History of Syria

The history of the region now known as Syria:

• Prehistory and Ancient Near East: see Pre-history of the Southern Levant, Fertile Crescent, Ebla, Mitanni
• Antiquity: see Syro-Hittite states, Greater Syria, Roman Syria
• Middle Ages: see Muslim conquest of Syria, Umayyad Caliphate, Seljuk Empire, County of Edessa, Principality of Antioch, Mongol invasions of Syria, Ilkhanate, Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
• Early Modern era: see Ottoman Syria
• Modern era: see French Mandate of Syria, Modern history of Syria (1946 to present)

Prehistory

See also: Pre-history of the Southern Levant, Ancient Near East, Fertile Crescent, and Ebla

Since approximately 10 000 BC Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture (PPNA) where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period (PPNB) is represented by rectangular houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic people used vessels made of stone, gyps and burnt lime (Vaiselles blanches). Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations.

Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age.

Female figurine, Syria, 5000 BC. Ancient Orient Museum.

Archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth. Around the excavated city of Ebla in northern Syria, an Italian mission led by Prof. Paolo Matthiae discovered in 1975 a great Semitic empire, spread from the Red Sea north to Turkey and east to Mesopotamia from 2500 to 2400 BCE. Ebla appears to have been founded around 3000 BCE and gradually built its empire through trade with the cities of Sumer and Akkad, as well as with peoples to the northwest. Gifts from Pharaoh found during excavations confirm Ebla's contact with Egypt. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be among the oldest known written Semitic languages. The Eblaite civilization was likely conquered by Sargon of Akkad around 2260 BCE; the city was restored as the nation of the Amorites a few centuries later and flourished through the early second millennium BCE until conquered by the Hittites.

During the second millennium BCE, Syria was occupied successively by Canaanites, Phoenicians, and Arameans as part of the general disruptions associated with the Sea Peoples; the Phoenicians settled along the coastline of these area as well as in the west (Now Lebanon & The current Syrian coast), in the area already known for its cedars. Egyptians, Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Hittites variously occupied the strategic ground of Syria during this period, as it was a marchland between their various empires.

Ancient history

Eventually the Persians took control of Syria as part of their general control of Southwest Asia; this control transferred to the Greeks after Alexander the Great's conquests (after whose death hegemony of Syria passed from the Antigonids and subsequently the Seleucids) and from thence to the Romans and the Byzantines.

In 83 BC Syria fell under the rule of Tigranes the Great; the King of Armenia. The Armenians maintained a rule of 13 years over Syria which was finally turned into a Roman Province in 64 BC.

Roman Syria

Main article: Syria (Roman province)

Phillippus Arabs (Roman Emperor) -detail of Syrian 100 pound note

Syria was Roman (Byzantine) province from 64 BC to 636 AD.

In the Roman period, the great city of Antioch (called "the Athens of the east" at that time) was the capital of Syria. It was one of the largest cities in the ancient world, with a total estimated population of 500,000, as well as one of the largest centers of trade and industry. As one of the wealthiest and more populous provinces of the Roman Empire, it is estimated that the population of Roman Syria in the early Roman Empire was only exceeded in the mid-20th century, when it may have been as high as 7-8 million or more, if Palestine and Jordan are included, but not including the eastern section of modern day Syria beyond the Euphrates.

In the 3rd century Syria was home to Elagabalus, a Roman emperor of the Severan dynasty who reigned from 218 to 222. Elagabalus' family held hereditary rights to the priesthood of the sun god El-Gabal, of whom Elagabalus was the high priest at Emesa (modern Homs) in Syria.

Syria is significant in the history of Christianity; Paul was converted on the Road to Damascus and emerged as a significant figure in the first organized Christian Church at Antioch in ancient Syria, from which he left on many of his missionary journeys.

Middle Ages

Umayyad Caliphate

See also: Umayyad Caliphate

From 616 until 628 Syria was subjugated under the Persian Khosrau II; from 628 to 637 it was Byzantine, when the province was conquered by the Muslims (after the battle of the Yarmuk in 636. see Battle of Yarmuk). Muawiya I, the first Omayyad caliph, chose Damascus for his residence. Syria formed the central part of the Umayyad empire. Syria was divided into the following military districts (junds):

• Filistin (Palestine), consisting of Judaea, Samaria and a portion of the territory east of Jordan; its capital was Ramleh, Jerusalem ranking next.
• Urdunn (Jordan), with capital in Tiberias; roughly speaking, it consisted of the rest of Palestine as far as Tyre.
• Damascus, which included Damascus, Baalbek, Tripoli and Beirut.
• Hims (Homs), including Hama.
• Kinnesrin, corresponding to northern Syria; the capital at first was Kinnesrin (Qinnasrin) to the south of Aleppo, by which it was afterwards superseded.
• The sixth district was the military frontier (Al-'Awasim) bordering upon the Byzantine dominions in Asia Minor.

During the struggles of the Islamic dynasties for the possession of Syria the country still enjoyed a considerable degree of prosperity. In 750, it came under Abbasid dominion, losing prominence owing to the move of the Abbasid capital to Baghdad.

From the Abbasids to the Ottomans

Further information: Crusader states and Mongol invasion of Syria

From 960 to c. 1020 the Byzantine Empire launched a string of successful counter-attacks, capturing Antioch, Tarsus, and Aleppo (twice). Under John Tzimiskes Syria was completely overrun; Damascus itself, the former capital of the Islamic world, was captured, although only for a brief period. The invasion of Seljuk Turks in the latter half of the 11th century put an end to Byzantine Syria. Nonetheless the majority of the population remained Christian, allowing for a significant pool of Turcopoles to be raised in the Crusader armies.

In the late 11th century, Syria was conquered first by the Seljuks and then carved between Turkmen tribes and participants of the first Crusade. In time, the Islamic part of Syria expanded up to the Orontes river and became a center of anti-crusader activity, especially for Zengi, Nur ad-Din and his successor and rival, Saladin. Even so, sections of the coastline of Syria were briefly held by Frankish crusader states. In the 13th century, the first Mongols arrived, destroying cities and irrigation works. By the end of the 15th century, the discovery of a sea route from Europe to the Far East ended the need for an overland trade route through Syria.

Syria under Ottoman rule

Syrian dress from the late 19th century.

Main article: Ottoman Syria

Shattered by the Mongols, Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th through 20th centuries, and found itself largely apart from, and ignored by, world affairs. It reached the population it had in late Antiquity only in the 1960s.

After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved with help from the United Kingdom, France and the Arab nation itself, and in 1922 the League of Nations split the dominion of the former Syria between two countries: the United Kingdom received Transjordan and Palestine, and France received what was to become modern-day Syria and Lebanon.

French Mandate

The States of the French Mandate.

Main article: French Mandate of Syria

In 1920, an independent Arab Kingdom of Syria was established under King Faisal of the Hashemite family, who later became the King of Iraq. However, his rule over Syria ended after only a few months, following the clash between his Syrian Arab forces and regular French forces at the Battle of Maysalun. French troops occupied Syria later that year after the League of Nations put Syria under French mandate. In 1925, Syrian resistance to French colonial rule broke out in full scale revolt. Despite French attempts to maintain control by encouraging sectarian divisions and isolating urban and rural areas, the revolt spread from the countryside and united Syrian Druze, Sunnis, Shiites, Allawis, and Christians. Once the rebel forces had besieged Damascus, the French military responded with brutal counter-insurgency techniques that prefigured those that would be used later in Algeria and Indo-China. These techniques included house demolitions, collective punishments of towns, executions, population transfers, and the use of heavy armor in urban neighborhoods. The revolt was eventually subdued via French aerial bombardment of civilian areas, including Damascus.

Syria and France negotiated a treaty of independence in September 1936, and Hashim al-Atassi, who was Prime Minister under King Faisal's brief reign, was the first president to be elected under a new constitution, effectively the first incarnation of the modern republic of Syria. However, France reneged on the treaty and refused to ratify it.

The allocation of seats in the provincial assembly was based on the 1938 census held by the French authorities under international supervision: out of 40 seats, 22 were given to the Turks, nine for Alawi Arabs, five for Armenians, two for Sunni Arabs, and two for Christian Arabs. The assembly was appointed in the summer of 1938 and the French-Turkish treaty settling the status of the Sanjak was signed on July 4, 1938. On September 2, 1938, the assembly proclaimed the Sanjak of Alexandretta as the Republic of Hatay, taking as an excuse that rioting had broken out between Turks and Arabs.^{[citation needed]} The Republic lasted for one year under joint French and Turkish military supervision. The name "Hatay" itself was proposed by Atatürk and the government was under Turkish control. The president Tayfur Sökmen was a member of Turkish parliament elected in 1935 (representing Antakya (Greek: Αντιόχεια) and the prime minister Dr. Abdurrahman Melek, was also elected to the Turkish parliament (representing Gaziantep) in 1939 while still holding the prime-ministerial post. In 1939, following a popular referendum, the Republic of Hatay became a Turkish province. For the referendum, Turkey had crossed tens of thousands of Turks into Alexandretta to vote. This referendum has been labeled both "phoney" and "rigged", and that it was a way for the French to let Turks take over the area, hoping that they would turn on Hitler.

With the fall of France in 1940 during World War II, Syria came under the control of the Vichy Government until the British and Free French occupied the country in July 1941. The Free French declared the conditional 'independence' of Syria again in 1941, but it wasn't until the Syrian Chamber of Deputies unilaterally voted on 30 November 1943 to remove article 116 of the constitution, which gave the French power of veto over any bill, that Syria gained any real measure of independence. This was influenced by a similar move by the Lebanese Chamber on 8 November 1943 which the French failed to overturn by force because of British opposition. 27 December 1943 the Free French authorities agreed to transfer their remaining powers to Syria from 1 January 1944. On February 26, 1945 Syria declared war on Germany and Japan. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalist groups and British pressure forced the French to evacuate their troops in April 1946, leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that had been formed during the mandate.

Modern history (1946 to present)

Main article: Modern history of Syria

Ottoman Syria was turned into an Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920. Syria came under French Mandate in 1941, gaining independence in 1946, entering the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, and remaining in a state of political instability during the 1950s and 1960s.

In a coup of 1970, Hafez al-Assad and his Baath Party took power. Syria was ruled autocratically by Assad during 1970–2000, and after Hafez al-Assad's death in 2000, he was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad.

In the context of the Arab Spring of 2011, Bashar al-Assad's regime faces the ongoing 2011 Syrian uprising.

See also

• Abila
• Adib Shishakli
• Bilad al-Sham
• Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence (1936)
• Hashim al-Atassi
• History of Asia
• History of Damascus
• History of the Middle East
• List of Presidents of Syria
• List of Prime Ministers of Syria
• Munir al-Ajlani
• Ottoman Syria
• Rulers of Damascus
• Politics of Syria
• Shukri al-Quwatli
• Syria
• Syrian Social Nationalist Party
• Taj al-Din al-Hasani
• Timeline of Syrian history
• Usamah ibn Munqidh
  • Kitab al-I'tibar Autobiography of Usamah

Bibliography

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Fedden, Robin (1955). Syria: an historical appreciation. London: Readers Union — Robert Hale. 
• Hinnebusch, Raymond (2002). Syria: Revolution from Above. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28568-2. 

External Links

History of Syria, Lebanon & Jordan 1700-1950 http://www.san.beck.org/16-5-Syria,Lebanon.html

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