‘We have much to learn from Syria, this nation that ‘belongs to All,’ writes historian Daniel Neep in his latest book A History of Modern Syria. A whirlwind adventure that takes us from the 19th century, when Syria was first conceived as a distinct national entity, to 2024 when Ahmed Al-Sharaa takes power in the Mediterranean country. The book offers intricate insight into the making, unmaking and remaking of Syria over the last two centuries. It challenges popular narratives that view Syria as merely the product of a European colonial fantasy and forces us to see the Levantine nation as a product of Syrians themselves. What makes Neep’s book distinct is that he does not look at Syrian politics solely through elites in Damascus, but also delves into local politics from Suwayda to Raqqa and beyond. What makes Syria different from a country like Egypt is the centrality of regional identity to national politics. State building requires navigating different local interests made up of people who have different religions, ethnicities, cultures and social freedoms. I think this point comes through very clearly in Neep’s book.
A History of Modern Syria begins with the unintended consequences of the Ottoman Empire’s attempts to reform the empire with the Tanzimat era. European encroachment, the Egyptian invasion of the Levant and internal unrest forced the Ottomans down a path of rapid modernisation. In 1858, the Sublime Porte attempted to introduce private property rights, so that individuals would have clear land ownership and bring Syria into line with Europe. If successful, it would make a number of things much simpler for the state including taxation, but the outcome would not match intended goals. The Land Code, which by the middle of the 20th century would develop into Syria legal institution for dealing with private property, was designed to smash the power of local elites and redistribute the land to among the peasants who farmed it. However, as Neep observes, ‘the reforms accelerated the concentration of land in the hands of a small number of wealthy families who exercised over their tenant farmers a new level of social control.’
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The conditions in Syrian agriculture became more oppressive and would reshape the economy in a number of unexpected ways. Indeed, the new social environment would lead to revolts that would redraw the map in Syria. While the Tanzimat reforms promised equality between religions, it did not promise class equality between people in the same sect. A revolt by Maronite Christian peasants against their fellow Maronite landowners, who cited the Tanzimat reforms as a demand of class equality, would force local elites to move away from farming and towards modern mercantile finance. Indeed the different path of economic modernisation would eventually lead to the creation of modern Lebanon as Neep points out, by the 1940s, both Syria and Lebanon were being ruled by new economic elites that came out of the Tanzimat reforms, but while the Lebanese looked to international finance, the Syrians evolved into manufacturing. The Lebanese elite wanted free trade and open borders, the Syrians wanted controlled global trade and industrial protectionism. This is part of the reason why politicians in both countries never considered joining each other and becoming one country.
French rule would alter the structures of Syrian society. When thinking about the Great Syrian Revolt in 1925, we see how a regional disturbance turns into a nationwide uprising, not too dissimilar from the 2011 revolution being sparked by a local incident in Daraa. An area in southern Syria called Jabal Al-Druze rebelled against a particularly cruel French governor, Captain Gabriel Carbillet, whose excesses included when he ‘imposed a heavy fine on the townsfolk of Suwayda after a French officer’s pet cat went missing.’ He also imposed forced labour on the local population, imported Christians from Lebanon to spy, using torture on dissidents, interfered in family affairs and inheritance claims, as well as offending local morals by pursuing alcohol and boys. The Great Revolt involved unprecedented levels of violence with 6,000 killed and 100,000 displaced. A new sense of Syrianess was also formed out of this.
A History of Modern Syria tells the story of multiple endings and beginnings, the structures of Syria that shape the present are the product of local and national histories intersecting each other. A tendency to reduce Syria down to a handful of frames such as sectarianism or ideology fails to understand the inner forces that move the country. Neep leaves no stone unturned in trying to uncover these dynamics and in doing so, he has left us with a piece of body of work that is unrivaled in its penetrating insight. It overturns simple assumptions and covers aspects of the Mediterranean country that is poorly understood outside Syria. His is an essential and necessary read for anyone looking for a deeper understanding at one of the Middle East’s most important places.
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