MER Article Document: Testimony of a Syrian Censor He does not wish to be identified because he believes that the long arm of the Syrian government will reach him anywhere in the world. Take his word for it, he said, he knew them better than anyone else. He ought to; he was once a censor in the ministry of information. He is also a writer and journa (Author not identified) • 6 min read
Khoury, Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism Philip S. Khoury, Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism: The Politics of Damascus, 1860-1920 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). This is the latest in a growing number of studies which discuss the social origins of political ideologies in the Arab East. Philip Khoury sets himself the task James A. Reilly • 3 min read
Sulayman, al-Masalla Nabil Sulayman, al-Masalla [The Obelisk] (Beirut: Dar al-Haqa’iq, 1980). Ulrike Stehli • 4 min read
Portraits of Syrian Workers THE DIBS COMPANY WORKERS The United Arab Industrial Company, also known as the Dibs Company after its former owners, is a large textile factory located in a rural area south of Damascus. It was founded in 1955 and nationalized in 1964. In 1980, it had 1,660 employees, nearly 200 of whom were admini Elisabeth Longuenesse • 6 min read
The Syrian Working Class Today What is the position of the working class in contemporary Syrian society? I posed this question ten years ago and concluded at the time that one could only speak of a “class in formation.” [1] I was criticized then for having even raised such a question. After all, pre-capitalist relations of produc Elisabeth Longuenesse • 18 min read
Palestinians in Damascus The assault on the Palestinian camps in Beirut ended in a truce signed in Damascus on June 17, which reflected the failure of Amal to defeat the Palestinian militias. The agreement also reflected Syria’s role in the battles by having the Palestinian side represented only by the Palestine National Sa (Author not identified) • 5 min read
Syria and Lebanon, 1943-1975 In their final years under French rule, Syria and Lebanon entered into an unprecedented cooperation in order to free themselves from France. The liberal nationalist regimes in Damascus and Beirut reinforced one another’s demands for complete political independence without first having to sign treati Philip Khoury • 2 min read
Syria in Lebanon Preeminent influence in Lebanon, both on the central government and between the various factions, is critical for Syria from defensive and offensive strategic perspectives, whatever one considers Syria’s role to be in the pan-Arab arena or in the Arab-Israeli conflict. From the defensive perspectiv William Harris • 15 min read
Cadres, Guns and Money Hafiz al-Asad marched into the Palace of the People in Damascus on the evening of January 6, 1985 to convene the eighth regional congress of the Baath Party. The standing ovation which greeted his entrance was immediately broadcast to the most remote corners of Syria by a platoon of television camer Yahya Sadowski • 20 min read
Books on Syria John F. Devlin, Syria: Modern State in an Ancient Land (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983). Robert Olson, The Baath and Syria, 1947-1982 (Princeton, NJ: The Kingston Press, 1982). Umar F. Abd-Allah, The Islamic Struggle in Syria (Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1983). Fred H. Lawson • 5 min read
MER Article The Syrian Labor Movement ‘Abdallah Hanna, al-Haraka al-‘Ummaliyya fi Suriya wa Lubnan, 1900-1945 [The Labor Movement in Syria and Lebanon, 1900-1945] (Damascus: Dar Dimashq, 1973). Elisabeth Longuenesse • 6 min read
MER Article The Importance of Bodyguards Power in Syria today is based on a narrow, clannish system, more akin to what was described by Ibn Khaldoun 600 years ago than to Western “development theory” or “the non-capitalist road.” Family ties are key. In the Syrian army, a major can have more power than a general if he is, like Mouin Nasif, Gerard Michaud • 9 min read
