The term denotes the restoration of the medieval Arab Caliphate province of Bilad al-Sham, encompassing the Eastern Mediterranean or the Levant and Western Mesopotamia at the peak glory of the Arab Muslim civilization.
The pre-Islamic, Hellenistic name of the region, “Syria”, was used by the Ottomans in 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 captured 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.