Maronites

Hezbollah is the archetype and so far the most important and efficient of all Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East, and it demonstrates all the traits that eventually became the trademarks of Iran’s proxy networks in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and beyond. While embedding itself in the national government of Lebanon, Hezbollah receives its portfolio from Tehran and advances the agenda of the Islamist regime of Iran. While pressing the regime’s interests at the expense of the West and its regional allies through widespread terrorism and proxy warfare, Hezbollah provides Tehran with just enough plausible deniability to still appear as a somewhat “respectable actor” on the world stage.

The mere mention of Henri Lammens (SJ) provokes unease, notorious as this militant “priest-scholar” has become in postcolonial circles. Yet his human failings notwithstanding, Lammens has been a victim of the academic conceits and biases of postmodernist postcolonialist demagogues through whose prisms he often emerges as a cantankerous, inflammatory, Christian polemicist, hell-bent on defaming an otherwise blameless beatific Islam. This essay, part of an upcoming intellectual biography of Lammens, suggests that a more nuanced gaze be cast at the man and missionary before judging his scholarship; a corrective of sorts, shedding light on the life and times of a Belgian boy, who traveled East at the tender age of fifteen, who fell in love with Near Eastern Christians, and who set out to write their story and restore their suppressed history—doing so not without the passion and affection of the insider, the neophyte, the friend.

This new series provides a forum for exchange on a myriad of alternative histories of marginalized communities and individuals in the Near and Middle East and Mediterranean, and those of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean heritage. It will highlight thematic issues relating to various native peoples and their narratives and – with particular contemporary relevance – explore encounters with the notion of ‘other’ within various societies. Often moving beyond the conventional state-centred and dominant monolithic approach, or reinterpreting previously accepted stories, books in the series examine and explain themes from inter-communal relations, environment, health and society, and will explore ethnic, communal, racial, linguistic and religious developments that go beyond geopolitical compositions.

Building on the foundations of scholarship within an interdisciplinary framework, this series spans the continuum of Near Eastern and Mediterranean traditions extending from the fourth millennium B.C. to the present – bridging previous fields which originally had little connection with each other. The aim is to enhance perspectives by applying various methodological approaches to dilemmas that have in the past been treated as the exclusive concern of a single given discipline.

Key Features

Creates a forum for marginalized and/or indigenous communities to engage with the ‘accepted past and present’ and to challenge previously accepted truths
Opens a dialogue for alternative intellectual histories/narratives
The first series to focus on indigenous and minoritized related narratives from the understudied and often marginal perspective
Covers cultural, linguistic, ethnic, gendered, political, numerical and economic communities in the Near and Middle East, the Mediterranean and its extended environs
Engages with all periods of history from the ancient world to the present day, especially in terms of continuity of culture, cultural heritage and heritage preservation
Communities studied may include Alawites, Alevis, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Copts, Druze, Jews, Mandaens, Maronites, Palestinians, Pontian/ Anatolian Greeks, Samaritans, Shabbaks, Yezidis and Zoroastrians among others

Osmanlı Devleti'nin XVIII. ve XIX. yüzyıllarda yaşadığı siyasî ve iktisadî buhranlar, o devirlerde devletin sınırları içinde yer alan Orta Doğu bölgelerini de etkilemiştir. Bunun dışında; bölgede bulunan halkların sıkça yaşadıkları mezhep ve din farklılıklarından doğan mücadeleler de bölgenin sürekli bir kargaşa hâlinde olmasına imkân vermiştir. Dinî meselelerde öne çıkan bu kavgalar, bilhassa İslami mezhepler arasında yaşanarak başlamıştır. İslam'dan mülhem oluşturulan hilâfet makamı kullanılarak kurulan din devletleri (Emevîler, Abbasiler, Fatımiler vb.) devirlerinde yaşanan savaş, pogrom, katliam olaylarının da günümüze kadar gelen kargaşaları besledikleri düşünülebilir.

Boom review of Abdul-Rahim Abu-Husayn, Rebellion, Myth Making and Nation Building: Lebanon
from an Ottoman Mountain Iltizam to a Nation State, 61 pp. Tokyo: Research Institute for
Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 2009. ISBN 978-4863370272.

Cet aperçu historique comprend des détails concernant l'histoire des couvents, description des bâtiments tels qu'ils se présentaient en 1909 ; ensuite des détails concernant les propriétés et leurs revenus, et enfin les recettes des comptes. Le texte est rédigé en langue française, il comprend beaucoup de fautes de frappe. Nous le publions ici pour son importance historique.

يتضمّن البحث عرضًا موضوعيًّا للمصادر التي تحفظ النوافير السريانيّة، والتي يصل عددها
إلى حوالى الثمانين، تنتمي إلى الرسل والآباء والقدّيسين وتُسَمَّى على اسمهم ومنها ما يحمل إسم
العذراء مريم، كما تعود إلى شخصيّات لها تأثيرها ودورها في تاريخ الكنيسة. نتوقف في ما يلي
على مصطلحات طبعت الإحتفال الطقسي، عارضين المعنى اللاهوتي واللّيتورجي للنّافور السرياني
على تعدد انتماءاته الجغرافيّة والكنسيّة، من خلال بعض النوافير التي ندرجها في دراستنا. لا شكّ
أن النوافير بشكل عام هي تلك التي ترتبط بالقدّاس، لكن لا يمكننا أن نغفل عن نوافير ترتبط بأسرار
أخرى ومنها: نوافير تقديس مياه المعمودية، وتقديس الميرون والزيوت، وصِيَغ ليتورجية أخرى
تُستخدم في رتب تتبع البنية النافوريّة ذاتها. 1
نودّ أن نشير إلى أنّ هذه المصطلحات بدأت تبرز في المراحل الأولى (ق 3-4) لتكوين
النافور، وشكّلت عبر التطوّر التاريخي للنصّ الهيكليّة اللّاهوتيّة الثابتة التي ميّزت كلاًّ من النوافير.

أتناول في مداخلتي حول "الإلتزام الرعوي الماروني في بلاد الإنتشار: تحدّيات وآفاق مستقبليّة" والتي تأتي في إطار المؤتمر اللّيتورجي الخامس حول "اللّيتورجيّا المارونيّة في لغات الإنتشار" المواضيع التالية:
أوّلاً- الإنتشار الماروني
ثانياً- إندماج الموارنة في الرعايا اللّاتينيّة
ثالثاُ- الترجمة الى لغات البلدان الجديدة
رابعاً- رعويّة خاصّة للإنتشار
خامساً- الليتورجيّا تعرّف بالهويّة وتضمن الوحدة

أستند في قراءتي هذه على أربع مصادر، وهي:
1. المجمع الفاتيكاني الثاني: دستور في الليتورجيّا المقدّسة، نص 4036 - 36، 54، 101
2. المجمع البطريركي الماروني، الملفّ الأوّل: هويّة الكنيسة المارونيّة ودعوتها ورسالتها، النص 4: الكنيسة المارونيّة في إنتشارها العالميّ، فقرة 27-35، 43-46
3. المجمع البطريركي الماروني، الملفّ الثاني: التجدّد الرعوي والروحي في الكنيسة المارونيّة- في المجالات الرعويّة، النص 12: الليتورجيّا، فقرة  13-14-15- 16
4. آليّة عمل اللجنة البطريركيّة للشؤون الطقسيّة

Le corpus traditionnel d’hymnes syriaques monodiques modales de l’office divin constitue le noyau générateur de la liturgie de l’Église maronite. Ces hymnes s’inscrivent dans la continuité du syncrétisme qu’a réalisé Saint Ephrem de Nisibe au VIe siècle entre la poésie prédicative chrétienne et des mélodies populaires de caractère dansant rural et communiel. Ce métissage esthétique a marqué de son sceau la facture musicale des chants syriaques et notamment leur morphologie rythmique. Cette configuration rythmique se marie de diverses façons à des mélodies-types de nombre restreint que l’on retrouve en sous-jacence des strophes-modèles ou de tête des hymnes syriaques maronites. C’est à l’étude de la composition musicale de ces rīš qōlōs dans une perspective grammaticale musicale générative que s’attelle ce livre. Il part du matériau musical de référence que le Père antonin Maroun Mrad, grand maître de cette tradition, a enregistré vers 1967. Cet essai applique à ce corpus la procédure d’analyse et de modélisation sémiotique modale que Nidaa Abou Mrad a établie pour les monodies traditionnelles du Levant, à partir de la théorie arabe de l’arborescence grammaticale modale, de l’analyse schenkérienne, de la théorie de vecteurs harmoniques de Nicolas Meeùs et de la grammaire chomskyenne.

لقد نشرّ المؤلّف في هذا الكتاب وثائق تُلقي الضوء على واقع ديمغرافيّ رهبانيّ في القرن التاسع عشر. تَمَيَّزَ هذا القرن بارتفاع ملحوظ في عدد الرهبان وفي عدد الأديار أيضًا، إذ أقدمت الرهبانيّة اللبنانيّة على إنشاء أديار جديدة، تجاوز عددها ثلث الأديار القائمة.
يدرس المؤلّف من خلال الوثائق التي نشرها حقبة، غير مُؤَرَّخة، من تاريخ الرهبانيّة اللبنانيّة المارونيّة، فتَطَلّْبَ عمله مثابرة وصبرًا في البحث في الأصول المحفوظة في أرشيف الرهبانيّة اللبنانيّة المارونيّة، وأرشيف الفاتيكان السرّي، وأرشيف البطريركيّة المارونيّة.

This article aims to revisit the impact of relations between Rome and
the Maronite Church on his religious identity in the 16th century. The
starting point is the manuscript kept in Florence (BNCF) of the Missale
Chaldaïcum, one of the first publications in the West of Maronite
liturgical books. This Missale drew a lot of ink from researchers who
did not always agree on its history and impact. The author of this article
intends to reopen the file, moving away from generalizations of catalogs
and carrying out a detailed analytical update of the codicological data
offered by the manuscript examined, focusing mainly on the marginal
notes. We are in the presence of a whole research which will lead to
perceive the identity of the Maronites of Mount Lebanon in the 16th
century, starting from the liturgical reality that they lived. This reality
which has been altered by the publication of the Missale, and which can
only be identified by a comparison with the Florentine manuscript. On
the other hand, the codicological observations and analyzes carried out
by the author show a progression of knowledge in Rome concerning the
liturgy and oriental theology.

This study analyzes the identification process of Maronites in Lebanon, focusing on the autonomy they have enjoyed over the centuries in their own historical premise, called Mount Lebanon. This thesis suggests that the identification process of Maronites is dynamic and processual and this identity is being constructed, possibly expressed under different names/banners with different contexts under different circumstances. However, a pattern can be observed in this process and the determinant element appears as the reaction of the Maronites when their autonomy is provided, threatened or consolidated. In order to demonstrate this dynamic characteristic of the Maronite identity and the pattern in this identification process, the study examines how the autonomy understanding of the Maronites has developed in its historical context, how it is contested as a result of the developments in the 19th century under the Ottoman rule, and during the French Mandate Period from the establishment of the Greater Lebanon to the independence of Lebanon in 1943, and how the Maronites expressed their identities vis-à-vis the other groups and the identity claims in their environment, as a result of such developments. Though the study refers to the Maronites in general, it specifically focuses on the Maronite church as the main actor of this identification process and the reasons behind this prioritization is also provided in the study.

In his book of memoirs, Jumblatt describes his military, political and social strategy during the Lebanese Civil War – explicitly analyzing Lebanon’s ominous situation at the time, and reflects on his experiences as the religious leader of the Druze community and his spiritual views. He also addresses the power struggle between the Maronite elite and other sects, the Palestinian struggle, and the issues of Arab socialism and authoritarianism and solutions for these issues.

آous avons publié dans cet ouvrage des textes inédits du XVIII° siècle, à savoir: la Règle des novices, Lettre abrégée sur la prière mentale. Puis nous avons effectué une recherche historique sur la formation théologique des moines de l'Ordre Libanais Maronite.

Baroudy, Fadi – Akhrass, Roger-Youssef, « Le patriarche Sévère d’Antioche dans la liturgie maronite », SOPJ 56 (2018), 1-12 (arabe)

Avant le milieu du XVe siècle, les Maronites n’avaient attaché presque aucune importance à l’anathème proféré par les Byzantins à l’encontre des Pères non-chalcédoniens, surtout syriaques. Ainsi fêtaient-ils sans complexe la mémoire de Jacques de Saroug, dédiaient des églises à saint Barsaum et priaient à l’aide de l’anaphore de Philoxène de Mabboug. Il en allait de même, semble-t-il, pour Sévère d’Antioche dont le nom apparaît dans des calendriers, des missels et des livres de baptême utilisés autrefois par les Maronites. C’est ce que le présent article s’efforce de montrer à partir des rares manuscrits qui ont échappé aux deux campagnes dévastatrives du délégué apostolique Eliano (1578-1582) venu en Orient purger les manuscrits des Maronites de toute influence « jacobite ».

Bu tez Lübnan'da ulus olgusunun inşa ediliş sürecini konu almaktadır. Lübnan, birçok farklı mezhebe ev sahipliği yapması hasebiyle Ortadoğu'nun en kozmopolit ülkelerinden biridir. Onu bölgedeki diğer ülkelerden ayıran en önemli özelliğiyse, farklı etnik ve mezhebi gruplardan oluşan yapısının, kendine has bir siyasi mekanizmanın oluşumuna ön ayak olmasıdır. Osmanlı döneminden itibaren bölgede tatbik edilen idari yapının ülkedeki farklı cemaatler esas alınarak örgütlendirilmesi, modern Lübnan devletinin kurucu kodlarına da sirayet etmiştir. Fakat bu çokkültürlü mirasın yanında, Batılı anlamda homojen bir nüfus bütünlüğü esasına dayanan "ulus-devlet" modelinin yeni Lübnan devleti için temel kabul edilmesi, ülkedeki kimlik problemine zemin oluşturmuştur. Fransız sömürge idaresinin ve onunla yakın ilişki içerisindeki Maruni elitlerin çabalarıyla, tüm dini ve mezhebi farklılıklardan bağımsız, ortak birtakım değerler çevresinde bir araya gelmiş bir Lübnanlı kimliği oluşturulmaya çalışılmıştır. Milliyetçilik literatüründe "ulus inşası" olarak geçen bu faaliyet, başta tarihyazımı olmak üzere kültürel veya sembolik pek çok enstrüman vasıtasıyla hayata geçirilmiştir. Modern Lübnan devletinin kuruluşundan İç Savaş'a kadar geçen dönemde, 1920 ile 1975 tarihleri arasında gözlemlenebilecek bu süreç, farklı iç ve dış konjonktürlerin etkisiyle farklı şekillere evrilmiştir. Ulus inşasına dönük bu politikalar, Lübnan'da siyasal iktidara belirli oranda bir meşruiyet alanı sağlasa da ortak bir Lübnanlılık kimliğinin oluşturulması projesi başarıya ulaşamamış, dini-mezhebi ya da etnik alt kimlikler üst kimlikten daha belirleyici olmuştur. Dahası birleştirici olması umulan politikalar mezhepler arasındaki gerilimi tırmandırmış ve cemaat grupları arasındaki çatışmalar kanlı bir iç savaşa sebebiyet vermiştir.

The presence of Maronites at Aleppo probably dates back to the early Middle Ages, but we can not speak about a fully organized community in this city before the 16 th century, when the difficulties suffered by the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon during the last years of the Mameluke Government due to the rising taxes and famines provoked a massive migration to the North of Syria. The Ottoman Census of 1537 proves that there were a great number of Christians at Aleppo: only in Ğdeydeh-Ṣaliba lived 161 families. In the first years of the 17 th century, the Maronite Community (probably the poorest people of the City) had about 4000 members, and they were concentrated in the mentioned "New Quarter". 1 It was not until the year 1634 when the Maronites of Aleppo had a resident bishop in the city. The most characteristic feature of that preceding period was the strong antagonism between the Maronite clergy and the Western Missionaries: in fact, the Maronites did not accept that their church was used for the common Catholic worship. 2 The Missionaries welcomed the arrival of a Maronite prelate who could control those unruly priests. The existence of a Maronite Library is directly related to the inauguration of a muṭrāniyya near the old church of Mār Iliyās in the quarter of Ğdeydeh. 3 The oldest liturgical manuscripts conserved probably belonged to this initial deposit: all of them were copied in Mount Lebanon or on the Coast during the 15 th and 16 th Centuries. The funds of the Maronite Library increased thanks to new acquisitions, copies performed by local copyists and donations of community members; in fact, the numerous notes of waqf found in the pages of these books show names of many well-known personalities. With the passage of the centuries, the library became one of the most important private collections of manuscripts in Syria, with more than 1640 volumes. The Maronite library is a typical ecclesiastical collection, similar in form and content to others conserved in the different Christian ṭawāʾif of the city; in fact, about the 65% of the whole collection is related to the different ecclesiastical subjects and disciplines. It is

At the intersection of political science, history and social anthropology, this dissertation asks for the givens and conditions of inter-communal cooperation in the ethnically-plural setting of Lebanon. It explores the social base of the party alliance between the mainly Maronite Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Shi`i Muslim Hizbullah (“Party of God”), which began in 2006, upon their leaders signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). It analyzes the formation of this alliance against the historical background of Maronite-Shi`i relations in the area of modern Lebanon since the late 7th century, portrays its development and effects and reconstructs the social microstructure and the motives of supporters. The core period of investigation extends from May 2005 until May 2018, covering the time of the FPM-Hizbullah alliance (including the preceding phase of consultations) up until the 2018 Lebanese general elections (including their immediate aftermath). As of the 1960s, Shi`i actors gradually created a new Lebanese national narrative that countered the prevailing Maronite centered nationalist discourse. After the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90), this included especially Hizbullah. With the Syrian army present in huge parts of the country, the power relations had, for the first time in modern Lebanon, shifted in favor of the Shi`i community. Now, their counter-hegemonic activism received both Syrian and official Lebanese support. The formerly privileged Maronite community now comprised most opposition and thus experienced the exact opposite scenario. Since the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, however, the self-styled secular Christians of the FPM – notorious for their staunch opposition to Syrian tutelage – and the “pro-Syrian” armed Islamists of Hizbullah formed a previously unthinkable alliance that groups together huge sections of the Lebanese Shi`a and Maronites alongside other Christians. It withstood the storms of the 2006 July War (Israel vs. Hizbullah/ Lebanon) and the spillover effects of the civil war in neighboring Syria (2011–) in which Hizbullah is openly involved since 2013. This requires us to rethink notions, depicting inter-community relations in the region as a pervasive zero-sum game of sectarian make-up. This dissertation argues that the alliance that came about in the wake of the MoU is neither a mere opportunist elite project, as the grassroots have an important share in it, nor can it be explained exclusively in terms of a “minority alliance,” as multiple shared interests, common values and needs of the participating constituencies play an important role. The outcomes it yielded on the inter-communal and inter-personal levels moreover challenge persistent assumptions about the conflict-prone coexistence of religious communities in Lebanon and in the wider Middle East. In fact, the simultaneous belonging of the FPM´s and Hizbullah´s core constituencies to different religions and diverging socio-cultural milieus did neither pose principal obstacles to the parties´ close political cooperation nor to their bases´ progressive social integration. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the findings disclose a sphere of the social in Lebanon which neither sectarianism nor clientelism have ever successfully penetrated. The theoretical framework applied captures this sphere within the “field of inter-community relations,” under recourse to the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002).

The colonial view of Levantine society as a mosaic of religions established lasting precedents for communal self-governance and power sharing in modern states. Yet it ironically disguises the extent to which the region’s religious geography was reimagined by colonial rule. Principles of religious freedom and minority rights combined with a perception of ‘oriental religions’ to create a unique and powerful place for religious leaders to govern. The borders that would define national societies in Palestine-Israel, Lebanon, and Syria also remade the boundaries by which the religious mosaic was structured. This article will highlight institutional change in the Maronite Christian and Sunni Muslim communities, showing how each reformulated its religious leadership in response to the creation and enforcement of Lebanon’s borders with Palestine and Syria from 1920 to 1948. The ‘traditional’ religious leaderships of today are in no small part products of the same colonial ‘lines in the sand’ within which nations were formed.

The source of this paper is the travelogue of a Maronite Christian from
Aleppo, called Hannā Dyāb. He travelled with the French traveler Paul Lucas,
who hired him during his passage through Syria in 1707, and brought
him to Paris, without never mention him in the published account of his
journey. Hannā made this journey when he was about twenty, but he wrote
his account a long time later, beginning to compose it 1763, and achieving
his manuscript only March 3, 1764. Today the unique exemplar of this
manuscript is conserved at the Biblioteca Vaticana. This travelogue reveals
how his author’s perception of differences and borders do not fit with the
common idea about. Today the categories “West and East” or “Christianity
and Islam” are challenged by the more recent researches on “diversity” and
“connectivity” in the Mediterranean in the early Modern period. Most of the
historians advocate a microstoria approach of early globalization, consisting
in following an individual through the different stages of his biography,
in order to catch not only his own connectedness to different milieu crossing
several borders, but the exemplarity of his path for a more general intelligibility
of the connections between different worlds supposed to be culturally
remote. Hannā belongs to this cast of go-betweeners who in the last years
have been brought to light.
La fonte principale di questo articolo è il diario di viaggio di un cristiano
maronita originario di Aleppo, Hannā Dyāb. Egli viaggiò col francese
Paul Lucas, che lo assunse mentre si trovava in Siria nel 1707 e lo portò a
Parigi, senza però mai menzionarlo nel proprio diario di viaggio. Hannā
aveva circa vent’anni quando intraprese il viaggio, ma il diario fu scritto
molto tempo dopo. Cominciò, infatti, a comporre il manoscritto nel 1763 e lo
terminò soltanto il 3 Marzo 1764. Oggi l’unico esemplare è conservato alla
Biblioteca Vaticana. La narrazione rivela il peculiare modo di percepire le
differenze e i confini dell’autore. Oggi le categorie di “Occidente e Oriente”,
o di “Cristianità e Islam” sono messe in discussione dalle recenti ricerche
sulla “diversity” e sulla “connectivity” del Mediterraneo di età moderna. La
maggior parte degli storici sostiene un approccio microstorico che consiste
nel seguire un individuo nei differenti stadi della sua biografia, al fine di cogliere
non soltanto i suoi legami con mondi diversi ma anche l’esemplarità
564 Bernard HeyBerger
del suo percorso e tutto ciò per favorire una maggiore intellegibilità delle
connessioni tra mondi differenti, ritenuti lontani dal punto di vista culturale.
Hannā appartiene a questa categoria di go-betweeners le cui vite sono state
scoperte negli ultimi anni.

Ce travail profite de l’exceptionnelle richesse des fonds romains (archives de la congrégation de Propaganda Fide et de l’Université la Sapienza). Il porte tout d’abord sur le fonctionnement institutionnel des écoles de langue arabe. Sous le contrôle de la congrégation de la Propagande, certains établissements accueillaient des chrétiens orientaux pour les former au catholicisme tridentin, d’autres formaient des religieux qui se destinaient à la mission. Parmi les professeurs, on comptait de nombreux maronites, eux-mêmes éduqués à Rome. Cette recherche envisage ensuite les méthodes pédagogiques, grâce à l’étude des manuels de langue et des imprimés en arabe, et grâce au témoignage de Giuseppe Luigi Assemani, qui enseigna pendant une trentaine d’années à Rome. Les milieux orientalistes romains avaient aussi développé une représentation diglossique de la langue « vulgaire » et « doctrinale ».

This work displays primarily the thought of Isaac the Syrian and his philosophy/theology of human knowledge of God. This work is a comparison with Karl Rahner and Walter Kasper, and the manner in which they discussed the same topic over a thousand years after Isaac.

The Maronite Library of Aleppo houses one of the most important collections of manuscripts in the Syrian Arab Republic. Comprising more than 1600 copies, the collection contains many different works on Bible, theology, philosophy, history, grammar, literature and sciences, and a great variety of other subjects. The contents of the Library have long been known to Western researchers, but were never fully catalogued. This work seeks to remedy that situation, as the last in a series of three inventories. The first volume (2008) presented a detailed record and description of the Syriac manuscripts held in the Library, and the second one (2011) did the same for those in Karshuni. Following the model established by those two previous publications, this book presents the Arabic manuscripts of the collection. The author offers a short, concise description of each copy, including title or titles, names of the author and copyist, place and date of the copy, and any formal features useful in the proper identification of the manuscripts. This edition also includes 50 images, and full indices of titles, personal names and places.

On December 31, 1707, Josephus Simonius Assemani (d. 1768) completed
the composition of his Turoṣ mamlo suryoyo, an innovative Syriac
grammar seeming to introduce, among other interesting peculiarities, a
new, simplified orthographic system: «novis(que) litteris vocalibus loco
punctorum in corpore, ad faciliorem syriacae linguae lectionem, animata».
However, Assemani’s orthographic system is also found in a manuscript
written two months earlier by the Maronite Ğibrāʼīl Ḥawwā (d. 1752),
Rituale per le Cerimonie della Messa scritte in Lingua Siriaca colla
Rubricella Carsciunica, who further employed his system in the edition of
his Liber Psalmorum Davidis idiomate Syro dated 1737. The question that
naturally emerges is to whom to attribute the paternity of this innovative
orthographic system.
In the same year (1707), the Maronite Ğirmānūs Farḥāt (d. 1732)
successfully produced one of the most simplified and well-organised
grammars of the Arabic language, the Baḥṯ al-maṭālib wa-ḥaṯṯ al-ṭālib.
This paper proposes to investigate both the aims of and the ways of
perceiving grammatical simplification expressed by the two Maronite
authors in their Syriac and Arabic grammar books respectively.

Syro-Maronite music is an essential component of the divine office of the Maronite Church, which has undergone several changes throughout its history and which was always in search of its identity, until the last decades. This search for identity has also enabled the Maronite Church to investigate the foundations of its divine office and, in particular, its liturgical music, through the participation of various constituent entities of its ecclesial body. This article contextualizes the origin of Syro-Maronite chants which is found in the sources of the liturgical tradition of the Syro-Maronite Church descending from the Antiochian ecclesial tradition.

Le chant syro-maronite est une composante essentielle de l’office divin de l’Église maronite, qui a subi à travers son histoire plusieurs mutations et qui était toujours à la recherche de son identité, jusqu’aux dernières décennies. Cette recherche d’identité a permis aussi à l’Église maronite d’investiguer les fondements de son office divin et, notamment, sa musique liturgique, à travers la participation de différentes entités constitutives de son corps ecclésial. Cet article contextualise l’origine du chant syro-maronite qui se trouve dans les sources de la tradition liturgique de l’Église syro-maronite descendante de la tradition ecclésiale antiochienne.

Für die dynamisch wachsende, heterogene amerikanische Siedlergesellschaft hat Glaube und Religion eine integrative Funktion. Die Relevanz von Ethnic Churches wird in dem Aufsatz am Beispiel zweier maronitischer Gemeinden in den USA verdeutlicht, um folgende zentrale Fragestellung zu beantworten: Wie sichern maronitische Gemeinschaften ihre ethnische Identität und ihren Fortbestand? Folgende Unterfragen lassen sich mit Blick auf die USA ausdifferenzieren: Wie behalten maronitische Gemeinden eine Bedeutung für nachkommende Generationen, die vollständig in die amerikanische Gesellschaft integriert sind? Warum finden Prozesse der Öffnung statt und wie bewahren Ethnic Churches, die sich transformieren, ihre kulturelle Differenz? Welche Rolle spielen gruppeninterne Trennlinien bei maronitischen Gemeinschaften?

Σε αυτό το βιβλίο έρχονται στο φως για πρώτη φορά οι υπηρεσιακές εκθέσεις των ισραηλινών διπλωματών, που χειρίζονταν τη στάση της χώρας τους ως προς το Κυπριακό, κατά την περίοδο 1948-1960. Για δεκαετίες οι εκθέσεις αυτές παρέμεναν απόρρητες. Στο επίκεντρο της εξιστόρησης, βρίσκεται η ισραηλινή Realpolitik της δεκαετίας του '50 και εξετάζονται οι παράμετροι που την διαμόρφωσαν ως προς την κυπριακή διένεξη, μέχρι και την ανακήρυξη της ανεξαρτησίας της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας στις 16 Αυγούστου 1960. Η ισραηλινή αφήγηση του Κυπριακού είναι πιθανόν να ξαφνιάσει τον μέσο έλληνα αναγνώστη. Για τους Ισραηλινούς, η διένεξη στην Κύπρο ήταν ακόμα ένα μεσανατολικό πρόβλημα και οποιαδήποτε άλλη πτυχή της είχε δευτερεύουσα σημασία. Για αυτόν τον λόγο, στο βιβλίο αναδεικνύονται άγνωστα μέχρι σήμερα πρόσωπα και γεγονότα, που επηρέασαν καθοριστικά τη στάση του Ισραήλ, ως προς τα τεκταινόμενα στο νησί. Με την ανακάλυψη των κοιτασμάτων φυσικού αερίου στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο, η ίδια η Γεωγραφία έρχεται να μας υπενθυμίσει την μεσανατολική διάσταση του Κυπριακού, καθώς αναφύονται ζητήματα ανάλογα με εκείνα που απασχολούσαν τα κέντρα λήψεως αποφάσεων κατά την μακρινή δεκαετία του 1950. Η τρέχουσα επικαιρότητα δίνει πλείστες αφορμές, ώστε η παρούσα μελέτη να διαβαστεί με μία νέα επικαιροποιημένη ματιά.
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This book reveals for the first time the Israeli diplomatic correspondence about Israel's foreign policy over the Cyprus conflict during the period 1948-1960. For decades , these reports remained strictly confidential. The historical account focuses mainly on the Israeli Realpolitik of the 50s' and examines the criteria that affected it vis-a-vis thw Cyprus conflict up until the proclamation of the Republic of Cyprus, on August 16, 1960. The Israeli narrative over the Cyprus problem might surprise the average Greek reader. As for the Israelis, the Cyprus issue was one of many Middle Eastern unresovled disputes, while any other aspect of it was of minor importance. Therefore, the book highlights sofar unknown personalities and events, which affected dramatically Israel's stance regarding the events occuring at the Neighboring Isle. With the revelation of the East Mediterranean natural gas reserves, Geography itself is reminding us the middle eastern aspect of the Cyprus conflict, highlighting issues discussed by regional and international policy-makers during the 1950s'. For this reason, today this book is extremely relevant.
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בספר זה נחשפת לראשונה ההתכתבות הדיפלומטית הישראלית הקשורה במדיניות מדינת ישראל על הבעייה הקפריסאית, בין השנים 1948 ל-1960. הסקירה ההיסטורית מתמקדת במדיניות החוץ של ישראל בשנות ה-50 ובקריטריונית וסדר עדיפויותיה לגבי הגדרת מדיניותה של ישראל כלפי הסכסוך בקפריסין ועד להכרזת עמצאותה של הרפובליקה הקפריסאית ב-16 באוגוסט 1960. הנרטיב הישראלי של הבעייה הקפריסאית עלול להפתיע את הקורא היווני הממוצע. על פי דעתם של הישראלים, הבעייה הקפריסאית היוותה עוד סיכסוך מזרח-תיכוני בלתי פתיר ולמגמותיו הנוספים היה ערך שולי בלבד. בגלל זה, בספר נתגלים לראשונה דמויות ואירועים לא ידועים עד כה, אשר השפיעו באופן דרמטי על עמדתה של הדיפלומטיה הישראלית לגבי המתרחש באי השכן במשך התקופה הנסקרת. כשנתגלו מאגרי הגז הטבעי במזרח הים התיכון, הגאוגרפיה עצמה באה להזכיר את המגמה המזרח-תיכונית של הסיכסוך הקפריסאי, כשנושאים שהיו רלוונטיים בשנות ה-50 , שוב נמצאים בסדר היום של מקבלי ההחלטות של ימינו - עובדה שהופכת את הספר הזה לאקטואלי

The article has got two important parts and dimensions. The first is rather methodological and concentrates on giving ideas that could refresh and enrich the interdisciplinary research on ethnic issues in the Arab world. The author's point of view is the one of an Arabist who combines philology with the methods of contemporary social sciences. In the second part of the text the methodological context is practically utilized in the analysis of chosen examples. This would be the case of the Maronites of Lebanon - their collective identity and politics of history conducted by their elites. Lebanon itself is a unique example of Muslim-Christian "confessional democracy" in a region dominated by the Arab-Muslim civilization. However uniquely diversified, it can also serve as an example of a more universal social phenomena concerning the entire Arab world. The Maronite question is very interesting in this context, because it illustrates a rare situation in which minority, ethnic and religious community, becomes the dominant group only to return finally to the role of a minority fighting for its place in the society.

Мараніты – адна са шматлікіх хрысціянскіх канфесій, якая аднак мае выразную тоеснасць, бо значным чынам адрозніваецца ад рэшты хрысціянскага свету. Па сваёй канфесійнай прыналежнасці мараніты з’яўляюцца католікамі ўсходняга абраду, а, калі быць больш дакладным, выводзяць свае карэнні з сірыйскай традыцыі. Хрысціяне Мараніцкай царквы з’яўляюцца своеасаблівым мастом, які яднае не толькі дзве традыцыі хрысціянства, ці, як называў іх папа Ян Павел ІІ (1978-2005), “лёгкія Царквы”.

This article examines the establishment of friendly relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Papacy during the Ottoman tanzimat or reorganization period and the impact of this relationship on the Eastern Orthodox Church. The article argues that the relationship that started with mutual visits in 1847-48 was not viewed positively by the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch because the Vatican primarily aimed to take the Eastern Orthodox Church under the control of Papacy and secondly Catholic missionaries worked to convert Orthodox Christians to Catholicism./ Bu makale Tanzimat döneminde Osmanlı Devleti ile Papalık arasında başlatılan dostane ilişkileri ve bu yakınlaşmanın Doğu Hıristiyanları üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektedir. Makale karşılıklı ziyaretler ile 1847-48 yıllarında gelişen Osmanlı-Papalık ilişkilerinin, Papalığın Doğu Ortodoks Kilisesini Vatikan’a bağlama arzusu ve Katolik misyonerlerin Ortodoks Hıristiyanları Katolikleştirmeye çalışması nedeniyle Fener Rum Patrikliği tarafından hoş görülmediğini ortaya koymaktadır.

The Druze leader Kamal Junblatt once said that the Maronites were a Minority obsessed with its sense of being a minority, and perhaps his statement was right when observed during the Civil War, an era which exposed the community to the real weakness of its geopolitical position. However, for most of the twentieth century, the Maronites did not hold such a pessimistic vision of themselves, asserting instead a triumphalist self-perception that proclaimed proudly the separateness of the Lebanese nation and its belonging either to the Mediterranean or to the Western worlds. One of the promoters of such a vision was the poet-cum-entrepreneur Charles Corm, whose literary endeavors ("La Montagne Inspirée", "Contes érotiques", etc.), alongside those of other authors - especially Michel Chiha and Saïd Akl - provided the Maronite community with a sentimental geography highlighting both its authenticity ("je suis le vrai Liban, chrétien et pratiquant...") and the character of its Lebanon as a quasi-crusader State, on the Eastern frontier of the Western world.

This presentation will examine these self-perceptions and, at the same time, try to determine whether such points of view remain en vogue within Lebanon's post-war Maronite community's vision of itself.

Les chrétiens ont historiquement été des vecteurs de modernité au Moyen-Orient et des dynamiques qui en découlent en termes de liens avec « l’Occident », d’apports culturels novateurs, de circulation des idées et de mobilité transnationale. Partant, on aurait pu s’attendre à ce que la mondialisation et ses corollaires leur soient favorables. C’est pourtant un sentiment de malaise, voire d’abandon, qui prévaut au sein de leurs communautés, qui se réduisent comme peau de chagrin dans leurs terres ancestrales, de plus en plus de leurs membres se résolvant à l’exil pour fuir conflits, autoritarismes, montée des islamismes, occupations, persécutions ou marasme économique. Dès lors, il s’agira d’appréhender les incidences de certains liens affinitaires noués entre chrétiens orientaux, puissances étrangères et réseaux religieux transnationaux, mais aussi les implications des systèmes d’alliances qui se font à leur détriment dans l’espace mondial et de la déterritorialisation des idées et des sentiments, sur lesquels ils n’ont pas toujours de prise immédiate.

, the Maronites owe their name to the patron saint of their sect, Marun, who died about 410 A.D. Originally, they held to the Monothelite doctrine and they spoke Syriac which was a literary form of Aramaic. They continued to use their national language for more than three centuries after the Arab conquest of Syria. However, by the fifteenth century, their language was already Arabized.  Nowadays, their clergy still use Syriac liturgies in the mass. Around the end of the seventh century, they escaped with their Patriarch, Yuhanna al-Sarumi, who was called Yuhanna Marun after their fifth-century saint, from the valley of the Orontes in the Syrian interior where “they had always been on poor terms with the Byzantine church and its Syrian followers, the Melchites”.  They took refuge in Mt Lebanon.