Alyat, Syria
Al-'Aliyat (Arabic: العاليات, also spelled Alyat) is a village in the Homs Governorate in central Syria, located southeast of Homs on the western fringes of the Syrian Desert. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-'Aliyat had a population of 532 in 2004. Its inhabitants are predominantly Alawites.
In April 1924, during French Mandatory rule, followers of Sulayman al-Murshid killed a number of people in al-'Aliyat for not converting to al-Murshid's strain of Alawite Islam. French forces confronted al-Murshid's disciples, who were armed mostly with sticks, and fifty of them were killed, while another fifty were wounded. Al-Murshid was exiled to Raqqa in the aftermath of the clashes.
References
- ^ "General Census of Population 2004". Retrieved 2014-07-10.
- ^ Seale, Patrick. Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East. p. 21.