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Arab Christians
Arab Christians () are the Arabs who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million. Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world, but are concentrated in the Eastern Mediterranean region of the Levant and Egypt, with smaller communities present throughout the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. The history of Arab Christians coincides with the history of Eastern Christianity and the history of the Arabic language; Arab Christian communities either result from pre-existing Christian communities adopting the Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. The jurisdictions of three of the five patriarchates of the Pentarchy primarily became Arabic-speaking after the early Muslim conquests – the Church of Alexandria, the Church of Antioch and the Church of Jerusalem – and over time many of their adherents adopted the Arabic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
As-Suwayda
Suwayda (), also spelled Sweida, is a mainly Druze city located in southern Syria, close to the border with Jordan. It is the capital of Suwayda Governorate, one of Syria's 14 governorates, bordering Jordan in the South, Daraa Governorate in the West and Rif Dimashq Governorate in the north and east. The city is referred to by some as "Little Venezuela" due to the city's influx of affluent Venezuelan Syrian immigrants. Many of them originally emigrated from Suweida in the nineteenth century, so when their descendants returned, they brought back the Spanish language and South American culture. History Ancient and Medieval eras The city was founded by the Nabataeans as Suada. It became known as Dionysias Soada () in the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire, for the god Dionysus, patron of wine - the city is situated in a famous ancient wine-producing region. The name ''Dionysias'' replaced the former Nabataean name in 149 AD after Nabataean influence decreased and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oriental Orthodox Church
The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 50 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to the Nicene Christian tradition. Oriental Orthodoxy is one of the oldest branches in Christianity. As some of the oldest religious institutions in the world, the Oriental Orthodox Churches have played a prominent role in the history and culture of countries and regions such as Armenia, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, the Levant, Iraq and the Malabar region of southern India. As autocephalous churches, their bishops are equal by virtue of episcopal ordination. Their doctrines recognize the validity of only the first three ecumenical councils. The Oriental Orthodox communion is composed of six autocephalous national churches: the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria; the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch; the Armenian Apostolic Church comprising the autocephalous Catholicosate of Etchmia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arabs
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years. In the 9th century BCE, the Assyrians made written references to Arabs as inhabitants of the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Throughout the Ancient Near East, Arabs established influential civilizations starting from 3000 BCE onwards, such as Dilmun, Gerrha, and Magan, playing a vital role in trade between Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean. Other prominent tribes include Midian, ʿĀd, and Thamud mentioned in the Bible and Quran. Later, in 900 BCE, the Qedarites enjoyed close relations with the nearby Canaanite and Aramaean states, and their territory extended from Lower Egypt to the Southern Levant. From 1200 BCE to 110 BCE, powerful kingdoms emerged such as Saba, Lihyan, Minaean, Qataban, Hadhramaut, Awsan, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syrians
Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine Arabic, Levantine and Mesopotamian Arabic, Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The culture of Syria, cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. By the seventh century, most of the inhabitants of the Levant spoke Aramaic. In the centuries after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 634, Arabic gradually became the dominant language, but a minority of Syrians (particularly the Assyrian people, Assyrians and Terms for Syriac Christians#Syriac identity, Syriac-Arameans retained Neo-Aramaic languages, Aramaic (Syriac), which is still spoken in its Eastern Aramaic languages, Eastern and Western Aramaic languages, Western dialects. The national name "Syrian" was originally an Indo-European corrupt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Thomas Christians
The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, ''Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani'', ''Malankara Nasrani'', or ''Nasrani Mappila'', are an Ethnoreligious group, ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala (Malabar region), who, for the most part, employ the East Syriac Rite, Eastern and West Syriac Rite, Western liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity. They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Saint Thomas Christians had been historically a part of the hierarchy of the Church of the East but are now divided into several different Eastern Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic, Oriental Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodox, Protestantism, Protestant, and independent bodies, each with their own liturgies and traditions. They are based in Kerala and they speak Malayalam. ''Nasrani'' or Nazarene (title), Nazarene is a Syriac term for Christians, who were among the first converts to Christianity in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin-Levantines
The Latin Church of the Catholic Church has several dispersed populations of members in the Middle East, notably in Turkey, Cyprus and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan). Latin Catholics employ the Latin liturgical rites, in contrast to Eastern Catholics who fall under their respective church's patriarchs and employ distinct Eastern Catholic liturgies, while being in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church. Latin Catholics in the Middle East are often of European descent, particularly from the medieval Crusader era and later the 20th-century colonial period. Depending on the specific area in question, due to their cultural heritage descending from Catholics who lived under the Ottoman Empire, they are sometimes referred to as ''Levantines'', , or ''Franco-Levantines'' (; ; ; ; or ''Tatlısu Frenkleri'') after Frankokratia. A distinctive era of influence occurred during the Crusades with the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Middle A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armenians In The Middle East
In the Middle East, Armenians are mostly concentrated in Iran, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem, although well-established communities exist in Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and other countries of the area including, of course, Armenia itself. They tend to speak the Western dialect of the Armenian language (except those of Iran) and the majority are adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church, with Catholic and Protestant minorities. There is a sizable Armenian population in the thousands in Israel. There is also the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem with a history that goes back 2,000 years. History The Armenian royalty had always kept close contact with neighboring Persia. In the 1st century B.C., Tigranes the Great, the king of kings of the Armenian Empire, ruled over a significant part of the region. Armenians have a millennia-long native history in the region, and are part of the indigenous inhabitants of northwestern Iran, as well as many of the oldest Armen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaldean Catholics
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church ('' sui iuris'') in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac dialect of the Aramaic language, it is part of Syriac Christianity. Headquartered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq, since 1950, it is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. In the late 2010s, it had a membership of 616,639, with a large population in diaspora and its home country of Iraq. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom reports that, according to the Iraqi Christian Foundation, an agency of the Chaldean Catholic Church, approximately 80% of Iraqi Christians are of that church. In its own 2018 Report on Religious Freedom, the United States Department of State put the Chaldean Catholics at approximately 67% of the Christians in Iraq. The 201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maronites
Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally resided near Mount Lebanon in modern Lebanon. The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the pope and the rest of the Catholic Church. The Maronites derive their name from Saint Maron, (350-410 AD. ), a monk who migrated with his followers from Antioch to the Lebanese Mountains and founded the Maronite church. The spread of Christianity was very slow in the Lebanese region, in the 5th century AD in the highlands they were still pagan. St. Maron sent the apostle Abraham of Cyrrhus known as the "Apostle of Lebanon" with a mandate to convert the pagan inhabitants of Lebanon to Christianity. After their conversion, the inhabitants of the region renamed the Adonis River to the Abrahamic River in honor of the Saint who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antiochian Greek Christians
Antiochian Greek Christians (also known as Rūm) are an ethnoreligious Eastern Christian group native to the Levant. The majority of its members identify as Arab, and some of the members reject the Arab label, and identify as Greek. They are either members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and they have ancient roots in what is now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the southern Turkish province of Hatay, which includes the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch—one of the holiest cities in Eastern Christianity). Many of their descendants now live in the global Near Eastern Christian diaspora. They primarily speak Levantine Arabic, with Maaloula near Damascus being one of the few places where a Western Aramaic dialect is still spoken. History Early Era Syria was invaded by Greek king Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. and Antioch was founded by one of his generals, Seleucus I Nicator. Roman Era Syria was annexed by the Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rum (endonym)
Rūm ( , collective; singulative: ''Rūmī'' ; plural: ''Arwām'' ; ''Rum'' or ''Rumiyān'', singular ''Rumi''; ), ultimately derived from Ancient Greek, Greek Ῥωμαῖοι (''Roman people, Rhomaioi'', literally 'Romans'), is the Exonym and endonym, endonym of the pre-Islamic inhabitants of Anatolia, the Middle East and the Balkans and date to when those regions were parts of the Eastern Roman Empire. The term ''Rūm'' is now used to describe: *The city of Rome in Italy, and the people living in it. * Remaining pre-Islamic Ethnoreligious group, ethnocultural Christian minorities living in the Near East and their descendants, notably the Antiochian Greek Christians who are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and the Hatay Province in Southern Turkey whose liturgy is still based on Koine Greek language, Greek. * Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Orthodox Christian citi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divine grace, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. The five solae, five ''solae'' summarize the basic theological beliefs of mainstream Protestantism. Protestants follow the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began in the 16th century with the goal of reforming the Catholic Church from perceived Criticism of the Catholic Church, errors, abuses, and discrepancies. The Reformation began in the Holy Roman Empire in 1517, when Martin Luther published his ''Ninety-five Theses'' as a reaction against abuses in the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church, which purported to offer the remission of the Purgatory, temporal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
