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I have employed the Arabic use of kunyas, nicknames that start with Abu or Um (“father of” or “mother of”), which are commonly used even if a person is childless. They are informal, respectful manners of greeting and also serve as noms de guerre.
IN RASTAN
Suleiman Tlass Farzat. The wealthy manager of an insurance office in Hama, who became a civilian activist in his hometown of Rastan.
Samer Tlass. Suleiman’s cousin, a lawyer.
Maamoun. A mobile-phone repairman-turned-civilian activist.
Merhi Merhi. A civilian activist.
Mohammad Darwish. A student who sparked Rastan’s first protests and often led chants.
First Lieutenant Abdel-Razzak Tlass. One of the earliest defectors, a member of the Khalid bin Walid Battalion and later a leader of the Farouq Battalions in Homs. Suleiman’s relative.
NON–FREE SYRIAN ARMY ISLAMISTS
Mohammad (from Jisr al-Shughour). Grew up in Latakia. A former prisoner in Damascus’s Palestine Branch and a member of Jabhat al-Nusra.
Abu Ammar. Mohammad’s childhood neighbor.
Abu Othman. An Islamic legal scholar (or Shari’iy) from Aleppo. Mohammad’s onetime cellmate in Palestine Branch and a prisoner in Sednaya.
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. The leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) offshoot established in Syria in summer 2011 and Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch.
Abu Maria al-Qahtani. An Iraqi who served as Jabhat al-Nusra’s lead Shari’iy. Jolani’s deputy.
Saleh. A former Sednaya Prison detainee from eastern Syria. Part of Nusra’s inner circle.
Abu Loqman. Saleh’s former cellmate in Sednaya Prison and, later, ISIS’s emir in Raqqa.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Iraqi leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and, later, ISIS. Self-proclaimed caliph.
Abu Mohammad al-Adnani. A Syrian, and Jabhat al-Nusra’s chief amni (security agent) before he was appointed the ISIS spokesman.
Firas al-Absi. A non–Al-Qaeda militant stationed at Syria’s Bab al-Hawa border with Turkey.
THE FREE SYRIAN ARMY
Abu Azzam (Mohammad Daher). A fourth-year Arabic-literature university student in Homs. From Tabqa, eastern Syria, he became a commander in the Farouq Battalions.
Bandar. A university student from eastern Syria, Abu Azzam’s sometime roommate in Homs.
Bassem. Bandar’s brother and Abu Azzam’s colleague in the Farouq Battalions.
Abu Hashem (Hamza Shemali). A realtor-turned-Farouq foreign liaison who later headed the Hazm Movement.
Abu Sayyeh (Osama Juneid). A lawyer-turned-Farouq military commander.
Sheikh Amjad Bitar. A cleric from Homs and key Farouq financier.
Bilal Attar and Abulhassan Abazeed. The founders of the Shaam News Network (SNN) and, later, senior members of the Farouq Battalions.
Okab Sakr. A Lebanese politician and member of Saad Hariri’s Future Movement political party.
General Salim Idris. The head of the FSA’s Supreme Military Council.
IN SARAQEB
Ruha. A nine-year-old girl (in 2011).
Maysaara (Ruha’s father) and Manal (Ruha’s mother).
Alaa, Mohammad, Tala, Ibrahim. Ruha’s siblings.
Zahida. Ruha’s grandmother.
Mariam. Ruha’s aunt.
Mohammad. Ruha’s uncle, married to her Aunt Noora.
IN LATAKIA
Talal, an Alawite from Blouta, Latakia Province, living in Damascus.
Lojayn, 13 (in 2013), Hanin (10), Jawa (8). Talal’s daughters.
Dr. Rami Habib. A physician operating a field clinic in the town of Salma.