The Way Syria Was

Syria has been engaged in a devastating civil war for over five years, rendering much of the country unrecognizable. Here’s what it looked like before – and why that changed.

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In March 2016 , the U.S. Department of Stateupdated its locomotion advisory for Syria . As the Syrian civil state of war haul on and the incidence of kidnapping , bombings , murder , and terrorist act remains in high spirits , the Department of State notify “ U.S. citizen against all travel to Syria ” and that “ U.S. citizens stay on in Syria depart instantly . ”

fearsome enough in its own rightfield , the Department of State ’s word of advice becomes that much more dramatic when held against the country ’s past . As recently as 2010 , touristry comprised 14 pct of the Syrian thriftiness , bringing in around $ 8.4 billion in that year alone .

The stream of Barada, Damascus, circa 1890-1900.

It ’s easy to see why : Some of the old , most historically significant metropolis in western Asia can be plant in Syria .

For centuries , Aleppo ’s proximity to the fabled Silk Roads rendered it one of the neighborhood ’s most rich sites of economic and cultural exchange . That truth manifests itself in the city ’s very design and architecture : Christian cathedrals , expansive mosque and one of the world ’s largest cover bazaar blend together and reverberate the rural area ’s ample , diverse inheritance .

Damascus , the Syrian capital , likewise embodies millennia of economic and cultural wealth . As one of the Earth ’s sometime continually - inhabited cities ( UNESCO allege it has been inhabited since as other as 8,000 BC ) , its architecture reflects the array of cultures — Romans , Umayyads , Byzantines , among others — who build it .

For a sentence , strange insurance expert William R. Polk writes , this pluralism worked :

Throughout its centuries of formula , the Ottoman Empire generally was content to have its guinea pig live by their own code of behavior . It did not have the means or the incentive to intrude into their daily lives . Muslims , whether Turk or Arab or Kurd , shared with the imperial politics Islamic mores and law . Other pagan / religious ' land ' were ego - regularise except in military and alien affairs .

… Whether in enclaves or in neighborhoods , each non - Moslem community dressed according to its custom , spoke its own oral communication , and live according to its unparalleled ethnic pattern ; it appointed or elected its own officials , who divided the tax it owed to the imperium , run its schools , and provide such wellness facility and social welfare as it thought right or could give . Since this system was spelled out in the Quran and the Traditions ( Hadiths ) of the Prophet , respecting it was legally obligatory for Muslims . Consequently , when the Syrian state took shape , it inherited a robust , various , and tolerant social tradition .

But after Syrians shorn themselves of Gallic rule ( taking the position of the Ottomans after World War I ) in 1946 , Polk writes that in a quest for internal identicalness , this diversity would help sow the seeds for future difference .

LOUAI BESHARA / AFP / Getty ImagesUndated picture shows Syrian President Hafez al - Assad and his married woman Anisseh posing for a kin pictorial matter with his children ( forget to right ) Maher , Bashar , Bassel ( who died in a car accident in 1994 ) , Majd , and Bushra .

Indeed , the first Assad regimen begin in 1970 , with Hafez al - Assad identifying as an Alawi Muslim — which Orthodox Muslims viewed to be heretical . Assad had conjoin the worldly , pan - Arabist Baathist party early in his military career , which Polk write “ seemed to propose the means to overcome his origins in a nonage residential district and to point toward a solution to the disunity of Syrian politics . ”

It did n’t . Assad ’s authoritarian leanings — particularly his order that Alawis be considered Shia Muslims , not religious outcast — inspire the sustained ira of the Muslim Brotherhood , who would carry out organized terrorist attacks on the authorities and Assad ’s inside R-2 , eventually culminate in a devastating rising in Hama , not unlike what has transpire in the 21st century .

While Bashar al - Assad , Hafez ’s son , would set about to placate many of these opponents upon assume federal agency in 2000 , Polk write that he too exhibited authoritarian leaning , once quoted as saying , “ run away your own lives privately and enrich yourselves as you wish , but do not challenge my government . ”

When couple up with a four - year drouth that United Nations experts say boil down zillion to uttermost impoverishment and bear on population into Syrian cities , the continuation of Assad - fashion authoritarianism and sectarian divisions would soon climax in civil war .

Indeed , that spark struck on March 15 , 2011 , when “ a comparatively small radical gather in the southwest town of Daraa to protest against government failure to facilitate them . ”

Assad ordered a crackdown , which rapidly catalyzed armed opponent among disparate groups , leading to the polite war that continues to be fought today .

Next , see some of the most incrediblephotos of the Syrian civil warfare . Then , have a surprising look at justhow different Afghanistan was in the 1960sandwhat spirit was like in Iran before Muslim fundamentalism .

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty ImagesUndated picture shows Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and his wife Anisseh posing for a family picture with his children (left to right) Maher, Bashar, Bassel (who died in a car accident in 1994), Majd, and Bushra.