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69-770: Of Syrian descent, Malalas was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later in his life. The name Malalas probably derived from the Syriac word ܡܰܠܳܠܰܐ malolo 'rhetor, orator'; it is first applied to him by John of Damascus . The alternative form Malelas is later, first appearing in Constantine VII . Malalas was educated in Antioch, and probably was a jurist there, but moved to Constantinople at some point in Justinian I 's reign (perhaps after

138-777: A commission to determine the wishes of the inhabitants. Though they initially supported the idea, Britain and France eventually backed out, leaving the King–Crane Commission of 1919 solely American. The findings of the commission, not published until 1922 after the vote on the mandates in the League of Nations, indicated strong Arab support for an independent Arab state and opposition to a French presence. These events in Europe led Syrian nationalist societies like al-Fatat (the Young Arab Society) to make preparations for

207-533: A kingdom the state existed only a little over four months, from 8 March to 25 July 1920. During its brief existence, the kingdom was led by Sharif Hussein bin Ali 's son Faisal bin Hussein . Despite its claims to the territory of the region of Syria , Faisal's government controlled a limited area and was dependent on Britain which, along with France, generally opposed the idea of a Greater Syria and refused to recognize

276-609: A later date when the war had ended. There was some likelihood that by then the British would have changed their support for French pretensions in Syria. On 5 October, with the permission of General Allenby, Faisal announced the establishment of a fully and absolutely independent Arab constitutional government. Faisal announced it would be an Arab government based on justice and equality for all Arabs regardless of religion. The French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau found disconcerting

345-428: A liturgical language by Syriac Christians . English, and to a lesser extent French, is widely understood and used in interactions with tourists and other foreigners. Religious differences in Syria have historically been tolerated, and religious minorities tend to retain distinct cultural, and religious identities. Sunni Islam is the religion of 74% of Syrians. The Alawites , a variety of Shia Islam , make up 12% of

414-806: A long hard-fought goal. After the war, at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 , Faisal pushed for Arab independence. At the Conference, the victorious Allies decided what was to become of the defeated nations of the Central Powers , especially who was to control their territories, such as the Ottoman Empire's Middle East possessions. The status of the Arab lands in the Middle East was the subject of intense negotiations between

483-421: A mosaic of West and East. Conservative and liberally minded people will live right next to each other. Like the other countries in the region, religion permeates life; the government registers every Syrian's religious affiliation. However, the number of non-believers in Syria is increasing but there is no credible source or statistics to support this information. Syrian cuisine is dominated by ingredients native to

552-429: A national congress. These Syrian nationalist societies advocated complete independence for an Arab Kingdom that united Arabs under Faisal. The King–Crane Commission encouraged efforts to unify, and hasty elections were called including representatives from all over the Arab lands, including Palestine and Lebanon, although French officials prevented many of their representatives from arriving. The first official session of

621-411: Is a supporter of Church and State, an upholder of monarchical principles. However, the theory identifying him with the patriarch John Scholasticus is almost certainly incorrect. He used several sources, for example Eustathius of Epiphania and other unknown authors. The work is important as the first surviving example of a chronicle written not for the learned but for the instruction of the monks and

690-444: Is focused largely on Antioch and (in the later books) Constantinople . Except for the history of Justinian and his immediate predecessors, it possesses little historical value; the author, "relying on Eusebius of Caesarea and other compilers, confidently strung together myths, biblical stories, and real history." The eighteenth book, dealing with Justinian's reign, is well acquainted with, and colored by, official propaganda. The writer

759-480: Is one of simplicity, reflecting a desire for the straightforward communication of information in the written language of everyday business as it had evolved under the influence of spoken Greek." It obtained great popularity, and was used by various writers until the ninth century; it was translated into Old Bulgarian probably in the tenth century, and parts of it were used for the Primary Chronicle . It

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828-517: Is preserved in an abridged form in a single manuscript now at Oxford ( Baroccianus 182 ) as well as in various fragments. A medieval translation in Georgian also exists. Syrian Syrians ( Arabic : سوريون ) are the majority inhabitants of Syria , indigenous to the Levant , who have Arabic , especially its Levantine dialect , as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of

897-562: Is still spoken in its Eastern and Western dialects. The national name "Syrian" was used in antiquity to denote the inhabitants of the Levant. Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant, Arab identity became dominant and the ethnonym "Syrian" was used mainly by Christians who spoke Syriac. In the 19th century, the name "Syrian" was revived amongst the Arabic speakers of the Levant. Following

966-719: Is the most recurrent in Levantines (42–68%); the Peninsular Arabian and East African ancestral components represent around 25% of Syrian genetic make-up. The paternal Y-DNA haplogroup J1, which reaches its highest frequencies in Yemen 72.6% and Qatar 58.3%, accounted for 33.6% of Syrians. The J2 group accounted for 20.8% of Syrians; other Y-DNA haplogroups include the E1B1B 12.0%, I 5.0%, R1a 10.0% and R1b 15.0%. The Syrians are closest to other Levantine populations:

1035-626: Is usually served with Arab-style tea – highly concentrated black tea, which is often highly sweetened and served in small glass cups. Another popular drink, especially with Christians and non-practicing Muslims, is the arak , a liquor produced from grapes or dates and flavored with anise that can have an alcohol content of over 90% ABV (however, most commercial Syrian arak brands are about 40–60% ABV). [REDACTED] Media related to People of Syria at Wikimedia Commons Arab Kingdom of Syria The Arab Kingdom of Syria ( Arabic : المملكة العربية السورية , al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabiyya al-Sūriya )

1104-516: The Armenian genocide and the Assyrian genocide and settled in Syria. There are also roughly 500,000 Palestinians , who are mostly descendants of refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab War. The community of Syrian Jews inside Syria once numbered 30,000 in 1947, but has only 200 today. The Syrian people's beliefs and outlooks, similar to those of most Arabs and people of the wider Middle-East, are

1173-612: The Cretans and Lebanese Armenians . Studying the genetic relation between Jews and Syrians showed that the two populations share a close affinity. Apparently, the cultural influence of Arabian expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean in the seventh century was more prominent than the genetic influx. However, the expansion of Islam did leave an impact on Levantine genes; religion drove Levantine Muslims to mix with other Muslim populations, who were close culturally despite

1242-732: The Hellenistic period . In one instance, the Ptolemaic dynasty of the Hellenistic kingdom of Egypt applied the term "Syrian Village" as the name of a settlement in Fayoum . The Ptolemies referred to all peoples originating from Modern Syria and Palestine as Syrian. The term Syrian was imposed upon Arameans of modern Levant by the Romans. Pompey created the province of Syria , which included modern-day Lebanon and Syria west of

1311-690: The Lebanese , the Palestinians and Jordanians ; this closeness can be explained by the common Canaanite ancestry and geographical unity which was broken only in the twentieth century with the advent of British and French mandates. Regarding the genetic relation between the Syrians and the Lebanese based on Y-DNA, Muslims from Lebanon show closer relations to Syrians than their Christian compatriots. The people of Western Syria show close relations with

1380-685: The San Remo Conference was called by the Allied Powers in April 1920 to finalise the allocation of League of Nations mandates in the Middle East. This was in turn repudiated by Faisal and his supporters. After months of instability and failure to make good on the promises to the French, the commander of French forces General Henri Gouraud gave an ultimatum to King Faisal on 14 July 1920 declaring he surrender or fight. Worried about

1449-806: The 1880s for the name to begin to be widely used by the inhabitants to refer to themselves. Both Muslims and Christians agreed that the Muslims were not Syrians because they belonged to the Arabs while the Christians retained the Syrianism of antiquity. The spread of the Syrian "idea" amongst the Muslims can be traced to the efforts of Rashid Rida who contributed to the formulation of the Syrian Union Party's manifesto in 1918, demanding that Syria, in

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1518-534: The Elder , and Ptolemy , reported that Arabs inhabited many parts of Syria, which according to modern historians indicate either an ethnic group or a nomadic way of life. The urheimat of the Arab ethnos is unclear; the traditional 19th century theory locates this in the Arabian Peninsula, while some modern scholars, such as David Frank Graf, note that the epigraphic and archaeological evidence render

1587-597: The Euphrates, framing the province as a regional social category with civic implications. Plutarch described the indigenous people of this newly created Roman province as "Syrians", so did Strabo , who observed that Syrians resided west of the Euphrates in Roman Syria, and he explicitly mentions that those Syrians are the Arameans, whom he calls Aramaei , indicating an extant ethnicity. Posidonius noted that

1656-490: The French and British. In May 1919, the French and British prime ministers met in Quai d’Orsay to decide between them their respective claims to territories or spheres of influence in the Middle East. The meeting determined that in return for a British guarantee of French control in Syria, the British would be given a mandate over Mosul and Palestine. At about the same time, an American compromise resulted in an agreement to set up

1725-649: The French made the Sykes–Picot Agreement . Ultimately, the implementation of the Sykes–Picot Agreement would lead to the undermining and end of the Arab Kingdom of Syria. Despite the significance of the Arab Revolt to modern Arab countries formed in its wake, at the time there was significant distrust and even opposition to the idea of an Arab kingdom or series of Arab kingdoms. This opposition

1794-645: The Levant" based on studies comparing modern and ancient DNA samples. Syrians cluster closely with ancient Levantine populations of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. A Levantine ancestral genetic component was identified; it is estimated that the Levantine, the Arabian and East African ancestral components diverged 23,700–15,500 years ago, while the divergence between the Levantine and European components happened 15,900–9,100 years ago. The Levantine ancestral component

1863-557: The Levant, whom they named "Syrians", as a conquered nation; Syrians were not assimilated into Greek communities, and many local peasants were exploited financially as they had to pay rent for Greek landlords. Outside Greek colonies , the Syrians lived in districts governed by local temples that did not use the Greek civic system of poleis and colonies. The situation changed after the Roman conquest in 64 BC; Semitic-speaking Syrians obtained

1932-400: The Levant; this helped to further strengthen the development of the Syrian national consciousness. Initially, most inhabitants were against the establishment of Syria as they considered this a step against Arab unity, but gradually, Faisal's Syria, which was declared an independent kingdom in 1920, prompted the Syrians to begin exploring the notion of Syrianism instead of pan-Arabism. Faisal

2001-533: The Persian sack of Antioch in 540); all we know of his travels from his own hand are visits to Thessalonica and Paneas . He wrote a Chronographia ( Χρονογραφία ) in 18 books, the beginning and the end of which are lost. In its present state it begins with the mythical history of Egypt and ends with the expedition to Roman Africa under the tribune Marcianus , Justinian's nephew, in 563 (his editor Thurn believing it originally to end with Justinian's death); it

2070-548: The Syrian Arab identity is multi-layered and being Syrian complements being Arab. In addition to denoting Syrian Arabs, the term "Syrian" also refer to all Syrian citizens, regardless of their ethnic background. In 2018, Syria had an estimated population of 19.5 million, which includes, aside from the aforementioned majority, Kurds , Assyrians , Turks , Armenians and others. Before the Syrian Civil War , there

2139-795: The Syrian Congress was held on 3 June 1919 and al-Fatat member Hashim al-Atassi was elected its president. When the King–Crane Commission arrived in Damascus on 25 June 1919, it was met with a flurry of leaflets saying "Independence or Death". On 2 July the Syrian National Congress in Damascus passed the Damascus Program, a series of resolutions calling for a completely independent constitutional monarchy with Faisal as king, asking for assistance from

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2208-463: The Syrian people is a blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. By the seventh century, most of the inhabitants of the Levant spoke Aramaic . In the centuries after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 634, Arabic became the dominant language, but a minority of Syrians retained Aramaic (Syriac) , which

2277-661: The United States, and rejecting any rights claimed by the French. The resolutions defined the borders as on the north, the Taurus Range ; on the south, a line running from Rafah to Al-Jauf and following the Syria-Hejaz border below ' Aqaba ; on the east, the boundary formed by the Euphrates and Khabur rivers and a line stretching from some distance east of Abu-Kamal to some distance east of al-Jauf; on

2346-642: The aftermath of World War I and the Ottoman withdrawal from the region, become an independent state and not part of larger Arab one ruled by the Hashemites of the Kingdom of Hejaz . Rida did not reject the Arab identity but recognized a Syrian uniqueness and advocated the idea of a Syrian state. In the end, Syria did become a separate state but under the Hashemite king Faisal . He entered Damascus in 1918 in

2415-471: The aftermath of the Ottomans' evacuation of the Levant at the end of World War I. His entry ignited the Syrian national consciousness after he declared an Arab government in the Levant centred in Damascus with him as prince. In June 1919, the Syrian National Congress , which included representatives from Palestine and Lebanon, demanded the full independence of Syria, within borders that encompass more or less

2484-456: The aftermath of this reversal, violent attacks against French forces took place and the Syrian Congress assembled in March 1920 to declare Faisal the king of Syria as well as to officially set up the Arab Kingdom of Syria with Hashim al-Atassi as Prime Minister and Yusuf al-'Azma as Minister of War and Chief of Staff. This unilateral action was immediately repudiated by the British and French and

2553-707: The battle. The loss led to the siege and capture of Damascus on 24 July 1920 and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was put into effect thereafter. After surrendering to French forces, Faisal was expelled from Syria and went to live in the United Kingdom in August 1920. In August 1921 he was offered the crown of Iraq under the British Mandate of Iraq . A pro-French government under

2622-642: The citizenship of Greek poleis , and the line separating the Greeks and the natives blurred. The idioms Syrian and Greek were used by Rome to denote civic societies instead of separate ethnic groups. Ancient Syria of the first millennium BC was dominated by the Aramaeans; they originated in the Northern Levant as a continuum of the Bronze Age populations of Syria. The Aramaeans assimilated most of

2691-459: The city. The jubilation would be short lived, as Faisal would soon be made aware of the Sykes–Picot agreement. Faisal had come to expect an independent Arab kingdom in the name of his father but was soon told of the division of territory and how Syria fell under French protective power. Faisal saw this admission as a betrayal by the British, but believed the actual settlement would be worked out at

2760-479: The common people, and its language shows a compromise with the spoken language of the day, although "it is still very much a written style. In particular, he employs technical terminology and bureaucratic clichés incessantly, and, in a period of transition from Latin to Greek governmental terminology, still uses the Latin loanwords alongside their Greek replacements ... The overall impression created by Malálas' style

2829-663: The disintegration of the majority of the early Hashemite kingdoms ( Hejaz and Iraq ). Additionally, at the time, many Arabs expressed grave concerns that the family of the sharif of Mecca , the Hashemites, could wrest control from the Ottoman sultan, with whom their loyalty had rested for centuries. Near the end of World War I , the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force , under command of Edmund Allenby , captured Damascus on 30 September 1918. Shortly thereafter, on 3 October, Faisal entered

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2898-472: The earlier Levantine populations through their language. With the adoption of a common religion, Christianity , most of the inhabitants turned into Syrians (Aramaeans). Islam and the Arabic language had a similar effect where the Aramaeans themselves became Arabs regardless of their ethnic origin following the Muslim conquest of the Levant . The presence of Arabs in Syria is recorded since the 9th century BC, and Roman period historians, such as Strabo , Pliny

2967-470: The early periods of the conquest, and formed an isolated aristocracy. The Arabs of the caliphate accommodated many new tribes in isolated areas to avoid conflict with the locals; caliph Uthman ordered his governor, Muawiyah I , to settle the new tribes away from the original population. Syrians who belonged to Monophysitic denominations welcomed the Muslim Arabs as liberators. The Abbasids in

3036-476: The eighth and ninth centuries sought to integrate the peoples under their authority, and the Arabization of the administration was one of their methods. Arabization gained momentum with the increasing numbers of Muslim converts from Christianity ; the ascendancy of Arabic as the formal language of the state prompted the cultural and linguistic assimilation of Syrian converts. Some of those who remained Christian also became Arabized, while others stayed Aramean, it

3105-401: The establishment of a semi-independent Arab state without international recognition and under the auspices of the British. Even reassurances by Allenby that all actions taken were provisional did not ease the looming tensions between the British, the French, and the Arabs. For Arab nationalists, and many of the Arabs who fought in the Arab Revolt, this independent state would be the realization of

3174-413: The establishment of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920, the name "Syrian" began to spread amongst its Arabic speaking inhabitants. The term gained more importance during the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon , becoming the accepted national name for the Arabic speakers of the Syrian Republic. Most Arabic speaking Syrians identify as Arabs. There is no contradiction between being an Arab and a Syrian since

3243-416: The eve of the Rashidun Caliphate conquest of the Levant, 634 AD, Syria's population mainly spoke Aramaic as the Lingua franca , while Greek was the language of administration. Arabization and Islamization of Syria began in the 7th century, and it took several centuries for Islam, the Arab identity, and language to spread; the Arabs of the caliphate did not attempt to spread their language or religion in

3312-414: The geographic distance, and this produced genetic similarities between Levantine Muslims and Moroccan and Yemeni populations. Christians and Druze became a genetic isolate in the predominantly Islamic world. Arabic is the mother tongue of the majority of Syrians as well as the official state language. The Syrian variety of Levantine Arabic differs from Modern Standard Arabic . Western Neo-Aramaic ,

3381-420: The kingdom. After a four month-long war , the kingdom surrendered to French forces on 25 July 1920. The Arab Revolt and the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence were crucial factors in the foundation of the Arab Kingdom of Syria. In the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence promises of an Arab kingdom were made by the British in return for an Arab uprising against the Ottomans. As the British were promising independence,

3450-428: The leadership of Aladdin Al-Droubi was installed one day after the fall of Damascus, on 25 July 1920. On 1 September 1920, General Gouraud divided the French mandate territory of Syria into several smaller states as part of a French scheme to make Syria easier to control. The Kingdom, through its short and tumultuous existence, would become a subject of great inspiration to later Arab liberation movements. It would be

3519-399: The name Syria itself is derived from Luwian term "Sura/i", and the derivative ancient Greek name: Σύριοι , Sýrioi , or Σύροι , Sýroi , both of which originally derived from the Akkadian word Aššūrāyu ( Assyria ) in northern Mesopotamia , modern-day Iraq. However, during the Seleucid Empire , this term was also applied to The Levant , and henceforth the Greeks applied

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3588-402: The only surviving Western Aramaic dialect, is still spoken in three villages ( Maaloula , Bakh'a and Jubb'adin ) in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains by both Muslim and Christian Arameans (Syriacs) . Syriacs in the northeast of the country are mainly Turoyo-Aramaic speakers but there are also some speakers of Suret-Aramaic , especially in the Khabour Valley . Classical Syriac is also used as

3657-408: The people called Syrians by the Greeks refer to themselves as Arameans. In his book The Great Roman-Jewish War , Josephus , a Hebrew native to the Levant, mentioned the Syrians as the non-Hebrew, non-Greek indigenous inhabitants of Syria. Syrians are mainly descended from the various ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of the ancient Near East . The Seleucids ruled the indigenous peoples of

3726-598: The people of Northern Lebanon. Mitochondrial DNA shows the Syrians to have an affinity with Europe; main haplogroups are H and R . Based on Mitochondrial DNA, the Syrians, Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians form a close cluster. Compared to the Lebanese, Bedouins and Palestinians, the Syrians have noticeably more Northern European component, estimated at 7%. Regarding the HLA alleles , Syrians, and other Levantine populations, exhibit "key differences" from other Arab populations; based on HLA-DRB1 alleles, Syrians were close to eastern Mediterranean populations, such as

3795-496: The population and mostly live in and around Tartus and Latakia . Christians make up 10% of the country. Most Syrian Christians adhere to the Byzantine Rite ; the two largest are the Antiochian Orthodox Church and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church . The Druze are a mountainous people who reside in Jabal al-Druze who helped spark the Great Syrian Revolt . The Ismailis are an even smaller sect that originated in Asia. Many Armenian and Assyrian Christians fled Turkey during

3864-489: The region, with many of its speakers having become Arabs. Those who retained the Aramaic language are divided among two groups: The Arabs in Arabia called the region of Syria region al-Sham ( Arabic : بِـلَاد الـشَّـام , romanized :  Bilād al-Šām , lit.   'the country of Sham') which became the dominant name of the Levant under the Rashidun Caliphate and its successors. The geographic designation "Syria" returned in 1864 when Ottoman Syria

3933-484: The region. Olive oil , garlic , olives , spearmint , and sesame oil are some of the ingredients that are used in many traditional meals. Traditional Syrian dishes enjoyed by Syrians include, tabbouleh , labaneh , shanklish , wara' 'enab , makdous , kebab , Kibbeh , sfiha , moutabal , hummus , mana'eesh , bameh , and fattoush . A typical Syrian breakfast is a meze . It is an assortment platter of foods with cheeses, meats, pickles, olives, and spreads. Meze

4002-426: The results of a long bloody fight with the French, King Faisal surrendered. However, Yusuf al-'Azma, the defense minister, ignored the King's order, and led a small army to confront the French advance into Syria. This army depended mainly on individual weapons and were no match to the French artillery. At the Battle of Maysalun , the Syrian army was easily defeated by the French, with General al-'Azma being killed during

4071-440: The ruler of the Seleucid Empire as the King of Syria or King of the Syrians. The Seleucids designated the districts of Seleucis and Coele-Syria explicitly as Syria and ruled the Syrians as indigenous populations residing west of the Euphrates ( Aramea ) in contrast to Assyrians who had their native homeland in Mesopotamia east of the Euphrates. However, the interchangeability between Assyrians and Syrians persisted during

4140-407: The term without distinction between the Assyrians of north Mesopotamia and Arameans of the Levant. The Greeks used the terms "Syrian" and "Assyrian" interchangeably to indicate the indigenous Arameans , Assyrians and other inhabitants of the Levant and Mesopotamia , Herodotus considered "Syria" west of the Euphrates . Starting from the 2nd century BC onwards, ancient writers referred to

4209-419: The traditional theory inadequate to explain the Arabs' appearance in Syria. The Arabs mentioned in Syria by Greco-Roman writers were assimilated into the newly formed "Greco–Aramaean culture" that dominated the region, and the texts they produced were written in Greek and Aramaic. Old Arabic , the precursor of Classical Arabic , was not a literary language; its speakers used Aramaic for writing purposes. On

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4278-403: The west, the Mediterranean Sea . Any hope that Faisal may have had that either the British or Americans would come to his aid and counter French moves quickly faded, especially after the Anglo-French Agreement for the withdrawal of British troops from Syria and the end of the British military government in Syria. The British withdrew from the region on 26 November 1919. In January 1920, Faisal

4347-409: Was a self-proclaimed, unrecognized monarchy existing briefly in the territory of historical Syria . It was announced on 5 October 1918 as a fully independent Arab constitutional government with the permission of the British military. It gained independence as an emirate after the withdrawal of the British forces from OETA East on 26 November 1919, and was proclaimed as a kingdom on 8 March 1920. As

4416-462: Was deposed by the French who established a mandate in 1920, but the formation of a Syrian consciousness amongst the members of the Syrian Arab national movement solidified and spread amongst the Muslims as well as the Christians. Genetic tests on Syrians were included in many genetic studies. The genetic marker which identifies descendants of the ancient Levantines is found in Syrians in high proportion. Modern Syrians exhibit "high affinity to

4485-401: Was due in part to the heavy influence of the French and the British in facilitating the revolt and the establishment of what would be considered, by modern standards, puppet states. The involvement of foreign powers in distributing large sums of money and military support to establish an empire that would be led by imperial aspirants, rather than legitimate Arab nationalists, was instrumental in

4554-463: Was forced into an agreement with France which stipulated that France would uphold the existence of the Syrian state and would not station troops in Syria as long as the French government remained the only government supplying advisers, counselors and technical experts. News of this compromise did not bode well with Faisal's vehemently anti-French and independence-minded supporters who immediately pressured Faisal to reverse his commitment, which he did. In

4623-420: Was probably during the Abbasid period in the ninth century that Christians adopted Arabic as their first language; the first translation of the gospels into Arabic took place in this century. Many historians, such as Claude Cahen and Bernard Hamilton, proposed that the Arabization of Christians was completed before the First Crusade . By the thirteenth century, the Arabic language achieved complete dominance in

4692-460: Was quite a large Syrian diaspora that had emigrated to North America ( United States and Canada ), European Union member states (including Sweden, France, and Germany), South America (mainly in Brazil , Argentina , Venezuela , and Chile ), the West Indies , Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Six million refugees of the Syrian Civil War also live outside Syria now, mostly in Turkey , Jordan , and Lebanon . Various sources indicate that

4761-429: Was reorganized and the name was used for a vilayet encompassing generally the southern Levant. The use of the national designation "Syrian" however has its origin in the tense relationship between the Arabic-speaking Muslims and Christians of the Levant, where Christians wanted to distance themselves from the Muslims. Already in the 1830s, the Lebanese traveler As’ad Khayyat identified with the term Syria, but it took till

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