Continental rifting is one of the fundamental tectonics of the Earth evolution while our current understandings on the dynamic mechanism of the strike-slip ones are relatively limited. Here, we have utilized three kinds of core-refracted shear waves (including PKS, SKKS, and SKS) and employed the shear-wave splitting technique to systematically investigate the azimuthal anisotropy of the upper mantle under the typical strike-slip Dead Sea rift. There are a total of 1,855 well-determined anisotropic measurements from 187 stations with dominantly N-S fast orientations. We have proposed a new model from a joint analysis of multiple newly available geophysical observations to interpret the resulting anisotropy as mainly due to the absolute-plate-motion-driven mantle flow deflected by the thick lithosphere of the eastern Arabian plate. Relatively larger splitting times are locally revealed at the rift zone and attributed to additional lithospheric anisotropy from the shearing-oriented melt pockets whose existence further induces complex anisotropy with slight difference of fast orientations between the upper and lower layer anisotropy. The overall rift-parallel fast orientations, when combined with the absence of low-velocity and hot thermal anomalies in the mantle transition zone, rule out the role of mantle plume or edge-driven convection in the rift development and further infer the Dead Sea rift to evolve in a passive mode. The continental rift is a window for studying lithospheric evolution, surface rupture processes, and deep mineral resources, among which our understandings on the evolution of the strike-slip rift are particularly insufficient. Seismic anisotropy, working as a mature indicator, can decipher the upper mantle deformation and further help constrain the rifting dynamic processes. Here, we have presented the azimuthal anisotropic structure in the upper mantle of the representative strike-slip Dead Sea rift. The common models of active rifting from a mantle plume and edge-driven convection would lead to radiating and rift-orthogonal patterns of fast orientations, respectively, that we do not observe. Instead, the rift zone and its adjacent areas are characterized as possessing dominantly N-S fast orientations that we explain as the main result of a large-scale deflected mantle flow. The strike-slip shearing can align the melt pockets in the lithosphere and further lead to the observed larger splitting times in the rift zone relative to those at the rift flanks. Our observations are in agreement with a passive rifting model for the Dead Sea rift development, which is driven by the far-field plate stretching. Rift-parallel azimuthal anisotropy is predominantly obtained in the Dead Sea rift (DSR) and its adjacent areas Anisotropy mainly results from deflected mantle flow with local contribution from rift-shearing-aligned lithospheric melt The DSR is deciphered to follow a passive rifting model driven by far-field stretching from the northward plate subduction
