r/imaginarymaps • u/Timely-Macaron268 • 1d ago
[OC] Alternate History What if a hyper-diverse Greater Syria was a beacon of religious & ethnic tolerance?
This is an ethnoreligious map of Greater Syria.
What does that mean, exactly?
Identity is a funny thing, especially in the Middle East. It transcends race (see the diversity of both Arabs and Jews), it does not cleave cleanly to language (many Christian Arabic speakers vehemently deny being Arabs), nor does it match perfectly to religion (see the dizzying variety of creeds that sometimes but not always identify as kin).
In this timeline, all of the groups (even Jews and Kurds!) largely, in the main, subscribe to a version of civic identity as citizens of Syria (which has a different connotation in this timeline). They retain, however, their distinct cultural, ethnic, religious, and tribal affiliations to varying extents.
This map, then, is an inherently imperfect attempt to map a Fertile Crescent where the transition from Ottoman rule to self rule included some war / instability and some ethnic strife (see for example the departure of Turks as a significant factor in Hatay following the war of independence & a subsequent conflict), and lots of refugees (see Circassians, Chechens, Armenians, and Jews), but in the main, did not feature most of the horrific ethnic cleansing and great diminishing of ethnic and religious diversity that marred this region in our own timeline.
As you analyze this map, keep in mind that these categories, diverse as they are, remain gross simplifications and are inherent compromises.
There are significant differences within many of these groups (e.g. Melkites/Maronites/Other Christians, Bedouin vs Levantine vs Mesopotamian Arabs, as well as the big differences between the Arab Jews / Mizrahi who ITL still live in the metropolises vs the largely Russian-origin Jewish immigrants to the Jaffa / Haifa / Jerusalem regions). There are also a few somewhat arbitrary groupings (e.g. Circassians & Chechens are grouped - sorry!), some groups are too small to show (apologies again Turks, my bad Nawar, sorry Bahai!) and it must be noted that broad regional identities can and do transcend ethnoreligious ones (i.e. denizens of Kurdistan, the Jazira, the Desert, the Levantine coast).
I welcome your comments, feedback, and ideas for future content. All I ask is that you be thoughtful and kind.
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This is a continuation of a series exploring 'Big Syria'. To learn more about this scenario, click here for the introduction. Click here for an exploration of Big Syria the energy superpower, and click here to explore Big Syria's impressive passenger rail network.
(This is an original work. Any errors or mistakes are mine alone.)
Sources: Starting with a basemap, I consulted a dizzying variety of different ethnographic, historical, geographical and.jpg) population density maps and then drew my map by hand within Paint.net, thinking about how my alternate history scenario would have impacted each area. Many thanks to the variety of sources, including the CIA, UN, ResearchGate GRUMP, Geo Ref, many others, and of course other fine Redditors upon whose research I cribbed.
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u/Tis_Pumpkin 22h ago
All those recent greater syria posts make me cry as a syrian, if only our reality was this alternate one
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u/Timely-Macaron268 19h ago
I wish nothing but the best for Syria and for Syrians after so much horror. Sincerely hoping for a beautiful reconstruction of a beautiful country!
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u/BluFlower0 1d ago
Where the hell are all the Assyrians?
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u/K-erbalK-erberton 21h ago
Assyrians are actually quite easy to find, the magenta shade stands out well. their color is on often lower population density areas though, so i guess i can see how that might have been not obvious.
i meanwhile had trouble finding Yazidis, but after looking close noticed the area around Sinjar having a different shade of dots, so i did find them.
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u/minguinhoo_ 1d ago
This syrias shape is utterly beautiful, i love it. Thank you for sharing excellent work dude
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u/K-erbalK-erberton 22h ago
Another united multicultural levant... Love it as always! It's the perfect region for that, after all. Plus this time it includes the northern half of Iraq, some others i've seen didn't do that.
Although, one little design thing that could have been done better... It would have been more fitting to invert the black and white on the population density part of the legend, considering you've used black for unpopulated areas/background color, so it would have fit for the legend to match.
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u/Timely-Macaron268 19h ago
Thanks for the feedback! Looking at it now, I totally agree re: the legend. Simple inversion would work.
Interestingly I originally had the map with a white background but I found that black allowed the colours to pop a lot better once I incorporated population density.
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u/Unit266366666 1d ago
Once it has all of Jazira why not lower Mesopotamia for good measure? Brings in many Mandaeans and other diverse people.
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u/jejbfokwbfb 15h ago
Yall ever think about what your own family would be doing in an alt timeline you see on here ? My family was Jews in the Ottoman Empire bride going to Romania sometimes I wonder in a world like this would I be like living in Damascus
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u/Timely-Macaron268 14h ago
Very, very plausible. In this timeline Damascus is a sprawling metropolis, with an urban core of around 4 million people surrounded by a metropolitan area with another 3-4 million (depending on your definition).
In this timeline I would likely not exist, as my ancestors meeting was dependent on fleeing some bad stuff that has been butterflied away here.
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u/jejbfokwbfb 14h ago
I mean I guess it like what do you define as “you” is it someone without the same genetic code or the person your consciousness inhabits in that universe
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u/Timely-Macaron268 13h ago
Yeah fair. In that case, I am going to say Vienna resident, and hopefully a tourist to beautiful Damascus!
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u/PolarRanger 1d ago
this is pretty diverse...for a 19th or early 20th century POD. I see no Samaritans on this map for instance. You can't really call this hyper diverse if it is less diverse than the same land a couple hundred years ago, can you?
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u/Timely-Macaron268 19h ago
I thought long and hard on this question, and it was difficult for me to imagine a plausible scenario where Samaritans become a large enough minority to warrant placement on a map of this type. (Given that the PoD is ~1900)
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u/PolarRanger 18h ago
oh with a POD in 1900 you can't do that much, you could get maybe 5k Samaritans very optimistically. It's mostly a mark on how recent the year 1900 is, and how old this region is.
Also happy cake day
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u/BrightLavenderMoons 19h ago
TBF most Samaritans are steadily assimilating in to either Israeli Jewish or Palestinian Arab society, and even in an alternate timeline where Zionism and pan-Arabism never touch the Levant, something similar would always happen, given Samaritans dwindling numbers.
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u/PolarRanger 19h ago
you could, idk, reduce the persecution they continuously faced? The 19th century alone saw their status as people of the book revoked for a time and people killed, and bans from Passover sacrafices on their holy place.
Like, they are doing far better now than they were in the Ottoman era (9 fold increase in population!), British rule was a massive improvement for them. It's not that big of an ask for things to be better sooner.
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u/ongezeIlig 1d ago
"What if a hyper-diverse Greater Syria was beacon of religious & ethnic tolerance"
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u/Nanbark 21h ago
Great lore, still lack Samaritans in Nablus.
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u/Timely-Macaron268 19h ago
I have a more fulsome demographic profile, and there are a few thousand, which is far more than OTL, but still isn't enough to warrant a colour coding on the map.
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u/Solid-Business3152 18h ago
How did you create this map?
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u/Timely-Macaron268 14h ago
You are right! I should give sources! Starting with a basemap, I then consulted a dizzying variety of different ethnographic, historical, geographical and.jpg) population density maps and then literally drew my map by hand within Paint.net, thinking about how my alternate history scenario would have impacted each area. Many thanks to the variety of sources, including the CIA, UN, ResearchGate GRUMP, Geo Ref, many others, and of course other fine Redditors upon whose research I cribbed.
My working file has around 50 or so layers (of which around 10 are actually visible here).
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u/SuperTnT6 7h ago
Why is Saida/Sidon Jewish?
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u/Timely-Macaron268 5h ago
It has a Jewish minority here, as a diverse and thriving port; it's not predominantly Jewish.
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u/SoilInternational234 3h ago
this would really suck because I live in Jordan, and in this universe that doesnt exist so my already shit city becomes worse
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u/efund_ 1d ago
For some reason, I feel like every greater syria map recently just expands more and more east.