Peasants into Syrians

Abstract

Like much of the “developing world,” Syria experienced urban population growth at historically unprecedented rates in the 1950s. Such rapid urbanization, like all transformative historical phenomena, animates (and, to a certain extent, reifies) a host of dreams and anxieties in those who experience it. To get an inkling of how “Syrians”—as individuals, groups, or representatives of institutions—felt about these changes, one has to look beyond the ubiquitous and frequent pronouncements of intellectuals and government officials extolling the virtues of modernity and the liberating effects of science and technology.

Reinterpreting and Reforming the City

“…Salamandra (2004) reported several pejorative terms used by Damascenes to characterize those whom they felt as encroachers in their city: "villagers" (qarawiyyin), "people from the countryside" (ahl al-rif), "peasants" (fellaheen). According to Martin (2009) who analyzed a cartoon issued in the Syrian newspaper Al-Jundi, titled "Those who people scorn", in the 1960s the Damascene bourgeoisie was annoyed by Alawi-related groups migrating into the city. 11.…”