Alawites

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The Zülfikar, sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib, is considered the Alawite's identification symbol.

The Alawites ( Arabic علويون, DMG ʿAlawīyūn ; Turkish Arap Alevileri ) or Nusairier ( Arabic نصيريون, DMG Nuṣairiyūn , Turkish Nusayriler ) are a special religious community in the Middle East that emerged in Iraq in the late 9th century and belongs to the Shiite spectrum of Islam . They are not to be confused with the Turkish and Kurdish Alevis , who used to be called Kizilbash .

Designations

The name "Alawites" (علويون / ʿAlawīyūn ) has only been used for this group since the late 19th century. Before that time, "Nusairier" was the common name for them. It is derived from Muhammad ibn Nusair an-Numairī (died around 864), who is considered the founder of the Nusairians. This appeared around 860 for the tenth Imam of the Shiites , ʿAlī al-Hādī an-Naqī .

In order to get rid of the sectarian stench of their ancestors and to present themselves as part of the large Shiite community, the Nusairians began to call themselves "Ali followers" (ʿAlawīyūn) at the end of the 19th century . In Turkey, the Alawites are now called Arap Alevileri ("Arab Alevites") or Güney Alevileri ("Southern Alevis") in order to downplay the distinction between the Alevis and other "followers of Ali" . The term Nusairier is preferred nowadays mainly by Islamists in order to question the Islamic nature of the religious community.

In the Nusairians' own sources, other self-names appear, in particular the harmless expressions muwahhidūn (“unity confessor ”) and ahl al- tauhīd , which characterize the group as monotheistic . Another name used by the Alawis for their religion is "Path of the Junbulans" ( Tarīqat al-Ǧunbulānīya ), named after the third Sheikh Abū Muhammad ʿAbdallāh al-Jannān al-Junbulānī (d. 900), who is considered to be one of the oldest Authors of the Nusairian religion applies.

history

The beginnings in Iraq

The Nusairīya emerged in the late 9th century in the milieu of the Iraqi ghulat -Sekten. The mythology and terminology of these sects can be found almost unchanged in Nusairian literature. In the second half of the ninth century, the Arab Abū Shuʿaib Muhammad ibn Nuṣayr from the tribe of the Banū Numair appeared in this milieu with the claim to be the bāb (“the gate”) of the eleventh Shiite imam Hasan al-ʿAskarī (d. 873) to be. The community he led was supported by the family of the Banū l-Furāt, who served as secretaries and viziers in the service of the Abbasids . A rival for the leadership of the community was Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad al-Aḥmar. The sister sect of Isḥāqīya, which rival the Nusairīya, goes back to him. After the death of Ibn Nuṣair, which took place at an unknown time, Muhammad Ibn Juundub and al-Jannān al-Junbulānī took over the leadership of the Nuṣairīya, who apparently had only poor leadership qualities, so that the community lost many followers.

Spread to Harran and Syria

Much more successful was al-Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Chasībī, appears to have been trained by al-Dschunbulānī in the nusairische teaching, but also with another trailer Ibn Nuṣairs,'Alī ibn Ahmad from Turbā', a village near Karbalā' stood in conjunction. Al-Chasībī preached publicly in Baghdad from 926 , was imprisoned, escaped from custody and then spread the Nusairian teachings in Syria and Harran , where a first congregation with 51 followers was established. After the Buyidic seizure of power in Baghdad (945) he returned to Iraq and there wrote his missive ar-Risāla ar-rāstbāschīya for the Buyidic emir ʿIzz ad-Daula Bachtiyār (d. 368/976), who, as can be seen from the numerous Panegyric remarks about him in the Nusairi writings that Nusairier supported in Iraq. The leadership of the Iraqi community placed al-Chasībī in the hands of ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Jisrī, while he himself soon traveled again to Syria, where he spread the Nusairian teachings at the court of the Shiite Hamdanid ruler Saif ad-Daula.

Relocation of the center of the Nusairīya to northern Syria

With al-Chasībī, the center of the Nusairīya shifted to northern Syria. After his death, Muhammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jillī, one of his disciples from the circle in Harrān, took over the leadership of the community. From Aleppo he controlled a network of Nusairian communities, which, in addition to Harrān, now also included cities such as Beirut and Tiberias and Tripoli . For them he wrote not only works explaining the esoteric teachings of the sect, but also collections of religious opinions that paid particular attention to the question of initiation into the community. According to Alawi tradition, at-Tabarani emigrated from Aleppo to Latakia (al-Ladhiqiya) in 1032 to settle there because of the incessant wars .

The Byzantine recapture of large parts of western Syria in the second half of the 10th century meant that the Nusairian missionaries now largely operated on Christian territory. This is also reflected in the development of Nusairian literature, which now presents its own teaching primarily against the background of Christian ideas. This tendency is most evident in Maimūn at-Tabarānī, who took over the leadership of the Nusairian community in the first half of the 11th century. He developed a new Nusairian festival calendar, in which Christian festivals were also integrated. The Nusairīya received new religious competition from the emerging Druze at this time , which saw Syria as one of its most important mission areas. Hamza ibn ʿAlī , the founder of Druze, wrote several writings against the Nuṣairīya in which he tried to refute their teachings.

Establishment in the Syrian coastal mountains

For the further history of the Nusairīya it was of great importance that two families in the Syrian coastal mountains, the Banū Muhriz and the Banū l-Ahmar, took over their teaching in the 11th century. While the Nuṣairi communities of Iraq as well as those of Harran, Aleppo and Tiberias experienced a decline at that time, the Jabal, the Syrian coastal mountains, became the most important Nuṣairi immigration area. The rule of the Crusaders in Antioch (since 1098) and Latakia (since 1103) does not seem to have affected the spread of the sect over the inaccessible mountains in the hinterland.

In the early 13th century, however, the Nusairians in the Syrian coastal mountains came into ever fiercer competition with the Nizāritic Ismāʿīlites , who maintained a chain of fortresses here, as well as with newly immigrated Kurds . When there was a massacre of Nusairians in the fortress of Sahyun after 1218 , they received help from the Sinjar area from a Shiite emir, al-Hasan al-Makzūn as-Sinjari . The emir advanced in 1222 with 50,000 fighters in the coastal area, put the Nizarias and Kurds to flight and also destroyed the Isḥāqīya, who rivaled the Nusairīya and still had some followers in the coastal region. This gave the Syrian coastal mountains a clearly Nusairian character. According to Alawi tradition, a kind of council took place in the city of 'Āna on the central Euphrates in the 13th century, to which representatives from Baghdad , Aleppo, Latakia and the Jebel Ansariye came to find a solution to the religious dispute with the Ismāʿīlites. This and another meeting in Safita in 1291 ended unsuccessfully.

Attempts at conversion among Mamluks and Ottomans

After the Mamluke az-Zāhir Baibars had conquered Syria in 1260 , there were attempts by the state to convert the Nusairians to Sunniism . In 1317 there was a Nusairian uprising, in which the leader declared himself a Mahdi . A little later, the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taimiyya declared in a fatwa that Nusairians harmed Islam more than Christians and Jews and should be killed. However, he could not prevail with his opinion. In the Mamluk state, the Nusairians were finally put on an equal footing with the other non-Muslim minorities and, like them, had to pay the jizya .

The Alawite state as part of the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon

Not much is known about the history of the Nusairians from the 16th to the 18th centuries. In the late Ottoman period, the Nusairians became the target group of Protestant missionaries who tried to convince them that their religion had Christian origins. Triggered by these missionary activities, the Ottoman administration began to be interested in the Nusairians under Sultan Abdülhamid II and tried to bring them closer to the ruling Sunni-Hanafi Islam. In this context, a number of schools and mosques were built in the Syrian coastal mountains.

French mandate and Alawite state

At the end of the First World War, the French began to occupy Syria. Soon after the occupation, they divided the area into small states. After they had received the mandate for Syria from the League of Nations at the San Remo Conference , on August 31, 1920 they set up the "Autonomous Territory of the Alawites", which consisted of the former Ottoman Sanjak of Tripoli and part of the Masyaf district. On July 12, 1922, they elevated this area to an independent Alawite state , which had its own flag and, together with the states of Damascus and Aleppo, formed the "Federation of the States of Syria". However, this federation was dissolved again in December 1924 and replaced by a Syrian state that included Aleppo, Damascus and the Sanjak Alexandrette . The Alawite state, however, was administered separately by a French governor as the "Independent State of the Alawites" ( Etat indépendent des Alaouites ). It was not until 1937 that the Alawite region was reunited with the rest of Syria.

The Alawites in the Syrian state

The Assad family

In Syria, which became independent in 1946, the Alawites initially formed a marginalized population group. They only played an important role in the army . This was due to the fact that the Alawite peasant population mostly lacked the money to buy their way out of military service. The Alawis first gained greater political weight in 1963 when the Ba'ath Party came to power , because a large part of the leadership in the military and civilian arm of this party were Alawis. In 1970 the Alawite Defense Minister and Air Force chief Hafiz al-Assad, from Qardaha (south-east of Latakia ), took power in the state and was confirmed as president by a referendum on March 12, 1971. The Alawite region clearly benefited from al-Assad's power, and the small port town of Latakia in particular expanded in a building boom.

In 1973, under pressure from Orthodox legal scholars and the Sunni majority, a paragraph was inserted into the Syrian constitution that made the president's commitment to Islam mandatory. Hafiz al-Assad complied with this by demonstratively participating in the Islamic cult and in his speeches tried to emphatically underline his affiliation with Islam, since the Orthodox-Sunni propaganda, with reference to medieval sect books, tried to heresize the Nusairian belief as heretical , even un-Islamic . In the 1980s, representatives of the Sunni opposition in Syria called for the liquidation of the Alawites on the basis of Ibn Taimiya's religious opinion .

After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war

After the clashes between the Alawite regime and the Sunni opposition in the early 1980s, speaking about religious affiliations became largely taboo in Syria. This changed after the outbreak of civil war in early 2011. For example, civil rights activist Loubna Mrie openly confessed to her Alawite religion when speaking at anti-regime demonstrations. The differences between Sunnis and Alawites intensified again in the spring of 2013 when the Syrian army, together with fighters from the Shiite Hezbollah militia, launched an offensive to recapture the insurgent city of Kusseir . Referring to these events, the Qatari TV preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi called on May 31, 2013 in a Friday sermon for the fight against Assad and his "Nusairi group" ( fīʾatu-hū ). In doing so, he referred to the report by Ibn Taimīya from the 13th century, according to which the Nusaires were "more unbelieving than Jews and Christians" ( akfar min al-Yahūd wa-n-Naṣārā ).

In August 2013, according to a report by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch , an Alawite massacre occurred in the area of ​​Latakia. Fighters from the Islamist- Salafist insurgent organizations al-Nusra Front , Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant , Ahrar al-Scham , Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and Suqur al-Izz attacked on August 4, 2013, the first day breaking the fast , killed at least 190 civilians, at least 67 of whom were executed or illegally killed, and took over 200 hostages, mostly women and children.

Doctrines

Sources and Research

Since the Alawites are a secret religion, information is sparse. On the other hand, there are many rumors about the doctrine and cult. The most important source for research into the Alawi religion was for a long time the revelatory pamphlet by a Nusairian renegade named Sulaiman Efendi from Adana with the title: "The Solomonic First Fruits - Uncovering the Secrets of the Nusairian Religion" ( al-Bākūra as-Sulaimāniya fi kaschf asrār ad- diyāna an-Nusairīya ). It was published by Protestant missionaries in Beirut in 1864 and translated into English as early as 1888. Sulaiman Efendi, who converted to Christianity, was the victim of an assassination attempt in Tarsus shortly after its publication .

The first complete account of the Nusairian religion by René Dussaud , published in Paris in 1900, was based on the Bākūra . Dussaud tried to prove that the "Nusairians" lived in the Syrian coastal mountains long before Islam and that they had Phoenician origins. In their name he saw a corruption of the self-designation (nasoraya) of the Mandaeans and various other pre-Christian and Jewish-Christian sects.

In addition to the Bākūra , various Nusairian manuscripts were available as sources, which had been brought to Europe by European travelers, in particular by Carsten Niebuhr , in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were mainly evaluated by Rudolf Strothmann in various studies on the Nusairians.

From the 1980s onwards, various Alawites began to write about their religion themselves. They emphasized above all the affiliation of the Alawis to Islam and tried to prove that the esoteric elements of the Nusairīya were not due to extreme Shiite, but to Sufi influences.

Since 2006 in Lebanon, as part of the Silsilat at-tūrāṯ al-ʿalawī series , the publication of numerous previously inaccessible Nusairi writings began, the research now includes considerably more texts by the founding fathers of the Nusairīya (Ibn Nusair, al-Junbulānī, al-Chasībī, al-Jillī, al-Jisrī, at-Tabarānī etc.) are available as sources. A first evaluation of these texts is in the study The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs published in 2010 . An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria by Yaron Friedman. In an appendix, which takes up more than thirty pages in his book (pp. 241–276), he also provides a description of the content of the newly accessible texts.

Ali worship and transmigration of souls

Ali ibn Abi Talib is for them a manifestation of the highest, nameless God, the Urewigen (al-Qadim al-Azal), the greatest God (al-ilah al-a'zam). After the fall of the light souls, he has hidden himself and reappears to his creatures seven times, once in each heaven. Despite its changing shape, it always remains the same, namely the meaning or the real (al-Ma'na). With every appearance he is accompanied by two further beings: on the one hand by the heavenly curtain (hijab) in which he appears and which serves as his name (ism), on the other hand by the gate (bab), which allows access to him. This is how a kind of trinity is composed that has manifested itself on earth in seven cycles, beginning with Abel , Adam and Gabriel . The last cycle consists of Ali, Muhammad and the Prophet's companion Salmān al-Fārisī .

Characteristic of the nusairische teaching is the docetic opinion of Ali. They were of the opinion that Ali only had a pseudo-body. According to a 19th century source, the Nusairians were asked to curse anyone who claimed that Ali ever ate, drank, married, or had children.

It is the task of the creatures to recognize Ali in each cycle in which he appears. Since the souls are incapable of this, Ali has locked them in the robes of rebirth. This is associated with the Nusairians' idea of ​​the transmigration of souls. There are two types of this: masūchīya , the migration of the souls of unbelievers into animal bodies, and nasūchīya , the advancement of believers through various forms into beings of light.

Allegorical interpretation of the Sharia

In the Nusairian sources, the five pillars of Islam are interpreted allegorically. The Shahāda is given special importance, for example, because its first part Lā ilāha illā Llāh is Arabic لا إله إلا اللهContains twelve letters to refer to the twelve imams . The ritual prayer also has an inner meaning, because each of the five daily prayers stands for a person from the family of the Prophet Mohammed (Muhammad himself, Fatima bint Mohammed , Hasan ibn ʿAlī , Hussein and Muhsin). The fasting month of Ramadan, which is connected with the Nusairiern with an additional secrecy is the obligation of confidentiality of one's own religion. The zakat is considered a spiritual gift, namely the transmission of esoteric knowledge by the initiates to the novices understood. The Hajj, finally, is interpreted as a mystical journey in which the person concerned goes through a process of cognition, at the end of which there is a state of perfect unity .

It is unclear whether the allegorical interpretation of religious duties is also associated with their general abolition in Nusairian doctrine. This has always been denied by modern Alawite authors.

initiation

The Nusairians divide their community into a generality ( ʿāmma ) of uninitiated and a small religious elite ( chāssa ) of initiates according to the arcane principle . Women are usually never initiated into the religion. The initiation into religion takes place with the young men according to a clearly defined ritual. The prerequisite is the Alawite descent, because it is not possible to convert to the Alawite religion. The initiation ritual serves the spiritual creation of a new soul. The ritual consists of two main parts that must be seven or nine months apart. This period corresponds to the time between conception and birth of a new Gnostic person.

The texts recited at both ceremonies come from the most important ritual book of the Alawites, the "Book of Collections" ( Kitab al-Madschmu ' ) , unless they are verses from the Qur'an . This collection, divided into 16 sections ( suras ), was given to the initiate by the Prophet Muhammad himself according to Alawite belief. The collections were handed down in full by Sulaiman al-Adani and commented on in detail; the book is available in an English and a French translation.

Festivals and sanctuaries

The basic Nusairian festivals are recorded in the festival calendar of Maimūn at-Tabaranī. This includes:

  • the feast of the breaking of the fast , the feast of sacrifice and the night in the middle of Shaʿbān as general Islamic festivals
  • the Ghadir festival on the 18th of Dhu l-Hiddscha in memory of the establishment of Ali by Mohammed Teich von Chumm , the Mubahala festival, the Firas festival, the Ashura festival and the commemoration of the murder of Umar ibn al-Chattab as specifically Shiite celebrations,
  • the Christian Christmas and Easter celebrations
  • Nouruz and Mehrgan as Persian festivals
  • and March 17th as a specifically Nusairian feast day, on which a miracle is commemorated, which Hasan al-ʿAskarī caused by his Bāb Muhammad ibn Nusair.
Alawitic Chidr Shrine in Samandağ (Turkey)

The ritual practiced at the festivals consists of a whole series of cult acts, including numerous prostrations (sudjud, rukūʿ ). Traditions of the ritual are sheikhs, members of families of notables, in whom knowledge of theological books, traditions and ritual texts has been cultivated over the generations. The community is not excluded from the initiations and ceremonies. In the cult acts, three sheikhs always appear together. They represent the three ranks of Imam, Naqib and Najib. At the same time they symbolize the heavenly trinity Ma'na - Ism - Bab.

The Alawites of today also have a large number of local sanctuaries called Mazār or Ziyāra . The shapes of these sanctuaries vary: some consist of an enclosed sacred tree, others of a whitewashed domed structure containing a grave, but there are also simple brick cubes in the middle of a small courtyard. They are often found on small hills, near springs or in the middle of small groves. Each ziyāra is dedicated to a prophet or local saint, after whom it takes its name. Many of the Alawites' sanctuaries are also dedicated to the Chidr . A particularly large Alawi Chidr sanctuary is located near Samandağ at the mouth of the Orontes into the Mediterranean .

Position of woman

In the doctrine of the Alawites, the true woman than the clan of the devil . Despite this status, the Alawite women have a special position in the special religious community because - due to their Alawite descent and from a biological point of view - only they can give birth to new "Alawite bodies", offspring . According to the patrilinearity and biological logic ( genes / blood ) of the Alawites, an Alawite newborn baby consists of two thirds of the male Alawite and one third of the female Alawite, i.e. of devilish matter.

In this special religious community, women are generally anemic compared to men and are classified as colder because they suffered a monthly blood loss due to the menstrual cycle of the female body and thus lost heat.

According to the Alawites' doctrine of reincarnation, rebirth as a woman is a punishment because women count as soulless beings or non-enlightenable souls and they are therefore excluded from the transmigration of souls. Alawite women are excluded from the Alawite secret practice of the initiation ritual based on the arcane principle of this special Gnostic religious community because they are soulless beings or non-enlightened souls and are seen as incapable of keeping secrets for themselves. The enlightenment of the light soul is only obtained through the initiation ritual, so it is denied to the Alawite women.

Religious subgroups among the Alawites

It has been known since the early 19th century that there are various “subgroups” among the Alawites. However, the information on the number and names of these "groups" are contradictory. The best known is the rivalry between Ḥaidarīya and Kalāzīya. The former is said to go back to a certain ʿAlī Ḥaidar (16th century) from the area of ​​Antakya, the latter to Sheikh Muḥammad ibn Yūnus, who appeared around 1600 in the village of Kalāzū near Antakya. The Ḥaidarīya is especially common in the north of the Alawi settlement area (Hatay region, Adana) and is therefore also called Shamālīya (“northern group”); the Kalāziyya, whose followers are more likely to be found in the south of the settlement area, accordingly has the surname Qiblīya ("southern group"). Further names for the two groups are Shamsīya ("sun group") and Qamarīya ("moon group"), which apparently have to do with the fact that the divine light in one group with the sun and in the other with the moonlight is identified. Otherwise, there are only differences between Ḥaidarīya and Kalāzīya with regard to the course of ritual activities and the sheikhs' beard (Ḥaidarīs mostly wear full beards, Kalāzīs mustache).

Muršidiyya

In addition to Ḥaidarīya and Kalāzīya, the Alawites used to have another religious subgroup called Ghaibīya ("hidden group"). Félix Dupont explained her name by saying that her followers worship a hidden, absent god. Today the Ghaibīya seems to have completely absorbed into the Murschidīya, a religious community that was founded by Sulaimān Murschid and has around 100,000 to 200,000 followers in Syria.

Reformation and Orthodoxy

From the 1930s onwards, the Alawite beliefs were partially redefined by some of their religious scholars, starting with Sheikh ʿAbd al Rahmān al-Khayr, and non-Muslim aspects of the Islamic group were rejected as later changes due to external influences.

The rejection of the name "Nusairī", which is generally accepted today among the Alawis, was initiated by al-Khayr and presented as an incorrect and derogatory foreign name. The term "ʿAlawi" was used in a religious text as early as the 11th century and, according to Necati Alkan (2012), has been in use since the beginning of the 20th century.

A major official statement on the Alawite faith came in 1973 when 80 spiritual leaders from the various Alawite areas came together to sign a joint declaration stating that the Koran is their book, that they are Muslims and partisans Ahl al-Bait (family of the Prophet Mohammed) are.

Alawites in the world

Distribution of the Alawites in the Levant

The Alawites are primarily ethnic Arabs and speak mainly the northern Levantine Arabic dialect.

Alawites now live mainly in Syria , Turkey and Lebanon . The main settlement area is an area that extends from the Turkish province of Hatay in the north south over the Syrian coastal mountains, the Jebel Ansariye , to the Akkar plain in northern Lebanon. The Orontes forms the border of this area to the east .

The exact number of Alawites is not known. It is estimated that there are 3 million Alawis worldwide.

In the Levant and Çukurova region

The older literature also mentions an Alawite community for the city ​​of ʿĀna on the central Euphrates , in present-day Iraq .

Syria

The Alawite population in Syria is estimated at two million (2016).

There are still relatively closed settlement zones of several Alawite settlement islands in the interior of Syria, in the areas around Hama and Homs .

As a result of labor migration, important Alawite communities emerged in Damascus in the 20th century .

Golan Heights

The location of the village of Ghajar in the Golan Heights

On the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are about 2,000 to 3,000 Israeli-civic Alawites in the divided village of Ghajar , which the UN - Blue Line runs on the border with Lebanon.

Lebanon

The percentage of Alawites in the total population of Lebanon is two percent (2013). Of these, 50,000 are in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon , where the Alawites are reserved two places in the Lebanese parliament according to the Taif Agreement .

Turkey

The Alawites are considered an Arabic-speaking religious minority in Turkey , living mainly in the Hatay province and in the Çukurova region (Cilicia) in the areas in and around the cities of Mersin , Tarsus and Adana . Hatay Province is considered to be the homeland of the Alawites in Turkey and form a majority of the population in the southern part. Alawitic communities in Hatay can mainly be found in and around Antakya and Samandağ as well as in the coastal plain of İskenderun .

At the end of the 18th century Alawis immigrated to Cilicia due to economic growth in the agriculture section .

According to Middle East expert Gudrun Harrer from 2011, the population of this religious minority in Turkey is estimated at almost half a million. The Police Directorate of Antakya estimated in 2012 the number of Alawites alone for the province of Hatay to 700,000.

In Germany and Austria (Europe)

Germany

According to the Frobenius Institute , the number of Alawites in Germany in 2010 was around 70,000. The regions of origin of the Alawites who immigrated to Germany are mainly delimited from the Turkish regions of Hatay and Çukurova .

The southern German city of Aalen is known for its high proportion of Alawite migrants, which are twinned with the Turkish city of Antakya in the Hatay region, where there is also an Alawite population center.

Austria

According to an Austrian Alawite, the number of Alawites in Austria was estimated at around 3,000 in the early to mid-2000s, most of whom came from the province of Hatay, more specifically from the capital Antakya and the port city of İskenderun.

The first Alawi immigrants from İskenderun were textile workers and that is why they settled in Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria from the beginning , due to their textile industry.

Organizations / associations

Relationship to other Shiite groups

Alevis

Alawites do not practice cem . In addition, they do not recognize Hacı Bektaş , Yunus Emre and Pir Sultan Abdal , who are venerated by the Alevis, as their authorities. On a social level, there is a difference that among the Alevis women take part in the rituals, but among the Alawites not.

Twelve Schia

Twelve Shiites regard Alawis as ghoulat ("those who cross all boundaries with regard to their deification of Ali"). In July 1973, the Imam Musa al-Sadr , Chairman of the Supreme Shiite Council in Lebanon and recognized authority, officially recognized the Alawis as Muslims as the first Shiite authority . At that time, al-Sadr was trying to expand his sphere of influence into Syria, and Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad - an Alawi - urgently needed recognition as a Muslim after Sunni Muslims in Syria demanded that the constitution should include the President of the country should be a Muslim. In a statement published after the outbreak of the war in Syria, Alawi clans and families distanced themselves from the Twelve Shia and declared that Alawism was its own esoteric tendency in Islam.

See also

literature

swell

  • Tabarānī, Maimūn ibn Qāsim at-: Maǧmūʿ al-aʿyād . Published by R. Strothmann under the title: Festkalender der Nusairier. Basic textbook in the Syrian Alawite state . In Der Islam 27 (1944/46).
  • Sulaimān Efendī (al-Aḏanī): al-Bākūra as-Sulaimānīya fī kašf asrār ad-diyāna an-Nuṣairīya . Beirut 1864. Engl. in Edward E. Salisbury: Notice ofكتاب الباكورة السليمانية فى كشف اسرار الديانة النصرية تأليف سليمان افندى الاذنى. The Book of Sulaimân's First Ripe Fruit, Disclosing the Mysteries of the Nusairian Religion by Sulaiman 'Effendo of' Adhanah. With copious extracts. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society (JAOS) 8 (1866) 227-308.
  • Silsilat at-tūrāṯ al-ʿalawī. Ed. Abū-Mūsā al-Harīrī (pseudonym). So far 10 volumes have been published. Diyār ʿAql: Dār li-Aǧl al-Maʿrifa 2006ff.
  • Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen (Ed.): Materialdienst 12/2016 . Berlin 2016, Alawiten / Nusairier, p. 467-470 ( ezw-berlin.de ).

Studies

  • Necati Alkan: Fighting for the Nuṣayrī Soul: State, Protestant Missionaries and the ʿAlawīs in the Late Ottoman Empire . In: The World of Islam 52 (2012) 23–50.
  • Necati Alkan: Alawites - History, Belief System and Situation in Germany. In: Michael Klöcker , Udo Tworuschka : Handbook of Religions . 60th supplementary delivery Hohenwarsleben 2019.
  • Werner Arnold: The Nusairians and their rituals. In: Robert Langer u. a. (Ed.): Migration and ritual transfer. Religious practice of the Alevis, Yazidis and Nusairians between the Middle East and Western Europe (= Heidelberg Studies on the History and Culture of the Modern Middle East 33). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2005, ISBN 3-631-52426-9 , pp. 305-313.
  • Meʼir Mikhaʼel Bar-Asher, Arieh Kofsky: The Nusayri-'Alawī Religion. An Inquiry into its Theology and Liturgy (= Jerusalem studies in religion and culture 1). Brill, Leiden u. a. 2002, ISBN 90-04-12552-3 .
  • Claude Cahen: Note on the Origines de la Communauté Syrienne des Nusayris. In: Revue des Etudes Islamiques. 38, 1970, ISSN  0336-156X , pp. 243-249.
  • Félix Dupont: Mémoire sur les moeurs et les cérémonies religieuses de Nesserie, connu en Europe sous le nom d'Ansari . In Journal Asiatique I 5 (1824) 129-139.
  • René Dussaud : Histoire et religion des Nosairîs. Paris 1900.
  • Patrick Franke: The Syrian Alawis in Western research: some critical remarks . In: A. Drost-Abgarjan, J. Tubach (Ed.): Language, Myths and Mythicisms: FS for Walter Beltz (= Hallesche Contributions to Orientwissenschaft 32 (2001)). Halle 2004. pp. 219–270.
  • Yaron Friedman: The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs. An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria. Leiden 2010.
  • Burak Gümüs: About Nusayri, Bulgarian-Alevites, Shabak, Kakai and Ehl-i Hak , in Sosyal Bilimler Araştırma Dergisi (SBArD), 7, 2009, 14, ISSN  1304-2424 pp. 153-177
  • Heinz Halm : Art. "Nuṣayriyya" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VIII, pp. 145b-148a.
  • Heinz Halm: The Book of Shadows. The Mufaddal Ghoulat Tradition and the Origins of Nusairianism. In: Der Islam 55, 1978, pp. 219–266 and 58; 1981, pp. 15-86. ZDB ID 352741-4 .
  • Heinz Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. The extreme Schia and the 'Alawites. Artemis-Verlag, Zurich a. a. 1982, ISBN 3-7608-4530-4 , ( Die Bibliothek des Morgenlandes 17).
  • Louis Massignon : Nusairi . In: EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam .
  • Sabrina Mervin: “L'entité alaouite”, une création française . In: Pierre-Jean Luizard (ed.): Le choc colonial et l'Islam. Découverte, Paris 2006, pp. 343–358
  • this: minority and ruling class. The Complicated History of the Alawis of Syria. Le monde diplomatique (German), January 2013, p. 9
  • Laila Prager: The “community of the house”. Religion, marriage strategies and transnational identity of Turkish Alawi / Nusairi migrants in Germany . tape 7 of Comparative anthropological studies in society, cosmology and politics. LIT Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10894-4 (250 pages, limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Laila Prager: The signs of rebirth. Body, stigmata and transmigration of souls among the Alawites of south-east Turkey. In: Paideuma 59 (2013), pp. 237–260.
  • Gisela Procházka-Eisl and Stephan Procházka: The plain of saints and prophets: the Nusayri-Alawi Community of Cilicia (Southern Turkey) and its sacred places. Wiesbaden 2010.
  • Stephan Procházka: The Arabic dialects of the Çukurova (southern Turkey) (=  Semitica Viva Series . Volume 27 ). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-447-04525-6 , ISSN  0931-2811 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Rudolf Strothmann: The Nusairi in today's Syria. In: Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 1950, 4, pp. 29–64.
  • Gregor Voss: "ʿAlawīya or Nuṣairīya?" Shiite power elite and Sunni opposition in the Syrian Arab Republic. Hamburg 1987.
  • Jacques Weulersse: Le Pays des Alaouites. 2 volumes. Arrault, Tours 1940.
  • Mathias Rohe , Havva Engin , Mouhanad Khorchide , Ümer Öszoy, Hansjörg Schmid (eds.): Handbook Christianity and Islam in Germany: Experiences, basics and perspectives of living together. in the Google book search Verlag Herder GmbH. 1st edition. Freiburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-451-80272-0 .
  • Helmut Obst : Reincarnation: World history of an idea. in the Google book search CHBeck. 1st edition. Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62329-5 .
  • Rudolf Fischer: Religious diversity in the Middle East: an overview of the religious communities in the Middle East . Ed. Piscator, Oberdorf, Switzerland 1988, ISBN 3-906090-20-5 , Nusairier (Alawiten), p. 52–53 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Kai Merten: Among each other, not next to each other: The coexistence of religious and cultural groups in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century (=  Marburg contributions to the history of religion . Volume 6 ). LIT Verlag, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12359-6 , 8. The Nusairians / Alawites in the Ottoman Empire, p. 246–264 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Werner Arnold, Hartmut Bobzin (Ed.): "Talk to your servants in Aramaic, we understand!" 60 articles on Semitic studies: Festschrift for Otto Jastrow on his 60th birthday. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-04491-8 , Procházka, Stephan: From the rebirth among the Alawites by Adana, p. 557-568 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Barbara Henning, Necati Alkan, Martin Beyer: Blossoming diversity in the science garden - Why small subjects have a profile-building significance for universities . Edition June 2016. University of Bamberg, 2016, ISSN  1618-9019 , 6. Their roof rests on seven pillars (The Nusairi-Alawites in the late Ottoman state), p. 30–31 ( uni-bamberg.de [PDF; 471 kB ; accessed on August 21, 2016]).
  • Erkan Tümkaya: border areas, border crossings, delimitation. Young perspectives on Turkish research . Ed .: Wiebke Hohberger, Roy Karadag, Katharina Müller, Christoph Ramm. Springer-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-20451-8 , 9. The development of the Turkish-Alawite organizations and their relationships with the organizations of the Anatolian Alevis in Germany, p. 197–212 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Dzmitry Seuruk: The Muršidiyya. Origin and internal development of a special religious community in Syria from the 1920s to the present day . In: Lale Behzadi, Patrick Franke, Geoffrey Haig, Christoph Herzog, Birgitt Hoffmann, Lorenz Korn and Susanne Talabardon (eds.): Bamberger Orientstudien . tape 5 . University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86309-182-8 (299 pp., Opus4.kobv.de [PDF; 8.0 MB ]).

Web links

Library / media

Commons : Alawites  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Concepts / relationships

Histories

Gnosticism / Beliefs

Studies

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d L.ISA - The science portal of the Gerda Henkel Foundation : ... a Shiite special community with main settlement area in Cilicia and Western Syria ... from Jan. 19, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c d derStandard.at : ... the almost half a million Alawites (Nusayrians) in Turkey also call themselves Arab Alevis or "Güney Alevileri", southern Alevis, to downplay the difference ... from 5th Aug. 20110
  3. ↑ See Alkan 2012, 49.
  4. ↑ Claude Cahen : Islam I. From the origin to the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire (= Fischer Weltgeschichte, 14). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt a. Main, 2003, ISBN 3-596-50733-2 , Chapter 10: “The Development of Political-Religious Movements”, p. 212.
  5. ↑ a b Ali Duran Gülcicek: Nusayri Aleviler ( Memento of November 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf; 235 kB)
  6. ↑ Heinz Halm : Art. "Nuṣayriyya"
  7. ^ Nikolaos van Dam: The Struggle for Power in Syria - Politics and Society under Asad and the Ba'th Party . IB Tauris, New York / London, 2011, ISBN 1-86064-024-9 , p. 108f
  8. ↑ See Friedman 11
  9. ↑ Massignon
  10. ↑ Heinz Halm: The book of shadows. The Mufaddal Ghoulat Tradition and the Origins of Nusairianism. in: Der Islam 55, 1978
  11. ↑ See Friedman 6-16.
  12. ↑ See Friedman 17-34.
  13. ↑ See Friedman 34-40.
  14. ↑ See Friedman 40-45.
  15. ↑ C.Cahen
  16. ↑ See Friedman 47-56.
  17. ↑ Halm, EI2, Vol. 8, p. 147a
  18. ↑ See Friedman 57-61.
  19. ↑ See Friedman 56-64.
  20. ↑ See Alkane 46.
  21. ↑ See Weulersse 1940, I 121.
  22. ↑ See Halm 1982, 289.
  23. ↑ See Halm 1982, 289f.
  24. ↑ See Halm 1982, 290.
  25. ↑ See Voss 71-74.
  26. ↑ Rima Marrouch: The Arab world in turmoil - "A young Syrian woman, between family and revolution" . Arte TV Blog, September 25, 2012, accessed November 12, 2015.
  27. ↑ CNN :القرضاوي: النصيريون أكفر من اليهود ولو كنت قادرا لقاتلت بالقصير. June 2, 2013 (Arabic).
    English-language summary: Richard Spencer: Muslim Brotherhood cleric calls for Sunni jihad in Syria . Daily Telegraph , June 2, 2013, accessed November 11, 2015.
  28. ↑ Syria: Executions and hostage-taking by rebels. Targeted attacks on civilians are crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch, October 11, 2013, accessed December 3, 2013 .
  29. ↑ See Salisbury
  30. ↑ Cf. Dussaud 1–17.
  31. ↑ Strothmann
  32. ↑ See Arnold 2005
  33. ↑ See Friedman 82.
  34. ↑ See Halm 1982, 302 and Friedman 105-107.
  35. ↑ See Friedman 131.
  36. ↑ See Friedman 134.
  37. ↑ See Friedman 138.
  38. ^ See Friedman 139f.
  39. ↑ See Friedman 140-142.
  40. ↑ See Franke 2004, 256.
  41. ↑ See Friedman 144-147.
  42. ↑ a b c Südwest Presse : "Diverse religion - ... the Alawites ... a 'self-directed' Shiite current, ... A conversion into this community is not possible, one becomes an Alawit by birth. They keep their teachings secret ... and believe in a transmigration of souls in men, women, however, are viewed as soulless beings ... ”( swp.de of January 29, 2015).
  43. ↑ See Halm 1982, 303-315.
  44. ↑ Dussaud
  45. ^ Edward Salisbury: Notice of kitab al-bakura as-Sulaimaniya. The book of Sulaiman's First Ripe Fruit, Disclosing the Mysteries of the Nusairian Religion by Sulaiman Effendi of Adhanah. in: JAOS 8 (1866).
  46. ↑ See Festkalender, 96.
  47. ↑ a b c Welt am Sonntag : "... two million citizens of Syria belong to the Alawite religious community ... But Alawites also live in Turkey, as well as in Lebanon and a village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights ..." ( welt.de, April 3rd. 2016, accessed April 9, 2016).00
  48. ↑ See Rudolf Fischer 1988, p. 52.
  49. ↑ See Friedman 152–170.
  50. ↑ See Weulersse 1940 I 255 and Procházka-Eisl / Procházka.
  51. ↑ a b Cf. Laila Prager 2010, pp. 15, 70–71 in the Google Book Search, accessed on May 28, 2017
  52. ↑ See Orientalische Kultur und Europäische Mittelalter , 1985, pp. 95–96 in Google Book Search, accessed on May 28, 2017
  53. ↑ Cf. Laila Prager 2010, pp. 71-76, in Google Book Search 164-185 in Google Book Search, accessed on May 28, 2017
  54. ↑ See Laila Prager 2010, p. 79 in Google Book Search, accessed on May 28, 2017
  55. ↑ Helmut Obst : Reinkarnation: Weltgeschichte einer Idea , Munich 2011 in the Google book search
  56. ↑ See Rudolf Fischer 1988, p. 52 in the Google book search, accessed on May 28, 2017
  57. ↑ Gertrude Bell : The murmuring and whispering of the desert: A journey through ancient Syria , 2015 in the Google book search
  58. ↑ Laila Prager: The "Community of the House". Religion, marriage strategies and transnational identity of Turkish Alawi / Nusairi migrants in Germany . LIT Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10894-4 , 3.6 initiated and non-initiated, p. 69–72 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  59. ↑ See e.g. B. Dupont 130 and Dussaud 81
  60. ↑ Cf. Muḥammad Amīn Ġālib aṭ-Ṭawīl: Tārīḫ al-ʿAlawiyyīn. 3rd ed. Beirut 1979. p. 529.
  61. ↑ See Prager 67–69.
  62. ↑ See Franke 1994
  63. ^ Aslam Farouk-Alli: The Genesis of Syria's Alawi Community. In: Michael Kerr, Craig Larkin (eds.): The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith and Politics in the Levant. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, pp. 39f
  64. ^ Leon T. Goldsmith: The 'Alawī Shaykhs of Religion . In: Sociology of Islam . tape 6 . Brill, 2018, p. 197 .
  65. ^ Necati Alkan: Fighting for the Nuṣayrī Soul: State, Protestant Missionaries and the ʿAlawīs in the Late Ottoman Empire. In: Die Welt des Islams, Volume 52, 2012, pp. 23–50, here p. 49
  66. ↑ Hanna Batatu: Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics. 2012, ISBN 978-1-4008-4584-2
  67. ↑ a b Süddeutsche Zeitung : "... The Shiite faith spectrum includes the Alevis from the Turkish region, but also the Alawites, who are mainly Arabs ..." ( sueddeutsche.de, March 31, 2018).
  68. ↑ a b c See Halm 1982, 285.
  69. ↑ On the Alawite migration cf. Prague 2010.
  70. ↑ NZZ.ch : "... Golan Heights, close to the Lebanese border, the village of Ghajar is unique in the world ... With the consent of the then Syrian President Hafez Asad, fellow believer of the Alawis living in Ghajar, the villagers agreed with Israel ... annexed the occupied Golan Heights, the residents of Ghajar decided to accept the Israeli citizenship they are now entitled to ... ”( nzz.ch of Feb. 4, 2010).0
  71. ↑ NZZ.ch : “… About 2000 Alawis currently live in the divided village of Ghajar, which lies at the foot of the Golan on the border between Lebanon and Israeli-occupied territory. The Alawites there have Israeli citizenship… ”( nzz.ch of Jan. 11, 2012).
  72. ↑ Jerusalem Center: "... Golan live, and about 3,000 Alawites in Ghajar, a village on the old border between Israel, Syria and Lebanon ..." ( jer-zentrum.org from September 15, 2009, accessed on April 9, 2016 ).0
  73. ↑ RP-Online: "... In Lebanon the small religious group makes up just two percent of the population, and also in Tripoli ..." ( rp-online.de from June 1, 2013, accessed on April 9, 2016).00
  74. ↑ The first : “… Alawitic minority, in Tripoli there are 50,000…” ( daserste.de from Sep. 1, 2013).0
  75. ↑ a b c d e derStandard.at : “… there is an Arabic-speaking religious minority there… live in Çukurova and in the Hatay province… The Alawites came to Cilicia from the end of the 18th century, attracted by an economic boom caused by the Cultivation of sugar cane and cotton ... “( derstandard.at of 29 Mar. 2011).
  76. ↑ On the Cilician Alawites cf. Procházka-Eisl and Stephan Procházka 2010.
  77. ↑ a b FAZ .net: “… Hatay province, is the home of the Alawite minority in Turkey. Hatay is a multi-ethnic province. In their southern part the Arab Alawis (Nusairians) make up the majority ... for 700,000 people in Hatay. This is how high the police department in Antakya put the number of Alawites living in the province ... ”( faz.net of 27 Sep. 2012).
  78. ^ Membership numbers : Islam , in: Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst e. V. (Abbreviation: REMID) , accessed on February 16, 2016
  79. ↑ a b Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität : “… of which around 70,000 live in Germany today. The regions of origin of the Alawites who immigrated to Germany are located in south-east Turkey, in particular in the Hatay and Çukorova regions ... ”( [1] from   2010, accessed on Feb. 16, 2016).
  80. ↑ University of Marburg : Excursus: Differentiating the Alevis from the Syrian-Arab Alawis or Nusairians. (PDF; p. 6 of 30) by Professor Dr. Ursula Spuler-Stegemann on Feb. 21, 2012, accessed on Apr. 9, 20160
  81. ↑ See Laila Prager 2010, p. 24
  82. ↑ a b c Hüseyin Simsek: 50 years of migration from Turkey to Austria . tape 142 of history. LIT Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-643-50817-1 , p. 346 f . (472 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  83. ↑ Il documento degli alawiti, La Repubblica, April 3, 2016
  84. ↑ Alawite identity in Syria. In: Atlantic Council. April 6, 2016, Retrieved October 4, 2019 (American English).
  85. ↑ full page, with distribution map. Mervin works at the CNRS Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Religions