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Syria Sunnis
The largest religious group in Syria is the Sunni Muslims, of
whom about 80 percent are native Syrian Arabs, with the remainder
being Kurds, Turkomans, Circassians, and Palestinians. Sunni
Islam sets the religious tone for Syria and provides the
country's basic values.
Sunnis follow nearly all occupations, belong to all social
groups and nearly every political party, and live in all parts of
the country. There are only two provinces in which they are not a
majority: As Suwayda, where Druzes predominate, and Al
Ladhiqiyah, where Alawis are a majority. In Al Hasakah, Sunnis
form a majority, but most of them are Kurds rather than Arabs.
In theory, a Sunni approaches his God directly because the
religion provides him no intercession of saints, no holy orders,
no organized clerical hierarchy, and no true liturgy. In
practice, however, there are duly appointed religious figures,
some of whom exert considerable social and political power. Among
them are men of importance in their community who lead prayers
and give sermons at Friday services. Although in the larger
mosques the imams are generally well-educated men who are
informed about political and social affairs, an imam need not
have any formal training. Among beduin, for example, any literate
member of the tribe may read prayers from the Quran. Committees
of socially prominent worshipers usually run the major mosques
and administer mosque-owned land and gifts.
The Muslim year has two canonical festivals--the Id al Adha,
or "sacrificial" festival on the tenth of Dhul al Hijjah, the
twelfth Muslim month; and the Id al Fitr, or "festival of
breaking the fast," which celebrates the end of the fast of
Ramadan on the first of Shawwal, the tenth month. Both festivals
last 3 or 4 days, during which people wear their best clothes,
visit and congratulate each other, and give gifts. People visit
cemetaries, often remaining for some hours, even throughout the
night. The festival of the Id al Fitr is celebrated more joyfully
than the Id al Adha because it marks the end of the hardships of
Ramadan. Lesser celebrations take place on the Prophet's
birthday, which falls on the twelfth of Rabia al Awwal, the third
month, and on the first of Muharram, the beginning of the Muslim
new year.
Islamic law provides direction in all aspects of life. There
are four major schools of Islamic law--the Hanafi, the Hanabali,
the Shafii, and the Maliki--each named after its founder and all
held to be officially valid. Any Muslim may belong to any one of
them, although one school usually dominates a given geographical
area. The schools agree on the four recognized sources of law--
the Quran, the Sunna, the consensus of the faithful
(ijma), and analogy (qiyas)--but differ in the
degree of emphasis they give to each source. Represented in Syria
are the Shafii school and the more liberal Hanafi school, which
places greater emphasis on analogical deduction and bases
decisions more on precedents set in previous cases than on
literal interpretation of the Quran or Sunna.
Conservative, Sunni leaders look to the ancient days of Islam
for secular guidance. Only since the first quarter of the
twentieth century have Syrian Sunnis become acutely aware of the
need for modern education. Therefore, secularization is spreading
among Sunnis, especially the younger ones in urban areas and in
the military services. After the first coup d'état in 1949, the
waqfs were taken out of private religious hands and put under
government control. Civil codes have greatly modified the
authority of Islamic laws, and the educational role of Muslim
religious leaders is declining with the gradual disappearance of
kuttabs, the traditional mosque-affiliated schools.
Despite civil codes introduced in the past years, Syria
maintains a dual system of sharia and civil courts
(see The Judiciary
, ch. 4). Hanafi law applies in sharia courts, and nonMuslim communities have their own religious courts using their
own religious law.
Data as of April 1987
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