Alawites
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Alawis, also rendered as Alawites are a sect of the Ghulat branch of Shia Islam, primarily centred in Syria. The eponymously-named Alawites revere Ali (Ali ibn Abi Talib), considered the first Imam of the Twelver school. However, they are generally considered to be ghulat by Shia Islam.
The group is believed to have been founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century and fully established as a religion. For this reason, Alawites are sometimes called Nusayris (Template:Lang-ar Nuṣayrīyyah), though the term has come to be used as a pejorative in the modern era. Another name, "Ansari" (Template:Lang-ar Anṣāriyyah), is believed to be a mistransliteration of "Nusayri".
Today, according to Mehrdad Izady, Alawites represent 17,2 percent of the Syrian population, an increase from 11,8 percent in 2010 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. They are often confused with the Alevis of Turkey. Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast which are also inhabited by Sunnis, Christians, and Ismailis.
Alawites identify as a separate ethnoreligious group. The Qur'an is only one of their holy books and texts, and their interpretation thereof has very little in common with the Muslim interpretation but in accordance with the early Batiniyya and other Muslim ghulats sects. Alawite theology and rituals break from mainstream Islam in several remarkable ways. For one the Alawites drink wine as Ali's transubstantiated essence in their rituals; while other Muslims abstain from alcohol, Alawites are encouraged to drink socially in moderation. Finally, they also believe in reincarnation. 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 Alawite religion has made significant advances. At the core of Alawite belief is a divine triad, comprising three aspects of the one God. These aspects, or emanations, appear cyclically in human form throughout history.
The establishment of the French Mandate of Syria marked a turning point in Alawi history. It gave the French the power to recruit Syrian civilians into their armed forces for an indefinite period and created exclusive areas for minorities, including an Alawite State. The Alawite State was later dismantled, but the Alawites continued to be a significant part of the Syrian Armed Forces. Since Hafez al-Assad took power through the 1970 Corrective Movement, the government has been dominated by a political elite led by the Alawite Al-Assad family. During the Islamist uprising in Syria in the 1970s and 1980s, the establishment came under pressure. Even greater pressure has resulted from the Syrian Civil War.
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