Syrian nationalism (Arabic: القَومِيَةُ السُورِيَّةُ, romanized: al-qawmīyah as-Sūriyyah), also known as pan-Syrian nationalism or pan-Syrianism (Arabic: الوَحْدَةُ الشَّامِيَةُ, romanized: al-waḥda ash-Shāmiyyah), refers to the nationalism of the region of Syria, as a cultural or political entity known as "Syria".

Syrian nationalism originated with the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. While most "pragmatic" Syrian nationalists advocate for Arab nationalism and view pan-Syrianism as a step toward a broader pan-Arab state, a minority of "pure" Syrian nationalists, often associated with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, oppose this perspective. They assert that Syria should be the leading force among the Arab people and reject pan-Arabist movements that would position all Arabs on the same level.

Some Syrian opposition forces who were fighting against the Assad regime government are strong advocates of historical Syrian nationalism that hearkens back to a "Golden Age." The Free Syrian Army has incorporated symbols of nationalist insignia into their flags and military uniforms during the Syrian civil war. Syrian nationalism was historically prominent in Lebanon, where it was particularly widespread among Lebanese Sunni Muslims, who aspired to be incorporated into a Greater Syrian state.

Syrian nationalism arose as a modern school of thought in the late 19th century, in conjunction with the Nahda movement, then sweeping the Ottoman-ruled Arab world. One of the towering historical figures in Syrian nationalism has been the Ayyubid sultan Saladin, the Sunni leader who re-captured Jerusalem and led Muslims to victory against European Crusaders. Following the Balfour declaration, Sykes-Picot deal and imposition of the French Mandate, Saladin was popularized by nationalists and Islamists as a heroic figure of Syrian resistance against Zionism and Western imperialism.

Capitalizing on his status as a pan-Arab icon, the rival Ba'athist regimes in Syria and Iraq both incorporated Saladin into their official propaganda. State propaganda compared Hafez al-Assad to Saladin in official portraits, statues, literature, etc. as part of the wider promotion of the pervasive personality cult of Assadism. After his father's death, Bashar al-Assad inherited the personality cult and intensified it with technocratic themes. In contemporary Syria, Saladin is portrayed as a national hero in mass media, Arab TV shows, educational curricula, popular culture, and conservative Muslim circles.

Butrus al-Bustani, a Mount Lebanon-born convert from the Maronite Church to Protestantism, started one of the region's first nationalist newspapers, Nafir Suria in Beirut in the aftermath of the Mount Lebanon civil war of 1860 and the massacre of Christians in Damascus in the same year. Bustani, who was deeply opposed to all forms of sectarianism, said Ḥubb al-Waṭan min al-Īmān ("Love of the homeland is a matter of faith"). As early as 1870, when discerning the notion of fatherland from that of the nation and applying the latter to Greater Syria, Francis Marrash would point to the role played by language, among other factors, in counterbalancing religious and sectarian differences, and thus, in defining national identity.

One of the major figures in the pan-Arab trend was the Syrian Islamist cleric Muhammad Rashid Rida, who played a key role in the formation of Arab societies and campaigned for the autonomy of Arab vilayets like Syria from the Ottoman Empire. Through his seminal pan-Islamist journal Al-Manar, Rida wrote on a wide range of issues, with topics covering religion, politics, science, technology, and culture. A strong proponent of Arab unity; Rida criticized the autocratic rule of the Ottoman dynasts and the domination of Turkish nationalist CUP in imperial politics. He was also a vehement opponent of European colonial powers and urged the Arab people to launch revolutionary action to resist Europe's imperialist plots. During World War I, Rida issued a fatwa urging Syrians to support the Ottoman empire against Allied colonial powers and simultaneously oppose groups linked to the Young Turks. At the same time, he had established a secret society known as the "Society of the Arab Association" (Jam'iyyat al-Jami'a al-Arabiyya), which was clandestinely making efforts for the establishment of an Islamic Empire spanning the Arabian Peninsula, Greater Syria and Iraq; with its government being headquartered in Damascus. The empire was to be headed by an Arab Caliph, and the Caliph was to appoint a president for every five-year term, from a list of candidates suggested to him by the Council of Representatives.

What is a nation or a people? Is it a heap of creatures . . . slaves of a king? Or is it a community connected by ties of race, language, fatherland, and common rights?!.. A nation that does not feel, in its entirety or its majority, the tortures of tyranny is not worthy of freedom