The Nusayris An Extremist Shiite Sect The First Chapter: The Nusayri (Alawi) - Ancient Period .................................................................... 3 The Nusayris: Middle Period .................................................................................................................. 13 The Nusayris: Under the French Mandate .......................................................................................... 24 The Nusayris: Rise to Political Power.................................................................................................... 34 The Nusayri Religious System: The Concept of God ........................................................................... 49 The Nusayri Religious System: The Apotheosis of Ali ........................................................................ 60 The Nusayri Concepts of Light: Shamsis and Qamaris ....................................................................... 70 The Nusayri “Trinity”: Ali, Muhammad, and Salman al-Farisi ......................................................... 74 The Nusayri Religious System: The Twelve Imams ............................................................................ 81 The Nusayri Religious System: Role of the Aytam and Spiritual Hierarchies ................................ 85 The Nusayri Religious System: Metempsychosis ................................................................................ 89 The Nusayri Religious System: Initiation ............................................................................................. 97 Nusayri Ceremonies: Festivals ............................................................................................................. 105 Arabian festivals ................................................................................................................................ 106 Ziyarat Yawm Ashurah ..................................................................................................................... 111 Persian Festivals ................................................................................................................................ 113 Christian Festivals ............................................................................................................................. 113 The Nusayri Mass ................................................................................................................................... 118 The Nusayris, Sunni, and Twelver Shiites .......................................................................................... 127 The First Chapter The Nusayri (Alawi) Ancient Period Of all the ghulat sects or extremists Shi’i sects mentioned thus far, the Nusayri have attracted the most attention from contemporary writers of both east and west, largely because they now control the government of Syria. In 1970, a Nusayri general, Hafiz al-Asad, assumed military power in Syria, and on 22 February 1971, he became the first Nusayri president in the country’s history. Al-Asad comes from the Numaylatiyya division of the Mutawira, one of the major Nusayri tribes in Syria. Other key positions in the present Syrian government are also occupied by Nusayri officers.1 The Nusayri have been known throughout history by the name al-Nusayriyyah (Nusayri), but prefer to be called Alawi (followers of Ali). When the French mandate over Syria went into effect in 1920, the French authorities created a separate Nusayri territory with its own commissioner, under the authority of the French high commissioner in Beirut. On 1 July 1922, when this Nusayri territory became a state, it was named Dowlah al-Alawiyyin (the Alawi’s state); it had a seventeen-member representative counsel, with the Nusayri’s holding twelve seats and Sunnis (who make up the majority) and other minorities holding five. In 1930, the political institution of this state was defined by the Organic law and it became formally known as the Government of Latakia. The Nusayri writer Muhammad Ghalib al-Tawil (d. 1932), who wrote a history of his sect, thanked God that after four centuries of Ottoman occupation of Syria, the Nusayri’s, who have been contemptuously called by this name since 1516, finally had their lawful name, Alawi, restored.2 The fact is, however, that the sect has always been known as Nusayri, a name that has had a religious connotation since the ninth century. Moreover, it should be pointed out that Alawi is a general term frequently applied to all Shi’is who follow Ali and believe him to be the heir and successor of the Rasul of Allah (saw) in leading the Muslim community. The original habitat of the Nusayri is the massive mountain range in the northern Syria that bears their name: Jabal al-Nusayriyyah (Nusayriyyah Mountain), the Bargylus of the Romans.3 The ancient Syrians called them Ukomo (Black), following their Syrians’ practice, the Arabs called them Jabal al-Lukam (black mountain). The southern peaks of this range are called Jabal al-Summaq (Sumac Mountains) and Jabal Amil. The Nusayriyyah Mountains stretches from al- Nahr al-Kabir (the great river, the ancient Eleutherus) on the south to a point north of the Orontes (al-Asi) River and Antioch. The range extends from Mount Lebanon along the Mediterranean, facing the island of Cyprus. The Nusayri are not confined to this mountain region, however. They are also found in great numbers in the Syrian provinces of Latika, Hims, amd Hama; in the Lebanese district of Akkar, south of Latakia; and in the Turkish provinces of Hatay (formerly the Syrian province of Alexandretta, or al-Iskandarun), Seyhan (Adana), Tarsus, Antioch. A small number of Nusayri live in Wadi al-Taym, south of Mount Hermon, in two villages north of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of Jordan, and in Banyas (the ancient Caesarea Philippi).4 About thirteen Nusayri families live in Ana, a town in western Iraq near the Syrian border. Groups of Nusayri live in Damascus, Aleppo, and Salamiyya, south of Hama; in al-Karak, Jordan; in Istanbul, Turkey; in Yemen; and in Brazil.5 Until the thirteen century, a number of Nusayri lived in Sinjar, north of the city of Mosul, Iraq. These Nusayri from Sinjar, led by their Amir Hasan Yusuf Makzum (d. 1240), left Syria to help their coreligionists in their struggle against their oppressors, the Kurds and the Ismaili. One of these tribes was Mutawira, to which President Hafiz al-Asad of Syria belongs.6 With the passage of time, the religious concepts of followers of al-Makzum evolved in new directions, especially regarding Ali ibn Abi Talib, the centre of worship of all the Nusayris. Some of al-Makzum’s followers came to be known as Kalazis after one of their religious leaders, Muhammad ibn Kalazu. They also became known as Qamris (moon-worshipers, from the Arabic qamar, moon) because they believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib dwells in the moon; the Shamsis (sun- worshipers), also called Shamalis, derived their name from the word shams (sun), because they believe that the sun, not the moon, is the abode of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Thus, from a purely religious point of view, the Nusayri are divided into two sects whose beliefs, apart from their association with the sun or the moon with the worship of Ali, are substantially the same. We shall have more to say about these two sects in our discussion, in later chapters of the religion of the Nusayris. As an oppressed minority, the Nusayris found a haven for centuries in the fastness of their mountains. They avoided the urban centres of Syria; in the nineteenth century, they were not found even in Latakia, Beirut, or Damascus. They were very suspicious of other Syrian peoples and were ready to attack at the least provocation. Rev. Samuel Lyde (d. 1860), who lived amongst the Nusayri for six years (1853-1859), writes that, oppressed by the Ottoman government and overburdened by many taxes, the Nusayri usually took revenge on the Muslim people of the plains, whom they hated, plundering and killing without mercy.7 The constant internal feud among their many tribes and clans reduced them to a state of barbarism and rendered their country a wasteland. We learn from Lyde that violence, bloodshed, treachery, and murder became a way of life with the Nusayris. He states that because of violence, the gradual ruin of the villages, and the increasing desolation and depopulation of their country, by the middle of the nineteenth century the province of Latakia, which once had been heavily populated by the Nusayris, had only a very small number of them left.8 These chaotic conditions must have impelled the remaining Nusayri farmers to move close to the urban centres of Syria to work for landowners who lived mostly in the cities. Some of the Nusayris moved to the plains of Akkar to the south and Latakia to the west, while others spread in the interior of Syria, especially the province of Hama. Although Nusayris were despised by their Muslim and Christian neighbours, the landholders needed the services of the Nusayri farmers, who, because they were desperate, were subservient and hardworking, and posed no threat to their employer’s interests. This explains the settlement of the Nusayris in the villages in the northern part of the province of Hama. This migration, however, was only a trickle, because Syria, like other countries of the Middle East, was predominantly rural in nature, and the Nusayris could not make an adequate living in the urban centres of the country. Things have changed in the recent years; Syria has become greatly urbanized,