[3][4] Also known as Nusayris or Alawis,[5] the Alawites are a prominent mystical[6] religious sect who follow a syncretic form of the Twelver branch of Shia Islam.

[2] There is evidence that, following the conquest, the Kalbiyya were among the tribes favoured by the Ottomans in order to use them as part of their local administrative control and tax collection structure.

[18] He subsequently published a negative but influential account of his time there, in which he wrote that he was convinced that they were like St Paul's description of the heathen: "filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness".

[19] During the mid-19th century, there were rising tensions in the mountains due to the pressure on resources from a growing population and attempts by the central government to enforce direct rule.

[22] Following the end of Ottoman rule after World War I, Syria became part of the French mandate, which was subdivided into separate territories including an Alawite State.

[23] The Kalbiyya leadership was similarly divided and through the 1920s and 1930s individual chiefs shifted between separatism and the nationalist/unionist position depending on prevailing opinions within the tribe.

Nevertheless, in the negotiations leading to the Alawite State joining the Mandatory Syrian Republic in 1936, even nationalist Kalbiyya chiefs signed letters asking for separation from Syria to be maintained for fear of Sunni domination.

[27] Following Assad's seizure of sole power in 1970, part of his strategy was to concentrate control in the hands of members of his own Kalbiyya tribe.

[29] Although Alawites in general dominated the government, as historian Jordi Tejel points out, in practice "active participation" in the Assad regime was limited to the Kalbiyya.

[31] According to anthropologist Fabrice Balanche, the Kalbiyya's dominance of power in Syria was not the primary objective of Hafez al-Assad but rather a result of his placement of relatives in key military and bureaucratic positions.

While their kinship ties to the president gave them an advantage over the rest the population, Hafez al-Assad could not rely solely on the Kalbiyya and forged alliances and relations with other Syrian tribes and communities to broaden his base in the country.