Al-Aliyat

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Al-'Aliyat (Arabic: العاليات, also spelled Alyat) is a small village in central Syria, in the Homs Governorate. It sits southeast of Homs near the western edge of the Syrian Desert. In 2004, the population was 532, and most residents are Alawites. In April 1924, during French rule, followers of Sulayman al-Murshid killed several people in Al-'Aliyat for not converting to his form of Alawite Islam. French forces clashed with Murshid's followers; about 50 were killed and 50 wounded. Murshid was exiled to Raqqa after the clashes.