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 and
Israel/
Palestine. 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 and linguistically-speaking
Arab, a part of them ethnically and they are adherents of the religion of Christianity. 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. While some ideologists would counter this claim, there is a majority of people who can trace heritage back to the Phoenicians and firmly believe it. Even though most of the Maronite patriarchs were Arab recently, most Maronites believe it is only logical that they are descendants from the original inhabitants of Syria/Lebanon—the Arameans and Phoenicians.
There is also a portion of Arabic-Speaking Christians that 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 often identified as Arab but 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
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
Lebanon
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.
Before the Christian faith reached the territory of Lebanon, Jesus had traveled to its southern parts near
Tyre where the scripture tells us that he cured a possessed Canaanite child.
[Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. (Mark 7:24-26)]>
in
Lebanon is almost as old as
gentile Christian faith itself, early reports relate the possibility that
Saint Peter himself was the one who
evangelized the
Phoenicians whom he affiliated to the ancient
patriarchate of
Antioch.
Paul also preached in Lebanon, he had lingered with the early Christians in
Tyre and
Sidon.
Even though Christianity was introduced to Lebanon after the first century CE, its spread was very slow , particularly in the mountainous areas where
paganism was still unyielding.
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.
By Faith, liturgy, rite, religious books and heritage, the Maronites were of Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) origin.
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.
Moreover, Rome dispatched Franciscan, Dominican and later
Jesuite missionaries to Lebanon to secure the conversion of the Maronites to
Catholicism.
Spurring from their turbulent history, the Maronites formed a secluded identity in the mountains and valleys of Lebanon,_led by the Maronite patriarch who voices his opinion in temporal issues_ identify themselves as a unique community which by religion and culture is distinct from the predominantly
Muslim Arab world.
The Maronites played a major part in the definition of and the creation of the state of Lebanon. The modern state of Greater Lebanon was established by
France in 1920 after the instigation of Maronite ambitious leaders headed by patriarch
Elias Peter Hoayek who presided delegations to France following
WWI and requested the re-establishment of the entity of the Principality of Lebanon (1515AD-1840AD). With the creation of the state of Lebanon, Arabism was overcome by Lebanism which emphasizes Lebanon’s Mediterranean and Phoenician heritage. In the National Pact, an unwritten gentleman’s agreement between the Maronite President
Bshara el-Khoury and Sunni prime minister
Riad as-Solh the seats of presidency were distributed between the main Lebanese religious denominations; according to the pact the President of the
Lebanese republic shall always be a Maronite, furthermore, the pact also states that Lebanon is a state with an “Arab face” (not an Arab identity).
Lebanon holds the largest number of Christian 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 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.
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.
Palestine and Israel
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
- 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)
See also
