Greater Syria

Greater Syria (Arabic: سوريّة الكبرى‎) or Natural Syria (Arabic: سوريّة الطبيعية‎), Bilad ash-Sham (Arabic: بلاد الشام‎), is a nationalist term that denotes a geographical definition of a hypothetical united Arab state, used by pan-Arabists since early 20th century. The term denotes the restoration of the Arab province during the Middle Ages, encompassing the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant and Western Mesopotamia at the peak glory of the Arab Muslim civilization. The classical Arabic name for Syria is Sham (Arabic: الشام‎ ash-Shām), which in later ages came to refer only to Damascus in Levantine Arabic.

The pre-Islamic, Hellenistic name of the territory, Syria, was revived by the Ottomans, creating the Vilayet of Syria, until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The wave of the Arab nationalism in the region evolved towards the creation of a new "Great Syria" over French governed Occupied Enemy Territory Administration, declared as Hashemite Kingdom on March 1920, claiming extent over the entire Levant. Following the Franco-Syrian War, in July 1920, French armies defeated the newly proclaimed Arab Kingdom of Syria and entered Damascus, aborting the Arab state. The area was consequently partitioned under French and British Mandates into Greater Lebanon, various Syrian states, Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan. The Syrian states were gradually unified as the State of Syria and finally became the independent Republic of Syria in 1946.