The Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority in the country, mainly of the Hanafi and Shafi'i madhhabs. The Alawites are the biggest Muslim minority sect (10% of the country's population[2]), followed by Isma'ili and Twelver Shia Muslims. Some Sufi orders are also active in the country, including the Naqshbandiya, the Qadiriya and the Shadhiliya orders, most of whom identify as Sunnis. Christianity is the second most popular religion in the country, and Christians comprise roughly 10% of the overall population.[2] The Druze make up 3% of the population, although their association with Islam is controversial.
History[edit]
Prior to the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 634, Syria was a center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the state religion of the Byzantine empire. After 640, the conquest of Syria was finalized by the Muslim Arabs in the form of the Rashidun army led by Khalid ibn al-Walid, under the overall leadership of Abu Bakr, resulting in Syria becoming part of the successive Muslim states and dynasties in the region. In 635, Damascus surrendered to the Muslims and its inhabitants on conditions of security for their lives, property and churches, with the payment of a poll tax (Jizya).[3] The Umayyads made Damascus their capital, relying on the Syrian Arab tribes as their core military force, who ruled over a predominantly Aramaic-speaking population.[4][5] After the demise of the Umayyads, Bilad al-Sham was a province of the successive Abbasid, Fatimid and Seljuk states.
However, although the Muslim conquest began the process of Islamization, the early converts were mainly the Arab tribes living in Syria and the Levant before the conquest, including the Tanukh and Balqayn, while in the rural sector, there is little evidence for Islamization before the tenth century. Islamization, on the other hand, mainly begun in the big cities.[6]
Official censuses[edit]
Sects[edit]
Albert Hourani published statistics from a general census of Syria in 1943 giving details of religious groups of the population and the rate of growth of each (citizens were not allowed to declare their ethnicity or mother tongue):
Quraniya[edit]
There is also a Quraniya or Quranist community within Syria, whose early documentation began forming in the 19th century and followed the teachings set forth by the Indian theologian Seyyid Ahmed Khan Hindi and then spread to Syria soon afterwards via intermediary pilgrims. However, Ahl al-Qur'an adherents precede these 19th century developments in the form of Mu'tazilites such as Ibrahim al-Nazzam, who lived for some period in these environs. Contemporary adherents of the Quranist point of view in Syria include Muhammad Shahrur.[30]