At that moment, the nominal ruler of al-Andalus, emir Yusuf ibn ' Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri ( another member of the Fihrid family, and a favorite of the old Arab settlers ( baladiyun ), mostly of south Arabian or ' Yemenite ' tribal stock ) was locked in a contest with his vizier ( and son-in-law ) al-Sumayl ibn Hatim al-Qilabi, the head of the new settlers ( shamiyum, the Syrian junds or military regiments, mostly of north Arabian Qaysid tribes, which had arrived only in 742 ).

Ba ' athist heads of state such as Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein created personality cults around themselves portraying themselves as the nationalist saviours of the Arab world.

In the Abbasid period ( after 750 AD ) Arab Muslims began to be interested in Greek scientific and medical texts for the first time, and had some of Galen's texts translated into Arabic, often by Syrian Christian scholars ( see below ).

Greek medicine was part of Greek culture, and Syrian Eastern Christians came in contact with it while the Eastern Roman Empire ( Byzantium ) ruled Syria and Western Mesopotamia, regions that were conquered from Byzantium in the 7th century by Arab Muslims.

* Syrian Arab Republic

In the approach to World War I, Beirut became a center of various reforming movements, and would send delegates to the Arab Syrian conference and Franco-Syrian conference held in Paris.

The leadership called for Syrian intervention in 1976, leading to the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon, and an Arab summit in 1976 was called to stop the crisis.

And while Arab League head Amr Moussa declared that Syrian president Assad promised him a phased withdrawal over a two year period, the Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah said Mr Moussa had misunderstood the Syrian leader.

Syria was charged by Arab League with disentangling the combatants and restoring calm from the time of the second Lebanese civil war ( which began in 1975 ) until 2005 when the Lebanese revolted against the Syrian presence and caused the withdrawal of Syrian troops with the support of the International community.

** Arab League initiative for the peace resolution of the Syrian civil war

Born Shannon Elizabeth Fadal, Elizabeth's father is of Lebanese and Syrian Arab descent and her mother is of English, Irish, German, and Cherokee ancestry.

The Syrian Arab Republic is an Arab country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.

However, his rule over Syria ended after only a few months, following the clash between his Syrian Arab forces and regular French forces at the Battle of Maysalun.

Politics in the Syrian Arab Republic takes place in the framework of what is officially a semi-presidential republic, but what the CIA consider " a republic under an authoritarian regime " where the power is in the hands of the President of Syria and his family, all members of the ruling Arab Socialist Ba ' ath Party which is a cell of the Syrian-led Ba ' ath Party ( established in 1966 when the original Ba ' ath Party was dissolved and split into two ).

Since the out break of the Syrian civil war, the Syrian economy has been hit by massive economic sanctions restricting trade with the Arab League, Australia, Canada, the European Union, ( as well as the European countries of Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland ) Georgia, Japan, Turkey, and the United States.

The radio operators are the state owned Syrian Arab Republic Radio and Al-Madina FM, the first private radio station, launched in March 2005.

The French Mandate volunteer force, which would later become the Syrian army, was established in 1920 with the threat of Syrian − Arab nationalism in mind.

In the Middle East, faced by the 1958 collapse of the Baghdad Pact and the spread of Soviet influence, Macmillan acted decisively to restore the confidence of Persian Gulf allies, using the Royal Air Force and special forces to defeat a revolt backed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt against the Sultan of Oman, Said bin Taimur, in July 1957, deploying airborne battalions to defend Jordan against Syrian subversion in July 1958, and deterring a threatened Iraqi invasion of Kuwait by landing a brigade group in July 1960.

* Syrian Air

| Syrian Air | Aleppo, Damascus | 2

Nose of F-16 Fighting Falcon | F-16A flown by Ilan Ramon in Operation Opera, showing the triangular emblem of the attack on Osirak, and a Syrian Air Force roundel ' killmark '.

* Syrian Air

In response, the Israeli Air Force made a series of overflights over the Syrian forces, prompting them to return to Syria.

* During the June – September 1982 Lebanon War, Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft shoot down 82 Syrian Air Force aircraft-mainly MiG-21s and MiG-23s-without loss in air-to-air combat.

However, the Vichy French authorities in the Syrian Mandate had given some assistance to both the pro-Axis Iraqi nationalists and to the Germans ( providing staging bases for the aircraft of the German Air Force ).

Lt. Sattar Alvi flying a Mig-21 shot down an Israeli Air Force Mirage and was honoured by the Syrian government.

# REDIRECT Syrian Air Force

The Syrian Air Force (, Al Quwwat al-Jawwiyah al Arabiya as-Souriya ) is the Aviation branch of the Syrian Armed Forces.

AT-6 Harvard of the Syrian Air Force

In 1948, the Syrian Air Force was officially established after the first class of pilots graduated from flight schools in the United Kingdom.

The Syrian Air Force claimed its sole kill of the war on 10 July when a Harvard supposedly shot down an Avia S-199 flown by Lionel Bloch.

The 1950s also saw Syria and Egypt attempt to unify as the United Arab Republic, and this was reflected in the Syrian Air Force with growth in personnel and aircraft.

This in turn led to a massive influx of Eastern-made equipment to the Syrian Armed Forces, including the Air Force.

MiG-17 of the Syrian Air Force

On 6 November 1956, a Syrian Meteor shot down an Royal Air Force Canberra PR. 7 monitoring activity at SAF bases.

In the Six-Day War, the Syrian Air Force lost two-thirds of its forces with the rest retreating to bases in remote parts of Syria.

During the 1982 Lebanon War, the Syrian Air Force fought the Israeli Air Force in the largest air-to-air combat of the jet age, involving approximately 150 aircraft from both sides.

The Arab Deterrent Force originally consisted of a Syrian core with participation by some other Arab League states.

Syrian forces, still technically known as the Arab Deterrent Force, lingered in Lebanon throughout the Lebanese civil war ( 1975 – 1990 ).

Observer Groups Damascus and Golan ( Syrian sector ) were established as a result of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force ( UNDOF ).

" For the next 20 hours, Zvika Force, as he came to be known on the radio net, fought running battles with Syrian tanks — sometimes alone, sometimes as part of a larger unit, changing tanks half a dozen times as they were knocked out.