1981/11/01 by Philip S. Khoury · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Middle East Politics and Society #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts #Nationalism #Politics #Independence (probability theory) #Mandate #Ancient history #History #Political science #Nationalist Movement #Middle East #Law #Economic history
paper · doi:10.1017/s0020743800055859
openalex publication_date 1981/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/17
It is ironic and perhaps telling that the one national independence movement largely ignored by historians of the Arab Middle East is the Syrian nationalist movement. The irony, of course, is that the birthplace of Arab nationalism was Syria; it was to Damascus that Arab nationalists in Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere looked for inspiration, guidance, and moral support in the interwar period; and out of the Syrian movement sprang the radical nationalism of the Ba'thists. Intellectual histories of the precursors, birth, and content of Arab nationalism abound, and, insofar as these histories deal with the birthplace of Arab nationalism, they must discuss Damascus and Syria just prior to and during World War I. But once the intellectual birth of Arab nationalism has been discussed, interest in the history of Syria wanes to be revived only after World War II, with the emergence of Ba'thism and the military in politics. What follows is by no means a comprehensive analysis of the nature and organization of the Syrian national independence movement; rather, it is a preliminary investigation of some salient characteristics of the politics of Syrian-Arab nationalism in the early years of the French Mandate.