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| {{flag|Syria}}:<br> 2,000,000 <ref name=Mattar/> | {{flag|Syria}}:<br> 2,000,000 <ref name=Mattar/> | ||
| {{flag|Lebanon}}:<br> 1,300,000 <ref name=Mattar/> | |||
| {{flag|Iraq}}:<br> 1,000,000 <ref name=Mattar/> | |||
| {{flag|Jordan}}:<br> 370,000 | {{flag|Jordan}}:<br> 370,000 | ||
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| The tribes of ], ], and ] were also known to have included a large number of Christians prior to Islam. The Yemenite city of ] 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 ]. The leader of the Arabs of Najran during the period of persection, Al-Harith, was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as ]. | The tribes of ], ], and ] were also known to have included a large number of Christians prior to Islam. The Yemenite city of ] 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 ]. The leader of the Arabs of Najran during the period of persection, Al-Harith, was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as ]. | ||
| == |
==Christians today== | ||
| ===Egypt=== | ===Egypt=== | ||
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 File:Suleiman1.jpg  Ralph Nader • Suleiman Mousa • Carlos Menem • Carlos Ghosn | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 30,000,000-35,000,000
Regions with significant populations:
 Palestine: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 |
Arabic-speaking Christians are Christians who maintain Arabic as the primary language of their community. Large numbers of Arabic-speaking Christians can be found in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Israel/Palestine. Emigrants from Arabic-speaking 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
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.
Christians today
Egypt
Christianity in Egypt dates back to the 1st century when Saint Mark preached there and Egyptians first began to embrace Christianity. Christianity became the dominant religion in Egypt in the 4th century and remained so until the Islamic invasion in the 7th century.
Today, Christians make out around 10-20% of a population of over 80 million Egyptians though estimates vary (see Religion in Egypt).
Around 95% of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria an Oriental Orthodox Church. The Coptic Church constitute the largest Christian community in the Middle East and has a followers of approximately 10 to 15 million worldwide. Affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria.
Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Lebanon
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. > Christianity 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 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 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
- 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).
- Carlos Menem, president of Argentina from 1988 to 1999, (Syrian, converted to Roman Catholic from Islam)
- Emile Habibi, Palestinian Citizen of Israel writer, (Palestinian Citizen of Israel, Protestant Christian)
- Azmi Bishara, Palestinian Citizen of Israel member of the Knesset, (Palestinian Citizen of Israel, Greek Orthodox Christian)
- Azmi Nassar, manager of the Palestinian national football team, (Palestinian Citizen of Israel, Greek Orthodox Christian)
- Salim Tuama, Hapoel Tel Aviv middlefielder, (Palestinian Citizen of Israel, Greek Orthodox Christian)
- Simon Shaheen Israeli-born U.S. Oud and violin virtuoso and composer, (Palestinian Citizen of Israel, Greek Catholic Christian)
- Salim Jubran, member of the Israeli Supreme Court, Palestinian 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)
television and film actor. (Lebanese, Maronite Christian)
See also
- Christianity in the Middle East
- List of Christian terms in Arabic
- Lakhmids
- Arab Orthodox
- Sophronius
- John of Damascus
Notes
- 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)
References
- ^ http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=8057&CategoryId=5 Raja G. Mattar Arab Christians are Arabs - Arab Christians have always existed in the Middle East, and long before the advent of Islam. In Lebanon today they number about 1.3 million (about one-third of the population) mainly of Maronite denomination. In Syria they number approximately two million (or about 10% of the population) which include a significant community of Maronites. In Egypt, Christians, mostly Copts, are about 4.5 million, or about 6% of the population. There are one million in Iraq of various denominations, or about 4% the population.
- http://thechristianarabs.com<
- http://www.passia.org/meetings/rsunit/Articles/E-August-2005.htm<
- ^ Parry, Ken (1999). The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Malden, MA.: Blackwell Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 0-631-23203-6.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Shahid Alam, Articulating Group Differences: A Variety of Autocentrisms, Journal of Science and Society, 2003
- Seed, Patricia. Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492-1640, Cambridge University Press, Oct 27, 1995, pp. 79-80.
- Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1991). The Holy Quran. Medina: King Fahd Holy Qur-an Printing Complex.
- http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Arab_Christians/id/1916534
- ""Who are the Christians in the Middle East?"". Betty Jane Bailey. June 18, 2009.
- Cite error: The named reference
U.S.Dept of State/Egyptwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - Cite error: The named reference
FCO/Egypt/was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - Cole, Ethan (July 8, 2008). "Egypt's Christian-Muslim Gap Growing Bigger". The Christian Post. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
- Edwards, Sue (2008). Mixed Ministry: Working Together as Brothers and Sisters in an Oversexed Society. Kregel Publications. p. 261. ISBN 0825425247, 9780825425240.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Matera, Frank J. (2001). Strategies for Preaching Paul. Liturgical Press. p. 186. ISBN 0814619665, 9780814619667.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help) - ^ Atiya, Aziz Suryal (1980). A History of Eastern Christianity. Kraus International Publications. ISBN 9780527037031.
- {{ Brown, John. A dictionary of the Holy Bible. University of Lausanne. pp. 535/749.
- ^ Moosa, Matti (2005). The Maronites in History. Gorgias Press LLC. p. 404. ISBN 1593331827, 9781593331825.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help) - Korany, Bahgat (2008). The Foreign Policies of Arab States: The Challenge of Globalization. Cairo: American university in Cairo press. p. 515. ISBN 9774161971, 9789774161971.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/arab-christians/belt-text
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)
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