Al-Abad: on the ongoing

Abstract

This article focuses on the word al-Abad, literally meaning forever, infinite and immortality, and how it was deployed by the Syrian regime. The word is used excessively in different discursive mediums within Syria’s political culture, either in the form of banners, graffiti, photos, slogans or songs. The article seeks to analyze al-Abad through its different dimensions: its literal meaning in language, its position as a stagnant social structure and ‘an eternal’ political system, its connotations as a killing or extermination mechanism, and finally, al-Abad as Syria itself. My research sheds light on how authoritarian regimes use language as an important instrument of power and a mechanism to shape the political landscape. I demonstrate how terms and words are in constant flux and adjust in circulation depending on space, time and the political landscape. The changing relationship of a term or word is dependent on new layers of meaning that change its significance on multiple levels.