Ali al-Assad
Sulayman Ali al-Assad, born in 1875, was a leader of the Alawites in Latakia and was an opposition figure to the French occupation in the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. He started the Al-Assad family.[1] He lived until 1963. [2]
Name
The al-Assads live in Qardaha an Alawite town in Latakia,[3] and are members of the Kalbiyya tribe.[4][5][6] In 1936, al-Assad was one of 80 Alawite notables who signed a letter addressed to the French Prime Minister saying that "[the] Alawi people rejected attachment to Syria and wished to stay under French protection."[7] For his accomplishments, he was called al-Assad (a lion) by his fellow Alawites[1] and made the nickname his surname in 1927.[2]
Family
Al-Assad married twice and over three decades had eleven children. His first wife Sa'ada was from the district of Haffeh. They had three sons and two daughters. His second wife was Na'isa, twenty years younger than him. She was the daughter of Uthman Abbud from the village of Qutilba, a dozen kilometres further up the mountain. They had a daughter and five sons. Hafez was born on 6 October 1930 and was the fourth child.[8]
References
- ^ a b Zahler 2009, p. 25.
- ^ a b Alianak 2007, p. 128.
- ^ Reich 1990, p. 52.
- ^ Bengio 1998, p. 135.
- ^ Jessup 1998, p. 41.
- ^ Alianak 2007, pp. 127–128.
- ^ Seale 1990, p. 20.
- ^ Seale 1990, p. 5.