Kalbiyya

The Kalbiyya (

The Kalbiyya are a tribe, or tribal confederation, of the Alawite community of northwestern

The Kalbiyya were estimated in 2011 to number approximately 480,000 out of a population of 3 million Alawites in Syria.[1] At that time the total Syrian population was around 22 million.^[10] The main areas of Kalbiyya settlement are the districts of Jableh, Haffa and Latakia and the town of Qardaha,^[1] all within Latakia Governorate in north west Syria.^[11] They are the most geographically compact of the Alawite tribes, the others being more dispersed in non-contiguous areas across the coastal region.^[12]

The Kalbiyya consists of five branches: Rashawneh, Junaydi, al-Nawasireh, al-Jurud, and al-Qarahilah.^[13] Each branch of an Alawite tribe has its own hereditary chief, a structure which leads to frequent internal disputes within Alawite society.^[14] The Junayd family typically provide the leadership of the Kalbiyya and was based at Tell Salhab, near Masyaf.^[13] Traditionally, Alawite society is divided into three classes: religious leaders, landowners and peasants, with religious leadership, like chieftaincy, being hereditary.^[14]

History

Emergence and Ottoman period

There are no known references to the Kalbiyya in medieval sources. They are not, for instance, mentioned among the tribes led by the 13th century Alawite paramount leader

There is evidence that, following the conquest, the Kalbiyya were among the tribes favoured by the Ottomans in order to use them as part of their local administrative control and tax collection structure.^[15] The Kalbiyya's emergence as a recognised group may therefore be linked to this Ottoman policy.^[2] Nevertheless, there were a number of Kalbiyya rebellions during the 16th century,^[16] and by the beginning of the 19th century, the Kalbiyya had a reputation for lawlessness and were in constant and open conflict with the Ottoman authorities.^[17]

In the 1850s,

Following the end of Ottoman rule after World War I, Syria became part of the French mandate, which was subdivided into separate territories including an Alawite State.^[21] By 1930, Syria as a whole had an Alawite population of 213,870, of which 50,700 were Kalbiyya.^[1]

The Alawite community was divided between "separatists" who supported the maintenance of a separate Alawite state and "nationalists" or "unionists", who advocated integration into a wider Syrian or even

Syria became independent in 1946 but suffered from political instability in its first years and, in 1963, the Ba'athist coup overthrew the then government.^[24] The coup was led by three Alawites: Salah Jadid, Muhammad Umran and Hafez Al-Assad. Assad was from the Kalbiyya tribe, Umran from the Khayyatin, and Jadid from the Haddadin.^[25] Following Assad's seizure of sole power in 1970, part of his strategy was to concentrate control in the hands of members of his own Kalbiyya tribe.^[25] In 1970, the Kalbiyya numbered 108,800^[1] compared to a total Syrian population of 6,305,000.^[26] Although Alawites in general dominated the government, as historian Jordi Tejel points out, in practice "active participation" in the Assad regime was limited to the Kalbiyya.^[27] Additionally, there is evidence that the Kalbiyya areas received much greater infrastructure investment and other economic benefits compared to other Alawite areas.^[28]

Assad, following his death in 2000, was succeeded as president by his son,

• Ali Sulayman al-Assad,^[32]
  tribal leader and father of Hafez al-Assad, d.1963.

• Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria 1971-2000.

• Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria 2000 to date.

• Ali Aslan,^[33] Chief of Staff of the Syrian Army 1998-2002.

• Ghazi Kanaan,^[34] Head of Syrian Intelligence in Lebanon 1982-2002; Syrian Minister of the Interior 2004-2005.

• Badawi al-Jabal,^[35] Syrian poet, d.1981.

• Shafiq Fayadh, Syrian General under Hafez al-Assad.

References

Bibliography

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