Early pan-Arabism was a Syrian-led movement organized through secret societies

Evidence

During this period the movement was overwhelmingly Syrian; indeed one historian has gone so far as to say that the word Arab means Syrian in the documents and even the studies of that time. It found expression chiefly in secret societies and led to the holding of the first Arab congress in Paris in 1913. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 832

Categorization

• QUESTION: Fascinating that ‘Arab’ meant ‘Syrian’ in period documents — worth verifying which historian makes this claim and what sources they read.