Sweida

Sweida, town in southern Syria in the foothills of Jabal Druze (Mount Al-Durūz), the region where most of Syria’s Druze community lives. Pop. (2004) 73,641.

Sweida is situated at the eastern margin of the Hauran region and near the border with Jordan. Believed to have been founded by the Nabataeans in the 1st century bce, it came under Roman rule in the 1st century ce. By the 5th century it was the seat of a bishopric. Among its ruins are a 2nd-century Roman amphitheater, a 3rd-century Roman temple, and a 5th-century Byzantine church.

The majority of Sweida’s inhabitants are Druze, with a small number of Greek (Rūm) Orthodox Christians. The area is also home to thousands of Sunni Muslim Bedouin, although only a small fraction of them live in the city or its immediate environs. The Druze revolt, led by the Druze leader Sulṭān al-Aṭrash from 1925 to 1927, broke out in the region and marked a pivotal moment in Syria’s eventual independence.

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In 2025, following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the rise of Ahmed al-Sharaa as Syria’s president, and Sharaa’s push to disarm local militias, Sweida became a center of confrontation where local armed Druze factions, united only by the common spiritual leadership of Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, sought stronger guarantees of political inclusion and protection before agreeing to disarm. Four coalitions of Druze militias operate in Sweida, most prominently Men of Dignity and the Sweida Military Council (SMC). The failure of government forces to prevent attacks on the Druze community has led to rifts among local Druze leaders, some of whom support coordination with government forces while others, including Hijri, have occasionally called for resistance. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has carried out strikes against government forces in the area in effort to preserve the autonomy of the Druze armed factions. The participation of Israeli forces was met with mixed reaction: “When [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu says he wants to protect the Druze, it is to achieve his own interests,” the spokesman of Men of Dignity commented, according to the National Public Radio (NPR), but the commander of SMC welcomed Israeli intervention.