The book draws on dozens of interviews with al-Sharaa, his associates who later became ministers, dissidents and opponents, as well as diplomats.
www.amazon.com/Transformed-... www.amazon.co.uk/Transformed-...

In addition to the typos, also forgot the main argument!
The book’s main argument is that HTS was "transformed by the people". The constraints of Idlib’s social context and of the international environment before the 2024 takeover of Idlib forced the group to change, in very lasting ways

The book is available in Europe, on Kindle in Europe and the US, and in the US in early November

We conclude with an epilogue, written in spring 2025, warning of the rise of a new populist trend in Syria, one driven from the bottom up, seeking supremacy and revenge. This emerging dynamic signals a shift that could reshape the post-HTS landscape in unpredictable and destabilising ways

We also examine the tensions in Idlib before 2024: the rise of a populist current pushing for stricter implementation of Islamic law, and how HTS responded. Even more telling was HTS’s handling of last year’s protest movement, which demanded political opening, reforms, and an end to abuses.

We also explore HTS’s Salafism in depth showing how, without abandoning Salafism, the group stripped it of most of its political implications. This enables us to analyse HTS’s religious governance, and its approach to religious minorities, in essentially non-religious, even “secularised,” terms.

The book details how HTS imposed itself over rival factions - especially mainstream Islamists like Ahrar al-Sham - waged war on al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and brought foreign fighters under its control.

In the conclusion, we also compare HTS’s trajectory to European far-right movements that sought to “de-demonise” themselves, showing how strategies of rebranding and normalisation extend well beyond Syria (the comparison might not please everyone!)

This change proved lasting and political, with no possible return though, paradoxically, it was largely unintended at the outset.
Rather than comparing HTS to other Islamist movements, we place it in the context of a revolutionary situation par excellence: the last phase of the French Revolution.

The book draws on dozens of interviews with al-Sharaa, his associates who later became ministers, dissidents and opponents, as well as diplomats.
www.amazon.com/Transformed-... www.amazon.co.uk/Transformed-...

The first generous review of our book @irishtimes.com
"impressive study of the group, based on a wide range of detailed interviews, including with Shaara. [The book] is probably the best of its kind in English to date on the subject and is essential reading" www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...