Ba'ath Party

The Arab Socialist Ba'th Party (also spelled Baath or Ba'ath; Arabic: ??? ????? ?????? ?????????) was founded in 1945 as a radical, left-wing, secular Arab nationalist political party. It functioned as a pan-Arab party with branches in different Arab countries, but was strongest in Syria and Iraq, coming to power in both countries in 1963. In 1966 the Syrian and Iraqi parties split into two rival organisations. Both Ba'th parties retained the same name and maintain parallel structures in the Arab world.

Origins

The Ba'th party originated with two separate nationalist groups in Syria. The first of these, initially known as harakat al-ihyaa al-'arabi (the Arab Resurrection Movement), was set up by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar in 1940s. It was a relatively small group of intellectuals and students, and Aflaq was its main theoretician. His ideology was essentially a form of romantic nationalism coupled with a vague socialism which rejected, however, the idea of class struggle. The second group formed around Zaki al-Arsuzi, a prominent figure in the resistance to French plans to annex the Syrian province of Iskandarun to Turkey. Al-Arsuzi's conception of the Arab nation was essentially a linguistic one, and historian Hanna Batatu also charges him with racialism and a mystical tendency influenced by his Alawite religion. According to some sources, in 1940 Arsuzi founded a group known as al-ba'th al-'arabi (the Arab Resurrection); in other sources, he only used this as the name of a bookshop he opened in Damascus. In any case, he seems to have been the first to adopt the name.

Related Topics:
Michel Aflaq - Salah al-Din al-Bitar - Zaki al-Arsuzi - Iskandarun - Hanna Batatu - Alawite - 1940 - Damascus

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Al-Bitar and Aflaq were from bourgeois Damascus families, the former a Muslim and the latter an Orthodox Christian. Both had both studied in Paris, coming under the influence of European nationalist and Marxist ideas. The two men, along with al-Arsuzi and another major proponent of early Ba'athist ideology, Shakeeb Dallal, had careers as middle-class educators.

Related Topics:
Orthodox Christian - Paris - Marxist - Shakeeb Dallal - British - Hashemite

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These groups had formed in opposition to both French colonial rule and to the older generation of Syrian Arab nationalists, and advocated instead Pan-Arab unity and Arab nationalism. Their ideology blended non-Marxist socialism and nationalism. The early Syrian Ba'athists opposed the influence of Europe in their country's affairs, and used nationalism and the notion of unifying the Arab world as a platform.

Related Topics:
French - Pan-Arab unity - Arab nationalism - Marxist

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