Alawites

The origin of the Alawite faith traces back to Iraq in the ninth and tenth centuries, when a preacher linked to the Shia line began spreading his own teaching after the death of one of the imams. Persecuted, the first followers migrated west and settled in the mountains that today bear their name, on the Syrian coast, where the community consolidated as a distinct people over the following centuries.

For a long time they were known by another name, tied to that first preacher, until, in the early twentieth century, under French rule, they began adopting the designation that symbolically links them to Ali, son in law of the prophet of Islam. That name change accompanied a search for recognition and integration in a region marked by religious and political disputes.

Historically tied to the land of the mountains and the coast, many Alawites lived from farming on hillsides and in valleys, and even today whole families maintain a strong bond with their villages of origin. The coastal cities of the region hold an important share of the people’s urban life, with kinship and neighborhood ties that span generations.

Communal life revolves around the extended family and tightly defined circles of trust, since the Alawite faith is traditionally reserved for those born within the community. Hospitality and loyalty to the group are central values, especially in times of instability, when mutual protection among relatives and neighbors becomes even more important.

The Alawite faith is its own distinct, minority branch, blending elements of Shia Islam with Christian influences and older beliefs from the region. Among its teachings is the idea that the soul passes through several life cycles before reaching purification, something foreign to both traditional Islam and traditional Christianity.

Much of this teaching is kept secret and reserved for a few initiates, passed down orally within restricted circles; most ordinary Alawites know little of the deeper doctrinal details of their own tradition. Speaking openly about the faith with outsiders is uncommon, and religious identity is deeply intertwined with family and place identity.

The New Testament has existed in Levantine Arabic, the heart language of the Alawites, for decades, and today it is also available in audio, apps, and digital platforms, alongside the JESUS film dubbed in the same language. Even so, Scripture rarely circulates within Alawite communities: the habit of keeping their own faith secret and the historical distance from other religious traditions make reading the Bible rare among them, even with the text accessible in the language they speak every day.

Among the Alawites, belonging to the people is inseparable from belonging to the family faith, and abandoning that faith can mean breaking with one’s own relatives. The tradition of keeping teachings secret, reserved for a few, makes even open dialogue about religion with outsiders difficult. Add to this the recent climate of insecurity in the people’s home region, which has led families to close ranks even further around their own community as a form of protection, making first contact with the gospel even rarer.

Alawite communities in Syria have gone through, in recent times, episodes of violence and insecurity that directly struck villages and families in the coastal and mountainous regions where they have lived for generations. There is a concrete need for protection, for rebuilding trust among neighbors of different traditions, and for support for families who lost loved ones or had to leave their homes.

On the spiritual front, real bridges between the Alawites and followers of Jesus are lacking: few Alawites know Christians closely, and there is almost no local Christian community with whom they can live alongside and learn about the faith in a natural, respectful way.