It is generally thought that the Alawites (formerly called Nusairians) trace their origins to the religious teacher Muhammad Ibn Nusair (died around 883). His teaching led to a new sect and a consequent splitting from Ismailism, a Shiite cult of Islam.

Alongside the Muslims lives one of the most diverse Christian populations in the Middle East. Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant are represented within Aleppo’s Christian minority where Abraham and his flocks camped.

There are over five million Bedouin in the Near East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq), comprising a number of tribes, each with their own loyalties, characteristics and dialects. The Gospel has hardly reached the Bedouin in this region.