How Syria's First King Led to Having Presidents

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Message was sent to Israel's king Ahab who was Israel's 7th king reign of (876-853 BCE) from Ben Hadad, 2nd king of Syria.  

 Ben Hadad:  This name appeared for three different kings of Aram-Dammasek mentioned in the bible.  The first reigned in about 908-886 BCE.  He was an ally of Baasha of Israel, king of Israel (908-885 BCE) who declared himself king after killing Nadab, son of Jeroboam I who was the Ephraimite who acted as a superintendent of forced labor for Solomon to build the Temple,  and killing all his family members. until bribed by Asa of Judah to attack the northern kingdom (I Kings 15:16-21). This was after King Solomon had  died and his son caused Israel to be divided into Israel and Judah. The 2nd Ben Hadad reigned in the middle of the 8th century BCE, and was son or grandson of the 1st Ben Hadad.  He declared war on Israel in 856 BCE but was defeated and captured, then freed by Ahab with whom he allied himself in the war against Shalmaneser III of Assyria (853 BCE).    Hazael of Aram (Syria) (842-808 BCE) was a powerful 9th-century BCE king of Aram-Damascus, known in the Bible for usurping the throne by murdering his predecessor, King Ben-Hadad II, and becoming a formidable enemy of Israel and Judah, expanding his empire and fulfilling prophecies of judgment against them, as detailed in the books of Kings and 2 Kings. In his victorious campaigns he reduced the kingdom of Israel to vassaldom and limited its armed forces.  Joash, king of Judah (836-797 BCE), subsequently saved Jerusalem from attack by paying tribute.   Archaeological evidence confirms his historical existence as a major regional power, but he eventually faced Assyrian dominance, according to Britannica and the Bible Archaeology Report. 

(ܒܪ ܚܕܕ) or Ben-Hadad III (Heb.) (בֶּן-הֲדַד) was king of Aram Damascus, the son and successor of Hazael. His succession is mentioned in 2 Kings (13:3, 13:24). He is thought to have ruled from 796 BCE to 792 BCE, although there are many conflicting opinions among Biblical archaeologists as to the length of his reign.

The title King of Syria appeared in the second century BCE in referring to the Seleucid kings who ruled the entirety of the region of Syria. It was a Macedonian Greek royal family, which ruled the Seleucid Empire based in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, a general and successor of Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia (356-323 BCE) after the division of the Macedonian Empire as a result of the Wars of the Successors (Diadochi).

At this time, Antiochus III the Great was the sixth ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 223 BCE to 187 BCE. He ruled over the region of Syria and large parts of the rest of West Asia towards the end of the 3rd century BCE. He settled Babylonian Jews in cities of Phrygia and Lydia and he then conquered Palestine (named by Romans). Through its history, the Seleucid dominion included large parts of the Near East, as well as of the Asian territory of the earlier Achaemenid Persian Empire. A major center of Hellenistic culture, it attracted a large number of immigrants from Greece who, encouraged by the Seleucids, formed a dominant political elite under the ruling dynasty.

It was also used to refer to Aramean kings in the Greek translations of the Old Testament, mainly indicating the kings of Aram-Damascus. Aramean kings ruled various city-states in ancient Syria, notably Aram-Damascus, with prominent rulers including Tabrimmon, Ben-Hadad I, Hadadezer (Ben-Hadad II), Hazael, Ben-Hadad III, and Rezin,** leading powerful kingdoms that often clashed with Israel and Assyria, as detailed in the Bible and Assyrian records from the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. 

Faysal I was the first king of Syria.  Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi was a Hejazi statesman who served as the King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 until his death in 1933.  A member of the Hashemite family, he was a leader of the Great Arab Revolt during the First World War, and ruled as the unrecognized King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria from March to July 1920 when he was expelled by the French. In 1919 he met Chaim Weizmann and signed an agreement in Paris.  The Agreement: On January 3, 1919, at the Carlton Hotel in London—shortly before the main proceedings of the Paris Peace Conference began—Emir Faisal, representing the Arab Kingdom of Hedjaz, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, representing the Zionist Organization, signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement.  

                              Weizmann and Faisal

 In August 1921, in accordance with the decision made at the Cairo Conference, the British arranged for Faisal to become king of a new Kingdom of Iraq under British administration.

 During his reign, Faisal fostered unity between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims to encourage common loyalty and promote pan-Arabism in the goal of creating an Arab state that would include Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent.  He did not live long enough to think or have PEACE with the new state of Israel, however, and I think he may have done it.  

Here lies Syria problems:  There wasn't a direct successor as King of Syria after Faisal I because the French quickly dismantled his short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920; instead, France established the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, and Faisal later became King of Iraq, succeeded there by his son, Ghazi I, after his death in 1933. 

After 1933, Syria was ruled by a series of leaders during the end of the French Mandate, followed by a period of instability and military coups after independence in 1946, and finally by the Ba'ath Party and the Assad family from 1963 to 2024. 

• 1932–1936: Muhammad Ali al-Abid (First president under the constitution of the First Syrian Republic)
• 1936–1939: Hashim al-Atassi (National Bloc)
• 1939–1943: French Administration (Suspension of the constitution, including rule by Bahij al-Khatib and Taj al-Din al-Hasani)
• 1943–1949: Shukri al-Quwatli (First president of independent Syria, 1946)
• 1949: Husni al-Za'im (Staged the first military coup)
• 1949–1951: Hashim al-Atassi (Returned to power)
• 1951–1954: Adib Shishakli (Military dictator)
• 1954–1955: Hashim al-Atassi (Third term)
• 1955–1958: Shukri al-Quwatli (Second term)
• 1958–1961: United Arab Republic (Union with Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser)
• 1961–1963: Nazim al-Kudsi
• 1963–1966: Amin al-Hafiz (Ba'ath Party)
• 1966–1970: Nureddin al-Atassi (Ba'ath Party, with effective power held by Salah Jadid)
• 1971–2000: Hafez al-Assad (Seized power in 1970; solidified Ba'ath Party rule)
• 2000–2024: Bashar al-Assad (Son of Hafez, inherited power)
• December 2024–Present: Rebel/Transition Government (Following the collapse of the Assad regime, Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Golani) emerged as a key figure in the interim) He was appointed by the terrorist groups as the #1 terrorist ruler.
• I suppose you have to seize power but holding it is another matter, especially if someone like Trump is around.  By the way, Trump used the old Democratic recipe, money and voting which must be validated.  Watch out for money donations like who and why and how much. Israel uses a very complicated Democratic method borrowed from England.     

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Syrian_monarchs

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203816776-18/faysal-muhannad-salhi