Millet System, The

The Millet System refers to the Ottoman administration of separate religious communities that acknowledged each community’s authority in overseeing its own communal affairs, primarily through independent religious court systems and schools.

Muhammad Amin al-Husayni

Muhammad Amin al-Husayni (1895-1974) was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (1921-1948) and a Palestinian nationalist leader who worked to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Al-Husayni attended the 1919 Pan-Syrian Congress in Damascus, where he supported the creation of a nationalist Syrian Arab state that would encompass Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine, then later went on to support an individual Palestinian state.

Sources

Michael Hall, “Haj Amin al-Husseini,” The Encyclopedia...

Mustafa al-Siba’i

Mustafa al-Siba’i (1915-1964) was a prominent Syrian politician who founded the Islamic Socialist Front in 1949, a political organization modeled after the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Educated at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, Siba’i served as Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Damascus University in 1940 and served in the Syrian Parliament from 1949-1951.

... Read more about Mustafa al-Siba’i

Protestant Christianity in Syria

American Protestant missionaries arrived in Syria in 1848 drawn to the Levant by the emotional resonance of the Holy Land, which figured prominently in American Protestant thought, and by a belief that the spread of American ideals could contribute to social progress in other nations. The early 19th century saw the Great Awakening, a Protestant American revivalist movement that spurred missionary work under the aegis of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).

Protestant missionaries in Syria were met with hostility from other...

Salafism in Syria

Contributed by Rachel Foran, MTS Student, Harvard Divinity School

Salafism (al-Salafiyya) is a global purist movement of Islamic reform, which seeks to regenerate Islam by a return to the doctrine of the salaf (pious forefathers; companions of the Prophet). Salafism is not a monolithic, homogenous movement. Although most Salafis share a consensus on what constitutes Islamic theology and Islamic law, within the movement exists a spectrum of views on how best to politically engage with society. Salafi political engagement is typically understood as having any...

Salah al-Din Bitar

Salah al-Din Bitar (1912-1980) was a Sunni Muslim Syrian politician who supported Arab nationalism. With Michel Aflaq, Bitar cofounded the Syrian Ba’ath Party.

Shi'ism in Syria

Ithna’ashari or Twelver Shi’a Muslims are the largest group of Shi’a Muslims worldwide. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Syrian Shi’a Muslims were marginalized among the pan-Arab nationalists, despite their involvement in the establishment of the Ba’ath Party and the political importance of the Alawis. Sunni opposition to the Ba’ath Party in Syria has emphasized sectarian differences, and views Syria...

Sufism in Syria

Sufism (tasawwuf) is an Islamic modality that emphasizes self-purification and the attainment of spiritually advanced states through the assumption of specific practices and disciplines, typically through affiliation with a particular brotherhood and its leader, a sheikh. Sufi practices, whether one is officially bound to a brotherhood or not, are widespread in Syria and include visiting the tombs of saints, members of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, or other revered figures and the recitation of litanies (dhikr).

The Naqshbandiyyah...

Syraic Orthodox Church, The

The Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes referred to as the Jacobite Church after the 6th century Monophysite Bishop Jacob Baradeus, traces its history to St. Peter’s establishment of his Holy See in Antioch, the capitol of the Roman province of Syria. The Church is presided over by the Patriarch of Antioch, located in Damascus. The majority of the community of Syriac Orthodox Christians exists today in Kerala, India, as an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church. The Syriac Orthodox Church maintains two...

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, The

The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (SMB) was established in 1945-46 by Mustafa al-Sibai, who had studied in Egypt in the 1930s where he grew close to Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and had participated in Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood political activities. The SMB was an...

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Syria

Millet System, The

Muhammad Amin al-Husayni

Mustafa al-Siba’i

Protestant Christianity in Syria

Salafism in Syria

Salah al-Din Bitar

Shi'ism in Syria

Sufism in Syria

Syraic Orthodox Church, The

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, The

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