{"id":23664,"date":"2025-07-29T07:20:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/?p=23664"},"modified":"2025-07-29T07:20:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:20:51","slug":"is-apple-maps-erasing-druze-identity-by-calling-the-jabal-al-druze-the-jabal-al-arab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/2025\/07\/29\/is-apple-maps-erasing-druze-identity-by-calling-the-jabal-al-druze-the-jabal-al-arab\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Apple Maps Erasing Druze Identity by Calling the \u201cJabal al-Druze\u201d the \u201cJabal al-Arab\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armed conflict over the past few weeks in southern Syria between the Druze and Bedouin militias receiving help from the Syrian military have taken over a thousand lives. As reported in the Kurdish press<\/a>, Tawfiq al-Hijri, Deputy Head of the Foreign Relations Office of the Spiritual Presidency of the Druze Community in Syria, argues that \u201cjihadist elements within the state [are] planning a systematic purge of minority communities. What we\u2019re facing is nothing short of genocide. \u2026 Their ideology cannot be changed. They seek to subjugate or eliminate all minorities\u2014starting with Alawites and Druze, and targeting Kurds next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tawfiq al-Hijri may be exaggerating the threat, and the situation in southern Syria is certainly complicated, as GeoCurrents<\/em> will explore in subsequent posts. But it is difficult to deny the Druze of Syria find themselves in a precarious situation. As adherents of an esoteric sect that grew out Islam but is no longer within the folds of that faith, the Druze find themselves targeted by Sunni extremists, many of whom are now officials in the Syrian government. Although the county\u2019s leaders have officially abandoned the jihadi path, it is understandable that Druze leaders remain unconvinced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wikipedia Map of the Military Situation in southern Syria July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The geographical focus of the current conflict is the As-Suwayda Governorate<\/a>, which covers 5,550\u00a0km2<\/sup>\u00a0(2,140\u00a0sq\u00a0mi)and is home to some 375,000 people, 90 percent of whom are Druze (seven percent are Christian, and the remaining three percent are Sunni Muslims, as of 2010). The core of As-Suwayda is a basaltic plateau known as the Jabal al-Druze<\/em>, or \u201cMountain of the Druze.\u201d The Jabal al-Druze is clearly visible on satellite images of the region (see the figure posted below). Although having a semi-arid Mediterranean climate with only around 14 inches (364 mm) of annual precipitation (in the city of Suwayd<\/a>a), the region has fertile soils and supports a large agricultural population.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Jabal al-Druze in Syria, Satellite-Image Map<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\n

Despite its cultural and geographical significance, the Jabal al-Druze appears on relatively few maps. It is nowhere to be found, for example, in Apple Maps, where a search for \u201cJabal al-Druze\u201d first took me to a place in India called \u201cJabal\u201d and then to \u201cJabal al-Nour\u201d in Saudi Arabia (see the figure below). More disturbing, Apple Maps labels the plateau in question as \u201cJabal al-Arab,\u201d or \u201cMountain of the Arabs\u201d (see the second figure below). This maneuver effectively erases Druze identity from the region and could easily be interpreted as an intentional insult to the Druze community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Apple Maps Labels Jabal al-Druze as “Jabal al-Arab”<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Apple Maps’ “Depiction” of “Jabal al-Druze”<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The Jabal al-Druze is admittedly sometimes called \u201cJabal al-Arab, as well as the \u201cJabal Hauran,\u201d but these are secondary names, at least as framed by the Wikipedia article<\/a> on the region. Although the chatbot Grok tells me that \u201csome sources suggest [that the name Jabal al-Arab] predates the Druze-specific designation or was used in certain historical contexts to describe the same volcanic highland,\u201d ChatGPT more pointedly states that the term is \u201cpan-Arab or nationalist in tone, and has been used more frequently by the\u00a0Ba’athist government of Syria, which promotes Arab identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Left unsaid by ChatGPT was the fact that the Arab-Nationalist-Socialist Ba\u2019ath Party of Syria long sought to undermine the sectarian identity of the Druze and other Arabic-speaking minorities and subsume them within the majority ethnic formation. Such policies were violently implemented under the rule of Adib Shishakli in the early 1950s. According to the Wikipedia article on the Druze<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Shishakli believed that among his many opponents in Syria, the Druze were the most potentially dangerous, and he was determined to crush them. He frequently proclaimed: “My enemies are like a serpent: The head is the Jebel al-Druze, the stomach Homs, and the tail Aleppo. If I crush the head, the serpent will die.” Shishakli dispatched 10,000 regular troops to occupy the Jebel al-Druze. Several towns were bombarded with heavy weapons, killing scores of civilians and destroying many houses. According to Druze accounts, Shishakli encouraged neighboring Bedouin tribes to plunder the defenseless population and allowed his own troops to run amok.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although later Ba\u2019ath government, including that of the recently deposed Assad regime, protected the Druze from Sunni extremists, memories of these earlier events remain powerful. Recent attacks on the Druze community by Sunni Bedouin tribes and elements of the Syrian state have a disconcerting resemblance to those of the early 1950s.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cJabal al-Arab,\u201d used by Apple Maps thus seem to me to be an ideologically laden substitute for \u201cJabal al-Druze.\u201d At the very least, it tells us nothing specific about the region, quite unlike the more commonly accepted term. The extent to which the Arabic-speaking Druze even consider themselves to be \u201cArabs,\u201d moreover, is unclear and contested. As I was unable to find much useful information on this issue, I turned to AI. ChatGPT\u2019s response to my query seems reasonable (although the term \u201cmainstream\u201d in the second paragraph below is unnecessary and misleading):<\/p>\n

\n

ChatGPT: Some Druze do consider themselves Arabs<\/strong>, especially in the sense of speaking Arabic and being part of the broader Arab cultural and historical sphere. In this view, they may identify with Arab nationalism or see themselves as part of the Arab world.<\/p>\n

Others distinguish themselves from Arabs<\/strong>, emphasizing their distinct religious and historical identity. The Druze faith is separate from mainstream Islam, and some Druze prefer to be seen as an independent ethnoreligious group with roots in ancient Middle Eastern cultures, possibly tracing their heritage to pre-Islamic or even non-Arab origins.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The chatbot Grok, in contrast, suggests that most Druze do accept an Arab identity, albeit subordinate to their religious identity. Yet even if that is the case, I imagine that most Druze people would find the label \u201cJabal al-Arab\u201d offensive.<\/p>\n

As I have criticized Apple Maps in this post, it is fitting to examine the labeling practice of its main competitor, Google Maps. Google\u2019s mapping program has no designation for the region itself, using labels only for towns and cities; in my initial query, moreover it told me that \u201cGoogle maps can\u2019t find \u201cJabal al-Druze\u201d (see the figure posted below). \u00a0When I re-queried the program after zooming in on the region, however, I was taken to the highest elevation in the region, also known as Jabal al-Druze. In this instance, Google Maps clearly outperforms Apple Maps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Google Maps Locates Jabal al-Druze<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armed conflict over the past few weeks in southern Syria between the Druze and Bedouin militias receiving help from the Syrian military have taken over a thousand lives. As reported in the Kurdish press, Tawfiq al-Hijri, Deputy Head of the Foreign Relations Office of the Spiritual Presidency of the Druze Community in Syria, argues that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4549,1204,1210,1211,4098,1170],"tags":[4715],"class_list":["post-23664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article-grid","category-insurgencies","category-myth-nation-state","category-nationalism","category-regionalism","category-southwest-asia-and-north-africa","tag-ideological-mapping"],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"\nIs Apple Maps Erasing Druze Identity by Calling the \u201cJabal al-Druze\u201d the \u201cJabal al-Arab\u201d? - GeoCurrents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/2025\/07\/29\/is-apple-maps-erasing-druze-identity-by-calling-the-jabal-al-druze-the-jabal-al-arab\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Apple Maps Erasing Druze Identity by Calling the \u201cJabal al-Druze\u201d the \u201cJabal al-Arab\u201d? - GeoCurrents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Armed conflict over the past few weeks in southern Syria between the Druze and Bedouin militias receiving help from the Syrian military have taken over a thousand lives. 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Lewis","author_link":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/author\/martin-lewis\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Armed conflict over the past few weeks in southern Syria between the Druze and Bedouin militias receiving help from the Syrian military have taken over a thousand lives. 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