12 Facts About Alawite

At the core of Alawite belief is a divine triad, comprising three aspects of the one God.

Many prominent Alawite tribes are descended from 13th century settlers from Sinjar.

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.

Alawite's forces entered al-Ali's village of Al-Shaykh Badr, arresting many Alawi leaders; however, Al-Ali fled to the north.

Under the Mandate, many Alawite chieftains supported a separate Alawite nation, and tried to convert their autonomy into independence.

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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.

Nevertheless, on 3 December 1936 the Alawite State was re-incorporated into Syria as a concession by the French to the National Bloc.

Alawite was executed by the Syrian government in Damascus on 12 December 1946, only three days after a political trial.

In 1966, Alawite-affiliated military officers successfully rebelled and expelled the Ba'ath Party old guard followers of Greek Orthodox Christian Michel Aflaq and Sunni Muslim Salah ad-Din al-Bitar, calling Zaki al-Arsuzi the "Socrates" of the reconstituted Ba'ath Party.

In 1970, Air Force General Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, took power and instigated a "Corrective Movement" in the Ba'ath Party.

In 2022, a professor in the opposition-founded Idlib University performed a speech in which he expressed negative views on the ethnoreligious minority saying "the Alawite sect has only been able to produce violent mercenaries", claiming there are no scientists or intellectuals descending from the minority.

Alawite beliefs have never been confirmed by their modern religious authorities.