IN 1957 A young air-force officer from the highlands called Hafez al-Assad married a girl from the coast named Anisa Makh-louf. It seemed a good fit: Assad was ambitious; the Makhloufs were powerful. And indeed, after Assad took over in a coup in 1970 the two clans ran the country like a family business, propelling their esoteric Muslim sect, the Alawites, from Syria's backwaters to the centre of power.
展开▼
