Transformed by the People offers a bold reinterpretation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), tracing its metamorphosis from al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch into an authoritarian, state-seeking actor.
The authors argue that HTS deradicalised not because of ideological moderation but through pragmatic adaptations to survive and rule.
By situating this process in both Syrian and global contexts, the book forces readers to reconsider how militant groups evolve under pressure.
More than guns
One of the book’s key strengths is its focus on institutions.
The creation of the Salvation Government in 2017 is presented as a turning point: HTS consolidated governance, co-opted urban technocrats, and outsourced service provision to neutral third parties.
This institutionalisation, more than battlefield success, ensured HTS’s resilience and enabled its later dominance.
The book also excels in explaining HTS’s external balancing act. Turkey’s strategic need for a buffer zone gave HTS breathing room, while Moscow tolerated the arrangement so long as Idlib remained contained.
Unlike the fragmented Syrian National Army in northern Aleppo, HTS presented Ankara with a single interlocutor. This triangular dynamic illustrates how insurgents survive by integrating themselves into regional geopolitics, rather than merely engaging in local battles.
The chapters on religious repositioning are especially valuable. By moving away from Salafism toward what the authors call “Sharia politics,” HTS reframed Islam as a legitimating tool rather than a revolutionary project.
The sidelining of hardline clerics, outreach to mainstream Muslims, and selective engagement with minorities all underscore how religion was subordinated to political pragmatism.
Perhaps most provocative is the book's comparative ambition. Instead of confining HTS to the 'jihadi' box, the authors juxtapose its trajectory with the Thermidorian turn of the French Revolution and with the normalisation strategies of far-right parties in Europe.
These comparisons may unsettle some readers, but they highlight a universal pattern: radical movements often moderate, not out of conviction, but out of necessity when forced to govern.
What the book underplays
Where the book invites debate is less in its description of HTS’s transformation than in its interpretive choices.
First, while the French Revolution analogy is illuminating, it sometimes feels overextended. HTS’s trajectory is indeed one of moderation after radical excess, but the contexts differ so radically that the comparison risks abstraction.
The same applies to far-right parties in Europe: while both HTS and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally sought centrist respectability, one is a military-authoritarian project in a war zone, the other an electoral party in consolidated democracies. These analogies are stimulating but should be treated as heuristic, not definitive.
Second, the book’s framing of HTS as a pragmatist actor risks underplaying coercion and repression. The decision to curb morality policing or to allow controlled elections is presented primarily as a political calculation.
This is analytically persuasive, but the narrative sometimes edges toward normalisation, glossing over the violence and fear that sustain HTS’s authority.
Third, while the analysis of governance is meticulous, the book devotes less attention to economic foundations. Idlib’s war economy, smuggling networks, taxation of trade routes, and reliance on cross-border aid are mentioned only in passing.
Yet these material dynamics underpin HTS’s ability to sustain institutions and project authority. A deeper dive into the political economy of Idlib would have enriched the institutional analysis.
Finally, the study is largely elite-focused. The perspectives of civilians under HTS rule — traders, teachers, displaced people — appear indirectly, often as background to policy debates or protest movements.
More ethnographic texture could have revealed how ordinary Syrians navigate authoritarian governance in a context of both coercion and consumerism.
Transformed by the people?
A central question the title poses is whether HTS was truly transformed by the people. The evidence the book presents suggests otherwise. The “people” mattered primarily as resources to be co-opted. HTS sidelined religious hardliners, absorbed technocrats, and cultivated relationships with Sufi leaders and minorities.
These moves created the appearance of grassroots participation but were in reality top-down strategies of control. Far from being shaped by the people, HTS shaped the people’s room for action — channelling civic energies into structures it could dominate.
This helps explain why Syria remains mired in a political-security crisis even after HTS’s consolidation. The group moderated just enough to survive but not enough to build inclusive politics. Its authoritarian adaptation mirrors Assad’s logic more than it transcends it.
Add to this the regional stalemate — Turkey and Russia tolerating HTS as a buffer, fractured opposition elsewhere, and international disengagement — and Syria is left suspended between exhausted revolution and entrenched authoritarianism.
What appears to be a transformation might, in reality, be a perpetuation of the crisis in a new guise.
A structural lens on deradicalisation
Despite these critiques, Transformed by the People makes a substantial contribution to the scholarship on political Islam and insurgent governance.
Its central insight — that deradicalisation does not require moderates, and that intentions matter less than institutions and incentives — is both novel and persuasive. This reframes deradicalisation as a structural process, not a moral one, with implications beyond Syria.
The book also adds analytical depth to our understanding of Syria’s evolving map. By documenting HTS’s institutional consolidation, regional diplomacy, and ideological repositioning, it shows why Idlib remained out of Assad’s control long after other opposition strongholds collapsed.
Its discussion of the 2024 protests and HTS’s semi-authoritarian reforms highlights the paradox of militant actors adopting electoral veneers while deepening repression.
Verdict
Transformed by the People is a specialist work written for readers already familiar with Syria’s conflict landscape. Its value lies not in recounting battlefield events but in offering a theoretical framework for understanding insurgent transformation.
It challenges conventional wisdom that radical groups moderate only when weakened, instead presenting HTS as a case of deradicalisation through strength.
The book’s ambition is both its strength and its vulnerability. By pushing beyond Islamist typologies, it opens new comparative horizons, yet risks flattening distinctions across contexts. By focusing on pragmatism, it reveals HTS’s adaptability, and at the same time risks obscuring the darker dimensions of authoritarian governance.
Even with these caveats, the study is essential reading. It compels scholars and practitioners to recognise that militant movements can shed their radical skin without embracing liberalism, and that deradicalisation may be less about ideological journeys than about political survival.
For anyone seeking to understand not just HTS but the broader dynamics of insurgent governance in the 21st century, Transformed by the People is a landmark contribution.
Robert Bociaga is a journalist and photographer focusing on international relations and human rights
Follow him on X: @BociagaRobert