Michel Aflaq

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Lore & Background

Michel Aflaq co-founded the Ba'ath Party in the 1940s alongside Salah al-Din al-Bitar. In 1940, Aflaq and the more junior Bitar founded the Arab Ihya Movement, later renamed the Arab Ba'ath Movement in 1943. Aflaq was influenced by Zaki al-Arsuzi, though Arsuzi initially did not cooperate with Aflaq's movement. The closest they ever came to being members of the same organization was in 1939, when, together with Michel Quzman, Shakir al-As and Ilyas Qandalaft, they briefly tried to establish a party—which likely failed due to personal animosity between Arsuzi and Aflaq. Aflaq's movement supported the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani and the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War, organizing volunteers to fight for the Iraqi government. The Arab Ba'ath Movement's next major political action was its support of Lebanon's war of independence from France in 1943. The movement held its first party congress in 1947 and formally merged with Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath Party. In 1966, the military wing of the Syrian Ba'ath initiated a coup which overthrew the Old Guard led by Aflaq and Bitar, resulting in a schism within the Ba'athist movement. The Iraqi Ba'ath wing granted asylum to Aflaq after seizing power through the coup of 1968. In the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement, Aflaq was still considered the de jure father of Ba'athist thought.

Reader's Guide

Aflaq's ideology was developed in the context of decolonisation and other events in the Arab world during his life. It recast conservative Arab nationalist thought to reflect strong revolutionary and progressive themes. For example, Aflaq insisted on the overthrow of the old ruling classes and supported the creation of a secular society by separating Islam from the state. Not all these ideas were his, but it was Aflaq who succeeded in turning these beliefs into a transnational movement. The core basis of Ba'athism as developed by Aflaq and Bitar is Arab socialism, socialism with Arab characteristics which is separate from the international socialist movement and pan-Arab ideology. Ba'athism as developed by Aflaq and Bitar is a unique left-wing, Arab-centric ideology. It claims to represent the "Arab spirit against materialistic communism" and "Arab history against dead reaction". It holds ideological similarity and a favorable outlook to the Non-Aligned Movement politics of Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito and historically opposed affiliation with either the American-led Western Bloc or the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.

Did You Know?

• Michel Aflaq's 1940 essay compilation, 'Fi Sabil al-Ba’ath' (The Road to Renaissance), was the primary ideological book of the Ba'ath party for more than two decades.
• Aflaq's views on Arab nationalism are considered by historian Paul Salem of the Middle East Institute as romantic and poetic.
• Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar co-founded the Arab Ihya Movement in 1940, later renamed the Arab Ba'ath Movement in 1943.
• After the 1966 Syrian coup, Aflaq was granted asylum by the Iraqi Ba'ath wing after they seized power in 1968.
• Aflaq insisted on the overthrow of the old ruling classes and supported the creation of a secular society by separating Islam from the state.