Jabal Druze State

Jabal al-Druze was an autonomous state inside the French Mandate of Syria, created on 1 May 1921 out of former Ottoman territory to give the Druze of the volcanic mountain region their own administration. It was first proclaimed the State of Souaida, after its capital As-Suwayda, in March 1922, and was renamed Jabal al-Druze in 1927 after the mountain itself. The population was about 50,000 Druze, and it remains the only autonomous entity ever governed by Druze. French governors ruled with the help of local notables, and the state raised its own budget and gendarmerie. In 1925 the Great Syrian Revolution began in Jabal al-Druze under Sultan al-Atrash, spread to Damascus and the rest of Syria, and was suppressed only after heavy bombardment. The revolt discredited the division of Syria into separate statelets and strengthened the demand for unity. Under the Franco-Syrian Treaty of 1936 the autonomy was dissolved and the region was incorporated into Syria. Its name survives in the present-day governorate of As-Suwayda.