Ottoman Syria

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Arabic. Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Arabic Wikipedia article at [[:ar:سوريا العثمانية]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|ar|سوريا العثمانية}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Ottoman Syria
Region of the Ottoman Empire
1516–1831 1841–1918
Flag of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman territories which correspond with the Syrian provinces are shown in purple
Capital	Administered from Istanbul
Area
• Coordinates	34°N 37°E / 34°N 37°E / 34; 37
• Type	Monarchy
History
• Battle of Marj Dabiq	1516
• First Egyptian–Ottoman War	1831–1833
• Second Egyptian–Ottoman War	1839–1841
• Sinai and Palestine campaign	1918
Preceded by Succeeded by 1516: Mamluk Sultanate 1841: Pashalik of Egypt 1831: Pashalik of Egypt 1918: Occupied Enemy Territory Administration

Ottoman Syria (

Before 1516, Syria was part of the

Administrative divisions

In 1549, Syria was reorganized into two eyalets. The northern Sanjak of Aleppo became the center of the new Eyalet of Aleppo. At this time, the two Syrian Eyalets were subdivided as follows:

• The
  Arabic
  : إيالة حلب)
  • The
    Sanjak of Aleppo
    (حلب)
  • The Sanjak of Adana (أضنة)
  • The Sanjak of
    Marash
    (مرعش))
  • The
    Sanjak of Aintab
    (عينتاب)
  • The Sanjak of
    Birejik (البيرة) (Urfa
    (أورفة))
  • The Sanjak of Kilis (كلز)
  • The Sanjak of
    Ma'arra
    (معرة النعمان)
  • The
    Sanjak of Hama
    (حماة)
  • The Sanjak of Salamiyah (سلمية)
  • The
    Sanjak of Homs
    (حمص)
• The
  Arabic
  : إيالة دمشق)
  • The Sanjak of Damascus (دمشق)
  • The
    Sanjak of Tripoli
    (طرابلس)
  • The Sanjak of Acre (عكا)
  • The
    Sanjak of Safad
    (صفد)
  • The
    Sanjak of Nablus
    (نابلس)
  • The
    Sanjak of Jerusalem
    (القدس)
  • The Sanjak of Lajjun (اللجون)
  • The Sanjak of
    Salt
    (السلط)
  • The
    Sanjak of Gaza
    (غزة)

In 1579, the

The

The

The

"dramatic alienation of Muslims from Christians. The former resented the implied loss of superiority and recurrently assaulted and massacred Christian communities – in Aleppo in 1850, in Nablus in 1856, and in Damascus and Lebanon in 1860. Among the long-term consequences of these bitter internecine conflicts were the emergence of a Christian-dominated Lebanon in the 1920s – 40s and the deep fissure between Christian and Muslim Palestinian Arabs as they confronted the Zionist influx after World War I. "[3]

1861

Following the massacre of thousands of Christian civilians during the

1864

As part of the Tanzimat reforms, an Ottoman law passed in 1864 provided for a standard provincial administration throughout the empire with the eyalets becoming smaller vilayets, governed by a vali (governor) still appointed by the Sublime Porte but with new provincial assemblies participating in administration.

1872–1918

In 1872 Jerusalem and the surrounding towns became the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, gaining a special administrative status.

From 1872 until World War I subdivisions of Ottoman Syria were:

• Arabic
  : ولاية حلب)
• Arabic
  : سنجق دير الزور)
• Arabic
  : ولاية بيروت)
• Arabic
  : ولاية سورية)
• Arabic
  : متصرفية جبل لبنان)
• Arabic
  : متصرفية القدس الشريف)
• Arabic
  : متصرفية الكرك)

The sanjak Zor and the major part of the vilayet Aleppo may or may not be included in Ottoman Syria. The Geographical Dictionary of the World, published in 1906, describes Syria as:

"a country in the [south-west] part of Asia, forming part of the Turkish Empire. It extends eastward from the Mediterranean Sea to the river Euphrates and the Syrian Desert (the prolongation northward of the Arabian Desert), and southward from the Alma-Dagh (ancient Amanus), one of the ranges of the

vilayet of Syria (Suria)

, or of Damascus, the vilayet of Beirut, the [south-west] part of the vilayet of Aleppo, and the mutessarrifliks of Jerusalem and the Lebanon.

Palestine is included in [the country] Syria, comprising the mutessarriflik of Jerusalem and part of the vilayets of Beirut and Syria.

The designation Syria is sometimes used in wider sense so as to include the whole of the vilayet of Aleppo and the Zor Sanjak, a large part of Mesopotamia being thus added."^[4]

About Syria in 1915, a British report says:

"The term Syria in those days was generally used to denote the whole of geographical and historic Syria, that is to say the whole of the country lying between the Taurus Mountains and the Sinai Peninsula, which was made up of part of the Vilayet of Aleppo, the Vilayet of Bairut, the Vilayet of Syria, the Sanjaq of the Lebanon, and the Sanjaq of Jerusalem. It included that part of the country which was afterwards detached from it to form the mandated territory of Palestine."^[5]

• 
  "Independent" Sanjak of Jerusalem shown within Ottoman administrative divisions in the Eastern Mediterranean coast after the reorganisation of 1887–88
• 
  Ottoman Syria until World War I. Present borders in grey.

Contemporary maps, showing Eyalets (pre-Tanzimat reforms)

Contemporary maps, showing Vilayets (post-Tanzimat reforms)

See also

• Arab Kingdom of Syria
• Bilad al-Sham
• French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon
• History of Syria
• Occupied Enemy Territory Administration
• Southern Syria
• Sykes–Picot Agreement
• Syria (Roman province)

References

Sources

• Bayyat, Fadil, The Ottoman State in the Arab Scope (in Arabic; 2007)
• Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, Appendix II: On the Political Divisions of Syria

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ottoman Syria.

• Ottoman History Podcast: History of Ottoman Syria