This article is also available in:
Italiano
Latakia, a city capable of changing its name and identity many times, remaining forever the hidden heart of Syria
The words of Ibn Battuta
So I went to Latakia, an ancient city by the sea, which they say was that of the king who took all the ships by force.
From Ugarit to Latakia
Modern Latakia is located just 14 km from the ruins of Ugarit, an ancient city that dominated the north of present-day Syria for centuries; precisely for this reason, before talking about the city itself, it is necessary to take a step back, also since the name and the present settlement date back only to the Hellenistic Age. Ugarit was founded around 6000 B.C., emerging as a center of trade between East and West and between North and South of the world, exploiting its being overlooking the Mediterranean Sea to widen its trade basin and rival Tyreand Sidon. The main trading partners of the time were Hittites and Egyptians, with the former being physically closer to them, while the latter profoundly influenced their culture and, above all, the arts.
Like Mycenae, the Egyptian and Hittite kingdoms, between the 11th and 13th centuries BC, the city underwent the so-called “Bronze Age collapse”, in which most of the great Mediterranean empires were invaded by the mysterious ” Peoples of the Sea “,which brought the whole Mediterranean to a sort of new Middle Ages. From here on the name “Ugarit” ceased to exist and, just 14 km from its ruins, a city arose that changed its name 3 times: first Ramitha, then Leuke Akte and finally Laodicea; this name was assigned to her by Seleucus I who assigned it to commemorate her mother. Laodice. Once conquered by the Romans it will first become “free polis” with Giulio Cesare and, with Septimio Severo, “metropolis”; decidedly important degrees and which allowed her to emerge with the “first Syrian port”. The city was then heavily damaged by an
Arabs and ottomans
Due to its position, on the exact border with the Byzantine Empire, the city was unable to develop particularly in the Middle Ages; this also thanks to the arrival of two earthquakes and the crusaders, who contributed decisively to making the area around Latakia one of the hottest in the world. Saladin will regain the city in 1180, which will be taken over by the Crusaders in 1260 and definitively brought back to the Islamic world in 1288. After the battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, he followed the fate of Syria becoming part of the Ottoman Empire, under to which the region around the city became mostly Alawite. After the battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, he followed the fate of Syria becoming part of the Ottoman Empire, under to which the region around the city became mostly Alawite.
This current will acquire an increasingly central role within contemporary Syria and on which we must pause for a moment (waiting to dedicate a real article to it).
Alawites, a brief introduction
Basically the Alawites would be a branch of the Shiites, separated from the majority upon the death of Imam Hasan al Askari, considered “the Eleventh Shiite Imam”. While the Duodecimans (the majority current of the Shiite world) believe that the “Twelfth Imam” is “hidden”, the Alawites believe that it should be sought in Muhammad ibn Nasiri, his favorite pupil who would have gone from Kufa to Aleppo to make known the own faith. After being persecuted by the Ottomans, this group would then move to the mountains near Latakia, where the creed was able to develop, absorbing, according to scholars, also many of the local beliefs.
Regarding the faith itself, it is very difficult to express oneself as, like the Druze creed, also the Alawite creed is esoteric and, consequently, can be revealed only to a few initiates. This measure was taken by virtue of the hostilities that they had to suffer from the whole Muslim world, which, due to some of the few known characteristics (such as: the divine nature of Ali, reincarnation, the consecration of wine and the celebration of various holidays including Christmas), has only recently stopped considering them heretics. Under the Ottoman Empire these persecutions reached their peak, pushing them definitively to close their beliefs to the outside. The relationship, in reality, was a little more complex than that, so much so that between the government itself and the Alawites there were many contacts, to the point that the community was also able to obtain a certain autonomy in the region; however it was never recognized as ” millet“, which instead happened, for example, for the Armenians and the Chaldeans.
From the Alawite state to Assad Syria
Having said this, it will certainly be easier to understand the importance that this community assumed in the eyes of the French, who, as soon as they arrived here, immediately formed the first Alawite state in history. The transalpines openly wanted to exercise the policy of divide and rule over the region, the strenuous love of the inhabitants for their country, however, led to a rapid abortion of the project, so much so that, at the specific request of the Arab nationalists, in 1930 the name “State Alawite “disappeared in favor of” Latakia Governorate “. This also led to a sort of confederations of Syrian states very similar to the American model, which found the support of much of the Alawite world, but not of the rest of Syria which, starting in 1946, became united, autonomous and independent.
From 1963 to 1970 the whole of Syria experienced the most difficult years in its history, with 3 different coups that led the Alawites to become the true ruling class of the country. The pan-Arab Ba’ath party, in fact, made up a large part of its leadership elite of officers from Alawite families (many of them originating from the surroundings of Latakia), ensuring that, once it gained power, it concentrated in its own hands. Among the various Alawite clans dominating the scene, the Kalbiyya one must undoubtedly be mentioned, of which the Assad family, currently in power in Syria, belongs.
Follow me on facebook, Spotify, YouTube and Instagram, or on the Telegram channel; find all the links in one place: here. Any like, sharing or support is welcome and helps me to devote myself more and more to my passion: telling the Middle East
