The Constitution of Syria 1920: Notables declare the state and choose the king

With the end of the First World War approaching, it became clear that the Ottoman Empire was on the verge of collapse, and the peoples from which this heterogeneous empire was formed began to grope for their future. Different and contradictory trends struggled in the souls and consciences of the peoples of the region, but they agreed that the chaos of governance in recent years should lead to a better future, and the ideologies of renaissance and Arabism began to take a greater role in the collective imagination, although it was from It is very difficult for people to turn at once into a comprehensive national project. The class of dignitaries has been searching for themselves for new roles to prove their interests, and to guarantee their role in a new world by disengaging from the dilapidated state institutions, and framing those interests in a way that ensures their permanence in light of what may come. The secret organizations formed by the educated from the sons of the notables of the big cities took a real form, albeit an embryo of organized party action. and merchants, or clerics who might intersect with the two categories—to probe different possibilities of what an alternative entity to the Ottoman Empire would need. Not the least of the problems they would face was the willingness of the peoples in the region to abandon the logic of life they had been accustomed to for centuries.