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 participant attends the opening of the Syria rebuilding exhibition at the fair grounds in Damascus, on October 2. (AP)
Damascus’s push for soft power legitimacy
October 13, 2018
Syrian President Bashar Assad (C), Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun (R) and Minister of Awqaf Mohammad Abdul Sattar al-Sayyed arrive to attend prayers at Khadija Mosque in Tartus city, last June. (Syrian Presidency)
Proposed law puts Syria’s religious diversity at risk
October 06, 2018
Iranian President Hassan Rohani (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a news conference in Tehran, on September 7. (AP)
Russia-Iran rivalries over Syria’s future
September 29, 2018
Lebanese President Michel Aoun addresses the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on September 11. (Reuters)
Lebanese president’s health fuels growing uncertainties, speculation about successor
September 22, 2018
Hezbollah supporters carry flags and a picture of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and leader of Yemen’s Houthi movement Abdelmalik al-Houthi in Beirut. (Reuters)
Houthis’ visit to Beirut stirs division and controversy
September 08, 2018
Massing forces. Turkish forces are seen in a convoy on a highway between Damascus and Aleppo near Syria’s Idlib province, on August 29. (AFP)
Will Turkey abandon its proxies in Idlib?
September 01, 2018
Members of the Lebanese security forces check the identity cards of Syrian refugees as they head to their homes in Syria’s Qalamoun region after leaving Arsal. (AFP)
Russia makes public push for the return of Syria’s refugees
August 18, 2018
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