Zulfiqar, the stylised representation of the sword of Ali, is a crucial symbol for both Alawites and Shias The Shrine of Khidr, located near the Syria-Turkey border, is a typical Alawite shrine with its white color and dome. | |
Total population | |
---|---|
approx. 4 million[1] | |
Founder | |
Ibn Nusayr[2] and Al-Khasibi[3] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Syria | Between 2 and 3 million[4] |
Turkey | 500,000 to 1 million[5][6] |
Argentina | 180,000[7][8] |
Lebanon | 150,000[9][10][11] |
Germany | 70,000[12][13] |
Australia | 25,000[a][14] |
Israel | 2,824[15] |
Languages | |
Levantine Arabic, Turkish and other languages in diaspora. |
Alawites[b] are an Arab ethnoreligious group[16] who live primarily in the Levant and follow Alawism,[17] a religious sect that splintered from early Shia Islam as a ghulat branch during the ninth century.[18][19][20] Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, the "first Imam" in the Twelver school, as the physical manifestation of God.[21][22] The group was founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century.[23] 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.[24]
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, where there had been two other Alawite villages (Ayn Fit and Za'ura) before the Six-Day War.[25] The 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.[26]
Some Alawites identify as a separate ethnoreligious group whilst others see themselves as a part of the wider Muslim community.[27] 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 differ sharply from Shia Islam in several important ways. For instance various Alawite rituals involve the drinking of wine and the sect does not prohibit the consumption of alcohol for its adherents.[28] As a creed that teaches the symbolic/esoteric reading of Qur'anic verses, Alawite theology is based on the belief in reincarnation and views Ali as a divine incarnation of God.[29][30] Moreover, Alawite clergy and scholarship insist that their religion is also theologically distinct from Shi'ism.[c]
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).[31] However, since the early 2000s, Western scholarship on the Alawite religion has made significant advances.[32] 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). Alawite 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.[33][34]
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. The French administration prescribed the label "Alawite" to categorise the sect alongside Shiism in official documents.[35] The French recruited a large number of minorities into their armed forces and created exclusive areas for minorities, including the Alawite State. The 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. After Hafez al-Assad's seizure of power during the 1970 coup, the Ba'athist state enforced Assadist ideology amongst Alawites to supplant their traditional identity.[36] During the Syrian revolution, communal tensions were further exacerbated as the country destabilized into a full-scale sectarian civil war.[37][38]
The Alawis are a sect of extremist (ghuluw) Shiism, so called because of their doctrine of the deification of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the nephew of the prophet Muhammad. The movement was founded in the mid-ninth century by Muhammad ibn Nusayr al-Namiri, who also proclaimed that the 10th of the 12 Shiite imams, Ali ibn Hadi, possessed a divine nature. Alawi doctrine is secret, esoteric, and Gnostic in nature.
'Alawite religious faith, that is the belief-system of the Nusairi sect, is rooted in a doctrine whose ideas reflect multiple theological and philo-sophical influences. ... Greek or gnostic conceptions of the divinity intersperse with human incarnation as a key element in its theology.
Alawi doctrine is secret, esoteric, and Gnostic in nature. They believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib is the supreme eternal God...
A major difference between the Shia and the Alawi, however, is that the latter worship Ali as a manifestation of the divine essence and believe in the reincarnation and transmigration of souls.
...for nearly a millennium the term by far most often used in both Oriental and Western sources for this group has been 'Nusayri'.
The state – even "Assadism" – supplanted the Alawite religion as the focus of their identity...To be accepted as leader, Assad had to persuade Sunnis and Alawites alike that Alawites were, in fact, mainstream Muslims... Alawites struck a bargain; they lost their independence and had to accept the myth that they were "good Muslims".. Assadism then filled the gap left by the negation of traditional Alawite identity. The loss of the traditional role of community leaders fragmented Alawites, preventing them from establishing unified positions and from engaging as a community with other Syrian sects – reinforcing sectarian fears and distrust.
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