muslim symbolism and has, therefore, been described as syncretic. Due to their esoteric doctrines of strict secrecy, conversions into the community were also forbidden. Alawites do not believe in daily Muslim prayers (salah). The central tenet of Nusayrite creed is their belief of Ali ibn Abi Talib being an incarnation of God. Nusayrite testimony of faith translates as "There is no God but Ali."

Other beliefs and practices include: the consecration of wine in a secret form of Mass performed only by males; frequently being given Christian names; entombing the dead in sarcophagi above ground; observing Epiphany, Christmas and the feast days of John Chrysostom and Mary Magdalene; the only religious structures they have are the shrines of tombs; the book Kitab al Majmu, which is allegedly a central source of Alawite doctrine, where they have their own trinity, comprising Mohammed, Ali, and Salman the Persian. as it means "Igniting the Fire" in Syriac language. Akitu,

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. It's also worth noting that the grand mosque in Qerdaha , the hometown of Asad family, being dedicated to Abubakr Assediq who is venerated by Sunnis but not Shi'is.

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. Before the 1967 Arab Israeli War, the residents of Ghajar were counted in the 1960 Syrian census. 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. However, according to Al Marsad, Alawites were forced to undergo a process of naturalisation. Before the 1967 war, Alawites in the Golan Heights lived mainly in three northern villages, 'Ayn Fit, Za'ura and Ghajar.

To avoid confusion with the ethnic Turkish and Kurdish Alevis, the Alawites call themselves Arap Alevileri ("Arab Alevis") in 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 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 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. The exact number of Alawites in Turkey is unknown; there were 185,000 in 1970. As Muslims, they are not recorded separately from Sunnis. In the 1965 census (the last Turkish census where informants were asked about their mother tongue), 185,000 people in the three provinces declared their mother tongue as Arabic; however, Arabic speaking Sunnis and 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 accents and vocabulary. Knowledge of the Arabic alphabet is confined to religious leaders and men who have worked or studied in 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 patrilineal groups) is discouraged. Alawites, like Alevis, have strong 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. Most Alawites feel oppressed by the policies of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Turkey (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı).

There are an estimated 150,000 Alawites in Lebanon, where they have lived since at least the 16th century. 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 and in 10 villages in the Akkar District, and are represented by the Arab Democratic Party. Their Mufti is Sheikh Assad Assi. The Bab al Tabbaneh–Jabal Mohsen conflict between pro Syrian Alawites and anti Syrian Sunnis has affected Tripoli for decades.

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.