Alawite

Alawite, any member of a minority esoteric sect of Islam living chiefly in Syria. The Assad family that ruled Syria from 1971 to 2024 are Alawites and made the community politically dominant there, although the state and its policies were largely secular under Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar al-Assad. Alawite teachings and practices are not widely understood outside the community, which refrains from publishing or proselytizing their beliefs. Their doctrines are known to extract...