ISIS's impact on Syrian intangible cultural heritage: Marriage customs and rituals in the region of Manbij

ABSTRACT

During its occupation of the Manbij region, ISIS targeted intangible cultural heritage, including marriage rituals. Through online semi-structured interviews with 12 participants, selected to represent the population of the region, this article explores the impact of ISIS’ rule on local marriage rituals and reveals the true motivations behind its targeting of intangible heritage, including small intangible practices. The study highlights the importance of marriage rituals, as they provide an opportunity for gathering, joy and connection between families, and an opportunity to express their cultural diversity. It shows the specific cultural impacts of conflict which left a significant lasting impact on the customs and rituals of marriage in the region. The study reveals that ISIS targeted intangible cultural heritage elements, including marriage rituals: it cancelled some completely, such as the henna night and wedding party, under the pretext that elements of the ritual had been haram (forbidden in Islam). However, we argue that the religious motivations were just a cover for a comprehensive strategy aimed at eliminating the culture and identity of communities, controlling them, and imposing a new culture and identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Intangible cultural heritage
• Syria
• marriage customs and rituals
• ISIS violations
• War in Syria
• Heritage and conflict
• Cultural diversity‌
• Manbij

According to UNESCO’s definition, cultural heritage does not end with monuments and collections of objects – commonly referred to as tangible heritage – but also includes intangible heritage – traditions or living expressions inherited from the past and passed on to future generations, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, traditional knowledge and crafts (UNESCO 2022). This is referred to as intangible heritage because ‘it is embodied in people rather than in inanimate objects’ (Logan 2007). It is dynamic in nature and has the capacity to adapt and evolve to crisis (UNESCO 2020) without severing its relationship with the past. This is why Harrison emphasises that such heritage must be understood as a set of attitudes to, and relationships with, the past and as something constantly created and recreated (2012). Wedding rituals are one aspect of Syrian intangible cultural heritage (Mediterranean Living Heritage 2010). They are among the social practices that are constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, and their history.

As in most of communities, wedding rituals have a special symbolism for Syrians in the Manbij region due to their association with religious, social and cultural aspects that have been shaped over time. Syrian communities have gone through various civilisational and cultural transformations, which have caused these aspects to change and transform to the point where social traditions became blended with beliefs (Abbas 2005). Since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, up until the time of writing (early 2023), documentation of the destruction of tangible cultural heritage has received the most scholarly attention (Ali 2013, Abdulkarim 2014, Casana and Laugier 2017). While some of these studies also discuss the impact of the destruction of tangible heritage on the identity, memory and peaceful coexistence of the communities which fell under ISIS control (Dittmann and Almohamad 2015, Chainoglou 2019, Apaydin 2020), they do not mention the changes and damage to intangible heritage such as wedding customs and traditions.

The damage caused to the intangible cultural heritage of Syria during the war has received little scholarly attention, in part due to access to these regions being very difficult and high-risk. There are a small number of relevant studies and reports that touch on some aspects of this. Chatelard and Kassab published a report in which they mainly focus on the effects of conflict-induced displacement on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. Their research revealed that few of the deeply rooted cultural expressions, customs, skills and know-how that constitute the intangible cultural heritage of individuals, groups and communities in Syria have been spared by the conflict that has engulfed the country since 2011. In situations of displacement, intangible cultural heritage contributes in various degrees to the psychological, social and economic resilience of displaced Syrians (Chatelard and Kassab 2017). Although this report referred to some damage to the intangible heritage due to the general displacement in Syria, it did not address the impact of the systematic violations by ISIS on the intangible heritage of local communities in the Manbij region. During the war, studies, books and reports have been published dealing with Syrian marriage customs, including a study that Wardat and Alkhateeb conducted on Syrian refugees residing in Northern Jordan and the etiquette strategies followed at their parties, which showed that Syrian women and men exaggerate their congratulations to show their happiness to the newlyweds, and avoid private questions and banter at weddings (Wardat and Alkhateeb 2020).

Numerous press articles have covered the effects of the war and the security challenges, economic difficulties, waves of displacement and refugee crisis caused by the conflict in Syria, and its repercussions on the customs and rituals of marriage in Syria in general. Some have dealt with the high percentage of online marriages (Hamlo 2016), making the expenditures on marriage ceremonies and parties less (Alhamwi 2015) as well as the practice of holding a wedding ceremony without a groom (Abdulrahim 2016, Lutkin 2016) and marriage under bombardment (Chick 2012). However, these reports discuss the changes in marriage customs and rituals resulting from the war in Syria in general, without indicating any specific role or impact of the actions ISIS had on these rituals during its control over the Manbij region. It is also noticeable that despite the importance of wedding traditions to Syrian people, the Western press has focussed on the small number of Western women travelling to the region to marry ISIS fighters (Jaffer 2015, Sancha 2021). These studies did not address or indicate the impact of ISIS violations on local marriage customs and rituals in Syria.

Within the context of the ceasefire in Syria, the documentation and preservation of the region’s intangible heritage, and the study of the dangers threatening it, is both important and timely, as the armed conflict left clear impacts on the intangible cultural heritage of Syrians in all areas to the point that it has weakened the foundations of Syrian society (UNESCO 2013).

The Manbij region is in the east of the Aleppo Governorate, 35 km away from the Euphrates (Figure 1). It is an ethnically diverse region (Sarya et al. 2018), and home to around 450,000 inhabitants, 80% of whom are Sunni Arab. Kurds represent only 15% of the population, while the remaining 5% consists of Turkmen and Circassian minorities (Balanche 2019). The tribal structure is strongly felt across the region. There is a tribal system in all the rural areas and even in the centre of Manbij. While there is ethnic diversity, this region does not have religious diversity. According to Orhan, ‘there is a homogeneous structure. 100% of the Manbij population is Sunni Muslim’ (Orhan 2018). This region was subject to the control of the Islamic State (ISIS) between 2014 and 2016. During that time, it practiced extremist policies against cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible (UNHRC 2014, Almohamad 2021). The organisation attacked the customs and traditions of the people of the region, suppressed existing traditions and introduced new ones of a particular ideology.

Figure 1. Map of Syria showing Manbij region within Aleppo Governorate (Source: Adnan Almohamad 2023).

This research mainly aims to explore ISIS's impact on intangible cultural heritage in the Manbij region, with a specific focus on marriage customs and rituals. This article looks specifically at henna and the wedding party, which ISIS entirely banned during its rule, as case studies. We briefly highlight the effects of the broader war on these rituals, then explore the impact of ISIS's violations on local marriage customs and reveal the true motivations behind its targeting of intangible heritage, including small intangible practices.

Methodology

This study followed a qualitative method design. Semi-structured online interviews were used as a data-gathering tool. We used the snowball sampling technique to select participants to represent a range of the population and their culture, namely twelve adult participants who were all from the Manbij region. Six of the participants were Arabs (three females and three males) from Manbij region; these are currently refugees in Turkey, having fled to Turkey in 2017. In addition, three Kurds (two female, one male), two Turkmen (one female, one male), and one Circassian (male), were also recruited. They are all still resident in the Manbij region. There was a mix of ages, occupations and education levels (See Table 1). Recorded, rather than written, informed consent has been obtained due to reservations about signing hardcopy consent forms, and the participants’ personal data has been anonymised to protect their identity during the interviews, transcription, analysis, and publication (quotations from the participants are anonymised with a unique number in the discussion below). We used the letter (P) instead of the participant’s name and numbers (from one to 12) to denote the participant's number, and the letter (F) or (M) to denote their gender.

Table 1. Participant characteristics – Manbij.

Name	Sex	Age	Education	Civil status	Type of work	Place of residence	Current Location
P1F	Female	54	High School	Married	House wife	Manbij region	Refugee – Turkey
P2M	Male	48	University degree	Married	English teacher	Manbij region	Manbij – Syria
P3M	Male	34	Middle school	Married	worker	Manbij region	Refugee – Turkey
P4F	Female	39	University degree	Married	Archaeologist	Manbij region	Manbij – Syria
P5M	Male	55	Illiterate	Married	antiquities guard	Manbij region	Manbij – Syria
P6F	Female	50	Elementary school	Married	House wife	Manbij region	Refugee – Turkey
P7M	Male	51	Elementary school	Married	Driver	Manbij region	Refugee – Turkey
P8F	Female	49	Illiterate	Married	House wife	Manbij region	Manbij – Syria
P9F	Female	43	Middle school	Married	House wife	Manbij region	Manbij – Syria
P10F	Female	35	Commercial Institute	Married	accountant	Manbij region	Manbij – Syria
P11M	Male	46	Illiterate	Married	auto mechanic	Manbij region	Refugee – Turkey
P12M	Male	60	Illiterate	Married	Farmer- singer	Manbij region	Refugee – Turkey

The importance of Marriage rituals in Manbij region

The practice of wedding customs and rituals is important to communities due to their social and economic functions. Groups use rituals to create and preserve collective identities (Hermanowicz and Morgan 1999). The practice of these rituals provides a space for meeting and active involvement and engagement with different groups, and the recognition of multiple identities and authoring of societal-based memories.

Rituals have important social functions, in helping to forge a collective identity and a sense of community belonging (Nelson-Becker and Sangster 2019). Ritual practices also generate belief and belonging in participants by activating multiple social–psychological mechanisms that interactively create the characteristic outcomes of ritual (Marshall 2002). The basic and common marriage rituals in Manbij region are of an open participatory nature, based on the presence of the large number of people from different social and cultural classes. The wedding often takes place in the village square, so the ceremony is not only limited to the list of invitees, but anyone can come to participate in the dance and dabke. Dabke is a traditional folk dance, combining circle dance and line dancing, and is widely performed at Syrian weddings and other joyous occasions. The line forms from right to left and leader of the dabke heads the line, alternating between facing the audience and the other dancers (Sellman 2021). Marriage rituals in the Manbij region are not only for expressing joy but fulfil other functions such as formalising marriage and publicity, which are two important facets within religion and community in the Manbij region. Some marriage rituals are linked to the teachings of Islam, such as the engagement and the approval of the bride and her parents, the presence of witnesses when contracting the marriage, and the public declaration of the marriage usually by having wedding walimah (a large feast) with hundreds of guests: marriage is not seen as valid without commitment to these rituals (Siddiqi 2004).

The festivities accompanying each step of marriage represent an opportunity for the family to prove its value, show its position and leave an imprint of distinction or an opportunity to highlight its status within this community. The grandeur or modesty of these rituals reveals the class and economic disparity between families. They are considered occasions of familiarity, reunion, honouring the guest, and one of the social solidarities in its best form through the participation of people in the rituals and giving of gifts and money to the newlyweds. The notables of the family and sometimes the clan also play a prominent role in these rituals, as the family and community elites, through their adherence to these rituals, try to highlight their authority and their social and economic status in community. The occasion of marriage and the accompanying atmosphere of joy represent one of the opportunities that are exploited by notables in the region to make peace between quarrelling families, for instance by pressuring the groom’s family to send an invitation to the other family. The dignitaries also pressure the invited family to accept the invitation, as attending the wedding is an announcement of the turning of a new page, followed by other steps to reach a final peace between families. The clan elders also benefit from their participation in the wedding rituals in maintaining their position within the community and gaining financial and political support among their tribes. Therefore, families and dignitaries insist that wedding rituals be respected, adhered to, preserved, and passed on to future generations. These rituals are an opportunity for meeting, rapprochement and rebuilding family relationships that have been weakened by social changes, and an occasion to create new ties that suit the needs of the family within the community.

Ceremonial events, in all their forms, but particularly marriage ceremonies, are occasions for the lively demonstration of folk customs (Salamandra 2004). They represent an opportunity for individuals and communities to highlight their own cultural elements. Since marriage rituals are one of the most frequent ceremonies within communities, according to the participants, they are one of the most importing in supporting cultural diversity, where individuals and communities are able to practice their specific rituals and express their cultural identity, which is clearly evident through the diversity of dress and types of dabke among communities during these rituals in Manbij region.

Marriage rituals in the Manbij region prior to the war

As we mentioned earlier, wedding rituals are recurring social rites within a community, and they do not have a specific date or season like other social events such as national or religious holidays. They are therefore considered one of the most significant occasions on which people practice their rituals, reflecting the culture and customs of the community and their solidarity with each other. Prior to the war, wedding ceremonies in the Manbij region lasted for several days, during which men and women would wear their most beautiful, colourful clothes and gather in front of the groom’s father’s house. The ceremonies also involved folk dances and popular songs, the loud sound of which would reach as far as neighbouring villages and thus served as an invitation for residents of these villages to join the ceremonies and banquets. The participants’ answers provided us with a good description of the details of the customs and rituals of marriage in the Manbij region and allowed us to trace the common details of these ceremonies among the various cultural components in the region. These shared elements are: the phase of looking for a bride; the engagement; al-siyag or al-mahr (the bride's dowry); the marriage contract; al-jihaz also known as al-zahab (a bride's trousseau which is the personal possessions of a bride usually including clothes, accessories, and household linens and wares); the henna night; the subha (wedding banquet); the zaffa (wedding procession); the wedding party; and finally, al-sabahiyya (the blessed – wedding morning).

In the next section we will discuss specific aspects of wedding rituals before the war and how there were affected by the war and banned by ISIS, for example, the henna night and the wedding ceremony. We will look at the impact of these actions from the participants’ point of view and interpret some of the motives.

Henna night

The traditional ceremony before the wedding day is known as the henna night. Henna is a dye derived from green henna leaves; it is mixed with water to form a paste that is used to decorate women’s bodies with intricate designs (Figure 2). There are slight differences in the celebration of Henna Night from one region to another in Syria. In Manbij region, henna is prepared by single unmarried girls and left for some time until it is ready to use. Usually, the henna ritual is more than just drawing designs on parts of a woman’s body. This ritual is an important stage in preparing the bride for her wedding party and her new life: it is the last night of the celibate life as the next day, she will change from a girl-youth into a man’s wife; will become separated from her family and will go to live in her husband's home (Sharaby 2017). So, it has a special significance for the bride and her single female colleagues; it is one of the rituals that give women the opportunity to appear before the women’s of their social circles and express their culture and talents, and a valuable opportunity for women to relax from the hardships of daily life within the rural agricultural community (Abbas 2005). The bride's henna night is a female ritual that takes place at the bride’s parents’ house, one night before the wedding ceremony (Ustuner et al. 2000, p. 209); it lasts between 3 and 4 h. The bride invites her female relatives, friends, and neighbours to celebrate with her, and it is thus a farewell night for her as well as a celebration. It also helps the bride to prepare psychologically for a new stage of her life and to overcome the mixed feelings between sadness over her family's farewell and joy in marriage and the founding of a new family.

Figure 2. (#A) Henna Powder (Adnan Almohamad, 31 May 2022). (B) Henna Powder Mixture and some of henna designs that are drawn on bride’s hands and feet (Adnan Almohamad, 31 May 2022). (C) Drawing a henna design on a bride’s hand (Adnan Almohamad, 31 May 2022).

Our informants told us that the bride wears a wedding ensemble that can be any colour except white. Sometimes she wears a dress that was bought or sewn specifically for this occasion so that she looks her best in the company of her peers. Wearing this suit or dress represents the entry of a new stage, a middle stage between married women and single women. In Manbij region, men do not have the right to enter the place of women’s celebration, so women can reveal their hair and wear short and open dresses, but the conservative nature of community in Manbij region makes this rare, especially among Arabs: ‘Arab women are more conservative in dress than the Kurds, and this also applies to the wedding dress, which is often with sleeves and headscarf’ (P3M).

Single girls are keen to attend the henna night and apply henna to their hands in the hope that the will not disappear from their hands before they get engaged (it is not known where this belief came from) (Muhanna 2009). The bride sits in the room in a place where everyone can see her. Her friends dance, sing and joke around, and the bride participates in some of these dances. The music is interrupted for a half-hour, during which the guests present the bride with nokot (sums of money or gold, and gifts such as household items, for example coffee cups or plates, etc.) This is one way of assisting the bride in getting or buying some of the commodities she needs for her new household. As we heard from those we talked to, ‘Henna night is not just a meeting of some of the bride’s consorts, her friends and her loved ones, but rather it is a symbol of social solidarity’ (P9F). The celebrations are then resumed, and about an hour before the evening concludes, the bride's friends apply henna to her hands and sometimes her feet or draw beautiful henna inscriptions on her hands and feet (Wang et al. 2016, p. 290). Henna is used to decorate different parts of the women’s body, it has an aromatic smell, and this gives the wedding night something of attraction and excitement. The social, cosmetic and psychological functions that the henna night performs for the bride show the importance of this ritual in the life of every girl who is about to get married.

The groom, meanwhile, invites his relatives and friends to his house for the henna night. There is a variety of practices in the region regarding women’s participation, depending on how conservative specific communities are: sometimes, women can attend the groom’s henna night, and participate in singing or dancing. In some more conservative villages women are allowed only to attend and watch, and in other villages they are not allowed to participate in the groom’s henna night at all. The groom's friends make the groom sit in a particular place, with two young single men sitting next to him. The groom’s unmarried single peers celebrate him, dance with him, and sing for him, and an hour before the evening ends, the single young men try to put henna (only dye without any designs) on the groom's right hand or the little finger of his right hand only (Figure 3). The married attendees step in and refuse to apply henna to the groom's hand until their conditions are met. One of the bachelors nominates themself to be a donkey and carries another bachelor, and the bachelor who plays the donkey must bray, causing the audience to laugh. Such ridiculous requests continue until one of the married elders says, we have agreed that you apply henna to the groom, at which point the bachelors begin applying henna to the groom's right hand. The evening concludes with the attendees blessing the groom and wishing him a happy life.

Figure 3. Putting henna on the little finger of the groom's right hand (Adnan Almohamad, 19 January 2013).

Wedding party

The ceremony is occasionally held in a wedding hall in the region of Manbij, but the vast majority of people hold the wedding party in one of the village squares near the groom's house, where the square is decorated with lamps. The ground is sprinkled with water, and people begin to gather in the square with the afternoon prayer, while dabke beats on the drums and the zamer (an instrument similar to an oboe) start and stop before the Maghrib call to prayer when the band arrives. After the Maghrib prayer, the singer begins to sing all kinds of folkloric, special songs for dancing and special songs for the dabke, interspersed with breaks in which the people of the village greet each other through the microphone for a sum of money given to the band. The party goes on until after midnight. The mixing of men and women at parties varies from village to village and from community to community. Weddings for Kurds and Circassians are mixed, with men and women attending, and the dances and dabke are also mixed. Among Arabs and Turkmen, it varies according to village or clan. Dabke and dances are mixed in some villages, whereas in others, women attend the men's party but sit on a side designated for them to watch only, without participating in any dance. Before the war, every invitee who attended the wedding would bring with them a gift for the groom, for example, a sheep or a ram, and perhaps a fifty-kilo bag of sugar or rice, but during the ten years before the war, the attendees offered a shubash (a sum of money, starting from a thousand Syrian pounds, and sometimes reaching more than ten thousand, depending on the economic status of the person and his relationship with the groom’s family). The name of the giver and the amount is announced in front of the audience during the concert. It is an opportunity for financial solidarity and cooperation between families by providing money to the groom’s family, and morally solidarity through attendance and participation in these rituals.

Local music is a part of the national and ethnic identity and part of the culture of every society. The music of a region reflects the aspirations, desires, and feelings of its resident (Soltani et al. 2015). In Manbij region there are great differences in movements and melodies. Discrepancies among footwork figures and rhythmic patterns tend to be ascribed to distinct village traditions or ethnic heritage. For many, loyalties to the ethnic and rural origins of dabke practices remain entrenched today (Silverstein 2018). The Arabs in Manbij region have more than one style of dabke, but the most famous of them are the walda and the qussar (Figure 4). They differ from each other in their steps and speeds; the slow rhythm dominates in the walda dabke, while noise, speed and dynamism prevail in the qussar dabke (SANA 2010).

Figure 4. Arab dabke (Source: Adnan Almohamad, 2022).

As the Syrian authorities didn’t allow educational institutions to teach the Kurdish language and culture, traditional music and dabke played an important role in protecting Kurdish cultural identity in light of the suffering of the Kurds in the countries in which they were dispersed. Special instruments are used to play Kurdish music, such as the kamança (a stringed instrument of four strings and a piece of leather over a box), related to the singing of folk sagas and legends. There are other string instruments, such as the santur (sentûr), tanbur (tenbûr), wind instruments, such as the flute (pîk), zurna, bulur (bolûr), pipe (cûzele) and percussion instruments, such as the tambourine (defik) and drum (dahol) (Abbas n.d). Almost all Kurdish dances are community dances (dabke), frequently with men and women dancing together. There are three types of floor patterns; circle, semi-circle and straight line (Figure 5). Typically, the dancers are linked by holding hands, by standing shoulder to shoulder, by interlacing little fingers or by placing hands across the lower back. Male-specific dances can be recognised by their speed and athletic feats, while women’s dances feature more delicate foot, shoulder, knee, and neck movements (Karakecili 2008).

Figure 5. Kurdish female dabke from Manbij region (Adnan Almohamad, 2022).

Circassian traditional dance is also considered an integral part of Circassian culture. Some Circassians believe that dance has become a record of Circassian history after they lost their written records through wars and the mass displacement from the Russian Empire to which they were subject in the nineteenth century. Dances still performed today by Circassian communities include the aristocratic kafa (kafe), the rousing bislamiya (Islamey) and the communal wij dance (Abbas n.d.). As for the Turkmen dabke, sometimes it is mixed and sometimes only males, according to the village, where hands are intertwined with each other, and the movement to the right is done in three successive steps, and the fourth step is a retreat to the left (Kataw 2018). Marriage rituals and ceremonies of a participatory and repetitive nature provide an opportunity to express this cultural diversity, which is clearly manifested through the diversity of music and dabke.

The impact of the war on marriage rituals in Manbij region

In Syrian communities, particularly communities with a clan composition such as the Manbij region, connections with one’s extended family are deeply valued and act as a crucial support system emotionally, financially, and socially (Evason 2016). The prevailing cultural values in Manbij (customs, traditions, religion, and tribal structure) encourage the preservation of social relations with relatives and neighbours, as well as the need to communicate with relatives and friends, and encourage family and community solidarity (Mustafa 2020). Family and kinship relationships are culturally key, which is what makes weddings important. As for all Sunni Muslims in Syria, people in the Manbij region get married for three basic reasons: to enable man and woman to live together and experience love and happiness; to bear children and provide a stable and just environment for their upbringing; and to provide a legal union that protects society from moral and social decline (Imaillah 1996). There are also marriages that take place in Manbij for other reasons, for example, in order to link clans together, or marriage between families in order to maintain and strengthen relations based mainly on economic interests among ‘trading families, who formed close ties with each other through intermarriage and business partnerships’ (Gopal and Hodge 2021). These marriages take place between a specific cultural component in society, as well as between different components, as long as there is no difference in religion.

The specific impacts of conflict with its resulting death, migration, displacement and economic collapse have left significant impacts on the customs and rituals of marriage in all of Syria. Child marriage was not a common practice in pre-conflict Syria, with 12% of registered marriages in 2011 involving a girl under the age of 18. This figure rose to 18% in 2012, 25% in 2013 and 32% in early 2014 because of the war and forced displacement (UNICEF 2014, Syrians for Truth and Justice 2020, Öztürk et al. 2021, UNFPA 2021). Several other Syrian marriage practices changed as a result of the conflict, including a shorter engagement period, and a lower bride’s dowry (Mourtada et al. 2017).

People in the Manbij region resorted to modifying these rituals to suit the conditions of the war even before the arrival of ISIS. This led to the shortening or modifying of many rituals, such as the number of days and hours of wedding celebrations. The wedding became limited to the henna night and the wedding evening in order to reduce costs due to the economic collapse. The henna night and wedding party no longer lasted until late at night but ended before sunset because of the security situation. The conditions of the war prompted people to make concessions or facilities regarding the amount of the bride's dowry, the money that the woman is entitled to under the marriage contract and one of the bride's rights in Islam. In the ten years immediately prior to the war, the value of the dowry in the Manbij region ranged between 150,000 Syrian pounds (3,000 US dollars) and 500,000 Syrian pounds (10,000 US dollars). This disparity in the value of dowry is due to two main reasons. The first is the degree of kinship. If the newlyweds are relatives, the dowry will be less. The second depends on the economic situation of the two families. If the economic situation of the two families was good, the dowry was often higher than the dowry for the poorer classes. The two families would agree that a portion of the dowry be spent to purchase gold jewellery for the bride, such as bracelets or a necklace. The remaining dowry is set aside for the bride to buy her trousseau of domestic necessities such as clothing and kitchen utensils, as well as purchasing wool to make mattresses and quilts. Because of the lack of stability, rising prices, and the loss of the Syrian pound’s value against the dollar, during the war the bride's requirements became minimal in the region of Manbij, and the bride would be satisfied with a gold ring alone, thus weakening her position in the event of marriage breakdown. Where the groom does pay the bride a dowry, it is currently one or two million Syrian pounds (equivalent to about 150 or 300 US dollars) to buy the bride clothes, and the groom buys furniture for the entire house. Sometimes the newlyweds share the burden based on their financial abilities and an agreement between the couple's family, or they buy second-hand furniture and share a room with the groom's family.

The war also affected the number and kind of invitees or participants in the wedding, with the invitation now limited to relatives and neighbours from the narrow circle of the groom’s and bride’s family (Hamlo 2015). This reduced the amount of financial support the groom’s family received from the group through shubash. This clearly indicates the negative impact of the conflict on the rituals of marriage, but at the same time, it indicates the resilience of the intangible heritage and its ability to adapt to the major changes that societies are subjected to due to the conflict. It also reveals the importance of these rituals in the lives of societies that refuse to abandon them even in the darkest circumstances.

The war also forced the Syrians to replace some customs with others, as the displacement and migration of young people inside and outside Syria led to the emergence of the custom of engagement over the internet (Al-Dimashqi 2014, UNHCR 2015, CSIS 2016, Sharbaji 2019) and sending the bride to the groom’s country of residence without having the full wedding rituals (Hamlo 2015, Abdulrahim 2016), whereas previously the engagement of the bride could not take place without the presence of the jahah (notable people from the village or town) and without the bride’s procession. Many wedding rituals have also been shortened to one evening in the bride’s house, and then the girl is sent to her groom in the country of asylum. It is no longer a problem for parents to marry their daughter to a refugee in a safe country; rather the refugee in a safe country has become preferred over a young man in Syria, due to the difficulty and complexity of the security and economic situation inside the country (Matar 2019).

ISIS’ impact on marriage rituals in Manbij region

The group calling itself Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) occupied the city of Manbij and its surrounding countryside from 23 January 2014 until 12 August 2016 (Almohamad 2021). As we heard, ‘ISIS fought and abolished everything and imposed its ideas on every aspect of people's lives’ (P7M). During this period ISIS imposed change on all social practices, disrupted religious freedoms as well as freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association, and began to control all aspects of the community's social life. It concentrated on people’s behaviour and appearance, including clothing. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic reported that ISIS attacked social and cultural practices in both urban and rural areas, including weddings, musical events, and traditional ceremonies, if they were deemed incompatible with their stated beliefs, demonstrating their intent to eradicate these aspects of Syrian culture (UNHRC 2014, p. 4).

ISIS classified weddings and other rituals as heresies and sins that enrage God and ordered that they must be avoided and that those who engage in them be punished. The enforcement arm of the organisation, which suppressed wedding rituals, was the hisbah (religious police) that roamed the towns and villages and formed widespread networks of spies.

According to all our interviewees, ISIS targeted marriage rituals in the region. It cancelled some completely, such as the henna night and wedding party, and kept others in modified form, such as marriage contract and zaffa (wedding procession), under the pretext that elements of the ritual had been haram (forbidden). It did not interfere in or make any modifications to the rest of the rituals, such as the phase of looking for a bride, al-siyag or al-mahr (the bride’s dowry), and al- jihaz, also known as al-zahab (the trousseau).

When ISIS took control of the region, it issued a statement that was published on media channels, electronic platforms and through the city’s mosques, banning songs and music (Al-Monitor 2014), and completely barring the henna night, wedding party, and all the celebrations and manifestations of joy accompanying the marriage on the pretext that they are haram because they include music, songs and dance. It also shut down cafes and wedding halls, and banned singers and forced them to take courses in its version of sharia’ law. It destroyed musical instruments and forbade people to listen to any music except ISIS’ own songs, which praised their achievements while inciting jihad and recruiting members for the organisation. The group systematically enforced its edicts through its Hisbah police, which conducted constant surveillance within local communities (UNHRC 2014). Whoever violated this ban was subject to punishment from ISIS-mandated sharia’ law (Rashidi 2020). If any of the wedding celebrations were performed, the groom and groom’s father were detained. In his words, one of the participants said: ‘The hisbah’s repeated arrests of grooms confirmed to the people that ISIS did not want any manifestation of joy’ (P2M). ISIS’s prevention of weddings rituals caused many singers and chanters to lose their jobs, and they were punished if they did practice their art, causing the majority of them to flee the country. Wedding hall staff, chair rental services, audio equipment and cassette tape shops, and both male and female barbershops were all also pursued and closed down.

Preventing marriage rituals of a communal nature led to the weakening of social relations and prevented groups from showing support for each other through material and moral cooperation and solidarity. ISIS thus weakened the role of local leaders and dignitaries by forbidding marriage rituals that gave them important roles within communities. The prohibition of these rituals also led to the separation of sections of society from each other because of divisions between supporters of ISIS ideology and those who opposed it.

Reaction and resistance to ISIS

Many variations are observable in the reactions of the people of Manbij to ISIS violations. As many Syrians from Manbij region joined and pledged allegiance to ISIS, they were influenced by their ideas, and began to put pressure on the people of their village and clan to obey ISIS orders. They then posed a greater threat than that of foreign ISIS members, because they knew everyone in the region and everything about them, such as their property, their sons and daughters, their political affiliations, and their social standing. Such information made it easier for ISIS’ foreign leaders or amirs to infiltrate and control the population. While the majority were opposed to ISIS, they carried out orders out of fear of brutality and criminality, as one interviewee reported: ‘We saw the heads of some of those who opposed ISIS hanging at the entrance to the city of Manbij on apostasy charges, and no one could oppose them’ (P11M).

However, the participants indicated that the distant villages, far from the roads used by ISIS vehicles, had a narrow margin of manoeuvre. For example, some villages held a small party in one room attended by the village women to celebrate the bride. Several people were sitting on the rooftops of houses, watching cars approaching from afar, and if a strange car was spotted, the women were told to stop singing and dancing: ‘At my sister's wedding, we used to dance and sing in secret, and our hearts were full of fear; yes, we did it, and whenever I remember those moments, I remember fear’ (P5M).

Despite the climate of fear, people continued to defy the strict instructions of ISIS, one participant recounted:

ISIS used to impose black clothes on the bride and the women accompanying her during the wedding, but as soon as we entered the village and after we made sure that there was no hisbah police, we would remove the black clothes and start clapping and singing for the bride along the dirt road leading to the groom’s house. The village youth were riding on motorbikes within a short distance. We can see them in front of and behind the bride’s car in order to alert us if the Hisbah police appear (P8F).

Marriage rituals after the expulsion of ISIS from Manbij region

After the defeat of ISIS, according to the participants, most of the residents of Manbij region expressed their rejection of the way of life imposed by ISIS and returned to the well-known wedding rituals. The Arab, Kurds, Circassians and Turkmen founded their cultural associations and they have carried out cultural and art activities (Bozi 2017). According to the participants, while the current situation during the cease-fire is much better in terms of freedoms than it was during the ISIS period, it cannot be said that life has returned to what it was before. ISIS’ violations still have negative effects on relations between people at the level of individuals, families, villages and even tribes. Despite the departure of ISIS from the region, there are still women who wear ISIS-style clothes and who have renounced henna rituals and the wedding party.

The magnitude of the casualties, destruction and economic collapse caused by ISIS, as well as the consequences of the war against ISIS, for people who have lost many of their loved ones and possessions, cannot be overlooked. Nonetheless interviewees reported that the sounds of psalms, songs, music, clamour and traditional and colourful costumes have returned to weddings. However, poverty and high prices, as well as forced conscription and the Syrian Democratic Forces’ relationship with the regime and Russia, has pushed many of the remaining young men to flee the Manbij region.

The motivations behind ISIS’ violations against wedding rituals in Manbij region

At a time when ISIS's explosives were blowing up high-profile heritage and touristic sites from the Roman period in Palmyra in 2015, as well as Islamic shrines such as those of Sheikh Aqil and of Sheikh Arouda in Manbij region in 2014 (Almohamad 2021), ISIS’ hisbah police were also attacking manifestations of intangible cultural heritage, including, most clearly, the customs and rituals of marriage.

Many scholars and analysts have indicated that ISIS’ destruction of cultural heritage sites is motivated by goals and religious justifications emphasising monotheism (tawhid) and eradicating any form of association between material objects and God (shirk or polytheism) (Cockburn 2014, Romy 2015, Welby 2015). ISIS itself cites a religious motive behind the heritage attacks on Islamic sects that do not conform to its creeds and pre-monotheistic iconoclasm (Cunliffe and Curini 2018). However, internal documents have revealed that ISIS looted and traded antiquities of all kinds in order to achieve its goals of expansion and to finance its wars (Almohamad 2021). ISIS justified its attacks on the customs and rituals of marriage on the same bases as its destruction of archaeological, historical and religious monuments, according to one of our interviewees: ‘ISIS banned the rituals and celebrations of marriage because they are, according to them, against the teachings of Islam, they are haram’ (P6F).

According to the traditions of the community in Manbij, the henna night of the bride is a special evening for women and is held between women only and without mixing. Islam did not prevent the celebration of the weddings and playing the duff (a traditional one-sided drum, see Figure 6) for women, Duff is or singing and dancing as long as there are no males present. Indeed, the Saudi Arabian Islamic Scholar Said ibn Ali Al-Qahtani stated that: ‘musical instruments and singing are haram, except for women during weddings’ (Alam 2019).

Figure 6. The duff is a percussion instrument, a handle-less frame drum with one usable membrane (Adnan Almohamad, 02 June 2022).

Some interviewees defended their view that ‘ISIS rejects all forms of meeting between men and women, but the bride’s henna night is for women only, why the ban? It does not seem to me that it is only related to halal and haram’ (P10F). According to the participants, this prohibition is an attempt to stifle social relations, which began by separating men and women, then prohibited any social practice that brings women together. This suggests that ISIS’ claims to be doing something consistent with the Qur’an has other motives such as disrupting societal norms; reinforcing gender discrimination; and dismantling the norms of the societies under their control.

The targeting of intangible cultural heritage elements by ISIS is, we argue, part of a comprehensive strategy aimed at eliminating the culture and identity of communities, controlling them, and imposing a new culture and identity. It represented, in our view, a deliberate cultural cleansing (Bevan 2016, Clapperton et al. 2017, Turku 2018), and an attempt to create a blank canvas for ISIS to build on (Ahmed 2015). Our interviewees from Manbij also understood the underpinnings of this initiative, saying that ‘ISIS wants us to forget who we are, to become who they want to be’ (P1F). Banning the henna night and the wedding party was a pretext to erode the functions performed by these rituals within communities, such as communication and solidarity, the negotiation of social roles within communities, and the creation of spaces for relaxation. Other aims included the eradication of wedding festivities’ role in revealing common cultural practices, such as the basic stages of marriage among communities, and the cultural diversity and differentiation through the varities of dress, music and dabke during these rituals. As one interviewee said, ‘ISIS attacked all forms of traditional cultural expressions that express the diversity and the identity of the region’ (P4F).

Experts say the wave of wreckage amounts to cultural cleansing – a deliberate bid to erase the traces of centuries of sectarian coexistence, a notion that is anathema to Islamic State (King 2016). The risk of multiculturalism is that it may reinforce isolation and conflict, but recognition of cultural diversity and dialogue reinforces social cohesion through the creation of bridges and links among people and communities (Bianconi and Filippucci 2019, p. 36). Unfortunately the successive administrations that governed Syria after independence followed policies that were characterised by control and restriction, obliterating diverse identities and characteristics (Maalouli 2020).

These violations and the simultaneous targeting of archaeological and religious sites as well as marriage rituals are not only, as ISIS claimed, because they are haram and violate the teachings of the Islamic religion, but because of the significance of these rituals for communities. This importance is derived from the functions and roles that these rituals play in the lives of their communities, and the common ties and roots that heritage creates and its role in uniting individuals and groups. As one participant said, ‘Wedding customs such as music and dances bring neighbours together. It serves as one of the most crucial bridges that people use to communicate and spread joy and tolerance’ (P12M).

Conclusion

Intangible heritage, including small intangible practices such as henna and dabke, are very important to communities and are not easily abandoned. This was clearly demonstrated by the insistence of some communities in the Manbij region on practising these rituals during the conflict. Syrians did not abandon the practice of marriage rituals, even in their minimal forms, and resorted to adapting them to suit the conditions of war. They did not surrender even when faced with the total bans and strict rules imposed by ISIS on the rituals of marriage. They even continued to practice these rituals in clear defiance of ISIS, despite knowing the high price that they might pay. This importance comes not only from the wedding celebration’s ceremonial manifestations of joy, but also because of the roles and functions that these rituals play within societies, making them a necessity at the level of both individuals and groups. Especially after the civil war divided Syria into four areas of influence on an ethnic and sectarian basis that threatens the unity of Syrian society, wedding rituals can play a role in alleviating these divisions by encouraging participation in common collective rituals that build cooperation and solidarity between families and diverse communities and give every Syrian the opportunity to access and practice their heritage.

The success of the ISIS project in imposing a single culture is linked to the division and dismantling of local communities. Therefore, the continuation of the practice of marriage rituals that provide opportunities for meeting, solidarity and recognition of cultural diversity represents a real threat to this project. This makes us stress the importance of adhering to and preserving the intangible culture. Despite its fragility, it continues to play important roles within societies due to its resilience and adaptability, in line with the conditions of societies that possess this heritage in times of peace, conflict, and even post-conflict. Wedding rituals such as those of Manbij must, therefore, be documented and preserved.

Acknowledgements

The lead author would like to extend his deepest gratitude to Jennifer A. Baird, Professor of Archaeology at Birkbeck University in London for all her valuable advice, suggestions, experience and unwavering guidance during this research, and to thank Dr Esther Breithoff for her valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) [grant number Dec20URN20]. For further information about CARA, visit https://www.cara.ngo/.

Notes on contributors

Adnan Almohamad

Adnan Almohamad is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck, University of London, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, Mellon Program Fellow, Columbia Global Centers | Amman, Columbia University and Cara Syria Program Fellow. His Master’s degree in Archaeology of the Ancient Near East and Egypt was awarded by Charles de Gaulle University-France in 2009. From 2009 to 2014 he worked in the Department of Excavation and Archaeological Studies of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Syria, during same time period he lectured on ancient ceramics at department of archaeology at the University of Aleppo. His research interests are in the area of upper Euphrates of Syria, and destruction and preservation of cultural heritage. His current work focuses on documenting the looting and destruction of archaeological sites in northern Syria and the relationships of local communities in Syria with their cultural heritage before and during the war.

Ayman Al-Nabo

Ayman Al-Nabo is a former lecturer of oriental languages at the University of Aleppo, in the departments of Arabic and History, with a specialisation in Semitic languages. He is the Director of the Idlib Antiquities Centre, run by a group of academics specialising in Syrian archaeology. During the Syrian conflict, the centre has worked to protect, preserve and document cultural property for future generations, through the implementation of projects targeting both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Ayman is interested in the preservation of Syrian heritage as a way of increasing social cohesion and strengthening national identity. He is also interested in integrating cultural heritage into the Syrian educational curriculum, due to the importance of protecting cultural property.

Hussein Houri

Dr Hussein Houri is a Syrian archaeologist. He gained his PhD in ‘The History and Preservation of Art Objects and Architecture’ from the University of Rome III in 2008. He worked as Director of the Department of Restoration at the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums between 2009 and 2011, since when he has continued his research focusing on the preservation of the Syrian cultural heritage.