History of Syria

Dearest reddit user on the r/Syria subreddit,

Syria is a beautiful and ancient land - so ancient in fact, that Syria (alongside the rest of greater Syria or the Levant) forms about half of the fertile crescent, the geographic region where human civilization first emerged.

Today, Syria is a proud nation of around 21 million people prior to the eruption of a vicious civil war in 2011.

The primary ideology of the modern state of Syria, the Syrian Arab Republic, is Arab nationalism.

The largest "ethnic" group in Syria are the Arabs, constituting the overwhelming majority of Syria's population. Syria is also the home of a significant minority of Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Armenians, Arameans, and a plethora of smaller and more obscure peoples.

I have come across several individuals in this subreddit who tell me, both politely and very, very rudely that Syria is an Arab country and has always been an Arab country throughout its long and ancient history.

The fact of the matter is, Syrians are the direct descendants of the Arameans and other Semitic-speaking peoples who formed a multitude of kingdoms in Syria in the Bronze and Iron ages.

Syrians were "Arabized" following the Islamic conquests that commenced in the 7th century. Even then, the process by which the inhabitants of Syria at the time converted to Islam and adopted the Arabic language was not instantaneous. Syria became majority Arabic-speaking well into the late Middle Ages.

Prior to the Islamic conquests and the process of Arabization, the people of Syria referred to themselves as Arameans and/or Syrians (keeping in mind that the word "Syria" is a Greek exonym) and spoke Aramean dialects. As a matter of fact, 4 villages/towns in Rif Dimashq STILL speak Western Aramaic dialects to this day. The most famous of which is the town of Maaloula.

It is fair to state that the bulk of Syrians are Arabized-Arameans, with significant Peninsular Arab admixture (among other ethnic stocks as well).

This does not mean that the Syrians today are not Arabs or that Arabic is not their mother tongue. This does not mean that Arabs did not exist in Syria prior to the 7th century either; as a matter of fact, Empress Zenobia of Palmyra was of Arab/Aramaic ancestry, and the Arab Ghassanids formed an important buffer kingdom in Hawran and Rif Dimashq since at least 473 AD, and were client states of the Eastern Romans.

The Arab identity and the Arabic language are core pillars of our civilization's heritage, so please don't misunderstand my message.

My core message is that Syrians can embrace their Aramean history and heritage while also proudly speaking the Arabic language and flying the pan-Arab colors: black, white, green, and red.

Edits: fixed typos.