Assad family

The Assad family ruled Syria from 1971, when Hafez al-Assad became president under the Ba'ath Party following the 1970 coup, until Bashar al-Assad was ousted on 8 December 2024. Bashar succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, after Hafez's death in 2000.
The Assads are originally from Qardaha, Latakia Governorate. They belong to the Alawite Kalbiyya tribe. In 1927, Ali Sulayman changed his last name from al-Wahsh, Arabic for 'the savage', to al-Assad, 'the lion', possibly in connection with his social standing as a local mediator and his political activities. All members of the extended Assad family stem from Ali Sulayman and his second wife, Naissa, who came from a village in the Syrian Coastal Mountains.
During his early reign in the 1970s, Hafez al-Assad created patronage networks of Ba'ath party elites loyal to his family. Members of the Assad family established control over vast swathes of the Syrian economy, and corruption became endemic in the public and private sectors. After Hafez's death, family connections continued to be important in Syrian politics. Several close family members of Hafez also held vital positions in the government since his rise to power, an arrangement which existed until the fall of the Assad regime. The Syrian bureaucracy and business community were also dominated by members of the Assad family and individuals affiliated with them.
Hafez al-Assad built his regime into a bureaucracy that was marked by a cult of personality. Images, portraits, quotes and praises of Assad are displayed everywhere from schools to public markets and government offices. Hafez was referred to as the "Immortal Leader" and the al-Muqaddas in official Assadist ideology. Hafez re-organised Syrian society in militaristic lines and persistently invoked conspiratorial rhetoric on the dangers of foreign-backed plots abetted by fifth columnists and promoted the armed forces as a central aspect of public life. After Hafez al-Assad's death, his son and successor Bashar al-Assad inherited the existing personality cult, with the party hailing him as the "Young Leader" and "Hope of the People". Drawing influence from the veneration of the Kim dynasty in North Korea's hereditary leadership model led by Kim Il Sung, official propaganda in Syria ascribed divine features to the Assad family and revered the Assad patriarchs as the founding fathers of modern Syria.
Opposition to the Assad family's rule coalesced into the Syrian Civil War, which began on 15 March 2011. On 8 December 2024, Bashar al-Assad was reported to have fled Damascus, signalling the end of the Assad family's rule in Syria. After the fall of Damascus, Assad and his family including his wife Asma al-Assad had fled to Moscow, Russia; but remnants and loyalists to Assad have engaged in a conflict against the new Syrian government.

Origin

The Assad family originates from Ali Sulayman al-Wahsh, Hafez al-Assad's father, who was born in 1875 and lived in the village of Qardaha in the coastal Syrian mountains. The locals reportedly nicknamed him "Wahsh", Arabic for "wild beast", because he was physically strong and a good fighter. Al-Wahsh remained the family name until the 1920s, when it was changed to al-Assad, Arabic for "lion". Because of Sulayman's reported strength and marksmanship, he was respected in his village. At the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman governor of the Aleppo Vilayet sent troops to the area to collect taxes and round up recruits. The troops were reportedly fought off by Sulayman and his friends who were armed only with sabres and old muskets. Because Sulayman was respected, he was a local mediator between quarreling families. He was also one of the local chieftains who were the de facto rulers of the area. The chieftains from the powerful families would provide protection to their neighbours and in return they gained loyalty and respect. He lived until 1963, long enough to see his son's rise to power. He 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 Al-Qutailibiyah, 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.
Al-Assad family is affiliated with the Alawite sect, a syncretic sect with links to early Shi'ism. Since coming to power in 1970, the Assad family traditionally used sectarian loyalty from the Alawite sect as a vital component to legitimize their dynastic rule. Many Alawite loyalists were assigned to crucial posts in the bureaucracy, security forces, military, judiciary, etc., in-order to consolidate Assad family's grip on power.

Cult of personality

During the 1950s, Syrian Alawites started becoming influential in the Syrian Armed Forces and Ba'ath party. Led by Alawite military officers, like Salah Jadid, Ba'athist factions staged a series of coups during the 1960s and built up a one-party state. The party cemented its total control over the state and society by purging civilian elites, pursued an aggressive propaganda policy of "state-nationalist indoctrination" and established patronage networks based on sectarian lines to mobilise support. Following the 1970 coup d'etat that ousted his rival Salah Jadid; Hafez al-Assad developed a Stalinist-style personality cult around him; which depicted him as the father figure of Syrian nation. After Hafez's death, the personality cult was extended to his son, Bashar al-Assad. Monuments, pictures, statues, symbols and billboards of both the leaders extensively pervade Syrian society, designed to consolidate the notion of "Assad's Syria". Observers view the state propaganda efforts as a strategy for securing the compliance of the masses and identifying Syrian nationhood with the Assad dynasty.
On the other hand, exaggerations of the propaganda and ever-deepening importance attached to upholding the personality cult around the Assad patriarchs have resulted in the simultaneous de-emphasis on the Syrian identity itself; due to the duplication of reality. In addition to criminalising any and all critiques of the regime; the modes of conveying messages between the state and civil society are restricted strictly within bounds of what is officially acceptable. The state further banned private political opinions critical of the regime and encourages citizens to report relatives and friends who exhibit undesirable attitudes. The policies of economic liberalization implemented during the 2000s worsened the corruption; since the chief grantees of the outcomes were businessmen and relatives close to the Assad family; such as Rami Makhlouf.
Unlike other Arab dictatorships, this feature of the Ba'ath regime and total centralisation of power in the hands of the Assad patriarchs had enabled it to instill apoliticism amongst its citizens; where the ritualisation of state slogans and symbolism had led to de facto compliance. As a result, there are far fewer avenues of free political activism for ordinary Syrians as compared to other Arab states. Until recently, political activism was shunned by many people; instead preferring the stability offered by the regime. The rise of internet and satellite channels and proliferation of civil society groups and independent political activists during the 2000s increasingly began to challenge state monopoly on information, which have led to rising political dissidence amongst the younger generations. Describing the hardships to raise the political consciousness of Syrian citizens by contrasting their situation with other Arab protestors, Caroline, a Syrian Christian and civic activist imprisoned by regime during the 2011–12 Arab Spring protests, states:

"Before the revolution in Egypt, people were allowed to gather, had political parties; people were exposed to political life. In Syria, we were away from politics. We were raised in Syria and our parents used to tell us that we shouldn't talk with anyone about our religion or about politics"

Since Hafiz al-Assad's seizure of power in 1970; state propaganda has promoted a new national discourse based on unifying Syrians under "a single imagined Ba'athist identity" and Assadism. Fervently loyalist paramilitaries known as the Shabiha deify the Assad dynasty through slogans such as There is no God except Bashar! and pursue psychological warfare against non-conformist populations.
In December 2024, the Assad family's regime collapsed when the rebels entered and captured Damascus, the Syrian capital, during the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives. Assad and his family left Syria for the Russian capital, Moscow, to seek asylum.

Hafez's family

Hafez al-Assad

Hafez al-Assad. President of Syria 1971–2000.
Anisa Makhlouf, wife of Hafez and First Lady of Syria.
* Bushra al-Assad, died as an infant before 1960.
* Bushra al-Assad is a pharmacist and a mother of five children, and was married to General Assef Shawkat, who was deputy-chief of staff of the Syrian army and the former head of military intelligence. He was killed on 18 July 2012 in a bombing in Damascus, during the Syrian Civil War.
* Bassel al-Assad, was the original candidate for presidential succession but died in a car accident.
* Bashar al-Assad, was the President of Syria until 8 December 2024. Before Bassel's death he was an ophthalmologist. He is married to Asma al-Assad. She was the First Lady of Syria and took a prominent public role until 8 December 2024. Before being married, she was an investment banker. They have three children. The couple were also regarded as the "main economic players" in Syria and controlled large parts of Syrian business sectors, banking, telecommunications, real estate, and maritime industries.
* , was an electrical engineer with a reported history of severe mental problems. He was married to Ru'a Ayyoub and had no children. Majd died in Damascus on 12 December 2009 after a long unspecified chronic illness.
* Maher al-Assad, is the former commander of the Republican Guard, which are also known as the Presidential Guard, and the army's elite Fourth Armored Division, which together with Syria's secret police form the core of the country's security forces. He is also a member of the Ba'ath Party central command and is said to have an aggressive and uncontrollable personality. He is married and has two daughters. He is reported to have been severely disabled in a 2012 bombing in Damascus during the Syrian civil war. He reportedly shot Assef Shawkat in the stomach in October 1999, during an argument. Maher is also known by many to be the most ruthless in the Al-Assad family. He has been linked to "overseeing a captagon factory in al-Basa" and production centres in the Qalamoun Mountains. He is sanctioned by the US government.