The Melkites

The paper aims to offer a wide and dynamic overview of the development of the Melkite Catholic Church during the late Ottoman Empire up to extension of the Mandate system. The analysis will focus on detailing the relationship between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ through specific cases and examples of the relations between the Melkite Church and the Holy See. This dynamic exerted a great influence on the ecclesial identity of the Melkite Catholic Church and its position and role within both the late Ottoman Empire and the Middle East of the Mandate system, offering a complementary explanation of the vicissitudes experienced by Ottoman Arab Christians during those decades. The paper analyses this issue through the archival documents, part of the Siria, Greci Melchiti and Melkiti series, preserved in the Congregations de propaganda fide and pro Ecclesia Orientali Archives.

Grecy i Arabowie... autorstwa ks. Krzysztofa Kościelniaka to fascynująca książka prezentująca burzliwe dzieje melkickich patriarchatów Antiochii, Aleksandrii i Jerozolimy, które od czasu muzułmańskiej aneksji Syrii, Palestyny i Egiptu znalazły się nie tylko w świecie islamu, ale również na skrzyżowaniu wpływów Bizancjum i Rzymu. Czytelnik odkryje w niej wspaniałe dziedzictwo Kościoła melkickiego „rozdartego” pomiędzy zma­ganiem o przetrwanie pod rządami mu­zułmanów a chęcią rozwoju w zmiennych warunkach kolejnych państw islamskich. Autor ukazuje polityczne i teologiczne związki melkitów z Zachodem nie tylko w dobie krucjat, lecz na długo przed i po nich. Dzięki temu Kościoły melkickie jawią się jako wspólnoty dążące do pogodzenia teologicznej rangi papiestwa z wiernością własnej kulturze i tradycji grecko-syryjsko-arabskiej.

The present study examines the social history of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement from the perspective of the Christian communities that participated in it. Special attention is given to Melkite and Nestorian translators active in ʿAbbāsid Baghdad from the late eighth-century Melkite translator al-Biṭrīq to the famous ninth-century Nestorian translator Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and to the complex interactions between Melkites and Nestorians, which involved both competition and scholarly collaboration.

Abstract: The present article reports the discovery of a previously unknown ninth-century Arabic paraphrase of Dionysius the Areopagite and demonstrates that this paraphrase was accessible to al-Ġazālī (and, probably, to other authors, notably the Brethren of Purity). It also proves that this paraphrase was produced by the same translator as the Doxography of Pseudo-Ammonius. The doctrinal content of the Arabic Dionysian paraphrase is then analyzed in relation to Arabic Neoplatonic texts as well as al-Ġazālī's writings. The influence of Gregory of Nyssa and John of Damascus on Arabic philosophical texts (notably al-Kindī's Book of Definitions) is also considered. The origin of "Interpositional Neoplatonism" (i.e., the kind of Neoplatonism that interposes an intermediate hypostasis between the First Principle and the Intellect) is examined. The Appendix discusses the relationship between the Doxography of Pseudo-Ammonius and Hippolytus of Rome's Refutatio omnium haeresium.

The “Book of Sessions” (Kitāb al-majālis) of Elias of Nisibis, Metropolitan of the Church of the East (975–1046), with his Muslim vis-à-vis, vizier Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Maghribī (981–1027), is a remarkable example of the Christian Arabic literature of the 11th c.—the time of the flowering of the Arabic culture. In the present edition, it is compared with the “Epistle” of Elias to the vizier and some documents that reveal the history of the creation of the “Book” are also taken into consideration.

Although witnesses of the presanctified liturgy exist in almost all Eastern
traditions, so far, a complete liturgical text of an Alexandrian liturgy of
the presanctified gifts has not been published or made known. This study
will publish and analyze for the first time the only such text known in the
Alexandrian liturgical tradition, the Presanctified of Mark from the 13thcentury
codex Sinai ar. 237. The text appears in 3 folios of this codex, and
appears clearly to be a presanctified liturgy based on the Liturgy of St.
Mark in its Greek Melkite recension. This article includes the original Arabic
text, followed by an English translation, and a detailed analysis of the
liturgical units comprising this unique text that seeks to situate it in its
proper liturgico-historical context.

These are translated excerpts from my book
'The Byzantines and the Franks in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia'. 2015,
Vol. II. Chapter 1, sec. 5. P.41-55,
and my article
‘The Vanished Churches of Antioch’ in Panorama Iskysstv, 2017, which deal with the Patriarchal Cathedral at Antioch.

The present article surveys the early stages of the Graeco-Syro-Arabic Melkite translation movement in Antioch, from the first known translation (the Graeco-Syriac version of the Life of St. Symeon the Stylite the Younger, BHG 1689) dating to 827/8 AD to the Antiochene translators Ibrāhīm the protospatharios, Gregory of Dafnūnā, Chariton of Aršāyā, and Yūḥannā ʿAbd al-Masīḥ (the compiler of the Antiochene Menologion), all of them disciples of the martyred patriarch of Antioch Christopher (d.967). It provides new evidence on each of these translators. Significantly, it re-dates Yūḥannā ʿAbd al-Masīḥ to the early eleventh century.

La famille des Embriacs fit son apparition au Levant au début du XII e siècle. L'un des membres de cette famille génoise, Guillaume, soutint les pèlerins en Palestine lors des opérations contre Jérusalem en 1099. La république de Gênes collabora ensuite avec les Francs provençaux, qui opérèrent à compter de 1100 sur la côte phénicienne et reçut la seigneurie de Gibelet 1 , la djoubail des sources arabes, l'antique Byblos. Son administration fut confiée aux Embriacs, qui en devinrent les seigneurs héréditaires, et finalement rompirent tout lien institutionnel avec leur patrie d'origine pour acquérir le statut de vassaux des comtes sous la dynastie toulousaine, puis sous la dynastie princière antiochienne qui obtint le comté en 1188. Ce lignage a essaimé dans les autres Etats fondés à la suite de la première et de la troisième Croisades. Sa capacité à avoir une politique autonome au XIII e siècle et même à s'opposer aux princes d'Antioche et comtes de Tripoli, ses seigneurs, en renouant avec leur ancienne patrie génoise, a attiré l'intérêt des historiens de l'Orient latin et posé la question des limites et même de la réversibilité de leur implantation socio-politique locale. Toutefois, les Embriacs ne limitèrent pas leurs contacts au monde latin italo-franc. Les historiens de l'Orient latin ont mis en lumière les liens des seigneurs de Gibelet avec les maronites. Nous souhaitons ici attirer l'attention sur un autre tropisme de cette famille, le tropisme impérial constantinopolitain, complété localement par leurs relations avec le patriarcat melkite d'Antioche et ses fidèles. Le cas des Embriacs manifeste dès l'abord l'existence d'une certaine plasticité des catégories et des affiliations culturelles au sein du monde latin en Orient, puisque ces Italiens d'origine devinrent des seigneurs francs. Cette question des limites de la malléabilité identitaire doit encore être interrogée à travers eux pour voir si un basculement plus important encore, faisant quitter aux descendants des conquérants la condition de Latins pour en faire des Orientaux, était possible, ainsi que ses modalités, liées aux territoires d'accueil et à leurs statuts. 1 Sur le château de Gibelet à l'époque des Croisades, cf : Anis Chaaya, Nouvelle lecture du château de Gbayl/gibelet, in, Civilisation en transition, in, Jean-Michel Mouton & Jacques Paviot (dir), société conquérantes et sociétés composites à travers l'histoire : l'exemple du Liban, actes du colloque scientifique international 4-5-6 septembre 2014, Byblos, 214, pp180-201p.

The aim of this article is to analyze the development of the relationship between the Melkite and the Latin Patriarchates within the Holy Land between the second half of the 19th century and the third decade of the XX century as a part of a wider dynamic of confrontation and interaction between the West and the East. The purpose is to underline the consequences of Latin-Melkite relations in the land of Transjordan with regard to the development and stratification processes in local society during the Tanzimat era and the first decades of the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan. The rebirth of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (1847) and enactment of the encyclical In Suprema Petri by Pius IX (1848) gave new strength to the Uniate programme, opening another phase in the ecumenical dialogue between the Vatican and Eastern rite churches. Uniatism implied two different issues. On the one hand, it characterized official relations between the Vatican and the Apostolic See of the East. On the other, regarding the territories of Palestine and Transjordan, it influenced the rebirth of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, inspiring the Latin missionary programme within these lands that triggered a reaction from the Melkite Church, which considered Uniatism a form of Latinization and not ecumenism.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Heraclius and Ishōʿyahb II: An Eastern Episode in the ‘Ecumenical’ Project of the Byzantine Emperor

The Age of the Caliphate

The Epistle on the Unity by a Baghdadi Melkite in a Coptic Encyclopaedist’s Arabic Theological Summa

A West-Syrian Clerk from Arfād and the Metropolitan of Jerusalem of the Church of the East: The Book of the Concordance in Faith and Its Recension in Garshūnī

A Nestorian Philosopher in the Copto-Arabic Literature: Ibn aṭ-Ṭayyib Retold by Ibn al-ʿAssāl

Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq. “The Most Honorable, the Only One, Knowledgeable, Respectable, Wise Man, Philosopher, and Physician”

A Chronicle or A Historical Romance? The Reign of Zeno and the Events in the East According to The Blessed Compendium of al-Makīn ibn al-ʿAmīd

Interpretations of the Origins of the Designation “Jacobites” by Medieval Egyptian Arabic Authors

Christian Communities in the East as Witnessed to by Leonhart Rauwolf

Ibn Ḥazm on the Incarnation of God and Confessional Divisions in Christianity

Franks to Nubians: Arabic Treatise on Peculiarities of Different Christian Denominations by a Coptic Author (Mingana Chr. Arab. 71)

Bibliography

Index of Personal Names


Summary

By the time of the Muslim conquests of the Middle East, Eastern Christianity had experienced numerous divisions caused by ideological and political confrontations. Controversies over the union of the divinity and the humanity of Christ, perceived as an essential point of Christian doctrine, as well as the Byzantine imperial policy, aiming at strengthening Byzantium’s influence in Syria, Arabia, the Caucasus, and Egypt, had resulted in the separation of the ethno-religious communities of these provinces from Byzantium. The controversies remained unsettled, and the divisions, created by them, continued. To a Muslim observer, Eastern Christianity looked as a hodgepodge of various denominations among which the following three were the most influential: the Syro-Persian Christianity, the Graeco-Roman Orthodoxy, and the anti-Chalcedonian faction, insisting on “one nature” of Christ. Interactions between various communities of Eastern Christianity are witnessed by many sources. The relationships among them were further strengthened in the wake of the Muslim conquests of the Middle East, when the widespread use of Arabic and frequent migrations contributed to the intensification of contacts. When the Franks arrived in the Middle East, they became a part of this extraordinarily diverse milieu and attracted the attention of Eastern Christian communities. The cultural heritage of Middle-Eastern Christianity was so influential in the rest of the Christian world that it frequently attracted the attention of scholars studying particular church traditions. The present book provides a series of interesting examples of how the relationships among various Christian communities developed in the context of Christian-Muslim contacts in the medieval Middle East.

Resisting a reduction of the conciliar event to an arbitrary power struggle between liberals and conservatives, Ormond Rush proposes a three-fold conciliar hermeneutic. First, a diachronic reading studies the development of ideas and documents before and during the council. Then, a synchronic reading analyzes a particular passage in relation to other conciliar texts. Finally, a hermeneutic of reception identifies the reception of the text into the life of the Church. This essay will apply only the first two readings to section 3 of Orientalium Ecclesiarum.  The following will exegete this passage through a description of the relationship between Eastern and Western churches preceding the Council, an analysis of the development from the preparatory schema De Ecclesiis Orientalibus to the final draft of  Orientalium Ecclesiarum, and the relationship of this passage to other conciliar texts related to the themes of local and universal Church, catholicity, and ecumenism.

Comnènes L'Orient néo-romain intégré (1159-1183) L'empire de Constantinople, celui que la langue courante de l'époque appelait la Romanie et la langue moderne Byzance, donnait une définition de lui-même, au moins jusqu'au XIII e siècle. Il était l'Empire romain, le premier si ce n'est seul Etat du monde au plein sens du terme, Res publica en latin puis politeia en grec. Il reposait sur un triptyque institutionnel. En premier lieu l'empereur, représentant de Dieu sur terre, loi vivante et juge suprême assurait la direction du monde y compris par l'usage légitime de la force armée. A la fois au-dessus à côté et en-dessous de lui, se trouvait l'Eglise, responsable, à travers ses institutions du salut des hommes, empereurs inclus. Enfin, sous ces deux structures, se trouvait l'institution assurant le fonctionnement effectif de l'Etat, son système fiscal, central dans la vie matérielle de l'Empire, le dèmosion. Pendant les deux siècles des Croisades, la présence en Orient de rivaux politiques et idéologiques, les Francs, fidèles de l'Eglise latine, fut un défi lancé aux capacités d'intégration et de direction de Constantinople sur un espace où elle avait exercé, si ce n'est le monopole du pouvoir politique suite aux invasions arabes et turques, du moins le monopole du pouvoir politique Chrétien.

A study of Matth. 28 in twenty-five Arabic gospelbooks from the collection of the Sinai monastery reveals a series of eight different translations, some of them having been revised. 1) The group of Sinai ar. 74, the oldest one, seems to be translated from a “mixed” Greek text. 2) Sinai ar. 75, perhaps related to the first group, mixes Greek and Syriac elements. 3) Sinai ar. 71 is a free translation of a Greek text close to the Koridethi text. 4) Sinai ar. 70, translated from Syriac, looks closer to the Peshitto. 5) The group of Sinai ar. 106, the official version of the Melkite Church between the XIth and the XIIIth cent., goes back to a Vetus Syra type of text, but is revised on the Byzantine text, as is clear from the comparison with Sinai ar. 80. 6) Sinai ar. 76 mixes Greek and Syriac elements. 7) Sinai ar. 112 might be a Vetus Syra type of text translated into Arabic and almost complete. 8) Finally, two manuscripts related to the “Alexandrine Vulgate” are also studied, and one of them (Sinai ar. 101) might belong to an early phase of that version. The paper concludes to the large variety of the textual traditions preserved in Arabic, and the possible value of some of them for the textual criticism of the Gospels.

The long reign of John V, Patriarch of Jerusalem (705-735 CE), may have provided the crucible in which the Melkites were formed. One of the longest of any Christian sectarian in this period, his reign appears to be the first and only Chalcedonian Patriarchate permitted by the Umayyads, who strangely and inexplicably reversed their long standing policy and allowed the reestablishment of a Chalcedonian patriarchate in Jerusalem after a 67 year vacancy. Around this time the Byzantines stopped appointing caretaker bishops of Antioch, which no doubt bolstered John V's status with his sectarian competitors as the only recognized Chalcedonian patriarch in Umayyad territory, including the historic sees of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, eventually allowing a Melkite network to develop with Jerusalem at the center. So how do we account for this Arab volte-face? I would like to propose a speculative thesis that explains this reversal as resulting in the relocation of those Chalcedonians who supported Maximus the Confessor or 'proto-Melkites' from Damascus to Jerusalem, and quite possibly that this was at the direction of John of Damascus based on a quid pro quo: cathedral for patriarchate. Previously illustrious and luminary Umayyads, Mu'āwiyah and 'Abd al-Malik, had both made bids for the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Damascus only to be rebuffed by local Christians, whose refusal was ostensibly honored based on the surrender treaty for the city, which guaranteed the safety of its citizens and the integrity of its churches. 'Abd al-Malik's son and successor, al-Walīd, by all accounts not in the same class as his two predecessors, renewed this request only to be rebuffed in similar manner; however, taking offense at the refusal he 'took' the church anyway and around the same time allowed, what not just these two but all of his previous predecessors had denied, a patriarch to rise to the throne in Jerusalem. I argue that these two events are related as they result in the 'proto-Melkite' leadership relocation from Damascus to Jerusalem including apparently the Christian luminary, John of Damascus.

The fourth instalment in the "Unpublished Texts from the Arab Orthodox Tradition" series makes accessible a neglected document from the Orthodox Christian tradition in Arabic: canonical responses of the Chalcedonian Orthodox patriarch Mark III of Alexandria (r. ca. 1180-ca. 1209) to his spiritual son George, the abbot of the monastery of St. Jeremiah near Damietta. The article includes an edition and an English translation of this text. --------- Le quatrième article de la série « Textes inédits de la tradition arabe orthodoxe » rend accessible un document négligé de la tradition chrétienne orthodoxe en arabe : les réponses canoniques du patriarche chalcédonien orthodoxe Marc III d'Alexandrie (r. ca. 1180-ca. 1209) à son fils spirituel Georges, l'abbé du monastère de saint Jérémie près de Damiette. Cet article comprend une édition et une traduction anglaise de ce texte.

Abstract: This article focuses on one of the most important – and the
least studied – centres of Christian Graeco-Arabic translation
activity: the region of Antioch after the Byzantine reconquest
of the city in 969. It discusses the most important Antiochene
translators: Antonios, Ibrāhīm ibn Yūḥannā, Gregory, Kyr
Chariton, Yānī ibn ad-Duks, Kyr Christopher ibn ad-Dawbalī
(or ad-Duwaylī), and especially ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl (all of
them Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians or »Melkites«).
Subsequently, it focuses on ʿAbdallāh ibn Faḍl’s still unpublished
masterpiece »Book of the Garden« (Kitāb ar-Rawḍa)
– an Arabic translation of the Byzantine »sacro-profane«
florilegium Loci communes (mis-ascribed to Maximus the
Confessor) – as an example of a Graeco-Arabic translation
produced in that milieu. The article includes a critical edition
and an English translation of chapter 56 of the »Book of the
Garden«, entitled »On ›Know Thyself‹«. ==== Zusammenfassung: Dieser Artikel konzentriert sich auf eines der wichtigsten
– und am wenigsten erforschten – Zentren christlicher griechisch-
arabischer Übersetzungstätigkeit: die Region Antiochien
nach der byzantinischen Rückeroberung der Stadt im
Jahr 969. Es werden zunächst die wichtigsten antiochenischen
Übersetzer besprochen: Antonios, Ibrahim ibn Yūḥannā,
Gregor, Kyr Chariton, Yāni ibn ad-Duks, Kyr Christopher ibn
ad-Dawbalī (oder ad-Duwaylī) und besonders ʿAbdallāh ibn
al-Faḍl, die alle arabisch sprechende orthodoxe Christen oder »Melkiten« waren. Anschließend wird das noch unveröffentlichte
Meisterwerk ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍls »Kitāb ar-Rawḍa«
in den Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung gestellt – eine arabische
Übersetzung des byzantinischen (fälschlicherweise
Maximos Confessor zugeschriebenen) »sacro-profanen« Florilegs
Loci communes – als ein herausragendes Beispiel einer
griechisch-arabischen Übersetzung, die in diesem Umfeld
entstehen konnte. Der Artikel enthält eine kritische Ausgabe
und eine englische Übersetzung des Kapitels 56 des »Kitāb
ar-Rawḍa«, das den Titel »Über das: ›Erkenne dich selbst‹«
trägt.

No período que se seguiu ao Concílio de Calcedônia (451), a cidade de Alexandria mergulhou em verdadeiro caos. A cristologia desenvolvida nesta cidade havia suplantado a sua concorrente antioquena no Concílio de Éfeso (431). Sob a proteção de Teodósio II (r.408-450), ela havia se estabelecido como a ortodoxia cristã no segundo concílio realizado na mesma metrópole (449). No entanto, viu-se, após a morte inesperada de seu patrono, subitamente desfavorecida pelo governo imperial e condenada como herética. A deposição do Patriarca Dióscoro de Alexandria, responsabilizado pelo assassinato de Flaviano, arcebispo de Constantinopla, nesse que ficou conhecido como o Latrocínio de Éfeso, colocou em xeque o regime de autoridade que a Sé egípcia havia estabelecido sobre as demais igrejas do Mediterrâneo Oriental nas décadas anteriores. Apoiando-se apenas sobre uma minoria de legalistas étnica e linguisticamente apartados da população circundante, o governo constantinopolitano não teve sucesso em impor Protério – um egípcio helenófono feito monge na capital imperial – como sucessor reconhecido de Dióscoro. Ao contrário, diante de sua nomeação levantaram-se veementes protestos urbanos, reprimidos com dureza pelas autoridades constituídas. Seguiu-se uma escalada de violência que culminou com a ocupação da cidade por tropas imperiais e, depois da morte do Imperador Marciano (r.450-457), promotor do credo calcedônico, com o assassinato de Protério. O presente trabalho pretende retomar este enredo, cotejando algumas diferentes versões a seu respeito e tomando-o, em sua mistura de religião e violência algo chocante às sensibilidades contemporâneas, como um sintoma das mudanças sociopolíticas e culturais então em curso no Egito tardo-antigo.

The article discusses a little known thirteenth-century Christian Arabic author Macarius, archbishop of Sinai. Based on all the available documentary evidence — colophons and copyists' notes in Sinai Arabic, Syriac, and Greek manuscripts, the bilingual Greek-Arabic epitaph of the patriarch Euthymius of Jerusalem (d. 1223, and not 1230, as proposed by Grumel), as well as Nectarius of Jerusalem's Abridgment of Sacred and World History — it is possible to determine the approximate time of Macarius' archiepiscopal tenure. He must have been archbishop of Sinai from before 1223 to 1252, his likely death date, if the proposed interpretation of a marginal note in Sinai ar. 412 is to be accepted. Macarius of Sinai is the author of two treatises: (1) An Arrangement Enacted by Master Bishop Abba Macarius Concerning Feasts on Which Prostration Is Disallowed and (2) A Response by Saint Abba Macarius, Bishop of Mount Sinai, to the Letter of One of the Faithful (or: Responsum on Cheesefare Week). The first treatise (more precisely, a record of Macarius' liturgical regulations) is edited and translated in the appendix to the present article. A Russian translation of the second treatise has recently been published; a critical edition and English translation are in preparation.