Syria (sēr'ēə) , officially Syrian Arab Republic, republic (2005 est. pop. 18,449,000), 71,467 sq mi (185,100 sq km), W Asia. It borders on Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea in the west, on Turkey in the northwest and north, on Iraq in the east and south, and on Jordan and Israel in the southwest. Damascus is the country's capital and its largest city.
Land
Syria falls into two main geographical regions, a western region and a much larger eastern region. The western region, which includes about two thirds of the country's population, can be subdivided into four parallel north-south zones. In the far west is a narrow, discontinuous lowland strip along the Mediterranean. It is bordered, and partly cut, by the Jabal al-Nusayriyah, a mountain range (average elevation: 4,000 ft/1,220 m; highest point: 5,123 ft/1,561 m) that is crossed by deep valleys. In the east the Jabal al-Nusayriyah drops sharply to the Great Rift Valley, which continues southward into Africa and which in Syria contains the Orontes River. East of the rift are mountain ranges, including the Anti-Lebanon Mts. (which include Mount Hermon, 9,232 ft/2,814 m, Syria's loftiest point) and scattered ranges in NW Syria. Within these ranges are several fertile basins, including ones occupied by Damascus and Aleppo.
The eastern region is made up of a plateau (average elevation: 2,000 ft/610 m), which is in large part bisected by a series of ranges that fan out northeastward from the Anti-Lebanon Mts. In the south are the Jabal al-Duruz Mts., from which the plain of Hawran extends westward to the Sea of Galilee. Other mountains are located in the north. Much of the southern section of the plateau forms part of the Syrian Desert; otherwise, the plateau is largely covered with steppe. There are irrigated, cultivated areas along the Euphrates River in the east, whose basin makes up part of the Fertile Crescent, as does the Mediterranean coast of Syria. The country is divided into 14 provinces. In addition to the capital, other major cities include Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Dayr az Zawr, and Al Hasakah.
People
Syria has a young and rapidly growing population. Most of the people are of Arab descent and speak Arabic, the country's official language; French and English are understood by many, and Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, and Circassian are spoken in some areas. The chief minority is the Kurds; others include the Armenians, Turkomans (Turks), Circassians, and Assyrians. About 75% of the country's inhabitants are Sunni Muslims. There are also significant numbers of Shiite Muslims, especially the Alawites, who live in the Jabal al-Nusayriyah; Druze, who live in the south, principally in the Jabal al-Duruz; and smaller Muslim sects; all of these groups comprise about 16% of Syria's population. The largest Christian groups are the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox, and the Syrian Orthodox, together comprising about 10% of the population. Before 1992, Syria had a Jewish community of more than 4,000; all but a few hundred left the country after emigration restrictions were lifted in that year.
Economy
Syria was an overwhelmingly agricultural country until the early 1960s, when planned large-scale industrialization began. The state plays a major role in all areas of the country's economy. Some 40% of the people earn their living by farming; since 1970 land cultivation has increased more than 50%, largely because of government incentives and wider and more efficient use of irrigation. The best farmland is located along the coast and in the Jabal al-Nusayriyah, around Aleppo, in the region between Hama and Homs, in the Damascus area, and in the land between the Euphrates and Khabur rivers, which is known as Al Jazira [Arab.,=the island]. The principal crops include wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, barley, cotton, tobacco, chickpeas, and lentils. Large numbers of poultry, cattle, and sheep are raised, and dairy products are important. Tourism has expanded in recent years.
Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs are the chief industrial centers. The main manufactures are refined petroleum, textiles, processed food, beverages, chemicals, and precision-engineered products. Handicrafts such as articles of silk, leather, and glass are widely produced. The principal minerals extracted are petroleum, found mainly at Qarah Shuk (Karachuk) in the extreme northeast; natural gas, found mainly in the Al Jazira region; phosphates; limestone; and salt. Petroleum pipelines from Iraq and Jordan cross Syria, and there is also a pipeline from Qarah Shuk to the Mediterranean coast.
Since 1974 oil has been Syria's most important source of revenue, accounting for about 65% of its exports in the late 1990s. Latakia and Tartus are the main seaports. The annual value of Syria's imports is greater than the value of its exports. The principal imports are machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, metals, textiles, chemicals, and consumer goods; the chief exports are petroleum, textiles, farm products, and phosphates. The leading trade partners are Germany, Italy, France, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.
Government
The Syrian constitution vests the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party with leadership functions in the state and society and provides broad powers to the president. The president, approved by referendum for a 7-year term, also is Secretary General of the Ba'ath Party and leader of the National Progressive Front. The president has the right to appoint ministers, to declare war and states of emergency, to issue laws (which, except in the case of emergency, require ratification by the People's Council), to declare amnesty, to amend the constitution, and to appoint civil servants and military personnel. Along with the National Progressive Front, the president decides issues of war and peace and approves the state's 5-year economic plans. The National Progressive Front also acts as a forum in which economic policies are debated and the country's political orientation is determined.
History
Early History
Until the 20th cent. the term Syria generally denoted those lands of the Levant, or eastern littoral of the Mediterranean, that correspond to modern Syria and Lebanon, most of Israel and Jordan, W Iraq, and N Saudi Arabia. Three geographical factors have played major parts in determining the history of Syria—its location on the trade and military routes, its varied topography, and the encroaching desert. Syria has always been an object of conquest, and it has been held by foreign powers during much of its history. One of the earliest settlements was probably at Ugarit; human habitation at Tell Hamoukar in NE Syria dates to at least 4000 B.C. The Amorites, coming c.2100 B.C. from the Arabian peninsula, were the first important Semitic people to settle in the region, and they established many small states.
From the 15th to the 13th cent. B.C. the area probably was part of the empire of the Hittites, although it came under Egyptian rule for long periods during that time. The first great indigenous culture was that of Phoenicia (located mostly in present-day Lebanon), which flourished after 1250 B.C. in a group of trading cities along the coast. In the 10th cent. B.C. two Hebrew kingdoms were organized in Palestine (see also Jews). Syria suffered (11th–6th cent. B.C.) long invasions and intermittent control by the empire of Assyria. Babylonian conquerors also found success in Syria, and Egypt constantly sought to reestablish its position there. The Syrians were subjected to massacres, plundering, and forced deportations.
Under the Persian Empire, with its efficient administrative system, Syria's standard of living improved (6th–4th cent. B.C.). Alexander the Great conquered Syria between 333 and 331 B.C., and his short-lived empire was followed by that of the Seleucidae (see Seleucus I), who are usually called kings of Syria. Their control of Syria was constantly threatened by Egypt, which was ruled by the Ptolemies. The Egyptians usually held the south until Antiochus III conquered (early 2d cent. B.C.) the region, which was generally called Coele Syria, a name which had been vaguely applied to all of W Syria. The Seleucids founded cities and military colonies and introduced Hellenistic civilization to Syria. Syria long showed the revivifying effects of this new culture. Many of the cities became cultural Hellenistic centers, but the change did not reach the lower levels of the population.
When invasions began again, first by the Armenians under Tigranes and then by the Parthians—both in the 1st cent. B.C.—the Hellenistic sheen was soon dulled. The Romans under Pompey conquered the region by 63 B.C., but they continued to fight the Parthians there, and the Syrians benefited little from the Roman presence. Many changes in administration occurred, and Rome drew from Syria numerous soldiers and slaves. The old pagan gods of Syria were also taken up by the Romans. More significant for the future of Syria, Christianity was started in Palestine and soon exerted some influence over all of Syria; St. Paul was converted from Judaism to Christianity on the road to Damascus. In central Syria, Palmyra grew (3d cent. A.D.) to considerable power as an autonomous state, but it was conquered by the Romans when it threatened their ascendancy.
After the division of Rome into the Eastern and Western empires in the 4th cent., Syria came under Byzantine rule. In the 5th and 6th cent. Monophysitism, a Christian heresy with political overtones, gained many adherents in Syria. Byzantine control there was seriously weakened by the 7th cent. Between 633 and 640, Muslim Arabs conquered Syria, and during the following centuries most Syrians converted to Islam. Damascus was the usual capital of the Umayyad caliph (661–750) and enjoyed a period of great splendor. The Umayyads were forcibly displaced by the Abbasids, whose residence was in Iraq, thus ending Syria's dominant position in the Islamic world. At the same time the ties between Muslim Syria and the predominantly Christian southwest (later Lebanon) began to loosen.
