The Druze are a religious community whose faith developed out of Ismaili Shia Islam in eleventh-century Egypt and later spread to the mountain regions of Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine/Israel. They constitute approximately 3% of Syria’s population, concentrated in the Jabal al-Druze (Jabal al-Arab) region in the southwest. Like the Alawites, they were targeted by French Mandate recruiters for the troupes spéciales. The Druze-led Great Syrian Revolt of 1925–27, which began as a Druze uprising under Sultan al-Atrash before spreading to Damascus and other areas, was the largest anti-colonial uprising in the interwar Arab world. Under the Assad regime, the Druze occupied an ambiguous position: their military tradition made them important to the regime, but their distinct communal identity and geographic concentration gave them a degree of autonomy. During the civil war, the Druze of Sweida largely avoided alignment with either the regime or the opposition, attempting to maintain a form of armed neutrality that became increasingly difficult as the war continued.
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