ethnic groups in Syria

Ethnicity and religion are intertwined in Syria as in other countries in the region, but there are also nondenominational, supraethnic and suprareligious political identities, like Syrian nationalism.

Since the 1960 census there has been no counting of Syrians by religion, and there has never been any official counting by ethnicity or language. In the 1943 and 1953 censuses the various denominations were counted separately, e.g. for every Christian denomination. In 1960 Syrian Christians were counted as a whole but Muslims were still counted separately between Sunnis and Alawis.{{cite book|last=Hourani|first=Albert Habib|title=Minorities in the Arab World|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.81805|publisher=Oxford University Press|location= London|year=1947|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.81805/page/n86 76]}}{{in lang|fr}} Etienne de Vaumas, "[http://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1955_num_64_341_15478 La population de la Syrie]", Annales de géographie, Année 1955, Vol. 64, n° 341, p.74{{in lang|fr}} Mouna Liliane Samman, La population de la Syrie: étude géo-démographique, IRD Editions, Paris, 1978, {{ISBN|9782709905008}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=vPxWKyrAAUIC&pg=PA7 table p.9]

The majority of Syrians speak Arabic, except for a minority of Assyrians, Mandeans and 'Arameans of the Anti-Lebanon mountains' who speak Neo-Aramaic; Kurdish speaking Syrian Kurds; Turkish speaking Syrian Turkmens; and Armenian speakers who altogether form 5-10% of the population. Syrian Arab Sunni Muslims form ~70-75% of the populace, Christians altogether around 10%, Alawites at 10%, and the remaining ~5-10% consist of minor ethnoreligious groups including the Druze (3%), Isma'ilis, Mhallami, Yezidi and Twelver Shiite Muslims (the latter two together also about 3%).{{cite web | title=Syria | website=United States Department of State | date=2023-12-07 | url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/syria/ | access-date=2024-12-26}} However, these percentages are only indicative.

The majority of Syrian Arabs speak a variety of dialects belonging to Levantine Arabic. Arab tribes and clans of Bedouin descent are mainly concentrated in the governorates of al-Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and eastern Aleppo, forming roughly 30% of the total population and speaking a dialect related to Bedouin and Najdi Arabic.

In Deir ez-Zor a dialect of North Mesopotamian Arabic is also spoken, reminiscent of that of medieval Iraq prior the Mongol invasions in 1258.{{cite journal |title=The Arabian Peninsula and Iraq/Die arabische Halbinsel und der Irak |year=2006 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110184181.3.9.1930/html |journal=Sociolinguistics / Soziolinguistik, Part 3 |editor-last=Ammon |editor-first=Ulrich |place=Berlin/New York |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110184181.3.9.1930 |isbn=978-3-11-019987-1 |editor2-last=Dittmar |editor2-first=Norbert |editor3-last=Mattheier |editor3-first=Klaus J. |editor4-last=Trudgill |editor4-first=Peter|page=1937|first=Clive |last=Holes|url-access=subscription }}

• Arab minority groups
• Arab Christians (predominantly Rūm-Orthodox and Melkite-Catholic Christians)
• Druze
• Sunni Muslim and Christian Palestinians
• Arab Twelver Shias
• Arab Ismailis

Syrian Kurds form 5 to 10% of the Syrian population, the largest non-Arab minority. Yezidis, a non Muslim group are often counted among Kurds. Other non-Arabic-speaking Muslim groups include Syrian Turkmen, who had settled Syria in Mamluk and Ottoman times, Syrian Circassians and Syrian Chechens who settled in the 19th century, Syrian Bosniaks who settled in the 1870s and Greek Muslims who were resettled in Syria following the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. The Assyrians form a multi-denominational Christian minority, mainly in northeastern Syria, where they have been indigenous since the Bronze Age.

• Muslim minority groups
• Kurds (Sunni, although a number of Kurds follow the Yarsan religion, Yezidi religion or are converts to Christianity.
• Arabic-speaking or Turkmen Alawis"Syrian Alawites, referred to by AKP officials as Nusayris — a derogatory term not accepted by most Alevis in Turkey or Alawites in Syria — indeed can briefly be explained as follows. Some are Turkmen. They speak Turkish (...)" cf. Pinar Tremblay, "[http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/11/alevis-hope-change-turkey.html Syrian Alawites hope for change in Turkey]", Al-Monitor, November 15, 2013

• Sunni and Alevi Turkmens
• Sunni Chechens
• Sunni Circassians
• Syrian Bosniaks
• Sunni Muslim Greeks
• Muslim Ossetians{{cite journal |last1=Dzutsati |first1=Valery |title=First Ethnic Ossetian Refugees from Syria Arrive in North Ossetia |journal=Eurasia Daily Monitor |date=2013 |volume=10 |issue=65 |url=https://jamestown.org/program/first-ethnic-ossetian-refugees-from-syria-arrive-in-north-ossetia-2/}}{{cite news |last1=Izvestia |first1=Yuri Matsarsky |title=Syrian Ossetians seek to return to Russia |url=https://www.rbth.com/articles/2012/08/06/syrian_ossetians_seek_to_return_to_russia_17061.html |publisher=Russia Beyond |date=2012}}
• Black people of Yarmouk Basin, descendants of sub Saharan African slaves brought to the region during the Middle Ages
• Christian minority groups
• Assyrians, a Semitic Christian indigenous people of Northeast Syria, who speak various Neo-Aramaic languages belonging to the Eastern Aramaic branch.
• Armenians
• Greeks
• Italians
• Other groups
• Romani people/Kawliya of various creeds
• Mizrahi Jews
• Mandeans, a formerly predominantly Eastern Aramaic-speaking Gnostic people, the largest population of displaced Mandeans resides in the rural areas of Damascus.
• Arameans (Syriacs){{cite book |author1=Abū al-Faraj ʻIshsh |title=اثرنا في الايقليم السوري |publisher=Al-Maṭbaʻah al-Jadīdah |page=56 |language=Arabic |quote=السريان في معلولا وجبعدين ولا يزال الأهلون فيها يتكلمون}}{{cite book |author1=iنصر الله، إلياس أنطون |title=إلياس أنطون نصر الله في معلولا |publisher=لينين |page=45 |language=Arabic |quote=... معلولا السريان منذ القديم ، والذين ثبتت سريانيتهم بأدلة كثيرة هم وعين التينة وبخعا وجبعدين فحافظوا على لغتهم وكتبهم أكثر من غيرهم . وكان للقوم في تلك الأيام لهجتان ، لهجة عاميّة وهي الباقية الآن في معلولا وجوارها ( جبعدين وبخعا ) ...}}{{cite book |author1=Rafik Schami |title=Märchen aus Malula |date=25 July 2011 |publisher=Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Company KG |isbn=9783446239005 |page=151 |language=German |quote=Ich kenne das Dorf nicht, doch gehört habe ich davon. Was ist mit Malula?‹ fragte der festgehaltene Derwisch. >Das letzte Dorf der Aramäer< lachte einer der…}}{{cite book |author1=Yaron Matras |author2=Jeanette Sakel |title=Grammatical Borrowing in Cross-Linguistic Perspective |date=2007 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110199192 |page=185 |doi=10.1515/9783110199192 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110199192/html |language=English |quote=The fact that nearly all Arabic loans in Ma'lula originate from the period before the change from the rural dialect to the city dialect of Damascus shows that the contact between the Aramaeans and the Arabs was intimate…}}{{cite book |author1=Dr. Emna Labidi |title=Untersuchungen zum Spracherwerb zweisprachiger Kinder im Aramäerdorf Dschubbadin (Syrien) |date=2022 |publisher=LIT |isbn=9783643152619 |page=133 |url=https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-15261-9 |language=German |quote=Aramäer von Ǧubbˁadīn}}{{cite book |author1=Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold |author2=P. Behnstedt |title=Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) |date=1993 |publisher=Harassowitz |isbn=9783447033268 |page=42 |language=German |quote=Die arabischen Dialekte der Aramäer}}{{cite book |author1=Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold |author2=P. Behnstedt |title=Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) |date=1993 |publisher=Harassowitz |isbn=9783447033268 |page=5 |language=German |quote=Die Kontakte zwischen den drei Aramäer-dörfern sind nicht besonders stark.}}{{cite book |author1=Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold |title=Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen |date=2006 |publisher=Harrassowitz |isbn=9783447053136 |page=133 |url=https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/isbn_978-3-447-05313-6.ahtml |language=German |quote=Aramäern in Ma'lūla}}{{cite book |author1=Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold |title=Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen |date=2006 |publisher=Harrassowitz |isbn=9783447053136 |page=15 |language=German |quote=Viele Aramäer arbeiten heute in Damaskus, Beirut oder in den Golfstaaten und verbringen nur die Sommermonate im Dorf.}}{{cite web | url=http://friendsofmaaloula.de/en/ | title=Hilfe für das Aramäerdorf Maaloula e.V. | an aid project in Syria }} of the Anti-Lebanon mountains. The communities of Maaloula, Jubb'adin and Bakh'a speak Western Neo-Aramaic, which belongs to the Western Aramaic branch.

• Demographics of Syria
• Languages of Syria
• Religion in Syria
• Sectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War
• Federalization of Syria

{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160401130757/http://tda-sy.org/english-sectarianism-in-syria-survey-study/?lang=en Sectarianism in Syria (Survey Study)]
• {{cite web|title=Syria|work=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples|publisher=Minority Rights Group International|url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/4954ce5ac.html}}
• {{cite web|title=Guide: Syria's diverse minorities|publisher=BBC|year=2011|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16108755}}

{{Syria topics}}

{{Asia topic|Minorities in}}

{{Asia topic|Ethnic minorities in}}

{{Asia topic|Religious minorities in}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ethnic groups in Syria}}

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