Sami Moubayed

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian historian and author of Under the Black Flag (IB Tauris, 2015). He is a former Carnegie scholar and founding chairman of the Damascus History Foundation.

Author Articles

A Syrian woman talks on a mobile phone next to a poster of President Bashar Assad with Arabic that reads, “Assad has Triumphed,” in Damascus. (AP)
Russia takes the initiative at Astana talks in Sochi
August 11, 2018
Pragmatism trumps nationalism. Syrian Kurds march with a sign reading in Arabic “Afrin is the grave of Erdogan” in Al-Muabbadah in the north-eastern Hasakah province, last February. (AFP)
Realistic Kurds seeking ‘honourable’ surrender in talks with Damascus
August 04, 2018
Control of the Bekaa. A campaign poster for Jamil al-Sayyed at Dahr al-Baidar area in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, on April 25. (AFP)
Growing tension in Lebanon’s Bekaa fuels conflict within Shia bloc
July 21, 2018
Competing voices. Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil (R) talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri (C) during a cabinet meeting in Beirut, on March 12. (Reuters)
Factional horse trading slows naming of Lebanese cabinet
July 07, 2018
New Sunni reality. Faisal Karami, scion of the Karami political family. (Lebanese Ministry of Information)
New Sunni opposition, supported by Hezbollah, challenges Hariri
June 30, 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Kremlin in Moscow, on June 13. (Reuters)
Moscow offers to play peacemaker between Beirut and Damascus
June 23, 2018
A long way to go. Clothes are seen hanging on a balcony at an apartment of a family that returned to the heavily damaged Bab Dreib neighbourhood of Homs. (AP)
Amendments to Syria’s Law 10 provide a stay to property owners but no reprieve
June 16, 2018
Syrian soldiers talk next to Russian and Syrian leaders’ portraits at the Abu al-Duhur crossing in Idlib. (AFP)
Damascus spies opportunity in Turkish-American Manbij deal
June 09, 2018
Syrian actors check a mobile phone on set during the filming of a television series in the mountains of Damascus’s eastern Yafour area. (AFP)
Syria’s television industry staggers through another Ramadan
June 02, 2018
A general view shows Syrian regime representatives, opposition delegates and other attendees as they take part in the plenary session of Syria peace talks in Astana, on May 15. (AFP)
Russia looks to regain leverage at Astana talks
May 19, 2018
A man arranges sweets to be sold ahead of Ramadan in Douma, the principal town in Eastern Ghouta. (Reuters)
Ramadan brings little but misery for those trapped in Syria’s rubble
May 12, 2018
Confiscated lives. An elderly Syrian man on a wheelchair makes his way in Douma, last October. (AFP)
New housing law heralds a re-engineered Syria
May 05, 2018
Fighters from the US-backed Syrian Manbij Military Council stand next to a US Humvee at an outpost, north of Manbij. (AP)
US seeks Kurdish accommodation ahead of withdrawal
April 21, 2018
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attend a meeting on Syria in Astana, on March 16. (AFP)
For Syria, international compromise drives internal partition
March 31, 2018
Electoral billboards for the upcoming 2018 May parliamentary elections in Lebanon by the largely Shia Amal movement with a tagline reading in Arabic “Your vote is a hope (Amal) for the borders.” (AFP)
Out with the old, in with the new: Lebanon’s elections promise changing of the guard
March 24, 2018
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech during a rally of his ruling Justice and Development Party’s supporters in Mersin, on March. (AP)
Suspension of Turkish soaps is a blow to Erdogan and his neo-Ottomanism
March 17, 2018
Women from the family of Umm Saeed grind corn using a traditional method in Saqba in Eastern Ghouta.(AFP)
History is repeating itself in the cruellest ways in Eastern Ghouta
March 10, 2018
Members of Syrian government forces stand at the Wafideen checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus near the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region, on February 27.(AFP)
Syria’s truce likely to go the way of other ceasefires
March 03, 2018
A convoy of pro-Syrian government fighters arrive in Syria’s northern region of Afrin, on February 20.(AFP)
Great powers trade Kurds and territory in Syria’s splintering conflict
February 24, 2018
A family member kisses the flag-covered coffin of a Turkish soldier after his funeral prayers in Izmir, on February 11. (AP)
Turkish advance stumbles in Syria’s Afrin
February 17, 2018