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| 1920 |
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| Death of Tahir al-Jaza’iri (b. 1851), one of the leading scholars on Arabic language and literature. He was responsible for saving many of Aleppo's Islamic manuscripts and storing them in the Zahiriyya Mosque. | 1 |
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| March 8 |
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| The second General Syrian Congress in Damascus declared Syrian independence and chose FAYSAL, son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, as the king of Syria. | 2 |
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| April |
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| France was awarded the mandate over Syria. | 3 |
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| July 22 |
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| Military defeat of the Arab government in Syria at the Maysalun Pass. The French army ousted the Arab regime of Faysal from Damascus, paving the way for French rule under the League of Nations mandate. Aleppo was occupied the same month. Armed resistance continued in the Alawi region around Latakia and in the western portion of Aleppo's hinterland, but by the end of 1921 these movements had been quelled. Faysal left Syria in Aug. 1920, and a year later became king of Iraq. | 4 |
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| Sept. 1 |
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| Establishment of the Syrian administrative territories under the mandate. The area of Lebanon was originally part of Syria, but in 1922 Lebanon was split off to form a separate country under French mandatory control (See 1920, Sept. 1). The population of the newly created country of Syria numbered about 2.2 million, 85 percent of whom were Muslim (about four-fifths of them Sunni). One-quarter of the inhabitants lived in urban centers, of which Aleppo and Damascus were the largest. | 5 |
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