Politics

Druze political figures who transformed Syrian history

For more than a century, Druze soldiers and politicians have made their mark on today’s Syria. They are still writing their own history, as the recent Suweida violence shows.

John MacDougall/AFP

a mural depicting Lebanese Druze politician Walid Jumblatt (bottom, R) and Syrian Druze nationalist leader Sultan al-Atrash, in the predominantly Druze city of Beit Jann on November 16, 2023.

Druze political figures who transformed Syrian history

Sami Moubayed

last update on 25 Jul 2025

Upon entering Damascus following its liberation from Ottoman rule in 1918, Emir Faisal Ibn al-Hussein announced that appointments to government positions would now be based on merit, rather than familial, tribal, political, or sectarian affiliations.

He appointed two prominent Christians (Fares al-Khoury and Yusuf al-Hakim) as ministers of finance and public works respectively, named a Shiite from Baalbek (Rustum Haidara) as his advisor, and gave a member of the Druze community (Rashid Tali’a) the Interior Ministry. Faisal also appointed another Druze (Emir Adel Arslan) as Deputy Military Governor.

Ever since, Druze figures have appeared on Syria’s political stage. Some, like Sultan Pasha al-Atrash led the national struggle against colonial rule. Others took part in military coups. Fadlallah Abu Mansour and Amin Abu Assaf executed President Husni al-Za’im in 1949, and Salim Hatoum arrested President Amin al-Hafiz in 1955.

The first Druze minister in Syria was Abdel Ghafar Pasha al-Atrash, appointed Minister of Defense in 1941. Later, Shawkat Shuqayr became Chief-of-Staff in the 1950s, while Abdel Karim Zahreddine became Army Commander in the early 1960s. Here, Al Majalla offers a short synopsis of the main Druze figures whose names have become so closely linked to the modern history of Syria.

Sultan Pasha al-Atrash (1891–1982)

Commander-in-chief of the Great Syrian Revolt, Atrash is the most prominent and revered Druze figure in modern Syrian history. He served in the Ottoman army then joined the Great Arab Revolt led by Sharif Hussein against the Ottomans in 1916 and entered Damascus with Prince Faisal in 1918. When France divided Syria into mini-states at the start of the mandate period, Atrash was offered the governorship of the Druze Mountain.

He refused, insisting on nothing short of complete unity of Syrian lands, and in August 1922, the rebel Adham Khanjar sought refuge there after a failed attempt to assassinate French High Commissioner Henri Gouraud. France responded by ordering Khanjar’s arrest and execution, destroying Atrash’s home where Khanjar he had sought shelter.

Getty Images — Sheikh Sultan al-Atrash, leader of the Druze Revolt in October 1925, possibly with a member of the American Colony.

In the summer of 1925, Atrash launched the Great Syrian Revolt against the French, which lasted until 1927. He rallied prominent nationalists like Abdul Rahman al-Shahbandar, Nasib al-Bakri, Shukri al-Quwatli, and others. France retaliated by repeatedly bombing and torching Druze Mountain. It also shelled Damascus on 18 October 1925, sentencing Atrash to death.

He fled to the Azraq region in Transjordan, then to Qaryat al-Milh in Saudi Arabia, only returning to Syria after a general amnesty was issued in 1937, shortly after the election of Hashem al-Atasi as president. Atrash came close to launching a second revolt when the French bombed Damascus again on 29 May 1945, but it was called off after a British-brokered ceasefire was announced on 1 June.

Commander-in-chief of the Great Syrian Revolt, Sultan Pasha al-Atrash is the most prominent and revered Druze figure in modern Syrian history

During the post-mandate era, Atrash opposed the military rule of President Adib al-Shishakli (1953–1954), refusing to recognise his constitution, or the elections that brought him to power. Due to his esteemed standing as one of the father figures of the nation, Shishakli did not harm him.

He did, however, order the arrest of Atrash's son, Mansour, a founding member of the Baath Party. When Shishakli offered to release Mansour in exchange for his father's support, the pasha famously replied: "I am struggling for my country's freedom, not for my son's release."

He came to be seen as a unifying national symbol for all Syrians, regardless of sect or political background, and remains to this day one of the heroes of the nationalist movement against French colonialism and a cornerstone of modern Syrian history.

Abdel Ghafar Pasha al-Atrash (1879–1942)

A leader in the Great Syrian Revolt, he was exiled to Palestine in 1928. Upon his return, Prime Minister Hassan al-Hakim appointed him as Syria's first Druze minister (National Defense) on 20 September 1941, after the Druze Mountain reintegrated with the rest of Syria during World War II. Atrash died in office on 9 March 1942 and was succeeded by Emir Hassan al-Atrash.

Prince Hassan al-Atrash (1905–1977)

A prominent Druze leader better known for his two marriages to Cairo-based Syrian diva Asmahan, he also served as Governor of the Druze Mountain in 1938, and then Minister of Defense in 1942, succeeding Abdel Ghafar al-Atrash. Hassan al-Atrash did not resist British forces that invaded Syria to liberate it from the Hitler-backed Vichy regime in 1941. Rather, he facilitated their entry. His subsequent appointment to the Ministry of Defense is seen a reward for his support of Britain's war efforts during World War II.

Flickr — Amal and Hassan al-Atrash in their wedding photo.

He was re-appointed as Governor of the Mountain in 1944 and opposed Soviet influence in Syria during the early Cold War. Atrash would later serve as Minister of Agriculture in Sabri al-Asali's cabinet on 1 March 1954, then as Minister of State in Said al-Ghazzi's government on 13 September 1955.

Adel Arslan (1887–1954)

A Lebanese Druze leader and brother of nationalist intellectual Emir Shakib Arslan, he was elected to the Ottoman parliament and worked in the Ministry of Interior in Istanbul. Before World War I, Arslan joined the anti-Ottoman society Al-Fatat, and after liberation from Turkish rule in 1918, he became Deputy Military Governor under Emir Faisal.

During the French Mandate, he was exiled—first to Switzerland, then to Egypt, and later to Transjordan, where he served as Chief-of-Staff to Emir Abdullah bin Al-Hussein (later King of Jordan). Arslan took up arms with the Great Syrian Revolt and was sentenced to death in absentia. He fled and did not return to Syria until 1937, when he became an envoy to Ankara.

Arslan was close to Shukri al-Quwatli, who was elected president in 1943. During Quwatli's term, Arslan served as Golan MP in the Syrian Parliament, and then, as Minister of Education from 28 December 1946. He was also Interim President of the Syrian University, and Deputy Head of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations.

Adel Arslan took up arms with the Great Syrian Revolt and was sentenced to death in absentia. He fled and did not return to Syria until 1937

On 22 August 1948, Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey appointed him Minister of Health, and in 1949, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Husni al-Za'im. Many were surprised that Emir Adel accepted a ministerial post under Za'im, who had overthrown and imprisoned Quwatli. Arslan justified it by saying that he worked with Za'im to moderate his behavior, preserve state institutions, and protect his friend Quwatli from harm while helping to secure his release from jail.

He opposed Za'im's decision to enter direct negotiations with Israel and refused to meet any Israeli envoys, leading to his dismissal on 26 June 1949. He left behind valuable memoirs about his experience with Za'im—published in Al-Hayat newspaper in Beirut—and a collection of political diaries released in the early 1980s titled Memoirs of Emir Adel Arslan.

Farid Zain Al-Din (1909–1973)

An Arab nationalist and diplomat of Lebanese Druze origin, he married into the illustrious Azm family of Damascus and studied at the American University of Beirut (AUB), earning a PhD in law from the Sorbonne, and a degree in economics from the University of Berlin. He taught at AUB and co-founded the Arab Liberation Society with Prince Shakib Arslan, later helping establish the League of National Action in 1933, whose slogan was: 'Arabism First.'

AFP — Picture dated 1976 shows Druze leader Sultan al-Atrash in Damascus.

Like Adel Arslan, he was close to President Shukri al-Quwatli and served as his secretary in the 1930s. After Quwatli became president, Zain al-Din was appointed to Syria's delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco in April 1945. He later became envoy to Moscow until 1951, then Syria's ambassador to the UN and Washington under President Dwight Eisenhower.

He was expelled from the US in 1957 after relations between the two countries deteriorated. A supporter of the Syrian-Egyptian union in 1958, he opposed the 1961 coup that ended it and remained loyal to Gamal Abdel Nasser. After the Baath Party seized power in 1963, he moved to Lebanon and retired from politics.

Shawkat Shuqayr (1912–1982)

A Lebanese Druze officer who served in the Lebanese army during the French Mandate, he was appointed Lebanon's delegate to the Military Committee of the Arab League in 1946, and later, as Chief-of-Staff of the Arab Liberation Army in Palestine in 1948.

During the Palestine War, he met Syrian Army Chief of Staff Husni al-Za'im, who invited him to Damascus after seizing power on 29 March 1949, offering him the post of Chief of the Military Bureau at the Presidential Palace. Shuqayr resigned from the Lebanese army and joined the Syrian one, after being granted Syrian citizenship by Za'im.

Wikipedia Commons — Shawkat Shukayr pictured in 1954.

President Adib al-Shishakli would later appoint him Chief-of-Staff of the Syrian Army in 1953, at the height of a bloody confrontation between him and the Druze. Traditionally, since 1945, this sensitive post had been reserved exclusively for Sunni Muslims. Shishakli took advantage of Shuqayr's background, telling critics that a Druze was leading operations in the Druze Mountain, so nobody would say that a Sunni from Hama (i.e. Shishakli himself) was bombing Druze towns and villages.

A rebellion eventually broke out, with officers mutinying against both Shishakli and Shuqayr, including Eastern Region Commander Brigadier General Amin Abu Assaf, who was also a Druze. Upon Shishakli's resignation on 25 February 1954, Shuqayr issued a statement to the Syrian people urging calm and the avoidance of sectarian strife. He invited Parliament Speaker Maamoun al-Kuzbari to assume power.

Shawkat Shuqayr was appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Syrian Army in 1953, a post normally reserved exclusively for Sunni Muslims

Although another mutiny was staged against him, Shuqayr remained in his position after President Hashim al-Atassi returned to office on 1 March 1954. He was retired from the army on 7 July 1956 and returned to Lebanon, where he entered local politics via the Social Progressive Party and its Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt.

Shuqayr supported him during the 1958 revolt against Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, also backing the Syrian-Egyptian union. He would also oppose its breakdown in September 1961 and helped smuggle former Syrian intelligence chief Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj out of Mezzeh Prison to Lebanon in 1962. Shuqayr returned to Syria with Jumblatt to meet Hafez al-Assad, shortly before Jumblatt's assassination in 1977 and his own death in 1982.

Abdel Karim Zahreddine (1924–2009)

A Druze officer from rural Suweida and one of the founding members of the Syrian Army, he fought in the 1948 Palestine War and did not take part in any of the coups and counter-coups that rocked the nation after 1949. A military junta appointed him commander of the Syrian Army in 1961, shortly after its officers brought down the Syrian-Egyptian Union.

Lt. Col. Abdel Karim al-Nahlawi engineered the 1961 coup that toppled the union republic, and in response to being sidelined in its aftermath, launched another coup on 28 March 1962, arresting then-president Nazem al-Qudsi. Zahreddine denounced the second Nehlawi coup as a breach of constitutional legitimacy, convening a major conference in Homs on 1 April, which decided to reinstate President Qudsi and discharge Nahlawi, and his men, from the army.

AFP — A picture dated 1949 shows Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli (R) with Lebanese Prime Minister Saeb Salam in Damascus.

On 16 April 1962, Zahreddine was appointed Minister of Defense in the cabinet of Bashir al-Azma, and later in Khalid al-Azm's final government that September. After the Baathist coup of 8 March 1963, he was dismissed from the military and imprisoned, but released a few months later, on 15 December.

Mansour al-Atrash (1925–2006)

The son of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash and one of the founding members of the Baath Party alongside Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Bitar in 1947, he studied at the AUB and opposed the military rule of Adib al-Shishakli, who had him jailed. After the Baath Party came to power in 1963, Atrash became a member of the Presidential Council along with Amin al-Hafiz and served as Minister of Social Affairs in Salah al-Bitar's government.

He was elected to the Baath Party's National Command, and on 1 September 1965, became Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) in Syria. He was arrested following the 23 February 1966 coup but was released during the 1967 war, becoming an outspoken critic of Hafez al-Assad during his 30-year rule.

Salim Hatoum (1928–1967)

A Baathist army officer who participated in the 8 March 1963 coup, he led a special commando unit protecting the Presidential Palace and the Syrian Television building in Umayyad Square—key targets in any military coup. He was known for his brutality, his abuses, and his romantic relationship with the singer Lodi Shamia.

Hatoum played a central role in the 23 February 1966 coup, led by Salah Jadid, which overthrew President Amin al-Hafiz and the Baath Party's founding figures, Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Bitar. He personally led the assault on Hafiz's home and arrested him following a bloody firefight.

After the February 1966 coup, Hatoum began plotting a new military overthrow to remove General Salah Jadid from power in retaliation for Jadid's dismissal of numerous Druze officers. Jadid and President Noureddin al-Atassi traveled to Suweida to defuse tensions within the Druze community, but an armed Hatoum stormed the Baath Party headquarters where they were convening and ordered their arrest.

Defense Minister Hafez al-Assad intervened, forcing Hatoum to flee to Jordan. He eventually returned to Syria following the June 1967 defeat, where he was immediately arrested. After several torture sessions in jail, he was executed by firing squad on 24 June 1967.

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