This article is about Arabs of the Christian faith. For Christian communities and sects (including non-Arab Christians), see Christianity in the Middle East.
In modern times, Arab Christians have played important roles in the
philosophy,[26] music, theatre and cinema,[27] medicine,[28] and science.[29] Today Arab Christians still play important roles in the Arab world, and are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate.[30] Emigrants from Arab Christian communities also make up a significant proportion of the Middle Eastern diaspora, with sizable population concentrations across the Americas, most notably in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and the US. However those emigrants to the Americas, especially from the first wave of emigration, have often not passed the Arabic language to their descendants.[31]
The concept of an Arab Christian identity remains contentious, with some Arabic-speaking
Greeks and others, rejecting an Arab identity. Individuals from Egypt's Coptic community and Lebanon's Maronite community sometimes assume a non-Arab identity.[32][33]
History
The history of Arab Christians coincides with the history of Christianity and the history of the Arabic language; Arab Christian communities result either from pre-existing Christian communities adopting the Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. Arab Christians include the indigenous Christian communities of Western Asia who became majority Arabic-speaking after the consequent seventh-century Muslim conquests in the Fertile Crescent.[34] The Christian Arab presence predates the early Muslim conquests, and there were many Arab tribes that converted to Christianity, beginning in the 1st century.[35]
The interests of the Arabs before the 9th century
pre-Islamic poetry. The early Arab Christians recorded Syriac hymns, Arabic poetry, ecclesiastical melodies, proverbs, and ḥikam (rules of governance).[36] They did not otherwise record religion, which gave way to conflicting accounts and sparse evidence for specific practices over several centuries.[37]
From classical antiquity to modern times, Arab Christians have played important roles contributing to the culture of the Mashriq, in particular those in the Levant, Egypt and Iraq.
Egyptian Church based in Alexandria. There are documents from the late third century of Dionysius, Pope of Alexandria, in which he mentions his Arab Christian subjects in the Sinai and the persecution they faced during the days of the pagan Roman emperor Diocletian.[48][49] Later, forty martyrs fell in 309 in Mount Sinai during a raid by pagan Arabs on their hermitages. The monks fortified their new monasteries, and the most fortified is still in use today, Saint Catherine's Monastery, built by the commission of Roman emperor Justinian in 565. It has hosted a number of Church bishops and theologians, Ghassanid and Lakhmid kings, and pre-Islamic poets.[50]
Lakhm and Tanukh, and many had moved towards Bahrain by the fourth century.[63]
In
al-Baydawi referred to this sect in their interpretation of the Qur’an.[64] Another sect called "The Davidians" (Al-Dāwudiyyūn) were known for their exaggerations in honoring King David. Some contemporary historians classified it as a Judeo-Christian heresy.[65] In Mecca, the Banu Jurhum embraced Christianity at the hands of their sixth king, Abd al-Masih ibn Baqia, and supervised the service of the Haram for a period of time.[66]Banu Azd and Banu Khuza’a became Christians with them according to Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani.[67] The earliest indications of Christianity in Mecca is the Christian cemetery outside the Medina towards the well of 'Anbasa, confirmed by al-Maqdisi, as well as the conversion to Christianity by some members of the Quraish.[68]
Saint Abo of Tiflis (756–786 AD), martyred for his faith in Georgia
Following the fall of large portions of former Byzantine and Sasanian provinces to the Arab armies, a large indigenous Christian population of varying ethnicities came under Arab Muslim dominance. Historically, a number of minority Christian sects were persecuted as
non-Chalcedonians). The Islamic conquests set forth two processes affecting these Christian communities: the process of Arabization, causing them gradually to adopt Arabic as a spoken, literary, and liturgical language (often alongside their ancestral tongues), and the much slower, yet persistent process of Islamization.[70] As Muslim army commanders expanded their empire and attacked countries in Asia, North Africa and southern Europe, they would offer three conditions to their enemies: convert to Islam, pay jizya (tax) every year, or face war to death. Those who refused war and refused to convert were deemed to have agreed to pay jizya.[71][72]
As "
hermits, or the poor.[73] In return, non-Muslim citizens were permitted to practice their faith, to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy, to be entitled to Muslim state's protection from outside aggression, to be exempted from military service, and to be exempted from the zakat.[74][75] Like Arab Muslims, Arab Christians refer to God as "Allah".[76][77] As with the Christians of Malta, this practice is distinguished from the Islamic use of the word "Allah" which refers to the personal name of God in that faith.[78] The use of the term Allah in Arab churches predates Islam.[76]
Arab Christians have always been the go-between the Islamic world and the Christian West, mainly down to mutual religious affinity. The Greek Orthodox share Orthodox ties with Russia and Greece; whilst Melkites and Maronites share Catholic bonds with Italy, Vatican and France.[82] Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians in the Arab world have made significant contributions to Arab civilization since the introduction of Islam, and they have had a notable impact contributing the culture of the Mashriq.[83][82] Many Arab Christians today are physicians, entertainers, philosophers, government officials and people of literature.[25]
Academia
Arab Christians throughout history have been noted for their impact on academia and literature.
Lawrence of Arabia and show the Arab perspective. Mousa noted that were many books written to praise Lawrence, and all of them exaggerated his part in the Arab Revolt and failed to do justice to the Arabs themselves.[89] Syrian writers include scholar Francis Marrash and writer Hanna Mina, described in Literature from the "Axis of Evil" as the country's most prominent.[90]
The Nahda (meaning "the Awakening" or "the Renaissance") was a cultural renaissance that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It began in the wake of the exit of Muhammad Ali of Egypt from the Levant in 1840.[115]Beirut, Cairo, Damascus and Aleppo were the main centers of the renaissance and this led to the establishment of schools, universities, theater and printing presses. This awakening led to the emergence of a politically active movement known as the "association" that was accompanied by the birth of Arab nationalism and the demand for reformation in the Ottoman Empire. This led to the calling of the establishment of modern states based on Europe.[116]
It was during this stage that the first compound of the Arabic language was introduced along with the printing of it in letters, and later the movement influenced the fields of music, sculpture, history, humanities, economics and human rights.
This cultural renaissance during the late Ottoman rule was a quantum leap for Arabs in the post-industrial revolution, and is not limited to the individual fields of cultural renaissance in the nineteenth century, as the
Saint Joseph University, American University of Beirut (Syrian Protestant College until 1920) and Al-Hikma University in Baghdad amongst others played a prominent role in the development of Arab culture.[117] It is agreed amongst historians the importance the roles played by the Arab Christians in this renaissance, and their role in the prosperity through participation in the diaspora.[118][25] Given this role in politics and culture, Ottoman ministers began to include them in their governments. In the economic sphere, a number of Christian families like the Greek Orthodox Sursock family became prominent. Thus, the Nahda led the Muslims and Christians to a cultural renaissance and national general despotism. This solidified Arab Christians as one of the pillars of the region and not a minority on the fringes.[119]
Notable Arab Christians of al-Nahda
Nasif al-Yaziji (1800–1871) was a Lebanese author, poet and key figure of the Nahda
Mary Ajami (1888–1965) was a Syrian writer who launched the first women's newspaper in the Middle East[120]
May Ziadeh (1886–1941) was a Lebanese-Palestinian poet and pioneer of Oriental feminism
Khalil Beidas (1874–1949) was a Palestinian scholar, translator, educator and novelist
Maryana Marrash (1849–1919) was a writer, poet and the first Syrian woman to publish a collection of poetry
Religious Persecution
See also:
Peter VII Jarweh was fatally wounded in the attacks and died a year later. 20–70 people died from rioting and 5,000 died as a result of bombardment.[121]
Emir Abdelkader al-Jazairi, the exiled Algerian Muslim military leader, ordered his sons and soldiers to protect and shelter Damascene Christians from impending interpersonal violence that was spreading throughout the city, thereby saving thousands, preserving this ancient community from complete devastation.[124][125]
"The famine in Mount Lebanon has been planned and instigated by the Turkish government. Already 80,000 have succumbed to starvation and thousands are dying every single day. The same process happened with the Christian Armenians and applied to the Christians in Mount Lebanon."
Regional Conflicts
See also:
"Nakba" in reference to the 1948 Palestinian exodus.[130]
In 1975, the
West Beirut. Israel was later obliged to withdraw as a result of multiple guerrilla attacks by the Lebanese National Resistance Front and increasing hostility across all forces in Lebanon to their presence.[131]
With the events of the
The Carnegie Middle East Center stated that the majority of Christians are more in support of the regime because they fear a chaotic situation or to be under the control of the Islamist Western and Turkish backed armed groups.[136][137][138]
The Mahjar (one of its more literal meanings being "the Arab diaspora") was a literary movement that succeeded the Nahda movement. It was started by Christian Arabic-speaking writers who had emigrated to America from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine at the turn of the 20th century.[145] The writers of the Mahjar movement were stimulated by their personal encounter with the Western world and participated in the renewal of Arabic literature, hence their proponents referred to as writers of the "late Nahda".[146]
Greek Orthodox and two were Maronite Christians.[148] The league dissolved following Gibran's death in 1931 and Mikhail Naimy's return to Lebanon in 1932.[149] Naimy was made famous internationally for his spiritual writings, most notably The Book of Mirdad
Map of the Diocese of the East 400 AD, homeland of the Christian Rūm; showing modern day Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Palestine and Jordan
The homeland of the
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and they have ancient roots in the Levant; more specifically, the territories of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Hatay, which includes the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch). Antiochian Greeks constitute a multi-national group of people and thus construct their identity in relation to specific historical moments. Analyzing cultural identity as a conscious construction is more helpful than a simple labelling of ethnicity, thus the identity is assumed to accentuate the separate origin unique to the Christian Rūm (literally "Eastern Romans") of the Levant.[227] Some members of the community also call themselves Melkite, which means "monarchists" or "supporters of the emperor" (a reference to their past allegiance to Macedonian and Roman imperial rule) although in the modern era, that term tends to be more commonly used by followers of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.[228]
The Orthodox Christian congregation was included in an ethno-religious community,
Middle Eastern Christians, were considered part of the same millet in spite of their differences in ethnicity and language. Belonging to this Orthodox commonwealth became more important to the common people than their ethnic origins.[229]
Maunsell's map, a Pre-World War I British Ethnographical Map of the Middle East showing "Nestorians" (6), "Chaldeans" (7) and "Jacobites" (8).
The former Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, Emmanuel III Delly, made the following comment in a 2006 interview:
"Any Chaldean who calls himself an Assyrian is a traitor and any Assyrian who calls himself Chaldean is a traitor."[230]
The Chaldean Church, which had been part of the Nestorian Church, or Church of the East, until 1552–3, began in earnest to distance itself from the Nestorians who were now seen as the 'uncouth Assyrians'. During this period, many Chaldeans began identifying themselves solely by their religious community, and later as Iraqis, Iraqi Christians, or Arab Christians, rather than with the Assyrian community as a whole. The first split for the two groups came in 431, when they broke away from what was to become the Catholic Church over a theological dispute.[231] The reverberation of religious animosity between these communities still continues today, a testament to the machinations of power politics in the nation-building of the Middle East.[232] The Iraqi Chaldeans positioned themselves deliberately as a religious group within the Arab Iraqi nation. The Arab identity of the state was not only acceptable to them, but was even staunchly endorsed. The Arab nationalism they supported did not discriminate according to religion and was therefore also acceptable to them.[217] Today, due to both forced and accepted Arabization, many Chaldeans identify themselves situationally as Arabs.[232]
The Assyrians/Syriacs (including Chaldeans) form the majority of Christians in Iraq, northeast Syria, south-east Turkey and north-west Iran. They are specifically defined as non-Arabindigenous ethnic group, including by the governments of Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Israel, and Turkey.[233]
Prophet Elijah. In Christian traditions, Sergius and Bacchus are considered the patron saints of Arabs.[236]
There are no major cultural differences between Christian Arabs and the general Arab environment.
male circumcision is an established practice, and require that their male members undergo circumcision shortly after birth as part of a rite of passage.[244][245]
Demographics
Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world.
The Copts in Egypt constitute the largest Christian community in the Middle East, as well as the largest religious minority in the region, accounting for an estimated 10% of Egyptian population.[251]
Since antiquity, there has always been a Levantine presence in Egypt, however they started becoming a distinctive minority in Egypt around the early 18th century. The
The Arab Christian community in Iraq is relatively small, and further dwindled due to the Iraq War to just several thousand. Most Arab Christians in Iraq belong traditionally to Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches and are concentrated in major cities such as Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. The vast majority of the remaining 450,000 to 900,000 Christians in Iraq are Assyrian people.[254]
Arab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel.
median household income among Arab citizens of Israel and second highest median household income among the Israeli ethno-religious groups.[276] According to study the majority of Christians in Israel (68.2 per cent) are employed in the service sector, i.e. banks, insurance companies, schools, tourism, hospitals etc.[260] Among Arab Christians in Israel, some emphasize pan-Arabism, whilst a small minority enlists in the Israel Defense Forces.[277][278]
A small percentage of Jordanian Christians are ethnically Bedouin. This picture shows Arab Christian tribalists from the city of Madaba
Jordan contains some of the oldest Christian communities in the world, their presence dating back to the first century AD. Today, Christians make up about 4% of the population, down from 20% in 1930.[279] This is due to high immigration rates of Muslims into Jordan, higher emigration rates of Christians to the west and higher birth rates for Muslims.[280] Christians in Jordan are exceptionally well integrated in the Jordanian society and enjoy a high level of freedom.[281] Christians are allotted nine out of a total of 130 seats in the Parliament of Jordan, and also hold important ministerial portfolios, ambassadorial appointments, and positions of high military rank. All Christian religious ceremonies are publicly celebrated in Jordan.[282]
Jordanian Arab Christians (some have Palestinian roots since 1948) number around 221,000, according to a 2014 estimate by the Orthodox Church. The study excluded minority Christian groups and the thousands of western, Iraqi and Syrian Christians residing in Jordan.
King Abdullah II of Jordan has made firm statements[286]
about Arab Christians:
"Let me say once again: Arab Christians are an integral part of my region's past, present, and future."
Kuwait's native Christian population exists, though is essentially small. There are between 259 and 400 Christian Kuwaiti citizens.[287] Christian Kuwaitis can be divided into two groups. The first group includes the earliest Kuwaiti Christians, who originated from Iraq and Turkey.[288] They have assimilated into Kuwaiti society, like their Muslim counterparts, and tend to speak Arabic with a Kuwaiti dialect; their food and culture are also predominantly Kuwaiti. They makeup roughly a quarter of Kuwait's Christian population. The rest (roughly three-quarters) of Christian Kuwaitis make up the second group. They are more recent arrivals in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly Kuwaitis of Palestinian ancestry who were forced out of Palestine after 1948.[288] There are also smaller numbers who originally hail from Syria and Lebanon.[288] This second group is not as assimilated as the first group, as their food, culture, and Arabic dialect still retain a Levant feel. However, they are just as patriotic as the former group, and tend to be proud of their adopted homeland, with many serving in the army, police, civil, and foreign service. Most of Kuwait's citizen Christians belong to 12 large families, with the Shammas (from Turkey) and the Shuhaibar (from Palestine) families being some of the more prominent ones.[288]
Left to right: Christian mountain dweller from Zahlé, Christian mountain dweller of Zgharta, and a Druze (1873)
Lebanon holds the largest number of Christians in the Arab world proportionally and falls just behind Egypt in absolute numbers. About 350,000-450,000 of Christians in Lebanon are
Orthodox and Melkites, while the most dominant group are Maronites with about 1 million population, whose Arab identity is contentiously disputed.[289] Lebanese Christians are the only Christians in the Middle East with a sizable political role in the country. In accordance with the National Pact, the President of Lebanon must be a Maronite Christian, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and Deputy Prime Minister a Greek Orthodox Christian and Melkites and Protestants have nine reserved seats in the Parliament of Lebanon.[290] The Maronites and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.[291]
Christians constituted 60% of the population of Lebanon in 1932.
Roman times. The Coptic population in Libya is estimated to number 60,000.[293] A 2015 estimates some 1,500 Christian believers from a Muslim background residing in the country.[294]
U.S. State Department estimates the number of Arab and Berber Christians in Morocco as more than 40,000.[298] Pew-Templeton estimates the number of Moroccan Christians at 20,000.[299] The number of the Moroccans who converted to Christianity (most of them secret worshippers)[300] are estimated between 8,000 and 50,000.[301]
Ghassanid Arabs and Greeks who settled in the region. Between 36,000 and 50,000 Christians live in Palestine, most of whom belong to the Orthodox (Including Greek, Syriac and Armenian Orthodox), Catholic (Roman and Melchite) churches and Evangelical communities. The majority of Palestinian Christians live in the Bethlehem and Ramallah areas with a less number in other places.[302] In 2007, just before the Hamas takeover of Gaza, there were 3,200 Christians living in the Gaza Strip.[303] Half the Christian community in Gaza fled to the West Bank and abroad after the Hamas take-over in 2007.[304] However, Palestinian Christians in Gaza face restrictions on their freedom of movement by the Israeli blockade, which has been cited as one of the reasons contributing to their dwindling numbers.[305]Christians from Gaza
Many Palestinian Christians hold high-ranking positions in Palestinian society, particularly at the political and social levels. They manage the high ranking schools, universities, cultural centers and hospitals, however, Christian communities in the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip have greatly dwindled over the last two decades. The causes of the Palestinian Christian exodus are widely debated and it started since the Ottoman times.[306]Reuters reports that many Palestinian Christians emigrate in pursuit of better living standards.[302] The Vatican saw the Israeli occupation and the general conflict in the Holy Land as the principal reasons for the Christian exodus from the territories.[307] The decline of the Christian community in Palestine follows the trend of Christian emigration from the Muslim-dominated Middle East. Some churches have attempted to ameliorate the rate of emigration of young Christians by building subsidized housing for them and expanding efforts at job training.[308]
There were approximately 1.1 million Catholics in Sudan, about 3.2 percent of the total population. Sudan forms one ecclesiastical province, consisting of one archdiocese (the
Diocese of El Obeid). The vast majority of Sudan's Catholics ended up in South Sudan after the partition.[314]
Greek Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic, as well as some Latin Church Catholics. Non-Arab Syrian Christians include Assyrians/Syriacs (mainly in the northeast), Greeks and Armenians. Assyrian Iraqi Christian refugees fled to Syria after massacres in Turkey and Iraq during and after WWI and then post-2003. Due to the Syrian civil war, a large number of Christians fled the country to Lebanon, Jordan, and Europe, though the major share of the population still resides in Syria (some being internally displaced). Western Aramaic is spoken by Arab Christians and Muslims alike in remote villages in Syria, including Maaloula, Jubb'adin and Bakhah.[315]
The largest Christian denomination in Syria is the Greek Orthodox church, most of whom are Arab Christians, followed in second place by the Syriac Orthodox, many of whose followers espouse an Assyrian identity.[316] The combined population of Syria and Lebanon in 1910 was estimated at 30% in a population of 3.5 million. According to the 1960 census in Syria which recorded just over 4.5 million inhabitants, Christians formed just under 15% of the population (or 675,000).[317] Since 1960 the population of Syria has increased five-fold, but the Christian population only 3.5 times. Due to political reasons, no newer census has been taken since. Most recent estimates prior to the Syrian civil war suggested that overall Christians were about 10% of the overall population of Syrian 23 million citizens, due to having lower birth rates and higher emigration rates than their Muslim compatriots.[318]
Although religious freedom is allowed in the Syrian Arab Republic, all citizens of Syria including Christians, are subject to the Shari'a-based personal status laws regulating child custody, inheritance, and adoption.[316] For example, in the case of divorce, a woman loses the right to custody of her sons when they reach the age of thirteen and her daughters when they reach the age of fifteen, regardless of religion.[316]
Christianity came in Tunisia during Roman rule. However, after the arrival of Islam, the population of Christians decreased in the country.[319] Prior to Tunisian independence, Tunisia was home to 255,000 Christian Europeans (mostly of Italian and Maltese ancestry).[320] The International Religious Freedom Report of 2007 reported that the Christian community numbered 50,000 people, 20,000 of whom were Catholics.[321] In the Annuario Pontificio of 2018, the number of Catholics is estimated to have risen to 30,700.[322] However, the number of Tunisian Christians is estimated to be around 23,500.[323]
The Catholic Church in Tunisia operates 12 churches, 9 schools and several libraries throughout the country. In addition to holding religious services, the Catholic Church opened a monastery, freely organized cultural activities, and performed charitable work throughout Tunisia. According to church leaders, there are 2,000 practicing Protestant Christians,[321] most of them are Tunisians who converted to Christianity.[324] There is also a small community of Jehovaha's Witnesses numbering around 50, only half of which identify as Arab.[321]
Today, there are more than 120,000–320,000 people of various
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. Turkey is also home to a number of non-Arab Armenians (who number around 70,000),[327]Greeks (who number around 5,000 not including Antiochian Greeks) and Assyrian Christians in the southeast (who number more than 25,000).[328] The village of Tokaçlı in Altınözü District has an entirely Arab Christian population and is one of the few Christian villages in Turkey.[329]
^"Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 8 November 2017. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021. Egypt has the Middle East's largest Orthodox population (an estimated 4 million Egyptians, or 5% of the population), mainly members of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
^Haber et al. 2013. Quote:1-"We show that religious affiliation had a strong impact on the genomes of the Levantines. In particular, conversion of the region's populations to Islam appears to have introduced major rearrangements in populations' relations through admixture with culturally similar but geographically remote populations, leading to genetic similarities between remarkably distant populations like Jordanians, Moroccans, and Yemenis. Conversely, other populations, like Christians and Druze, became genetically isolated in the new cultural environment. We reconstructed the genetic structure of the Levantines and found that a pre-Islamic expansion Levant was more genetically similar to Europeans than to Middle Easterners." 2-"The predominantly Muslim populations of Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians cluster on branches with other Muslim populations as distant as Morocco and Yemen." 3-Lebanese Christians and all Druze cluster together, and Lebanese Muslims are extended towards Syrians, Palestinians, and Jordanians, which are close to Saudis and Bedouins."
^Stated in the book “The Genealogy of the Arabs” by Salama bin Muslim
^Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, 6th ed. (Macmillan and St. Martin's Press, 1967), pp. 78–84 (on the Ghassanids and Lakhmids) and pp. 87–108 (on Yemen and the Hijaz).
the History of Al-Masoudi and the biography of the Messenger by Ibn Hisham
^Grmek, Mirko D.; Fantini, Bernardino (1998). Western Medical Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Harvard University Press. p. 145.:"Hunayn ibn Ishaq was able to satisfy their needs. Of Christian Arab descent, he had spent many years of his life in Byzantine territory, in pursuit of his studies, most probably in Constantinople."
. Neither were there any Muslims among the Ninth-Century translators. Amost all of them were Christians of various Eastern denominations: Jacobites, Melchites, and, above all, Nestorians.
. Retrieved 6 December 2022. The first signs of Arab dissent from the Ottoman caliphate came in the winter of 1877 - 1878 and coincided with the Ottoman Empire's decisive military defeat at the hands of Russia. Frightened by the prospect of a total Ottoman collapse, a group of Syrian notables headed by Ahmad al-Sulh of Beirut held secret meetings towards the end of 1877 to discuss the future of Syria and the possible threat of foreign annexation. The notables agreed that if the Russo-Ottoman war were to lead to the end of the Ottoman presence in Syria, they would work for the full independence of the vilayet and proclaim Amir 'Abdulqädir, a distinguished Algerian exile in Damascus, its ruler... From 1877 to 1878 Amir Abdulgadir was also in communication with Yüsuf Bek Karam, a Maronite notable from Lebanon, concerning a similar but not identical plan for the independence of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. According to Fritz Steppat, who has examined the Karam-'Abdulqädir correspondence, Karam proposed the separation of the Arab provinces from the Ottoman Empire and the appointment of Abdulgädir as their ruler. Steppat is convinced that "Abdulgädir accepted Karam's proposals in principle and that the conversation on the matter with him lasted a long time".
^Steppat, Fritz (1969). "Eine Bewegung unter den Notabeln Syriens 1877-1878: Neues Licht auf die Entstehung des Arabischen Nationalismus". Zeitschrift: Supplementa (in German) (1). Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft; F. Steiner Verlag. Retrieved 6 December 2022. Aus den Dokumenten geht klar hervor, daß Karam sich bemühte, den Emir für eine Aktion zu gewinnen, die den Arabern - Karam spricht gewöhnlich von al-gins al-'arabi, der „arabischen Rasse", oder von al-gaba'il al-arabiya, den „arabischen Stämmen" - wenigstens die „Wahrung ihrer Rechte" im Osmanischen Reich verschaffen sollte, worunter er offenbar eine Art Autonomie verstand. Da aber die Türken sich als ungerecht erwiesen hätten und die islamische Saria vernachlässigten, stellt er als das erstrebenswertere Ziel eine Lösung der arabischen Länder vom Osmanischen Reich hin. Weil die Araber nur durch Einigkeit zu ihren Rechten kommen können, und weil die „islamischen Stämme" unter ihnen zahlenmäßig überwiegen, akzeptiert Karam ausdrücklich eine islamische Regierung
^Merrill, A. Fisher, John Calhoun, Harold. The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers. la University of Michigan. p. 52.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Teague, Michael (2010). "The New Christian Question". Al Jadid Magazine. 16 (62). Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
^Oualalou, Lamia (1 July 2017). "Being Arab in Latin America". Le Monde diplomatique. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
^"Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 8 November 2017. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021. Egypt has the Middle East's largest Orthodox population (an estimated 4 million Egyptians, or 5% of the population), mainly members of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
^"Coptic Christianity in Egypt". rlp.hds.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2021. The Coptic Church experienced a religious revival beginning in the 1950s, and currently claims some seven million members inside of Egypt.
from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
^ abcdeRoberson, Ronald G. "The Eastern Catholic Churches 2017"(PDF). Eastern Catholic Churches Statistics. Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
^Baarda 2020, pp. Section 5"The Syriac Orthodox and Paul Bihnām's al-Mashriq: Holders of a Middle Position... The Arab nationalism they supported did not discriminate according to religion and was therefore also acceptable to them, even if it recognized the special relationship between the Arabic language and Islam."
^ ab"Chaldeans". Minority Rights Group. 19 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
^Baarda 2020, pp. Section 4"The Chaldean Patriarchate and Sulaymān Ṣāʾigh's al-Najm: Strong Commitment to the State and its Arab Identity... The Arab nationalism they supported did not discriminate according to religion and was therefore also acceptable to them, even if it recognized the special relationship between the Arabic language and Islam."
^ abBaarda 2020, pp. Section 3"The Assyrians around Joseph de Kelaita: Arabic for Practical Purposes... I will start my discussion with the Syriac Christian group that shows the least enthusiasm in using the Arabic language and assimilating to an Arab identity."
. Christian theology generally interprets male circumcision to be an Old Testament rule that is no longer an obligation ... though in many countries (especially the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa, but not so much in Europe) it is widely practiced among Christians
. Uniformly practiced by Jews, Muslims, and the members of Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean Orthodox Churches, male circumcision remains prevalent in many regions of the world, particularly Africa, South and East Asia, Oceania, and Anglosphere countries.
. For most part, Christianity dose not require circumcision of its followers. Yet, some Orthodox and African Christian groups do require circumcision. These circumcisions take place at any point between birth and puberty.
. It is obligatory among Jews, Muslims, and Coptic Christians. Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians do not require circumcision. Starting in the last half of the 19th century, however, circumcision also became common among Christians in Europe and especially in North America.
^ abcDepartment Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs (14 September 2007). "Tunisia". 2001-2009.state.gov. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
Seth J. Frantzman, The Strength and the Weakness: The Arab Christians in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 War, unpublished M.A thesis at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
from the original on 21 May 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
Itamar Katz and Ruth Kark, 'The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and its congregation: dissent over real estate' in The International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 37, 2005.
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