Christianity in the Middle East

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Christians in the Middle East
)

Middle Eastern Christians
Religion
Christianity

[a].^ (excluding foreign residents)
Christian percentage per country[24][25][26]
Country Percent
 Cyprus
98.8%
 Lebanon
35%
 Kuwait
18.2%
 Egypt
15%
 Bahrain
14.3%
 Qatar
13.8%
 UAE
13%
 Palestine
6%
 Jordan
6%
 Israel
3.5%
 Syria
3%
 Iraq
2.5%
 Iran
2%
 Turkey
0.2%

Relative size of Christian traditions in the Middle East & North Africa.[3]

  Catholic (43.5%)
  Protestant (13.5%)
  Other Christian (0.1%)

Copts), at around 10% of its total population. Copts, numbering around 10 million, constitute the single largest Christian community in the Middle East.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

The

Dohuk, Erbil and Jordan due to ISIS forcing the Assyrian and Syriac Christian community out of their historical homeland, but since the defeat of the Islamic State in 2017, Christians began to slowly return.[31]

The next largest Christian group in the Middle East are the once

Aramaic speaking and now Arabic-speaking Maronites who are Catholics and number some 1.1–1.2 million across the Middle East, mainly concentrated within Lebanon. In Israel, Maronites together with smaller Aramaic-speaking Christian populations of Syriac Orthodox and Greek Catholic adherence are legally and ethnically classified as either Arameans or Arabs
, per their choice.

Eastern Catholic Church. They number over 1 million in the Middle East. They came into existence as a result of a schism
within the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch due to the election of a Patriarch in 1724.

Armenians are present in the Middle East, and their largest community, estimated to have 200,000 members, is located in Iran.[32] The number of Armenians in Turkey is disputed and a wide range of estimates is given as a result. More Armenian communities reside in Lebanon, Jordan and to a lesser degree in other Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq, Israel, Egypt and formerly also Syria (until Syrian Civil War). The Armenian genocide which was committed by the Ottoman government both during and after World War I, drastically reduced the once sizeable Armenian population.[33]

Greeks, who had once inhabited large parts of the western Middle East and Asia Minor, declined in number after the Arab conquests, then suffered another decline after the Turkish conquests, and all but vanished from Turkey as a result of the Greek genocide and the expulsions which followed World War I. Today, the largest Middle Eastern Greek community resides in Cyprus and numbers around 793,000.[13] Cypriot Greeks constitute the only Christian majority state in the Middle East, although Lebanon was founded with a Christian majority in the first half of the 20th century.

Smaller Christian groups in the Middle East include

Mandeans and Shabaks.[citation needed
]

Christians are

Islamic world.[35][36][37] Christian communities have played a vital role in the Middle East.[38] Middle Eastern Christians are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate,[39] as they have today an active role in social, economic, sporting and political spheres in their societies in the Middle East.[40] Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians in the Middle East have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam, and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the Mashriq, Turkey, and Iran.[40][41]

History

Evangelization and early history

Alexandria. The Greek-speaking Mediterranean region was a powerhouse for the Early Church, producing many revered Church Fathers as well as those who became labelled as heresiarchs, such as Nestorius
.

From

).

Politically, the Middle East of the first four Christian centuries was divided between the

Western Aramaic dialects spoken by their co-religionists just across the Roman border, but with Akkadian
influences.

Legendary accounts are of the evangelization of the East by

Edessa, Nisibis and Arbela. Translation of the scriptures into Syriac began early in this region, with a Jewish group (probably non-rabbinic) producing a translation of the Hebrew Bible becoming the basis of the Church of the Easts Christian Peshitta. Syriac Christianity is most famous for its poet-theologians, Aphrahat, Ephrem, Narsai and Jacob of Serugh
.

).

Eusebius (EH 6:20) also mentions the appointment of a bishop and the holding of a

Yathrib
before the advent of Islam.

Christianity came to

Asia Minor, as demonstrated by the Greek and Assyrian-Syriac origin of Christian terms in early Armenian texts. Eusebius (EH 6:46, 2) mentions Meruzanes as the bishop of the Armenians around 260. Following the conversion of King Trdat III to Christianity (circa 301), Gregory the Illuminator was consecrated Bishop of Armenia in 314. Armenians continue to celebrate their church as the oldest national church. Gregory was consecrated at Caesarea in Cappadocia
.

  Spread of Christianity to AD 325
  Spread of Christianity to AD 600

The

Lazica (Egrisi) had closer ties to Constantinople, and its bishops were by imperial appointment. Although the Lazican church originated around the same time as its Iberian neighbour, it was not until 523 when its king, Tzath, accepted the faith. The Iberian church was under the authority of the Patriarch of Antioch, until the reforming king Vakhtang Gorgasali set up an independent catholicos
in 467.

In 314, the

Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Sasanian capital, was recognised as leader of the Syriac and Greek-speaking Christians in the Persian empire, assuming the title catholicos, later patriarch
.

Christianity in

Axum. Evidence from coinage and other historical references point to the early 4th-century conversion of King Ezana of Axum as the establishment of Christianity, whence Nubia and other surrounding areas were evangelized, all under the oversight of the Patriarch of Alexandria
. In the 6th century, Ethiopian military might conquered a large portion of Yemen, strengthening Christian concentration in southern Arabia.

Schisms

The first major disagreement that led to a fracturing of the church was the so-called

First Council of Ephesus in 431. The result led to a crisis among the Antiochians, some of whom, including Nestorius himself, found protection in Persia, which continued to espouse traditional Antiochian theology. The schism led to the total isolation of the Persian-sphere Church of the East
, and the adoption of much Alexandrian theology in the Antiochian sphere of influence.

Some of the Alexandrian victors at Ephesus, however, began to push their anti-Nestorian agenda too far, of whom

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches – many Syriacs – the Syriac Orthodox Church – and the majority of Armenians – the Armenian Apostolic Church
.

The name

Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church
held to a moderate Antiochian doctrine through these schisms and began aligning itself with Byzantium from the early 7th century, and finally broke off ties with their Armenian non-Chalcedonian neighbours in the 720s. The term Melkite refers to the adherents of the Antiochene Greek Orthodox Patriarchy who switched allegiance to the Papacy in 1729 after a disputed election to the Patriarchal See in 1724 because the See of Constantinople which objected to the canonically-elected Patriarch Cyril who was considered to be too pro-Roman consecrated another candidate (until then the See was technically still in union with the Constantinople and Rome despite the split of 1054).

Muslim conquests

Largely extinct Church of the East and its largest extent during the Middle Ages

The Arab

Caliph Umar in 637 for the peaceful transfer of Jerusalem into Arab control (including the Umariyya Covenant
). Likewise, resistance to the Arab onslaught in Egypt was minimal. This seems to be more due to the war fatigue throughout the region rather than entirely due to religious differences.

After the conquests, Muslims initially remained a ruling minority within the conquered territories in the Middle East and North Africa. By the 12th century the non-Muslim population had become a minority.

Islamization of these regions during this period, as well as the speed at which conversions happened, is a complex subject that is not fully understood by historians.[44][43] Among other new rules, the Muslim rulers imposed a special poll tax, the jizya, on non-Muslims, which acted as an economic pressure to convert alongside other social advantages converts could gain in Muslim society.[44][45] In Egypt, Islamization was likely slower than in other Muslim-controlled regions,[43] with Christians likely constituting a majority of the population until the Fatimid period (10th to 12th centuries), though scholarly estimates on this issue are tentative and vary between authors.[43][46][47]

In the period prior to the establishment of Abbasid rule in AD 750, many pastoral Kurds moved into upper Mesopotamia, taking advantage of an unstable situation.

women. The Seljuks rewarded the Kurds for their support with land, and the Seljuk leader Sinjur renamed the region called Kirmanshah in Persia as Kurdistan. Mosul, historically a Christian city, was repeatedly attacked. The historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that 'the Kurds spoiled and spread horror everywhere'.[49] The historian Al Makrezi, referring to the situation that emerged after the Kurdish settlement in al Jazirah, wrote that "they were able to establish Kurdish centres as their shares for helping the Turkish race in their conquest". In time, Armenia and Assyria became "Kurdistan".[50] Afterwards happened the raids of Timur Lang, "whom the Kurds loyally followed and who enabled them to occupy the land of the Armenians, who were forcibly expelled". Timur Lang rewarded the Kurds by "settling them in the devastated regions, which until then had been inhabited by the followers of the Church of the East."[51]

Ottoman Empire

Henry Morgenthau, Sr. wrote, "Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces, in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms—massacre, starvation, exhaustion—destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation".[52]
Assyrian genocides were perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.[33]

The

.

The Ottomans reinforced their eastern frontier with what they "considered a loyal Sunni Kurd element". They settled the Kurds in these regions in return for their support in their campaigns against the Persians. In 1583

Çaldıran, and the newer ones that followed Nadir Shah's İnvasİon." Hence the Assyrians lost both land and numbers. After Nadir Shah's invasion, the "Assyrian tribes also faced further tightening of the Kurdish circle around their country".[57]

According to Adoona, "in the end, the independence of the Assyrian tribes was destroyed not directly by the Turks but by their Kurdish neighbours under Turkish auspices."[58]

Under European colonial rule

Persecution of Christians in Middle East

About 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the Armenian genocide in 1915–1918.

In spite of the fact that every country in the Middle East has at least a small number of worshippers of Christ from a Muslim background,

Arabic speakers themselves, Christians in the Middle East face persecution –in various grades, depending on the residence country– and are often isolated.[60]

The

.

More recently, the

Shia Muslims"; it was the first time since Darfur (2004) that the United States declared a genocide.[65]

Kurdish tribes in Turkey, Syria, and Iran have conducted regular raids against their Christian neighbors and even paramilitary assaults during World War I.

better source needed] A Kurdish chieftain assassinated the patriarch of the church of the East at the negotiation dinner in 1918, and the aftermath led to further decimation of the Christian population.[66]

Christians today

Bahrain

Sacred Heart Church in Manama

Bahrain's second largest religion is Christianity forming a minority of 14.5% of Bahrain.

Samahij was the seat of bishops. Bahrain was a center of Nestorian Christianity until al-Bahrain adopted Islam in 629 AD.[70] As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the Byzantine Empire
, but Bahrain was outside the Empire's control offering some safety.

The names of several of Muharraq Island's villages today reflect this Christian legacy, with Al Dair meaning "the monastery" or "the parish." In 410 AD, according to the Oriental Syriac Church synodal records, a bishop named Batai was excommunicated from the church in Bahrain.[71] Alees Samaan, the former Bahraini ambassador to the United Kingdom is a native Christian.[citation needed]

Egypt

St. Mark Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria

Most Christians in Egypt are

Ancient Egyptian language, written mainly in the Greek alphabet, is used as the liturgical language of all Coptic churches inside and outside of Egypt. Although ethnic Copts in Egypt now speak Egyptian Arabic (the Coptic language having ceased to be a working language by the 18th century), they believe in an Ancient Egyptian Coptic identity rather than an Arab identity (also referred to as Pharaonism). Copts reside mainly in Egypt, but also in Sudan and Libya, with tiny communities in Israel, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. Copts presently constitute the largest Christian population in the Middle East, generally estimated at 10–15% by officials, or in the 20 million range.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] However, as Egyptian censuses since 2006 have not reported religious affiliation due to being optional, along with the government acknowledging the census is not a proper representation of Christians, various Coptic groups and churches claim a higher number in the range of 15 to 23 million.[72][73][74][75][76][77]

Many Copts are internationally renowned. Some of the most well known Copts include

Orascom
.

Iraq

Corpus Christi in Iraq, 1920, attended by Assyrians and Armenians

Christianity has a long history in Iraq, with the early conversions of the indigenous

Assuristan) dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. This region was the birthplace of Eastern Rite (Assyrian Church of the East) Christianity, a flourishing Syriac literary tradition, and the centre of a missionary expansion that stretched as far as India, Central Asia and China
.

By one estimate, there was about 1.5 million largely Assyrian Christians in Iraq by 2003, or 7% of the population, but with the fall of Saddam Hussein Christians began to leave Iraq in large numbers, and the population shrank to less than 500,000 today.[61]

Assyrian Christians still made up the majority population in northern Iraq until the massacres conducted by

Turcoman
Christians.

Mor Mattai Monastery in Nineveh

The Iraqi Christian population is also declining due to lower birth rates and higher death rates than their Muslim compatriots. Since the 2003 invasion, Iraqi Christians suffer from lack of security. Many lived in the capital Baghdad and in Mosul prior to the

Protestant converts following the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church. The Iraqi former foreign minister and deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz (real name Michael Youkhanna) is probably the most famous Assyrian Iraqi Christian, along with the footballer Ammo Baba
. Assyrians in Iraq have traditionally excelled in business, sports, the arts, music, and the military.

Assyrians are distinct from other

Neo-Aramaic language and Syriac written script, and have maintained an Assyrian continuity from ancient times to the present, resisting the adoption of Arabic language and Arabization
.

In his recent PhD thesis

EU member states like Sweden, France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands). Mordechai Zaken wrote this important study from an analytical and comparative point of view, comparing the Assyrian Christians experience with the experience of the Kurdish Jews who had been dwelling in Kurdistan for two thousands years or so, but were forced to migrate the land to Israel in the early 1950s. The Jews of Kurdistan were forced to leave and migrate as a result of the Arab-Israeli war, as a result of the increasing hostility and acts of violence against Jews in Iraq and Kurdish towns and villages, and as a result of a new situation that had been built up during the 1940s in Iraq and Kurdistan in which the ability of Jews to live in relative comfort and relative tolerance (that was erupted from time to time prior to that period) with their Arab and Muslim neighbors, as they did for many years, practically came to an end. At the end, the Jews of Kurdistan had to leave their Kurdish habitat en masse and migrate into Israel. The Assyrian Christians on the other hand, came to similar conclusion but migrated in stages following each and every eruption of a political crisis with the regime in which boundaries they lived or following each conflict with their Muslim, Turkish, Arabs or Kurdish neighbors, or following the departure or expulsion of their patriarch Mar Shimon in 1933, first to Cyprus and then to the United States. Consequently, indeed there is still a small and fragile community of Assyrians in Iraq, however, millions of Assyrian Christians live today in exile in many communities in the West.[81]

Iran

West Azarbaijan province

Iran's Christian minority numbers some 300,000–370,000. Most are ethnic

Armenian Orthodox and Assyrian Church of the East Christianity respectively.[83] There are at least 600 churches serving the nation's Christian adherents.[84]

Christianity has a long history in Iran, dating back to

Assyrian genocide (by Ottoman troops crossing the border), Armenian genocide (by Ottoman troops crossing the border), the Iranian Revolution and the Iran–Iraq War
. Especially due to the two Ottoman-conducted genocides, regions where Christians even made up majorities or had a significant native historical presence for millennia, never became the same again. However, due to the same genocides, Iran's Christian community was boosted as well at the same time as many migrated to Iran from the Ottoman regions.

The most famous contemporary Christian of Iranian origin is probably the American tennis player Andre Agassi, who is ethnically Armenian-Assyrian. The "Armenian Monastic Ensemble", which includes several of the nation's most ancient Christian Armenian churches and monasteries, are inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list.

Israel

Catholic Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Arab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel[85]

Some 80% of Christians residing permanently in Israel are Arabs, numbering at least 180,400 as of 2019.

Greek Orthodox Christians with Russian and Ukrainian ancestry. Many Christian towns or neighborhoods were totally or partially destroyed during the creation of the State in the 1940s and 1950s such as Iqrith, Al bassa, kufur birim, Ma’loul, West Jerusalem neighborhoods, all residents of Safed, Beisan, Tiberias (including Christians), a big part of the Christians in Haifa, Jaffa, Lydda, Ramleh
and other places.

In recent years, the Christian population in Israel has increased significantly by presence of foreign workers from a number of countries (predominantly the Philippines and Romania).[citation needed] Numerous churches have opened in Tel Aviv, in particular.[88]

Nine churches are officially recognized under Israel's

.

Arab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel.

Jewish education system as a group.[85] The rate of students studying in the field of medicine was also higher among the Arab Christian students, compared with all the students from other sectors. The percentage of Arab Christian women who are higher education students is higher than other sectors.[89]

Jordan

John of Damascus an Arab monk and presbyter, 7th-century (Greek icon)

In Jordan, Christians constitute 6% of the population as of 2017 according to the Jordanian government.[90][91] This percentage represents a sharp decrease from a figure of 18% in the early 20th century. This drop is largely due to an influx of Muslim Arabs from the Hijaz after the First World War. Almost 50% of Jordanian Christians belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, 45% are Catholics,[92] with a small minority adhering to Protestantism. A part of Jordanian Christians have Palestinian roots since 1948. Christians are well integrated in the Jordanian society and have a high level of freedom. Nearly all Christians belong to the middle or upper classes.[citation needed] Moreover, Christians enjoy more economic and social opportunity in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan than elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. They have a disproportionately large representation in the Jordanian parliament (10% of the Parliament) and hold important government portfolios, ambassadorial appointments abroad, and positions of high military rank. A survey by a Western embassy found that half of Jordan's prominent business families were Christians. Christians run about a third of Jordan's economy.[93]

Jordanian Christians are allowed by the public and private sectors to leave work to attend Divine Liturgy or Mass on Sundays. All Christian religious ceremonies are publicly celebrated. Christians have established good relations with the royal family and the various Jordanian government officials and they have their own ecclesiastic courts for matters of personal status.

Most native Christians in Jordan identify themselves as Arab, though there are also non-Arab

Maronite
groups in the country.

Lebanon

Melkite Greek Catholics. Lebanese Christians are the only Christians in the Middle East with a sizable political role in the country. As a result of the National Pact the Lebanese president, half of the cabinet, and half of the parliament follow one of the various Lebanese Christian rites.[24]

Protestant Christian, some Maronites may have been descended from an Arabian tribe, who immigrated thousands of years ago from the Southern Arabian Peninsula. Salibi maintains "It is very possible that the Maronites, as a community of Arabian origin, were among the last Arabian Christian tribes to arrive in Syria before Islam".[96] As a matter of fact, Salibi bases his conclusions, not on scientific evidences or irrefutable historical facts, but rather on his pan Arabic ideology. Hence, the majority of Lebanese Maronite Christians rejects his ideas, and points out that they are of pre-Arab origin. As a further matter, recent studies confirmed the Lebanese (the Maronites especially) lineage to the Phoenicians/Canaanites by DNA genome study. The study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics shows that present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in the Levant since at least the Bronze Age.[97]

Many

Maronite Christians consider themselves of indigenous Phoenician
ancestry, arguing that their presence predates the arrival of Arabs in the region. Though they originate from the Orontes river near Homs, Syria and founded a community of monks who left the Syriac Orthodox church.

The

Catholics. While several Middle Eastern cities (Damascus, Cairo, Jerusalem
) have larger Christian communities, yet these do not constitute a majority.

The capital Beirut also has a larger Christian population than Bsharri (in the city proper), though most belong to the Orthodox confession.

Turkey

Hagia Triada Greek Orthodox Church, Istanbul

Christianity has a long history in

and many others. Two out of the five centers (Patriarchates) of the ancient Pentarchy are in Turkey: Constantinople (Istanbul) and Antioch (Antakya). The Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople still today has his residence in Istanbul. Antioch was also the place where the followers of Jesus were called "Christians" for the first time in history, as well as being the site of one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches, established by Saint Peter himself. For a thousand years, the Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world.

The Greeks of western Anatolia and Georgians of the Black Sea region have histories dating from the 20th and 10th centuries BC respectively, and were also Christianized during the first few centuries AD. Similarly the Assyrian and Armenian peoples have an ancient history in southeastern Anatolia, dating back to 2000 BC and 600 BC respectively; both of these peoples were Christianized between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD.

These ancient Christian ethnic groups were drastically reduced by

Assyrian genocide and Greek genocide) at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish army and their Kurdish allies. Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
is another reason.

The percentage of Christians in Turkey fell from 19 percent in 1914 or 3 million (thought to be an undercount by one-third omitting 600,000 Armenians, 500,000 Greeks and 400,000 Assyrians) to 2.5 percent in 1927 in a population of 14 million,

Antiochian Greeks,[103] 5,000 Greek Orthodox[101] and smaller numbers of Protestants (mostly ethnic Turkish).[104] Currently there are 236 churches open for worship in Turkey.[105] The Eastern Orthodox Church has been headquartered in Istanbul since the 4th century.[106][107]

Palestine

Married Eastern Orthodox priest from Jerusalem with his family (three generations), circa 1893

About 173,000 Arab

Palestinian Authority minister Hanan Ashrawi. Nowadays, 50% of all Palestinian Christians are Catholics.[92]

Over the last years, unlike the increase trend in the Christian population of Israel, the number of Christians in the Palestinian Authority has declined severely. The decline of Christianity in the Palestinian Authority is largely attributed to poor birth rates, compared with the dominant Muslim population. The updated number of Arab Christians in the Palestinian Authority is under 75,000.[8]

Gaza Strip

Since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, anti-Christian attitudes have been on the increase. Unlike in the Palestinian National Authority, the Hamas administration does not include Christians. From about 2,000[24]–3,000[108] Christians before Hamas takeover, as few as one thousand remain in the Gaza Strip under Hamas Administration.

Syria

Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Damascus

In Syria, Christians formed just under 15% of the population (about 1.2 million people) according to the 1960 census, but no newer census has been taken. Current estimates suggest that they now comprise about 3% of the population,

Syrian Civil War.[109]

Syrian Christians are largely Arab Christians in the bulk of the country, though some may identify as Arabized Greeks (Melkites and Orthodox Church of Antioch) and ethnic Arameans (among Jacobites). In the big cities there are many ethnic Armenians and in the northeastern Al-Hasakah Governorate the majority of the Christians are ethnic Assyrians.

Emigration

Most Arab Americans are Christian.

Many millions of Middle Eastern Christians currently live in the diaspora, elsewhere in the world. These include such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela among them. There are also many Middle Eastern Christians in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, France (due to its historical connections with Lebanon, Egypt, Syria), and to a lesser extent, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, and the Netherlands.

The largest number of Middle Eastern Christians residing in the diaspora is that of Lebanese Christians, who have migrated out of Lebanon for security and economic reasons since WWI. Many fled Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. The countries with significant Lebanese Christians include such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela among them.

Assyrian Christians currently reside in diaspora with large communities in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, reaching more than a million outside of the Middle East. Much of these is attributed to the massive Assyrian Christian exodus from northern Iraq following the 2003 invasion and the consequent

Syrian Civil War
.

Among the Arab Christians, about a million Palestinian Christians reside in the diaspora, largely in the Americas, where their communities have been established since the late 19th century and peaked following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. More emigrated from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War.

The majority of self-identifying

Eastern Rite Catholic or Orthodox Christian, according to the Arab American Institute
. On the other hand, most American Muslims are black (African Americans or Sub-Saharan Africans) or of South Asian (Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi) origin.

Churches

Coptic Christians

Coptic churches are mainly divided into:

Assyrian/Chaldean and Syriac/Aramean Christians

Many Christians in the Middle East are Semitic followers of Syriac Christianity, are ethnically and linguistically distinct from Arabs, and divided into:

  • Chaldo-Assyrians
    to avoid division on theological lines.
  • Nestorian Church) 1st century AD – Mainly found among the ethnic Assyrians
    of Iraq, Iran, south east Turkey and north east Syria.
  • Ancient Church of the East since the 20th century – An offshoot of the Assyrian Church of the East. Mainly found in Iraq, Iran, south east Turkey and north east Syria
  • Assyrian Evangelical Church – Made up of ethnic Assyrian converts to Protestantism, since the 20th century. Mainly found in Iraq, Iran, south east Turkey and north east Syria
  • Assyrian Pentecostal Church – Made up of ethnic Assyrian converts to Protestantism, since the 20th century. Mainly found in Iraq, Iran, south east Turkey and north east Syria
  • Syrian Malabar Nasranis
    .
  • Syriac Catholic Church since the 18th century. Mainly in Syria and Iraq.
  • Maronite Church, in union with Rome, since the 5th century AD (mainly living in Lebanon and with large diaspora)

Melkite/Greek Christians

Christians, belonging mostly to

Greek Orthodox and Melkite
churches:

All of them are mainly found in countries like Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and to a lesser degree in Turkey, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan.

Armenian Christians

There is also the

Armenian Church
with its divisions:

Armenia, historically, was the first state to accept Christianity. There are small numbers of Russian Orthodox and Assyrian Christians in Armenia also. Armenian Christians are also to be found in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf states as expats.

Kurdish Christians

The Kurdish-Speaking Church of Christ (The Kurdzman Church of Christ) is an Evangelical church with mainly Kurdish adherents.

Anglicans

The

Anglican
church responsible for the Middle East and North Africa. It is quite small, with only some 35,000 members throughout the area. The Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf looks after 30,000-40,000 Anglicans in the area and ministers to Protestants and others.

Turkish Christians

Expatriate Christians

Notable Middle Eastern Christians

Notable Christians of Middle Eastern ancestry in Middle East and Diaspora:

See also

References

  1. . Today, between 10–12 million native Christians remain in the Middle East, concentrated mainly in Egypt, the Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestine territories), and Iraq. Their numbers, however, continue to dwindle due to a variety of factors, both internal and external.
  2. . Today, Christians number between 12 million and 14 million in the Arab countries of the Middle East, although the exact population remains obscure given its politicization.
  3. ^ a b "Concern for Christians in the Middle East helps drive historic meeting between Catholic, Orthodox leaders". Pew Research Center. 11 February 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Middle East-North Africa – Countries in with the largest number of Christians 2010". Statista.
  5. ^ a b c "How many Christians are there in Egypt?". Pew Research Center. 16 February 2011. The best available census and survey data indicate that Christians now number roughly 5% of the Egyptian population, or about 4 million people.
  6. ^
    ISSN 2223-506X
    . Copts constitute 5.1% (95% confidence interval (CI): 4.6%–5.5%) of the population, while Muslims account for the remaining majority at 94.9%. Given that the current total Egyptian population is estimated to be 83,806,767, 21 the number of Copts in Egypt is then 4,274,145 (95% CI: 3,855,111–4,609,372).
  7. ^ a b c HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL, Religious literacy project. "Coptic Christianity in Egypt". RLP.HDS.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020. The Coptic Church experienced a religious revival beginning in the 1950s, and currently claims some seven million members inside of Egypt.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Guide: Christians in the Middle East". BBC News. 11 October 2011.
  9. ^ a b c "Who are Egypt's Coptic Christians?". CNN. 10 April 2017. The largest Christian community in the Middle East, Coptic Christians make up the majority of Egypt's roughly 9 million Christians. About 1 million more Coptic Christians are spread across Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the World Council of Churches.
  10. ^ a b c "Egypt". United States Department of State. The U.S. government estimates the population at 99.4 million (July 2018 estimate). Most experts and media sources state that approximately 90 percent of the population is officially designated as Sunni Muslims and approximately 10 percent is recognized as Christian (estimates range from 5 to 10 percent). Approximately 90 percent of Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, according to Christian leaders.
  11. ^ a b c "Excluded and Unequal". The Century Foundation. 9 May 2019. Copts are generally understood to make up approximately 10 percent of Egypt's population.
  12. ^ a b "Syria – International Religious Freedom Report 2006". U.S. Department of State. 2006. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
  13. ^ a b "2008 estimate". cia.gov. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
  14. ^ "Christians and Christian converts, Iran, December 2014, p.9" (PDF). Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  15. ^ "مسؤول مسيحي : عدد المسيحيين في العراق تراجع الى ثلاثمائة الف". www.ishtartv.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
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