Syria

Long before there was a country called Syria, its plains and river valleys cradled some of the earliest cities on earth. At Ebla, southwest of Aleppo, a powerful kingdom dominated northern Syria around 2600–2240 BCE, trading and corresponding with states as distant as Egypt and Sumer. Its rediscovery in the 1960s and 1970s, when an Italian team uncovered thousands of clay tablets, opened a window onto a literate Bronze Age society whose archives recorded administration, treaties and tribute in cuneiform.

On the Euphrates to the southeast stood Mari, one of the earliest planned cities and a great commercial rival to Ebla. Excavations begun in 1933 revealed the vast palace of King Zimri-Lim, with nearly 300 rooms and archives of diplomatic letters that illuminate the politics of the early second millennium BCE, until Hammurabi of Babylon captured and destroyed the city in the eighteenth century BCE. Mari's correspondence, exchanged with kings across Mesopotamia, ranks among the richest written sources of the age.

On the Mediterranean coast, the merchant city of Ugarit reached its height in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE. There, around 1400 BCE, scribes developed a cuneiform alphabet of some thirty signs — among the earliest alphabetic writing systems known — a landmark in the long road from pictographs to the alphabets later used across the Mediterranean. The Bronze Age world of these cities collapsed around 1200 BCE amid wider upheavals across the eastern Mediterranean.

Turning points

1. c. 2600–2240 BCEFormation

   The kingdom of Ebla

   Ebla dominates northern Syria, trading and corresponding with Egypt, Sumer and Mesopotamia; its cuneiform royal archives, rediscovered in the 20th century, reveal a literate Bronze Age state.

   [2]

2. early 2nd millennium BCEPolitics & Power

   Mari and the palace of Zimri-Lim

   The Euphrates city of Mari flourishes as a planned trading capital, its palace archives preserving thousands of diplomatic letters, until Hammurabi of Babylon destroys it in the 18th century BCE.

   [3]

3. c. 1400 BCECulture & Ideas

   The Ugaritic alphabet

   At the coastal city of Ugarit, scribes devise a cuneiform alphabet of about 30 signs — one of the earliest alphabetic writing systems in history, ancestral in spirit to later Semitic and Mediterranean alphabets.

   [4]

Into the Iron Age moved the Aramaeans, a Semitic people whose tribes settled across northern Syria between the eleventh and eighth centuries BCE. They made Damascus the centre of a powerful kingdom, Aram-Damascus, known from Assyrian and biblical records. Their greatest legacy was Aramaic, a language that spread far beyond Syria to become the lingua franca of the whole Near East for over a thousand years, until the coming of Islam. The Assyrians, Babylonians and then the Persians successively absorbed these lands.

After Alexander the Great, Syria became the heartland of the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom, its cities thoroughly Greek in culture, until Pompey annexed Syria to Rome in 64 BCE. Under Roman rule Damascus and Antioch flourished, and Syria became a major centre of early Christianity: according to the New Testament, Paul the Apostle was converted on the road to Damascus, and Antioch was where followers were first called Christians. The province grew rich on the trade linking the Mediterranean with Mesopotamia, Persia and beyond.

Astride the desert caravan routes rose Palmyra, an oasis city that married Graeco-Roman, Persian and local styles in monumental colonnades and temples. In the third century CE its queen Zenobia, ruling as regent for her young son, broke from Rome, seizing Egypt and much of Asia Minor before the emperor Aurelian crushed her armies and captured Palmyra in 272 CE. The ruins of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remain among the most celebrated monuments of the ancient world.

Turning points

1. c. 11th–8th centuries BCEPeoples & Migration

   The Aramaeans and Aram-Damascus

   Aramaean tribes settle Syria and make Damascus the capital of a powerful kingdom; their Aramaic language becomes the lingua franca of the Near East for over a millennium.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [6]

2. 64 BCEWar & Rupture

   Pompey annexes Syria to Rome

   The Roman general Pompey ends Seleucid rule and makes Syria a Roman province; its cities prosper and Syria becomes an early heartland of Christianity, with Paul converted on the road to Damascus.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [6]

3. 272 CEWar & Rupture

   Zenobia, Palmyra and the war with Rome

   Queen Zenobia of Palmyra breaks from Rome and conquers Egypt and Asia Minor, before the emperor Aurelian defeats her armies and captures the city; Palmyra's ruins are today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [8]

Figures of the era

With the division of the Roman world, Syria fell to the Byzantine (East Roman) Empire, a prosperous Christian province whose churches and monasteries dotted the landscape. That order was transformed in the 630s CE when Arab Muslim armies, advancing out of Arabia, defeated the Byzantines and took Damascus, Aleppo and the rest of Syria within a few short years. Much of the population, long Aramaic- and Greek-speaking, gradually adopted Arabic and Islam, though substantial Christian and other communities endured.

In 661 CE Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, governor of Syria, founded the Umayyad dynasty and made Damascus the capital of the Islamic Caliphate. For nearly a century Syria was the centre of an empire that stretched from Spain and North Africa to Central Asia and the Indus — the first great Muslim dynasty. The Umayyads built one of Islam's earliest and grandest monuments, the Great Mosque of Damascus, raised under Caliph al-Walid between 705 and 715 on a site sacred successively to Roman, Christian and Muslim worship.

The Umayyad century ended in 750 CE when the Abbasid revolution overthrew the dynasty and moved the caliphate's centre to the new city of Baghdad, demoting Syria to a province. Over the following centuries Syria passed under a succession of regional powers and dynasties, and from 1098–1099 the armies of the First Crusade swept down the Levantine coast, establishing Crusader states and capturing Jerusalem, opening two centuries of intermittent holy war on Syrian soil.

Turning points

1. 630s CEWar & Rupture

   The Muslim conquest of Syria

   Arab Muslim armies defeat the Byzantines and take Damascus and Aleppo within a few years; over time Arabic and Islam spread, though Christian and other communities remain.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [10]

2. 661 CEPolitics & Power

   Damascus, capital of the Umayyad Caliphate

   Muawiya founds the Umayyad dynasty and makes Damascus the capital of the first great Islamic empire, ruling from Spain to Central Asia until the Abbasid revolution of 750.

   [10] [1]

3. 705–715 CEReligion

   The Great Mosque of Damascus

   Under Caliph al-Walid the Umayyads build the Great (Umayyad) Mosque of Damascus, one of the oldest and grandest mosques in the world, on a site holy to Roman, Christian and Muslim worship.

   [11] [7]

4. 1098–1099 CEWar & Rupture

   The First Crusade reaches Syria

   Crusader armies seize cities along the Levantine coast and capture Jerusalem in 1099, founding Crusader states and beginning two centuries of intermittent warfare across Syria.

   ↗See the data

   [12]

The Crusader presence in the Levant was challenged above all by Saladin (Salah al-Din), a Kurdish commander who united Egypt and Syria under the Ayyubid dynasty he founded in the late twelfth century. In 1187 he decisively defeated the Crusaders and recaptured Jerusalem, ending nearly nine decades of Frankish rule there, and he became one of the most celebrated figures of the medieval Islamic world. His tomb stands beside the Great Mosque of Damascus.

The Ayyubids gave way in 1250 to the Mamluks, a military caste of former slave-soldiers based in Egypt who ruled Syria as well. The Mamluks halted the Mongol advance into Syria and governed its cities for more than two and a half centuries. Aleppo and Damascus thrived as centres of trade, scholarship and craft, their citadels, mosques and covered markets giving the old cities much of the form preserved in their UNESCO-listed historic cores.

In 1516 the Ottoman sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks and absorbed Syria into the Ottoman Empire, which would rule for four hundred years. As Ottoman provinces, Damascus and Aleppo remained great commercial and religious hubs, Damascus serving as a gathering point for the annual pilgrimage caravan to Mecca. Ottoman rule lasted until the First World War, when the Arab Revolt and British forces drove the Ottomans from Syria in 1918, ending four centuries of Turkish dominion.

Turning points

1. 1187 CEWar & Rupture

   Saladin recaptures Jerusalem

   Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty that united Egypt and Syria, defeats the Crusaders and retakes Jerusalem, ending nearly nine decades of Frankish rule and becoming a legendary figure of the age.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [14]

2. 1250 CEPolitics & Power

   Mamluk rule over Syria

   The Mamluks supplant the Ayyubids and govern Syria from Egypt for over two centuries, halting the Mongols and presiding over a flourishing of trade and architecture in Damascus and Aleppo.

   [15]

3. 1516 CEWar & Rupture

   Ottoman conquest of Syria

   Sultan Selim I defeats the Mamluks and incorporates Syria into the Ottoman Empire, beginning four centuries of Ottoman rule over Damascus, Aleppo and the Syrian lands.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [15]

4. 1918 CEWar & Rupture

   End of Ottoman rule

   During the First World War the Arab Revolt and Allied forces drive the Ottomans from Syria, ending four hundred years of Ottoman dominion and opening the way to French and British arrangements for the region.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [16]

Figures of the era

With the Ottomans gone, Arab nationalists proclaimed an independent Arab Kingdom of Syria in Damascus in March 1920 under Faisal ibn Husayn of the Hashemite family. It lasted only months: the League of Nations assigned Syria to France as a mandate, and French troops defeated the kingdom's outnumbered forces at the Battle of Maysalun in July 1920, where the defence minister Yusuf al-Azma was killed. France then governed Syria, dividing and ruling it and suppressing a major revolt in 1925–27, while nationalist demands for independence steadily grew.

During the Second World War, British and Free French forces took Syria from the Vichy administration, and independence was promised. A republic was proclaimed and won international recognition in 1944, but full sovereignty came only when the last French soldiers withdrew on 17 April 1946 — celebrated ever since as Evacuation Day. The young republic, however, proved deeply unstable, shaken by a series of military coups beginning in 1949 amid the shock of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and Cold War rivalries.

In February 1958 Syria merged with Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt to form the United Arab Republic, a pan-Arab union driven partly by Syria's Ba'ath Party. Disillusion with Egyptian domination ended the union in 1961, and after further turmoil the Ba'ath Party seized power in a coup in March 1963. A faction-ridden decade of Ba'athist rule followed until, in November 1970, the air-force commander Hafez al-Assad took control in a coup he called the Corrective Movement, beginning a rule that would last three decades.

Turning points

1. 1920 CEColonisation

   Arab Kingdom of Syria and the French Mandate

   An independent Arab Kingdom of Syria under Faisal is proclaimed in Damascus, but French forces defeat it at Maysalun in July 1920, and the League of Nations assigns Syria to France as a mandate.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [16]

2. 17 April 1946Independence

   Independence — evacuation of French troops

   After international recognition in 1944, the last French soldiers leave Syria on 17 April 1946, marking full independence — still commemorated as Evacuation Day.

   ↗See the data

   [16] [1]

3. 1958–1961Politics & Power

   Union with Egypt — the United Arab Republic

   Syria merges with Nasser's Egypt to form the United Arab Republic in 1958, but resentment of Egyptian dominance dissolves the union in a 1961 coup.

   [17] [1]

4. Nov 1970Politics & Power

   Hafez al-Assad seizes power

   After the Ba'ath Party's 1963 coup and years of factional struggle, defence minister Hafez al-Assad takes control in November 1970, founding a family rule that would endure for over half a century.

   [1]

Figures of the era

Hafez al-Assad governed Syria from 1970 until his death in 2000, building a centralised, single-party state dominated by the Ba'ath Party and the security services. His rule was marked by Cold War alignment with the Soviet Union, intervention in Lebanon, confrontation with Israel, and the harsh suppression of dissent — most notoriously the 1982 crackdown in Hama. On his death he was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad, who initially raised hopes of reform but maintained his father's authoritarian system.

In 2011, amid the wider Arab Spring, protests against the government spread across Syria. The state's violent response, and the rise of armed opposition groups, drew the country into a civil war of extreme complexity, drawing in regional and global powers, jihadist movements including the Islamic State, and Kurdish-led forces. The conflict is reported to have been among the deadliest of the century: the UN human rights office (OHCHR) estimated some 306,887 civilians killed over the first decade, while the UN refugee agency reports that the war displaced more than 13 million people, including over 6 million refugees abroad. These figures are estimates from authoritative bodies and remain contested.

After years of military stalemate, a rebel offensive led by the group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham advanced swiftly in late 2024, and on 8 December 2024 the Assad government fell as Bashar al-Assad fled the country, ending more than five decades of family rule. An interim administration was established under Ahmed al-Sharaa, and the country entered an uncertain transition. Across all its upheavals, Syria's deep heritage — Damascus and Aleppo among the world's oldest cities, Palmyra, and the other UNESCO sites scarred by the war — endures as a record of one of humanity's oldest civilisations.

Turning points

1. 2000 CEPolitics & Power

   Bashar al-Assad succeeds his father

   On Hafez al-Assad's death, his son Bashar becomes president; early hopes of reform give way to a continuation of the authoritarian, single-party system.

   [18]

2. 2011 CEWar & Rupture

   Uprising and the start of the civil war

   Arab Spring protests across Syria meet a violent state response; armed opposition emerges and the country descends into a civil war drawing in regional and global powers.

   ↗See the data

   [19]

3. 2011–2021 estimateCatastrophe

   Human cost of the war

   The UN human rights office estimates about 306,887 civilians killed over the war's first decade, while the UN refugee agency reports more than 13 million people displaced — figures cited as estimates from authoritative bodies.

   ↗See the data

   [20] [21]

4. 8 Dec 2024Politics & Power

   The Assad government falls

   A rebel offensive led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham takes Damascus on 8 December 2024; Bashar al-Assad flees the country, ending over five decades of Assad family rule, and an interim government is formed.

   [18]

Figures of the era