Arab Christians

Arab Christians
مسيحيون عرب

File:Michel Aflaq.jpg File:Suleiman1.jpg File:Shakira Milano Italy.jpg Khalil Gibran • Michel Aflaq • Fairuz Ralph Nader • Suleiman Mousa • Salma Hayek • Tony Shaloub • Shakira • Carlos Menem • Carlos Ghosn
Total population
30,000,000-35,000,000 7.1 - 10% of the Arab population Regions with significant populations: Syria:    2,000,000 Lebanon:    1,300,000 Iraq:    1,000,000 Jordan:    370,000 Canada:    350,000 EU:    350,000 Australia:    140,000 Israel:    122,000 Palestinian Authority:    75,500
Languages
Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, other European languages
Religion
Roman Catholic Church , Melkite Greek Catholic Church , Greek Orthodox Church , Greek Catholic Church , Maronite Catholic Christian, Protestant Church , Syriac Orthodox Church , Syriac Catholic Church
Related ethnic groups
Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people

Arab Christians are Christians who maintain Arabic as the primary language of their community. Large numbers of Arab Christians can be found in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Emigrants from Arab Christian communities make up a significant portion of the Middle Eastern diaspora, with high population concentrations in the Americas, particularly in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and the United States.

Identity

Mosaic depicting Mary holding an Arabic text, Convent of Our Lady, a Greek Orthodox Church in Sednaya, Syria

Arab Christians are culturally, linguistically and ethnically speaking Arab and are adherents of the Christian faith. Arab Christians are indigenous to the Arab world, with a presence there predating the 7th century Islamic expansion in Western Asia. Many Arab Muslims today were originally Arab Christians who converted to Islam for various reasons, chief among them, avoiding the payment of jizya, a tax for non-Muslim populations under Muslim rule. Most Levantine Christians are ethnic Arabs descended from the Kahlani Qahtani tribes of ancient Yemen (i.e. Ghassanids, Lakhmids, Banu Judham and Hamadan).

The majority of the Maronite Patriarchs for the last 10 centuries descended from the widely known noble Qahtani Ghassanid Arabs that ruled the Levant in the Roman/Byzantine era and even some Frankish/Ghassanids.

Arab Christians made significant contributions to the Arab civilization and still do. Some of the top poets at certain times were Arab Christians, and many Arab Christians were physicians, writers, government officials, and people of literature.

There have been occasional claims that the Maronites can trace their ancestry to Phoenicians. The Maronites were inhabitants of Orontes (Al-Assi) valley in Syria. They may be descendants of some Arab tribes which never converted to Islam or of a portion of Arameans. The eminent Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi (incidentally, a Christian) in his 'A House of Many Mansions' [1988] states (ch. 6): "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.. Certainly, since the 14th century, their language has been Arabic. Syriac, which is the Christian literary form of Aramaic, was originally the liturgical language of all the Semitic Christian sects, in Arabia as well as in the Levant and Mesapotamia."

There is also a portion of Arabic-speaking Christians which belong to the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people ethnic group. They use Syriac-Aramaic in their liturgy and some still speak it as a language. They are a separate ethnicity.

Some of the most influential secular Arab nationalists were Levantine Greek Orthodox Christians like Michel Aflaq, founder of the Baath Party, George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Constantin Zureiq.

History

Christian martyr Saint Abo, the patron saint of Tbilisi

The first mention of Christianity in Arab lands occurs in the New Testament as the Apostle Paul refers to his journey in Arabia following his conversion (Galatians 1: 15-17). Later, Eusebius of Caesarea discusses a bishop named Beryllus in the see of Bostra, the site of a synod c. 240. Christians existed in Arab-speaking lands from the third century onward. Some modern scholars suggest that Philip the Arab was the first Christian emperor of Rome. By the fourth century a significant number of Christians occupied the Sinai peninsula, Mesopotamia and Arabia. Others say that the first Christian ruler in history was an Arab called Abgar VIII of Edessa, who converted.

Throughout many eras of history, Arab Christians have co-existed fairly peacefully with their fellow non-Christian Arabic-speaking neighbours, principally Muslims and Jews. Even after the rapid expansion of Islam from the 7th century AD onwards through the Islamic conquests, many Christians chose not to convert to Islam and instead maintain their pre-existing beliefs.

As "People of the Book", Christians in the region are accorded certain rights by theoretical Islamic law (Shari'ah) to practice their religion free from interference or persecution; that was, however, strictly conditioned with first paying a special amount of money (tribute) obliged from non-Muslims called 'Jizyah' (pronounced Jiz-ya), in form of either cash or goods, usually a wealth of animals, in exchange for their safety and freedom of worship. The tax was not levied on slaves, women, children, monks, the old, the sick, hermits, or the poor.

Arab Christians, and Arabic-speaking Jews for that matter, predate Arab Muslims, as there were many Arab tribes which adhered to Christianity since the first century, including the Nabateans and the Ghassanids. The latter were of Qahtani origin and spoke Yemeni-Arabic as well as Greek who protected the south-eastern frontiers of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in north Arabia.

The tribes of Tayy, Abd Al-Qais, and Taghlib were also known to have included a large number of Christians prior to Islam. The Yemenite city of Najran was also a center of Arabian Christianity, and were made famous by virtue of their persecution by one of the kings of Yemen, Dhu Nawas, who was himself an enthusiastic convert to Judaism. The leader of the Arabs of Najran during the period of persection, Al-Harith, was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as St. Aretas.

Arab Christians today

File:Maroun04.jpg

St. Maron (died sometime between 406 and 423), founder of the Maronite spiritual movement. Since the 17th century, his feast day has been celebrated on 9 February.

Lebanon

The earliest indisputable tradition of Christianity in Lebanon can be traced back to Saint Maron in the 4^th century CE, the founder of national and ecclesiastical Maronitism. Saint Maron adopted an ascetic recluse life on the banks of the Orontes river in the vicinity of Homs–Syria and founded a community of monks which began to preach the gospel in the surrounding areas. The Saint Maron Monastery was too close to Antioch to enable the monks freedom and autonomy which prompted Saint John Maron, the first Maronite patriarch-elect to lead his monks into the Lebanese mountains to escape emperor Justinian II’s persecution; the Maronites monks finally settled in the Qadisha valley.During the Arab conquest the Christians, particularly the Maronites were persecuted, the persecution culminated during the Umayyad caliphate; nevertheless the influence of the Maronite establishment spread throughout the Lebanese mountains and became a considerable feudal force. It wasn’t until the Crusades that the western world knew of the existence of the Maronites. In the 16^th century, the Maronite Church adopted the catechism of the Catholic Church and merged with it.

Lebanon holds the largest number of Arab Christians in the Arab world in proportion to its total population. It is known that they made up around 55% of Lebanon's population before the Lebanese Civil War, but their percentage today may be as low as 40% now (1,800,000), however of the estimated 16,000,000 strong diaspora, they form a majority. Lebanese Arab Christians belong mostly to the Maronite Catholic Church, with sizable minorities of Greek Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholics, among others. There are also many Roman Catholics in the country due to French rule, and most of them are of French descent. There is, however, uncertainty about the exact numbers because no official census has been made in Lebanon since 1932.

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

Syria

In Syria, Christians formed just under 15% of the population (about 1.2 million people) under the 1960 census, but no newer census has been taken. Current estimates put them at about 10% of the population (2,000,000), due to lower rates of birth and higher rates of emigration than their Muslim compatriots. Most Christians are Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic, with some Syriac Christians.

Jordan

In Jordan, Christians constitute about 7% of the population (about 400,000 people), though the percentage dropped sharply from 18% in the early beginning of the twentieth century. This drop is largely due to influx of Muslim Arabs from Hijaz after the First World War, the low birth rates in comparison with Muslims and the large numbers of Palestinians (85-90% Muslim) who fled to Jordan after 1948. Nearly 70-75% of Jordanian Christians belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, while the rest adhere to Catholicism with a small minority adhering to Protestantism. 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. Moreover, Christians enjoy more economic and social opportunity in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan than elsewhere in Southwest Asia. Although they constitute less than ten per cent of the total population, they have 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.

Jordanian Christians are allowed by the public and private sectors to leave their work to attend Divine Liturgy or Mass on Sundays. All Christian religious ceremonies are publicly celebrated in Jordan. 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.

Israel, the West Bank and Gaza

Mariam of Abellin

About 75,500 Palestinian Christians live in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with about 122,000 Palestinian Christians living in Israel and an estimated 400,000 Palestinian Christians living in the Palestinian diaspora. Both the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Habash, and the founder if its offshoot, the DFLP, Nayif Hawatmeh, were Christians, as is prominent Palestinian activist and former Palestinian Authority minister Hanan Ashrawi.

North Africa

There are tiny communities of Roman Catholics in Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and Morocco because of French rule for Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, Spanish rule for Morocco, and Italian rule for Libya. Most of the members in North Africa, however, are foreign missionaries or immigrant workers and people of French, Spanish, and Italian colonial descent, while only a minority among them are converted Arabs (or their descendants) or descendants of converted Berbers, often brought to Christian (Catholic) belief during the modern era or under French colonialism. Charles de Foucauld was renowned for his missions in North Africa among Muslims, including African Arabs.

Many millions of Arab Christians also live in a diaspora elsewhere in the world. These include such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia,Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic and the United States. The majority of self-identifying Arab Americans are Eastern Rite Catholic or Orthodox, according to the Arab American Institute. On the other hand, most American Muslims are black or of South Asian (Indian or Pakistani) origin. There are also many Arab Christians in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom,France (due to its historical connections with Lebanon and North Africa), and Spain (due to its historical connections with north Morocco), and to a lesser extent, Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Greece.

Doctrine

Like Arab Muslims and Arab Jews, Arab Christians refer to God as Allah, since this is the word in Arabic for "God". The use of the term Allah in Arab Christian churches predates Islam by several centuries. In more recent times (especially since the mid 1800s), some Arabs from the Levant region have been converted from these native, traditional churches to more recent Protestant ones, most notably Baptist and Methodist churches. This is mostly due to an influx of Western, predominantly American Evangelical, missionaries.

Prominent Arab Christians

• Suleiman Mousa, prominent historian and author of "Biography of Major T.E. Lawrence: An Arab View" (Jordanian, Catholic Christian).
• George Wassouf, Syrian singer, (Syrian Christian).
• Edward Said, prominent intellectual and writer (Palestinian, Protestant Christian).
• Constantin Zureiq, prominent intellectual and academic, (Syrian, Greek Orthodox Christian).
• George Habash, founder of PFLP, (Palestinian, Greek Orthodox Christian).
• Nayef Hawatmeh, founder of DFLP, (Palestinian, Greek Orthodox Christian).
• Afif Safieh, Palestinian ambassador to the United States (no diplomatic status), (Palestinian, Greek Catholic Christian).
• Said Khoury, entrepreneur, co-founder of the Consolidated Contractors International Company, (Palestinian,Greek Orthodox Christian).
• Yousef Beidas, prominent Financier, (Palestinian, Greek Orthodox Christian).
• John Sununu, US political leader, (Palestinian-Lebanese, Greek Catholic Christian).
• Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian scholar and politic activist, (Palestinian, Anglican Christian).
• Steve Bracks Australian State MP, Premier of Victoria, Australia, (Lebanese, Catholic Christian).
• René Angélil, Canadian producer and husband of Céline Dion, (Lebanese-Syrian, Greek Catholic Christian). [1]
• Carlos Menem, president of Argentina from 1988 to 1999, (Syrian, converted to Roman Catholic from Islam)
• Emile Habibi, writer, (Arab citizens of Israel, Protestant Christian)
• Azmi Bishara, former Knesset member, (Arab citizen of Israel, Greek Orthodox Christian)
• Azmi Nassar, manager of the Palestinian national football team, (Arab citizen of Israel, Greek Orthodox Christian)
• Salim Tuama, Hapoel Tel Aviv middlefielder, (Arab citizen of Israel, Greek Orthodox Christian)
• Simon Shaheen, oud and violin virtuoso and composer, (Arab citizen of Israel, Greek Catholic Christian)
• Salim Jubran, member of the Israeli Supreme Court, Arab citizen of Israel, Maronite (Christian)
• Walid Shoebat, former Palestinian terrorist, (converted to Christianity from Islam)
• Ralph Nader, US Presidential candidate and consumers' rights activist (son of Lebanese Christian immigrants, but declines to comment on personal religion)
• Hani Naser, musician,producer (son of Jordanian Christian Immigrants)
• Shakira, international superstar daughter of Lebanese father from Zahle and Colombian mother.
• Tony Shalhoub, three-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning American television and film actor. (Lebanese, Maronite Christian)
• Marie Keyrouz, chanter of Oriental Church music, (Melkite-Maronite nun). Founder of L'Ensemble de la Paix (Ensemble of Peace) and Founder-President of L'Instituit International de Chant Sacré (International Institute of Sacred Chant) in Paris.
• Gibran Khalil Gibran, prominent poet and writer (Lebanese, Maronite Christian), was very proud of his heritage and a lot of his writings reflected this. He is described as, "The most famous Arab American literary figure ..."
• Marie Keyrouz, chanter of Oriental Church music, (Melkite-Maronite nun). Founder of L'Ensemble de la Paix (Ensemble of Peace) and Founder-President of L'Instituit International de Chant Sacré (International Institute of Sacred Chant) in Paris.
• Tony Shalhoub, three-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning American television and film actor. (Lebanese, Maronite Christian)
• Julio César Turbay, president of Colombia from 1978 to 1982, (Lebanese Maronite Christian)
• Carlos Slim Helú, Mexican billionaire, (Lebanese Maronite Christian)
• Bruno Bichir and Demián Bichir, Mexican actors, (Lebanese Maronite Christians)
• Salma Hayek, Mexican-American actress (Lebanese, Roman Catholic)

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• Najwa Karam, Lebanese singer, (Lebanese, Maronite Christian).
• Paul Anka, Lebanese-Canadian singer, (Lebanese, Syriac Orthodox Christian).
• Émile Lahoud, President of Lebanon, (Lebanese, Maronite Christian).
• Carlos Ghosn, French-Brazilian industrialist, CEO of Nissan and Renault, (Lebanese, Maronite Christian).
• Elias Farah, Iraqi philosopher, (Syrian, Greek Orthodox Christian).
• Issam Fares, prominent Businessman and Politician, (Lebanese, Greek Orthodox Christian).
• Michel Pharaon, prominent Businessman and Politician, (Lebanese, Greek Catholic Christian).
• Amin al-Rihani, writer and intellectual, (Lebanese, Maronite Christian).
• Afif Safieh, Palestinian ambassador to the United States (no diplomatic status), (Palestinian, Greek Catholic Christian).

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See also

• Christianity in the Middle East
• List of Christian terms in Arabic
• Lakhmids
• Arab Orthodox
• Sophronius
• John of Damascus

External links

• Arabic Christians Community
• Gathering Middle East Christians
• Arab-Christian Heritage
• Arab World Studies Notebook
• The Arabic-speaking Christians: From the Eastern Question to the Recent Political Situation of the Minorities (article)
• The Arabic-speaking Christians of the Middle East: A Demographic Perspective (article)