| The interaction between the state and the tribes is a major thread that has not been interrupted in the historical course of Syrian.The Ebla,which is the earliest known native state in Syria,evolved from the advanced form of the prehistoric tribal society-the Halaf Chiefdom under the influence of rich resources and inter-regional trade.After the formation of the early state,the prehistoric tribes of Syria did not disappear.They became non-state societies that existed on a par with the state and launched three forms of human communication with the early states of Syria: peaceful integration,armed confrontation,as well as replacing and assimilation.Since the Hittite Old Kingdom conquered Syria,with the continuous expansion of the ancient states,these tribes gradually lost their equal status with the state,and finally transformed into sub-state societies which are often under the sovereignty and hegemony of the state.As sub-state societies,these tribes still played an important role in the historical course of Syrian.They are not only important participants and stakeholders in the establishment of Syrian state and civilization,but also the important contact object of different types of countries such as empires,dynasties,colonies and so on.In 1946,the Syrian national state broke away from French colonial rule and established itself as an independent state.This historical event marked a new historical stage in the development of relations between the state and tribes of Syrian.However,the modern Syrian national state in the early years of independence was typically weak state,and tribes were the social organization of the majority of Arabs in the Syrian countryside.Compared with the loose political system of the national state,the Arab tribes of Syrian have a tight social organization level,which can be divided into five levels: family,clan,phratry,tribe and tribal alliance from inside to outside.The closer to the basic level,the stronger the cohesion is.In addition,Arab tribes have four typical cultural characteristics of tribes: "Inviolable tribal identity and honor," "The authority of tribal leaders","Economic production mode that produces no surplus" and "Small-scale concentrated and closed social culture".Syria’s Arab tribes are also geographically vast,encompassing the eastern regions of Badia,Jazra and Howland to the south,with tens of entities and millions of people.After the establishment of the Syrian national state,Syrian nationalists believed that the independent identity and autonomy of Arab tribes is not conducive to the construction of the nation-state.At the same time,they see Arab tribes as pre-modern societies to be eradicated.Therefore,in the three main historical periods of the early construction of the nation state,that is,the period of parliamentary democracy,the period of the United Arab Republic,and the early period of the Baath Party in power,the Syrian national state has tended to swallow up the social fabric of Arab tribes through coercive policies.With the capacity of the national state grows from weak to strong,the nation’s devouring of the tribes gradually changed from an idea to a reality.However,the national state finally finds it difficult to digest the stubborn structure of tribal society,and one of the results of over-eating tribal society is that the country begins to face an increasingly severe dilemma of social governance at the grass-roots level.After the 1970 "Correction movement",Syria formed a strong authoritarian system led by Hafez al-Assad.In contrast to the traditional nationalist elites,under a strong authoritarian system,the state abandoned the coercive policies it had imposed on Arab tribal societies in the early days of the nation and replaced them with a moderate and systematic policy of integration.In this context,the reconciliation between the Syrian state and the Arab tribes was first achieved at the political,economic and cultural levels;thereafter,the country and the Arab tribes gradually completed political integration within the framework of the Ba’ath Party System,the army system and the People’s Assembly.Finally,the state has engaged in functional cooperation with Arab tribes to improve its geopolitical environment,resist the spread of religious extremism,and control the separatism of the Kurd minority.In 2000,Syria had a weak authoritarian system led by the Bashar al-Assad.In response to the mid-term crisis of the Syrian authoritarian system,the Bashar al-Assad regime gradually receded from the tribal responsibilities of the state and shrank into a new,highly elitist and Alawite regime oriented towards a "Useful Syria".In response to the country’s tribal alienation,Syria’s Arab tribes began to autonomously seek their own interests and repeatedly clashed.At the same time,religion and its affiliated sectarianism took the opportunity to fill the vacuum left by the contraction of state power and began to rise in Syria’s tribal areas.As a result,the tribal areas of Syria have seen a rise in Shiism and Salafism.This has made Syria’s tribal areas the front line of sectarian conflict and great power rivalry.The 2011 Syrian crisis first broke out in Deraa,a key province in the tribal Arab region of Howland,and assumed the shape of an outer confrontation center.The reason lies in the improper harvesting of Arab tribal interests by the state and the long-standing policy of discrimination and marginalization.After the outbreak of the crisis,the Syrian Arab tribes appeared a new round of division and reorganization on the political and military levels.Some anti-government Arab tribes have set up their own armed and political organizations,and they become a flag of the Syrian opposition and the outside world as liberal tribes.Some of the pro government Arab tribes,known to outsiders as the establishment tribes,formed their own armed forces and political institutions under the auspices of the Bashar al-Assad administration.With the deepening of the Syrian crisis,the state order in the Syrian tribal areas tends to disintegrate,which once made the local Arab tribes face the biggest survival crisis since the founding of the Syrian state.In 2014,the Islamic State,an extremist group,rose rapidly in the tribal areas of eastern Syria,and it has absorbed a significant number of Arab tribes by providing alternative state functions to the Syrian tribal areas and by political intimidation.Throughout the outbreak and evolution of the Syrian crisis,the Syrian state and its tribes have come to recognize each other’s social significance.The state at the heart of the Bashar al-Assad regime recognized the constructive role of Arab tribes in the Syrian crisis.Arab tribes,especially liberal anti government tribes,are increasingly discovering that they are part of the Syrian People’s revolution as well as being part of it,the significance of state order and function to self-existence.It can be said that the future of domestic reconciliation in Syria has and will certainly include a comprehensive restructuring of Syria’s relations between the state and tribes. |
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