[18] A sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ghulat branch during the ninth century,[19][20][21] Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, the "first Imam" in the Twelver school, as a manifestation of the divine essence.

[34][35] Alawites, considered disbelievers by classical Sunni and Shi'ite theologians, faced periods of subjugation or persecution under various Muslim empires such as the Ottomans, Abbasids, Mamluks, and others.

[43] They characterised the older name (which implied "a separate ethnic and religious identity") as an "invention of the sect's enemies", ostensibly favouring an emphasis on "connection with mainstream Islam"—particularly the Shia branch.

The term was frequently employed as hate speech by Sunni fundamentalists fighting against Bashar al-Assad's government in the Syrian civil war, who use its emphasis on Ibn Nusayr in order to insinuate that Alawi beliefs are "man-made" and not divinely inspired.

Firstly, it shows that the word 'Alawī' was always used by these people, as ʿAlawī authors emphasize; secondly, it hints at the reformation of the Nuṣayrīs, launched by some of their sheikhs in the 19th century and their attempt to be accepted as part of Islam; and thirdly, it challenges the claims that the change of the identity and name from 'Nuṣayrī' to 'ʿAlawī' took place around 1920, in the beginning of the French mandate in Syria (1919–1938).

[55] Yet the term "Nazerini" can be possibly connected to words which include the Arabic triliteral root n-ṣ-r such as the subject naṣer in Eastern Aramaic, which means "keeper of wellness".

Al-Tabarani succeeded his mentor al-Jilli of Aleppo as head missionary in Syria and became "the last definitive scholar of Alawism", founding its calendar and giving Alawite teachings their final form, according to the historian Stefan Winter.

[64] Two prominent Alawite leaders in the following centuries, credited with uplifting the group, were Shaykhs al-Makzun (d. 1240) and al-Tubani (d. 1300), both originally from Mount Sinjar in modern Iraq.

[63] In the 14th century, the Alawites were forced by Mamluk Sultan Baibars to build mosques in their settlements, to which they responded with token gestures described by the Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta.

[74] The 19th century historian Elias Saleh described the Alawites as living in a "state of ignorance" and having the negative traits of "laziness, lying, deceitfulness, inclination to robbery and bloodshed, and backstabbing.

[84] Between 1926 and 1939, the Alawites and other minority groups provided the majority of the locally recruited component of the Army of the Levant—the designation given to the French military forces garrisoning Syria and the Lebanon.

A succession of coups ensued until, in 1963, a secretive military committee (including Alawite officers Hafez al-Assad and Salah Jadid) helped the Ba'ath Party seize power.

[92] Robert D. Kaplan compared his rise to "an untouchable becoming maharajah in India or a Jew becoming tsar in Russia—an unprecedented development shocking to the Sunni majority population which had monopolized power for so many centuries.

Many Alawites, including Assad loyalists, criticize such activities as a plot to absorb their ethno-religious identity into Iran's Twelver Shia umbrella and spread religious extremism in Syria.

[112][113][114][115] On 25 December 2024, thousands of people protested across Syria in various regions including Latakia, Tartus, Jableh and Homs after a video surfaced showing an attack on the Alawite shrine of Al-Khasibi in Aleppo's Maysaloon district following the rebel offensive and the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

The transitional authorities, appointed by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led the offensive that toppled Assad, said in a statement that the shrine attack was from earlier December, attributing its resurfacing to "unknown groups" aiming to incite unrest.

Demonstrators chanting slogans including “Alawite, Sunni, we want peace” and placards with "No to burning holy places and religious discrimination, no to sectarianism, yes to a free Syria".

[117][118] There have also been hundreds of reports across Syria of civilians belonging to the Alawite sect and other religious minorities being murdered and persecuted by HTS forces following the collapse of the Assad regime.

[125] Alawite doctrines originated from the teachings of Iraqi priest Muhammad ibn Nusayr who claimed Prophethood and declared himself as the "Bāb (door) of the Imams" and attributed divinity to Hasan al-Askari.

[41][133] Alawite doctrine incorporates elements of Phoenician mythology, Gnosticism, neo-Platonism, Christian Trinitarianism (for example, they celebrate Mass including the consecration of bread and wine); blending them with Muslim symbolism and has, therefore, been described as syncretic.

[143][144][34][145] The Israeli institution of Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies describes the Alawite faith as Judeophilic and "anti-Sunni" since they believe that God's incarnations consist of Israelite Prophet Joshua who conquered Canaan, in addition to the fourth Caliph, Ali.

"[146] Other beliefs and practices include: the consecration of wine in a secret form of Mass performed only by males; frequently being given Christian names; entombing the dead in sarcophagi above ground; observing Epiphany, Christmas[147] and the feast days of John Chrysostom and Mary Magdalene;[148] the only religious structures they have are the shrines of tombs;[149] the book Kitab al-Majmu, which is allegedly a central source of Alawite doctrine,[150][151][152][153] where they have their own trinity, comprising Mohammed, Ali, and Salman the Persian.

[162]According to Peter Theo Curtis, the Alawi religion underwent a process of "Sunnification" during the years under Hafez al-Assad's rule so that Alawites became not Shia but effectively Sunni.

The Sunni Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, issued a fatwa recognizing them as part of the Muslim community in the interest of Arab nationalism.

[180] The relationship between Alawite-ruled Ba'athist Syria and Khomeinist Iran has been described as a "marriage of convenience" due to the former being ruled by the ultra-secularist Arab Socialist Ba'ath party and the latter by the anti-secular Twelver Shi'ite clergy.

The alliance was established during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, when Hafez al-Assad backed Iran against his Iraqi Ba'athist rivals, departing from the consensus of the rest of the Arab world.

[182] Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies, writes that Hafiz al-Assad "tried to turn Alawites into 'good' (read Sunnified) Muslims in exchange for preserving a modicum of secularism and tolerance in society".

[122][184][185][186] There are four Alawite confederations—Kalbiyya, Khaiyatin, Haddadin, and Matawirah—each divided into tribes based on their geographical origins or their main religious leader,[187] such as Ḥaidarīya of Alī Ḥaidar, and Kalāziyya of Sheikh Muḥammad ibn Yūnus from the village Kalāzū near Antakya.

[206] Alawites in Syria speak a special dialect (part of Levantine Arabic) famous for the usage of letter (qāf),[207] but this feature is also shared with neighboring non-Alawite villages, such as Idlib.

Due to foreign occupation of Syria, the same dialect is characterized by multiple borrowings, mainly from Turkish and then French, especially terms used for imported inventions such as television, radio, elevator (ascenseur), etc.