History of Syria

Introduction to History of Syria

As a historical region, Syria had no set boundaries. It consisted generally of the fertile western area of the modern country, present Lebanon, and a slight extension into Turkey. Sometimes Palestine was regarded as part of Syria, but it will not be so treated in this article.

Ancient History

Syria and Palestine formed the west side of the Fertile Crescent, a rim around the Syrian Desert in which early civilizations flourished. On its east side was Mesopotamia, from which aggressive, powerful kingdoms subjected Syria to repeated invasions. From very early times, trade routes between Egypt and Arabia to the south and Asia Minor to the north ran both along the Syrian coast and inland along the edge of the desert. They served also as invasion routes. From the east Syria was open to attack or occupation by the Semitic peoples of the desert.

Along the coastal route were ports. Ugarit, north of modern Latakia at Ras Shamra, dated from about 5000 B.C. and was the first great port in the world. Europeans traded there and at other early ports.

About 2500 B.C. the Amorites, a Semitic desert people, moved into Syria, where they established kingdoms at Carchemish (on the upper Euphrates River), Aleppo, and Damascus. Along the coast the Amorites merged with the older population to form the people known as Canaanites. Byblos (Biblical Gebal), north of modern Beirut, became a major port.

Successive waves of conquerors in Syria included the Akkadians from Mesopotamia, the Hittites and Hurrians from the north, the Hyksos from Egypt, and again the Hittites, who struggled intermittently with the Egyptians for control of the region. About the 14th century B.C. the coastal strip west of the Lebanon Mountains came to be known as Phoenicia, which for some 1,000 years had an identity separate from Syria. (

Hittite power was destroyed late in the 13th century by sea raiders, who in southern Canaan became known as Philistines. The Aramaeans, another Semitic desert people, became dominant by 1000 B.C. Although they ruled less than 200 years, their language and alphabet spread over the entire region. The Aramaic dialect spoken in Syria (then called Aram) became known as Syriac. The Assyrians conquered Syria three times, in the 11th and 9th centuries and finally in the 8th century B.C., under Tiglath-pileser III.

Shortly before 600 B.C. Syria fell to the Babylonians (Chaldeans) under Nebuchadnezzar. In 539 Cyrus, king of the Persians, extended his rule to the Mediterranean. Three centuries later the Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great. After his death, Syria was won by Seleucus, one of Alexander's successors, who founded Antioch (Antakya, Turkey) about 300 B.C. as one of his capitals. Syria enjoyed a period of brilliance under the Seleucids. However, the empire shrank to a small area around Antioch and in the first century B.C. was conquered by Armenia (83 B.C.) and then by Rome (64 B.C.).

Syria prospered again in the Roman Empire, with Antioch as a western terminus of the Silk Route from China and as military capital for the eastern provinces. In the third century A.D. Syria was invaded by Persia and Palmyra, but Rome regained control within a few years. When the empire was divided in the fourth century, Syria became part of the Eastern, or Byzantine, part.

The Muslim Conquest and the Crusades

Beginning about 540, Syria was invaded repeatedly by the Persians, who sacked Aleppo and Antioch and occupied Damascus. The seventh century brought the Muslim conquest. The Syrians gave little support to the Byzantines, who had treated them as heretics because they adhered to the doctrine of Monophysitism. ( The Muslims won final victory in 636 and in 661 made Damascus their capital.

In 750 the capital was moved to Baghdad, but Syria retained its cultural and commercial importance. In 972 the Fatimids, a rival Muslim faction from Egypt, occupied Palestine and Syria, and the Byzantines reoccupied Antioch. New conquerors, the Seljuk Turks, soon appeared from the east. They defeated the Byzantines in 1071 and drove the Fatimids back to Egypt. A Seljuk kingdom was the first to make formal use of the name Syria.

From Europe were launched the Crusades to return the Holy Land to the Christians. The First Crusade took Antioch in 1098 and Jerusalem in 1099, and soon Crusader knights had founded several Christian principalities. The Muslims gradually regained territory, but the Crusaders held some coastal points for almost 200 years.

Inland Syria was invaded by Mongol hordes, who destroyed Aleppo in 1260 and occupied Damascus. The Mamelukes, a new Egyptian dynasty, repulsed the Mongols and annexed Syria to Egypt, leaving the Crusaders in control of two small domains. The Mongols attacked again and again before they drew back in 1303. Fearing betrayal by the Crusaders, the Mamelukes took their remaining lands, and in 1291 the Europeans departed.

The Long Decline

The Mamelukes moved all trade to Egypt, making Syria a quiet backwater. Even so, invaders still came; Tamerlane in 1400–01 sacked Aleppo, Hamah, and Damascus. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Turks had become rulers of the former Seljuk and Byzantine domains. In 1516 they defeated the Mamelukes near Aleppo and annexed Syria and Palestine. Bypassed by the new sea route around Africa and generally ignored by its Ottoman rulers, Syria stagnated for the next four centuries. Lebanon became largely autonomous under chiefs of the Druse religious sect.

European traders, however, revived trade over the land route to the east by establishing posts in Aleppo and other Syrian cities. They were followed by Christian missionaries; in 1740 France assumed responsibility for pilgrims to the Holy Land. Egypt, nominally an Ottoman domain, seized Palestine and Syria in 1831, but the European powers forced it to withdraw. Friction between the Druses and Christians led in 1860 to the murder of some 10,000 Christians. France intervened, and Lebanon was officially separated from Syria.

The Syrian Republic

With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Syrian nationalists proclaimed their country independent, but in 1920 France was given a League of Nations mandate over it. The Druses led a futile revolt in the south in 1925–26. In World War II Syria was occupied by Allied forces; in 1946, it became independent. Meanwhile, in 1945, it had helped found the Arab League.

When Israel was created in 1948, Syrian troops were among those who fought against the new nation. Growing sentiment for Arab unity was stimulated by the existence of Israel. There were frequent armed clashes along the Syrian-Israeli border, leading in 1967 to the Six Day War between the Arab nations and Israel. Syria lost the Golan Heights, overlooking Israel. The border clashes, involving Palestinian commando groups, soon resumed. ( .)

Meanwhile, Syria's internal affairs had been chaotic. Coups toppled one government after another. The radical Baath (Arab Socialist Resurrection) party gradually became dominant and in 1958 joined Syria with Egypt in the United Arab Republic. The results displeased most Syrians and a coup in 1961 ended the union. The Baathists again rose to power, and the extremist faction of the party held control from 1966 to 1970. During this time, foreign aid was received from the Soviet Union. Palestinian commandos operating from Syria were given official support.

In Jordan, government opposition to the commandos led to civil war in 1970. Syria sent tanks and troops to aid the commandos, but its forces were quickly repulsed. Consequently, the Syrian government was overthrown and moderate Baathists, under General Hafez al-Assad, took control. He became president of Syria in 1971. Relationships with Western countries improved. A new constitution was adopted in 1973.

In 1973 Syria joined Egypt in attacking Israel in an attempt to regain territory the two countries lost in the 1967 war. The war ended with Israel still in control of the Golan Heights. In 1976 Syria sent troops into Lebanon in an attempt to end a civil war between Christian and Muslim militias. The civil war persisted, and Syrian troops remained in the country.

In 1982 an uprising in Hamah by the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist group, was crushed by government troops who killed some 10,000 residents in an assault on the city. In 1990 Syrian troops destroyed the last Christian militia in Lebanon, ending the civil war. Syrian forces continued to occupy Lebanon, to help maintain the peace. They were withdrawn in 2005. In 1991 Syria joined the coalition of forces that defeated Iraq in the Persian Gulf War.

After ruling for 30 years, President Hafez al-Assad died in 2000. His son Bashar al-Assad succeeded him as president.

In the early 2000's, many Lebanese citizens and foreign governments urged Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. In February 2005, Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon, was killed by a car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon. Many people accused Syria of playing a role in Hariri's death, but Syria denied the charge. The assassination sparked large anti- and pro- Syrian protests in Lebanon and led to increased international demands for Syrian withdrawal. Syria completed a troop withdrawal in April 2005.