Syria's communities and civilizations – history, sites and heritage
Arabs
Self-designation: عرب ʿArab
العرب
Ethnic and linguistic communities
Arabic speakers form the large majority of Syria's population. Arab identity is defined primarily by the Arabic language and spans several religious communities.
Britannica defines Arabs primarily by the use of the Arabic language, together with descent from Arabic-speaking populations. In Syria, Arabic speakers have long been the majority; the 1987 Library of Congress country study, noting that reliable statistics were unavailable, put native Arabic speakers at nearly 90 per cent of the population.
Sources and details
Syrian Arabs belong to several religious communities. Most are Sunni Muslims, but Alawis, Ismailis, Twelver Shia, Druze and about half of Syria's Christians are also Arabic-speaking. Spoken Syrian Arabic is close to Lebanese Arabic, and regional differences are strong enough that speakers can often tell a person's province, city or tribe. The country study notes that Arabs widely regard their language as their greatest historical legacy, and that the nomadic tribesman has served as a cultural ideal of Arabness.
Syrian censuses record religion rather than ethnicity, so there is no official count of Arabs as an ethnic group. The state has followed an Arab nationalist policy of Arabization, for example renaming Jabal al-Druze as Jabal al-Arab. Since 2011 Arab Syrians, like all communities, have been heavily affected by war and displacement; by 2022 UNHCR counted over 12 million Syrians displaced inside and outside the country (as summarised by MRG).
Sites connected with this community 1
- Museum of Arabic CalligraphyDamascus (Old City), Damascus · Museums
Museum devoted to Arabic calligraphy, the script of the language that defines Arab identity.
These categories describe history, language and faith – not exclusive identities. Many Syrians belong to several, and some names refer to civilizations of the past.