In April 1924, during French Mandatory rule, followers of Sulayman al-Murshid killed a number of people in al-'Aliyat for not converting to al-Murshid's strain of Alawite Islam. French forces confronted al-Murshid's disciples, who were armed mostly with sticks, and fifty of them were killed, while another fifty were wounded. Al-Murshid was exiled to Raqqa in the aftermath of the clashes.[2]