The Nusayr[i.bar]-'Alaw[i.bar]s: An Introduction to the Religion., History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria.

• Author: Traboulsi, Samer
• Position: Book review

The Nusayr[i.bar]-'Alaw[i.bar]s: An Introduction to the Religion., History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria. By YARON FRIEDMAN. Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 77. Leiden: BRILL, 2010. Pp. xxii + 325. $186.

Rene Dussaud's Histoire et religion des Nosairis (Paris, 1900) was the first comprehensive publication on the history and doctrines of the Nusayr[i.bar]s, an esoteric religious minority inhabiting the coastal mountains of northern Syria. Since then, publications on the Syrian sect have focused mainly on specific texts and doctrines, which has resulted in narrowing interest in the sect to a small number of specialists, despite the growing attention the Nusayr[i.bar]-'Alaw[i.bar]s received after their rise to power in Syria in the second half of the twentieth century.

An up-to-date, thorough study of Nusayr[i.bar] history and doctrines is therefore long overdue, making Yaron Friedman's The Nusayr[i.bar]-'Alaw[i.bar]s a most welcome publication. Much like Dussaud, Friedman provides a synthesis of the works of his predecessors. However, what distinguishes his contribution to the field is the use of new primary sources, such as manuscripts in Western libraries that have not yet received adequate attention and a series of Nusayr[i.bar] primary texts recently published in Lebanon by the same hard-line Maronite establishment that was behind the publication of the Druze Ras[i.bar]'il al-hikma ("Epistles of Wisdom") and other anti-Druze literature during the Lebanese civil war. The changes in the political alliances in post-civil war Lebanon dictated a shift in the uncompromising Maronite propaganda, from the Druze, with whom they have since established closer relations, to the Syrians, who are now viewed as the main obstacle in the way of full Lebanese independence. Thus "divulging the secrets of the Nusayr[i.bar] faith" has become a tool in the fight against Syrian influence in Lebanon, resulting in a set of ten volumes of religious texts by some of the most prominent figures from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries C.E., the "golden age" in Nusayri history. The larger part of these sources was previously unavailable to scholars and Friedman's book represents the first systematic analysis of these texts.

The book is divided into a section each on the history, religion, and identity of the Nusayr[i.bar]s. According to Friedman, the group rose from within the ghul[a.bar]t circles in K[u.bar]fa that were close to the tenth and eleventh Shi'ite imams. Muhammad b. Nusayr al-Numayr[i.bar] (second half of the ninth century) is considered the initiator of the religious community. His teachings were later transformed into doctrine by al-Husayn b. Hamd[a.bar]n al-Khas[i.bar]b[i.bar] (d. 358/969), who is considered the founder of the Nusayr[i.bar] sect. The Iraq-based al-Khas[i.bar]b[i.bar] was also responsible for establishing small communities in Syria, particularly in Harran from where the future leaders of the sect emerged during the eleventh century C.E. With the collapse of Hamdanid authority in northern Syria, the Nusayris lost a supporter and encountered mounting hostilities from unsympathetic rulers and an unfriendly Sunni population. By the end of the eleventh century, the period of the founders came to an end, to be followed by a period of decline characterized by a lack of centralized political and religious leadership.

The conversion of the northern Iraqi amir, al-Makz[u.bar]n al-Sinj[a.bar]r[i.bar], at the beginning of the thirteenth century and his assumption of the leadership of the Nusayr[i.bar] community in Syria marked the beginning of...