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Arab Culture & Civilization
Explore this exemplary library of articles and resources on Arab societies and culture. This site was originally created by the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE).
After the creation of Syria as we now know it after WWII until 1970, Syria went through a period of political instability, with several military coups. It was not until Hafiz al-Asad, a member of the Socialist Ba'th Party and the minority Alawite sect, seized power in a bloodless coup in 1970 that modern Syria enjoyed its first period of political stability-albeit with almost no political or media freedom. After Hafiz al-Asad's death in 2000, his son Bashir was elected president.
In many ways, Syria is defined by its relationships with Lebanon and Israel. Many Western experts have accused Syria of continuing to interfere in Lebanon's political process, despite "officially" withdrawing from the country in 2005. Meanwhile, since its loss of the Golan Heights in the Six Day War with Israel in 1967, Syria has vacillated between aggression towards the Jewish state and secret peace negotiations over the Golan's return.
Slightly larger than North Dakota, with a population of about 20 million, Syria depends on its relatively small reserves of oil. Rising fuel prices in 2008 helped counter a decline in production. While Bashir al-Asad has instituted some economic reforms, the centralized economy means the government controls almost all sectors of the economy, and the country is plagued by high unemployment and inflation and increasing pressure on water supplies caused by rapid population growth.
Education: Nearly full enrollment in compulsory tuition-free public schools at primary level. School system consists of six years of primary, three years of lower secondary, and three years of upper secondary education. Four major universities and various teacher-training and vocational institutes, all government owned and operated. Adult literacy rate estimated at over 60 percent.
Health: Gastrointestinal ailments, trachoma, and infectious diseases prevalent; considerable progress has been made in control of malaria. Severe shortage of medical and paramedical personnel.
Languages: Official language, Arabic, mother tongue of about 90 percent of population, understood by most others. Kurdish (Kirmanji), Armenian, Turkic, and Syriac spoken by minorities; French and English spoken by educated elites in major urban areas.
Religion: Estimated 85 percent of population adheres to some form of Islam. About 13 to 15 percent of Muslims are Alawis (see Glossary); less than 1 percent, Shias (see Glossary); and remainder, Sunnis (see Glossary). About 10 percent of population observes some form of Christianity, and about 3 percent are Druzes (see Glossary). Small numbers of Jews, Yazidis, and others. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+sy0005%29
Ethnic Groups: Racially, the Syrians are varied, and except where ethnic distinctions have found religious expression, racial types are generally intermixed. It is estimated that Arabs make up about 90.3% of the population. Other ethnic groups make up the remaining 9.7%, including Kurds, Armenians, and others. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Syria.html
Population
The population of Syria was estimated at 16,305,659 in July 2000, an increase of 3.4 percent from the 1990 population of 12,116,000. In addition, there are about 38,200 people living in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights (excluding nearly 20,000 Israeli settlers). Syria has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Over the last decade, however, Syria's population growth rate has gradually decreased from 3.30 percent in 1990 to approximately 2.58 percent in 2000. Despite the steady decline in its growth rate, the population is expected to reach 20.9 million by the year 2010.
Syrians are divided along profound ethnic and sectarian (groups divided by politics, language, and religion) cleavages. Arabs constitute the major ethnic group with 90.3 percent, while other minority groups such as Kurds, Armenians, Turcomans, and Assyrians make up the remaining 9.7 percent of the population. Sectarian divisions include Sunni Muslims (about 74 percent), Alawites (an extreme Shi'ite subsect), Druze (a secret Middle-Eastern sect and doctrine combining different Islamic, Jewish, and Christian elements), and other Muslim sects (about 16 percent). The Christian population in Syria is small (about 10 percent), and Jews number only a few thousand.
Syria's population is overwhelmingly young, with 41 percent below the age of 15 and only 3 percent older than 65. The urban-rural population ratio has been reversed over the last decade in favor of the urban population, which increased at a rate of 4.1 percent from 49.4 percent in 1988 to 53.5 in 1998. Because of this trend, major cities like Damascus, Latakia, and Aleppo have become the main venue of rural emigration within the country. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Syria.html
This website provides information on the Syrian culture. Topics include history, urbanism, food, economy, social structure, gender roles, government, marriage, arts, medicine, and religion.
This online photo gallery from Damascus Online contains several topics of photography including: Damascus, Aleppo, Golan, Syrian Nature, Hama, Basra, and Shahba.
This website provides information on Syrian music and musicians. Topics include popular modern music, instruments such as the oud, and the history of music in Syria.
Arabic