Sulaimān Murschid

Sulaimān Murschid ( Arabic سليمان مرشد, DMG Sulaimān Muršid , also Salmān al-Murschid ; * 1907 in Jaubat al-Burghāl in the Alawiten Mountains ; † December 16, 1946 in Damascus ) was a religious and political leader among the Syrian Alawis during the French mandate .

Sulaimān Murschid grew up in poor circumstances in his village in the upper, more remote part of the Syrian coastal mountains and initially worked as a shepherd. His religious career began in September 1923 when he fell ill, had ecstatic fits and was henceforth regarded as the envoy of Chidr in his environment . A religious revival movement arose around him , which spread across large parts of the Alawite community. Murschid was worshiped by his followers after a certain time as a prophet , later even as a "lord" ( rabb ) with divine qualities.

Since villages belonging to Murschid's movement refused to pay taxes and he was also held responsible for the massacre in the village of al-ʿĀliyāt, the French mandate authorities first made various attempts to crush the movement. In 1929, however, the two sides came closer together and a period of political cooperation began. Murschid himself moved into the Syrian parliament after elections in November 1937.

At the same time closed Murshid his followers, who came mostly from the Alawite tribes'Amāmira, Mahāliba and Darāwisa, that of a new strain along the model of the ancient Arab tribe Ghassanids as Banu Ghassan or Ghasāsina was called, and declared himself as its head ( raʾīs ).

After the French mandate government had again detached the Alawite area from the Syrian state in July 1939 , Murschid intensified his cooperation with the French and was able to significantly expand his position of power in the region and became the most important large landowner in the region.

After the reintegration of the Alawite region into the Syrian state (1942), there were repeated armed clashes between Murschid's supporters and the Syrian gendarmerie under Hrant Maloyan . In December 1946, after the withdrawal of the French troops from Syria, Murschid was sentenced to death for high treason and hanged in Damascus on Merjsche Square .

In the 1950s, two sons of Murschids, Mujīb and Sādschī, revived the religious movement founded by their father under the name of Murschidīya . As a religious sub-grouping of the Alawites with 100,000 to 200,000 followers, this community continues to this day.

literature

• Patrick Franke : Divine career of a Syrian shepherd: Sulaimān Muršid (1907-1946) and the beginnings of Muršidiyya. Islamic studies 182. Berlin 1994. Digitized
• Dzmitry Seuruk: The Muršidiyya: Origin and internal development of a special religious community in Syria from the 1920s to the present day . Univ. of Bamberg Press, Bamberg, 2013. pp. 27-99. PDF
• Gitta Yaffe: "Beginnings of an Alawi Leader: Suleiman Al-Murshid" in Middle Eastern Studies 29 (1993) 624-640.

Web links

• Orientnews video report on the execution of Salmān al-Murshid