CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Syria</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14399a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="A country in Western Asia, which in modern times comprises all that region bounded on the north by the highlands of the Taurus, on the south by Egypt, on the east by Mesopotamia and the Arabia Desert, and on the west by the Mediterranean"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="14399a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/s.htm">S</a> > Syria</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Syria</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <h2>Geography and political divisions, ancient and modern</h2> <p>A country in Western <a href="../cathen/01777b.htm">Asia</a>, which in modern times comprises all that region bounded on the north by the highlands of the Taurus, on the south by <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, on the east by Mesopotamia and the Arabia Desert, and on the west by the Mediterranean; thus including with its area the ancient and modern countries of Aram or North Syria, a portion of the Hittite and Mitanni kingdoms, Ph&oelig;nicia, the land of <a href="../cathen/03569b.htm">Canaan</a> or Palestine, and even a section of the Sinaitic Peninsula. Strictly speaking, however, and especially from the point of view of Biblical and classical geography, which is the one followed in this article, Syria proper composes only that portion of the above-mentioned territories that is bounded on the north and northwest by the Taurus and <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>, on the south by Palestine, on the east by the Euphrates, the Syro-Arabian <a href="../cathen/04749a.htm">desert</a> and Mesopotamia, and on the west by the Mediterranean. The northern portion is elevated, the eastern is level, extending to the Syro-Arabian <a href="../cathen/04749a.htm">desert</a>; the northwestern is <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> by the Amanus and Taurus mountains, while the mountains of <a href="../cathen/09104a.htm">Lebanon</a> and Anti-Lebanon are parallel ranges on the north of Palestine or south of Syria. Between these two ranges is the long narrow valley called Cæle-Syria (Hollow Syria). Its chief rivers are the Litâny (Leontes), the Orontes (Al-'Asi), and the Barad or Abana. Cæle-Syria varies in breadth from three or four miles to fifteen miles, and in some places broken by projecting spurs of the Lebanon ranges. At its northern end it curves round to the west and opens out to the Mediterranean. It has two slopes, a northerly and a southerly one, and both are fertile and beautiful. This valley was always an important route of travel between Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean coast, <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabia</a>, and <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. The whole of Syria, however, is about 250 miles in length, and an average of 130 miles in breadth, having a total area of about 32,500 square miles. The most important towns of Syria in ancient times were Damascus, Karkamish, Hamath, Baalbec, Palmyra or Tadmur, Riblah, <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, Daphne, <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a>, <a href="../cathen/01043b.htm">Abila</a>, Chalcis, Lybo, <a href="../cathen/08794a.htm">Laodicea</a>, <a href="../cathen/01701d.htm">Arethusa</a>, and Apamæa, whereas the famous cities of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, <a href="../cathen/13777a.htm">Sidon</a>, Beritus Byblos, and Aradus belong properly speaking to Ph&oelig;nicia. The most important towns of modern Syria are Alexandretta, Antakia, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, Latakyah, Hamah, Homs, Tripoli, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, Sayda, Akka and <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The name "Syria" was formerly believed to be either an abbreviation of "Assyria" or derived from Tsur (Tyre), hence Tsurya, and that it was of Greek origin. This, however, is untenable, as the name, in all probability, is derived from the old <a href="../cathen/02179b.htm">Babylonian</a> name Suri, applied originally to the north-eastern portion of the present Syria. Later on the name Syria was applied by the Greeks and the Romans to the whole of Syria, or the country lying between the Euphrates, the Mediterranean, the Taurus, and <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. By the Babylonians and the <a href="../cathen/02007c.htm">Assyrians</a> it was called "Amurru" (the Land of the Amorites) and Martu (the West-Land). The extreme northern part of it was also known as "Khatti", or the Land of the <a href="../cathen/07305a.htm">Hittites</a>, whilst the most southern region was known as "Kena'nu" or "Kanaan" (Palestine). In Arabic it is called either "Suriyya" (Syria) or "Al-Sham" (the country situated to the "left"), in opposition to "El-Yemen", or South Arabia, which is situated to the "right". The political and geographic divisions of Syria have been numerous and constantly varying. In the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a> it is generally called "Aram", and its inhabitant "Arameans". But there were several Biblical "Arams", viz: "Aram-naharaim" or "Aram of the Two Rivers", i.e., Mesopotamia; "Paddon-Aram" (the region of Haran), in the extreme north of Mesopotamia; "Aram-Ma'rak" to the north of Palestine; "Aram-beth Rehob", "Aram-Sobah", etc. The Syrian Aram, however, which corresponds to the classical Syria is called generally in the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a> "Aram of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>" from the principal city of the country. It is one of these Arameans, or Syrians, who occupied Central Syria, with Damascus as the capital city, that we hear most in the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a>.</p> <p>During the Greek and Roman dominations the political divisions of Syria were indefinite and almost unintelligible. Strabo mentions five great provinces: (1) Commagene, a small territory in the extreme north, with Samosata for capital, situated on the Euphrates; (2) Seleucia, lying south of the former, and subdivided into four divisions, according to the number of its chief cities, viz: Antioch Epidaphne, <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a>, in Pieria; Apamæa, and Laodicea; (3) Cæle-Syria, comprising Laodicea and Libanum, Chalcia, Abilene, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, Ituræa, and others farther south, included in Palestine; (4) Ph&oelig;nicia; (5) Judæa. Pliny's divisions are still more numerous than those of Strabo. It appears that each city on rising to importance gave its name to a surrounding territory, larger or smaller, and this in time assumed the rank of a province. Ptolemy mentions thirteen provinces: Cammagene, Pieria, Cyrrhestica, <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a>, Casiotis, Chalibonitis, Chalcis, Apamene, <a href="../cathen/08794a.htm">Laodicea</a>, Ph&oelig;nicia, Cæle-Syria, Palmyrene, and Batanea, and he gives a long list of the cities contained in them. Under the Romans, Syria became a province of the empire. Some portions of it were permitted to remain for a time under the rule of petty princes, dependent on the imperial government. Gradually, however, all these were incorporated, and Antioch was the capital. Under <a href="../cathen/07104b.htm">Hadrian</a> the province was divided into two parts: Syria-Major, on the north, and Syria-Phænice, on the south. Towards the close of the fourth century another partition of Syria was made, and formed the basis of its <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> government: (1) Syria Prima, with Antioch as its capital; (2) Syria Secunda, with Apamæa as its capital; (3) Ph&oelig;nicia Prima, including the greater part of ancient Ph&oelig;nicia, with <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> as its capital; (4) Ph&oelig;nicia Secunda, also called Ph&oelig;nicia ad Libanum, with Damascus as its capital. During the Arabian domination, i.e., from the seventh to the fifteenth century, Syria was generally divided into six large districts (Giunds), viz: (1) Filistîn (Palestine), consisting of Judæa, <a href="../cathen/13416a.htm">Samaria</a>, and a portion of the territory east of the <a href="../cathen/08501a.htm">Jordan</a>, its capital was at Ramlah, <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> ranking next; (2) Urdun (Jordan) of which the capital was Tabaria (<a href="../cathen/14716a.htm">Tiberias</a>), roughly speaking it consisted of the rest of Palestine as far as <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>; (3) Damascus, a district which included Baalbeck, Tripoli, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, and the Hauran; (4) Hams, including Hamah; (5) Qinnasrin, corresponding to northern Syria; the capital at first was Qinnasrin, to the south of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, by which it was afterwards superseded; (6) the sixth district was the military frontier ('awâsim) bordering upon the Byzantine dominions in <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>. Under the present <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> rule, Syria is divided into the following six vilayets, or provinces: (1) the Vilayet of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, with the 3 liwas of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, <a href="../cathen/09636b.htm">Marash</a>, and Urfa; (2) the independent Liwa of Zor (Deir es-Zor); (3) the Vilayet of <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, including the south coast of the mouth of the Orontes, the mountain-district of the Nosairiyeh and Lebanon to the south of Tripoli, further the town of <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a> and the country between the sea and the <a href="../cathen/08501a.htm">Jordan</a> from Saida to the north of <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a>, and is divided into 5 liwas: Ladikiyeh, Tarabulus, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, 'Akka (Acre), and Nabulus; (4) Lebanon, from the north of Tripoli to the north of Saida, exclusive of the town of <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, forms an independent liwa, administered by a governor and with the rank of mushîr; (5) the Vilayet of Suriyya (Syria), comprises the country from Hamah to the Hijaz—the capital is Damascus — and is divided into the liwas of Hamah, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, Hauran, and Kerak; (6) El-Quds, or <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, is an independent liwa under a mutesarrif of the first class. At the head of each vilayet is a vali, or governor-general, whose province is divided into departments (sanjak, liwa), each presided over by a mutesarrif; each department again contains so many divisions (kaimmakamlik, kada), each under a kaimmakam; and these again are divided into districts (mudiriyeh, nahiya) under mudirs. The independent liwas of Ez-Zor and El-Quds stand in direct connexion with the central government at Constantinople.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>Ethnography of modern Syria</h2> <p>Ethnographically, the modern inhabitants of Syria consist of <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a>, <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>, <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>, and <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Franks</a> or <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europeans</a>. (1) The Syrians are direct descendants of the ancient Arameans who inhabited the country from about the first millennium B.C. and who spoke Aramaic. Most of these embraced <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> and spoke Aramaic until about the seventh century, when <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> invasion forced the Arabic language to become the vernacular tongue of the country. Aramaic, however, held its ground for a considerable time and traces of it are still to be found in the liturgy of the so-called Syrian, Chaldean, and <a href="../cathen/09683c.htm">Maronite</a> Churches, as well as in three villages of the anti-Libanus. (2) The Arabian population consists of hadari, or settles, and bedawi (p. bedu) or nomadic tribes. The settled population is of very mixed origin, but the Bedouins are mostly of mixed <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> blood. They are the direct descendants of the half-savage nomads who have inhabited Arabia from time immemorial. Their dwellings consist of portable tents made of black goats' hair. There are two main branches. One of these consist of the 'Ænezch who migrate in winter towards Central Arabia, while the other embraces those tribes which remain permanently in Syria. (3) The <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> are not a numerous class in the community of Syria. They are intellectually inferior to the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a>, but the lower classes are generally characterized by patriarchal simplicity of manner. There are two parties of <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>, the Old, and the Young, or Liberal Party. In Northern Syria, as well as on the <a href="../cathen/07288a.htm">Great Hermon</a>, are still several nomadic <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> tribes, or Turcomans, whose mode of life is the same as that of the Bedouin <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a>. (4) The <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> who remained in the country are but few in number; most of those who now reside in Palestine are comparatively recent settlers from <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. (5) The <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Franks</a> (<a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europeans</a>) form a very small proportion of the population. Distinct from them are the so-called "Levantines", who are either <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europeans</a> or descendants of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europeans</a>, who have entirely adopted the manners of the country.</p> <h2>Religions of modern Syria</h2> <p>In regard to religion, the modern inhabitants of Syria consist of <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, and <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>. The first are divided into Sunnites, or <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, Metawileh, Nusairiyyeh, or Ansairiyyeh, and Ismaliyyeh. To these may be added the <a href="../cathen/05166d.htm">Druzes</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> include <a href="../cathen/13121a.htm">Roman Catholics</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin Rite</a>; <a href="../cathen/13121a.htm">Roman Catholic</a> Greeks or <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchites</a>; <a href="../cathen/09683c.htm">Maronites</a> (all <a href="../cathen/13121a.htm">Roman Catholic</a>); <a href="../cathen/13121a.htm">Roman Catholic</a> Syrians, <a href="../cathen/13121a.htm">Roman Catholic</a> Chaldeans, <a href="../cathen/13121a.htm">Roman Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a>, Schismatic Syrians, i.e., <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysites</a>, commonly called <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a>; Schismatic <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a>, <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a>, and <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestants</a>.</p> <h3>The Mohammedans or Moslems</h3> <p>The <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Moslems</a> are and have been for the last twelve centuries the lords of the land and still constitute the great majority of its inhabitants. They are generally <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorant</a> and fanatical, although of late <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> has spread among the better class in the larger towns. Till a few years ago they were inclined to look with contempt on all other peoples and <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religions</a>. This, however, is gradually disappearing owing to the wonderful strides the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> of Syria have been making of late in the matter of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>, <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a>, <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a>, and <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> and commercial institutions. The Syrian <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Muslims</a> are generally noble in bearing, polite in address, and profuse in hospitality; but they are regardless of <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, dishonest in their dealings, and immoral in their conduct. In large towns the greater proportion of the upper classes are both physically and morally feeble, owing to the effects of <a href="../cathen/02564a.htm">polygamy</a>, early <a href="../cathen/09707a.htm">marriages</a>, and degrading vices; but the peasantry are robust and vigorous, and much might be hoped from them if they were brought under the influence of liberal institutions, and if they had examples around them of the industry and the enterprise of Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. Experience, indeed, has already shown that they are not slow to adopt the improvement of other lands. In religion, the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> of Syria are Sunnites, or traditionalists—that is, in addition to the written word of the <a href="../cathen/08692a.htm">Koran</a>, they recognize the Sunna, a collection of tradition sayings of the Prophet, which is a kind of supplement to the <a href="../cathen/08692a.htm">Koran</a> directing the right observance of many things omitted in that book. They are in general exact in observance of the outward rites of their religion.</p> <h3>The Metawileh</h3> <p>The Metawileh (sing. Metaly) are the followers of 'Aly, the son-in-law of <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammed</a>. His predecessors, Abu Bekr, 'Omar, and Othman, they do not acknowledge as <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> khalifs. 'Aly they maintain is the lawful Imam; and they hold that the supreme authority, both spiritual and temporal, belongs of right to his descendants alone. They reject the Sunna, and are therefore regarded as <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a> by the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a>. They are allied in <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> to the Shi'ites of <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>. They are almost as scrupulous in their ceremonial observance as the <a href="../cathen/07358b.htm">Hindus</a>. The districts in which they chiefly reside are Ba'albek, where their chiefs are the noted <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> of Harfush; Belad Besharah, on the southern part of the Lebanon range; and a district on the west bank of the Orontes, around the village of Hurmul. They also occupy several scattered villages in Lebanon.</p> <h3>The Nusairiyyeh</h3> <p>It is not easy to tell whether these people are <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> or not. Their religion still remains a secret, notwithstanding all attempts lately made to dive into their mysteries. They are represented as holding a <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> half <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> and half <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a>. They <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believe</a> in the transmigration of <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, and observe in a singular, perhaps <a href="../cathen/07636a.htm">idolatrous</a>, manner a few of the ceremonies common in the <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Church</a>. They inhabit a range of mountains extending from the great valley north of <a href="../cathen/09104a.htm">Lebanon</a> to the gorge of the Orontes at Antioch.</p> <h3>The Ismailiyyeh</h3> <p>The Ismailiyyeh, who inhabit a few villages on the eastern slopes of the Ansairiyeh mountains, resemble the Nusairiyyeh in this, that their religion is a mystery. There were originally a religious-political subdivision of the Shi'ites, and are the feeble remains of a people too well known in the time of the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">Crusades</a> as the Assassins. They have still their chief seat in the castle of Masyad, on the mountains west of Hamah.</p> <h3>The Druzes</h3> <p>(The generic name in Arabic is ed-Deruz, sing. Derzy). The peculiar doctrines of the <a href="../cathen/05166d.htm">Druzes</a> was first propagated in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> by the <a href="../cathen/11126b.htm">notorious</a> Hakim, third of the Fatimite dynasty. This khalif, who gave himself out as a <a href="../cathen/12477a.htm">prophet</a>, though he acted more like a madman, taught a system of half-materialism, asserting that the Deity resided in 'Aly. In A.D. 1017 a <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persian</a> of the <a href="../cathen/13674a.htm">sect</a> of Batanism called Mohammed Ben-Ismail ed-Dorazy, settled in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, and became a devoted follower and stimulator of Hakim. He not only affected to <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believe</a> in and propagate the pretensions of the new <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> <a href="../cathen/12477a.htm">prophet</a>, but he added to his doctrines that of the transmigration of <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, which he had brought from his native country, and he carried his fanaticism to such an extent that the people at last drove him out of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. He took refuge in Wady el-Teim, at the western base of <a href="../cathen/07288a.htm">Hermon</a>; and being secretly supplied with money by the <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> monarch, propagated his <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogmas</a>, and became the founder of the <a href="../cathen/05166d.htm">Druzes</a>. His system was enlarged, and to some degree modified, by other disciples of Hakim, especially by the Persian Hamzeh, whom the <a href="../cathen/05166d.htm">Druze</a> still venerate as the founder of their <a href="../cathen/13674a.htm">sect</a> and the author of their law. Hamzeh tried to gain over the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> by representing himself as the <a href="../cathen/10212c.htm">Messiah</a> whose advent they expected. For further details see <a href="../cathen/05166d.htm">DRUZES</a>.</p> <h3>The Jews</h3> <p>The <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> of Syria are of several different classes. The Sephardim are the Spanish-Portuguese <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>, who immigrated after the expulsion of the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> from <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> under Isabella I; most of them now speak Arabic, though some still speak a Spanish patois. The Ashkenazim are from <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">Russia</a>, Galicia, <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, <a href="../cathen/02612b.htm">Bohemia</a>, <a href="../cathen/10561a.htm">Moravia</a>, <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, and <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>, and speak the dialect known as Yiddish. These again are well divided into the Perushim and the Chasadim. The <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> of the East have retained their character to a considerable extent, and are generally tall and slender in stature. They live in the towns, generally in a quarter of their own.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>History of Christianity in Syria</h2> <p>The history of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> in Syria proper during the first three centuries and down to the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicea</a> (A.D. 325), centres chiefly about Antioch, while from the time of the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicea</a> to the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> invasion it is absorbed into that of the Antiochine Patriarchate (see <a href="../cathen/01567a.htm">THE CHURCH OF ANTIOCH</a>), just as the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> of Palestine is practically that of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, that or Alexandria, of the West that of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, of Mesopotamia and <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a> that of <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a> Ctesiphon, and of the Byzantine <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a> that of Constantinople. As Jewish <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> originated at <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, so <a href="../cathen/06422a.htm">Gentile</a> <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> started at <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, then the leading center of the Hellenistic East, with Peter and Paul as its apostles. From Antioch it spread to the various cities and provinces of Syria, among the Hellenistic Syrians as well as among the Hellenistic <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> who, as a result of the great rebellions against the Romans in A.D. 70 and 130, were driven out from <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and Palestine into Syria. The spread of the new religion was so rapid and successful that at the time of Constantine Syria was honeycombed with <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> churches. The history of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Christian Church</a> in Syria during the second and third centuries is rather obscure, yet sufficient data to furnish a fair <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the rapid spread of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> in Syria have been collected by Harnack in his well-known work "The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries" (Eng. Tr., 2nd ed., <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a> 1908, vol. II, pp. 120 sqq.).</p> <p>Outside the city of Antioch, that "fair city of the Greeks" (see Isaac of Antioch's "Carmen", 15, ed. <a href="../cathen/16010a.htm">Bickell</a>, i, 294), Syriac was the language of the people; in fact it was spoken by the lower classes in Antioch itself and only among the upper classes of the Greek towns was it displaced by Greek. The Syriac spirit was wedded to Greek, however, even here, and remained the predominant factor in religious and social life, although at first and indeed for long it did not look as if it would. Yet, in this <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> world, <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> seems to have operated from <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a>, rather than from Antioch. The wide territory lying between these cities was consequently evangelized from two centres during the third century: from Antioch in the West by means of <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Greek Christian</a> propaganda, and from <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a> in the East by means of one which was <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Syro-Christian</a>. The inference is that the larger towns practically adopted the former while the country towns and villages went over to the latter. At the same time there was also a Western Syrian movement of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, thought it did not amount to much, both in and after the days of <a href="../cathen/11589a.htm">Paul of Samosata</a> and Zenobia. The work of conversion, so it would appear, made greater headway in Cæle-Syria, however, than in Ph&oelig;nicia. No fewer than twenty-two <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> from Cæle-Syria attended Nicea (two <a href="../cathen/16024c.htm">chorepiscopi</a>), including several who had Hellenic names. Hence we may infer the existence of no inconsiderable number of national <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Syrian Christians</a>. By about 325 the district round Antioch seems to have contained a very large number of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, and one dated (331) inscription runs as follows: "Christ, have mercy; there is but one <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>."</p> <p>In Chysostom's day these Syria villages appear to have been practically <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a>. Lucian, the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> of Antioch, declares in his speech before the magistrate in Nicomedia (311) that "almost the greater part of the world now adheres to this Truth, yea whole cities; even if any of this evidence seems suspect, there is no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> regarding multitudes of country-folk, who are innocent of guile" (pars paene mundi eam maior huic veritate adstipulatur, urbes integræ, aut si in his alquid suspectum videtur, contestatur de his etiam agrestis manus, ignara figmenti); and although this may reflect impressions he had just received in Bythynia, there was substantial ground for the statement in the local circumstances of Syria. The number of <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> in 303 throughout Syria is evident from Eusebius, <a href="../fathers/250108.htm"><em>Church History</em> VIII.6</a>: "An enormous number were put in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a> at every place. The <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prisons</a>, hitherto reserved for murderers and riflers of graves, were now packed everywhere with <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a>, <a href="../cathen/09111a.htm">lectors</a>, and <a href="../cathen/05711a.htm">exorcists</a>". Further data at our command are as follows: (1) <a href="../bible/act015.htm">Acts 15</a> already mentions churches in Syria besides Antioch. (2) Ignatius, apropos of Antioch (<a href="../fathers/0108.htm"><em>Philadelphians</em> 10</a>) mentions "Churches in the neighbourhood" which had already <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> of their own. These certainly included Seleucia, the seaport of Antioch, mentioned in <a href="../bible/act008.htm#vrs4">Acts 8:4</a>. (3) Apamæa was a centre of <a href="../cathen/05372a.htm">Elkesaites</a>. (4) Dionys. Alex. (in Eusebius, <a href="../fathers/250108.htm"><em>Church History</em> VIII.5</a>) observes that the Roman church frequently sent contributions to the Syrian Churches. (5) The document of the Antiochene Synod of 268 (<a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, VII, xxx), mentions, in connexion with Antioch, "bishops of the neighbouring country and cities".</p> <p>The towns in the vicinity of Antioch, both far and near, must already have had <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, in all or nearly all cases, if country <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> were in existence. From Eus. VI, vii, we learn that by about A.D. 200 there was a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> community as Rhossus which was gravitating towards Antioch. (6) Two <a href="../cathen/16024c.htm">chorepiscopi</a> from Cæle-Syria attended the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicea</a>. In Martyrol Hieron. (Achelis, "Mart. Hieron," p. 168) a <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> is noted as having occurred "in Syria provencia regione Apamæ vico Aprovavicta" but both of these places are unknown. (7) Bishops from the following places in Cæle-Syria were present at Nicea: Antioch, <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a>, <a href="../cathen/08794a.htm">Laodicea</a>, Apameæ, Raphaneæ, Hieropolis (=Maybug, Bambyce), <a href="../cathen/06475a.htm">Germanicia</a>, <a href="../cathen/13422a.htm">Samosata</a>, <a href="../cathen/05093c.htm">Doliche</a>, Balaneæ Gabula, <a href="../cathen/15757b.htm">Zeugma</a>, <a href="../cathen/09004b.htm">Larissa</a>, <a href="../cathen/05503a.htm">Epiphania</a>, <a href="../cathen/01701d.htm">Arethusa</a>, Neocæsarea, <a href="../cathen/04597a.htm">Cyrrhus</a>, Gindron, Arbokadama, and <a href="../cathen/06328a.htm">Gabala</a>. These towns lay in the most diverse districts of this wide country, on the seaboard, in the valley of the Orantes, in the Euphrates Valley, between the Orontes and the Euphrates, and in the north. Their distribution shows that <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> was fairly uniform and fairly strong in Syria about 325, as is strikingly shown by the <a href="../cathen/12783b.htm">rescript</a> of Daza to Sabinus (Eusebius, <a href="../fathers/250109.htm"><em>Church History</em> IX.9</a>), for we must understand the experiences undergone by the churches of Syrian Antioch and <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>, when we read the emperor's words about almost all men abandoning the worship of the gods and attaching themselves to the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> people. This remark is not one to be taken simply as a rhetorical flourish. For later speaking in one place about the first edict of <a href="../cathen/05007b.htm">Diocletian</a>, <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> proceeds as follows: "Not long afterwards, as some people in the district called <a href="../cathen/10166a.htm">Melitene</a> and other districts throughout Syria attempted to usurp the kingdom, a royal decree went forth to the effect that the head officials of the churches everywhere should be put in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a> and chains" (VIII, vi, 8). <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> does not say it in so many words, but the context makes it quite clear that the emperor held the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> responsible for both of these outbreaks (that of <a href="../cathen/10166a.htm">Melitene</a> being unknown to history). This means that the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> in <a href="../cathen/10166a.htm">Melitene</a> and Syria must have been extremely numerous, otherwise the emperor would never have met revolutionary outbreaks (which, in Syria, and, one may conjecture, in <a href="../cathen/10166a.htm">Melitene</a> also, originated with the army) with edicts against the <a href="../cathen/07326a.htm">Christian clergy</a>. The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Rhossus was not at Nicea (Rhossus, however, may also be assigned to Cilicia). But as we already <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a>, Rhossus did possess a <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Christian Church</a> about A.D. 200, which came under the supervision of the church at Antioch. There was a Jewish <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> church at Beræa (Aleppo) in the fourth century. The local <a href="../cathen/06422a.htm">gentile</a> <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> church cannot have been important; cf. The experience of <a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian</a> there (Ep. xvii, p. 516, ed. Hertlein).</p> <p>As to Ph&oelig;nicia, one of the most important provinces of Syria, the history of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> there is also obscure. Here again we learn from the <a href="../bible/act000.htm">Acts of the Apostles</a> that <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> reached Ph&oelig;nician cities at a very early period. When Paul was converted there were already <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> at <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> (<a href="../bible/act009.htm#vrs2">Acts 9:2, 10 sqq.</a>, <a href="../bible/act019.htm">19</a>; for <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> in <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> see <a href="../bible/act022.htm#vrs4">22:4</a>; for Ptolemais see <a href="../bible/act021.htm#vrs7">21:7</a>; for Sidon, <a href="../bible/act027.htm#vrs3">27:3</a>; and in general, <a href="../bible/act011.htm#vrs19">11:19</a>). The <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> position of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, which was the leading city of the East for manufactures and trade, made it the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> capital of the province; but it is questionable if <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> enjoyed this pre-eminence as early as the second century, for at the Palestinian Synod on the Eastern controversy, Cassius, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, and Clarus, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Ptolemais, took counsel with the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Ælia and of Cæsarea (<a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, <a href="../fathers/250105.htm"><em>Church History</em> V.25</a>), to whom they seem to have been subordinate. On the other hand, Marinus of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> is mentioned in a letter of <a href="../cathen/05011a.htm">Dionysius of Alexandria</a> (ibid, VII, v, 1) in such a way as to make his <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> dignity extremely probable. Martyrs in or from <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, during the great <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a>, are noted by <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, VIII, vii, 1 (VIII, viii) VIII, xiii, 3. <a href="../cathen/11306b.htm">Origen</a> died at <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> and was buried there. It is curious also to note that the learned Antiochine <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, Dorotheus, the teacher of <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, was appointed by the emperor (<a href="../cathen/05007b.htm">Diocletian</a>, or one of his immediate predecessors) to be the director of the purple-dyeing trade in <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> (<a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, <a href="../fathers/250107.htm"><em>Church History</em> VII.32</a>). A particularly libelous edict issued by the Emperor Daza against the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> is preserved by <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> (IX, vii) who copied it from the pillar in <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> on which it was cut, and the historian's work reaches its climax in the great speech upon the reconstruction of the church at <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, "by far the most beautiful in all Ph&oelig;nicia" (X, iv). This speech is dedicated to Paulinus, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, in whose <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> indeed the whole of the tenth book of its history is written. Unfortunately we get no information whatever, in this long address, upon the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> community at <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>. We can only infer the size of the community from the size of the church building, which may have stood where the ruins of the large <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">crusading</a> church now astonish the traveller (cf. Baedecker's "Palestine", pp. 300 sq). <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> as a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> city was to Ph&oelig;nicia what Cæsarea was to Palestine. It seems to have blossomed out as a manufacturing and trading centre during the imperial age, especially in the third century. A number of passages in <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">Jerome</a> give characteristic estimates of its size and importance. In Sidon, <a href="../cathen/11306b.htm">Origen</a> stayed for some time (Hom, xiv, 2 in Josuam), while it was there that the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">presbyter</a> Zenobius (<a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, <a href="../fathers/250108.htm"><em>Church History</em> VIII.13.3</a>) died in the great <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a>, as did some <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> at <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> (IX, v). Eleven <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, but no chorepsicopi, were present at the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicea</a> from Ph&oelig;nicia; namely the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, Ptolemais, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, <a href="../cathen/13777a.htm">Sidon</a>, <a href="../cathen/15060a.htm">Tripolis</a>, Paneas, Berytus, <a href="../cathen/11433a.htm">Palmyra</a>, Alassus, Emessa, and Antaradus. From <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> we also learn that many Jewish <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> resided in Paneas (<a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, <a href="../fathers/250107.htm"><em>Church History</em> VII.17.18</a>). Tripolis is mentioned even before the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicea</a> (in "Mart. Pal., " III, where a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> named Dionysius comes from <a href="../cathen/15060a.htm">Tripolis</a>); the Apostolic Constitutions (vii, 46) declare that Marthones was <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of this town as early as the <a href="../cathen/01626c.htm">Apostolic</a> age; while, previous to the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicea</a>, Hellenicus, the local <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, opposed Arius (Thedoret, <a href="../fathers/27021.htm"><em>Church History</em> I.4</a>), though Gregory, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Berytus, sided with him (loc. cit.; for Berytus, see also "Mart. Pal.", iv). The local church was burnt under <a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian</a> (cf. <a href="../cathen/14574b.htm">Theodoret</a>, <a href="../fathers/27024.htm"><em>Church History</em> IV.20</a>). <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> (VIII, xiii) calls Silvanus, at the period of the great <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a>, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, not of <a href="../cathen/05402a.htm">Emesa</a>, but of "the churches round Emesa". Emesa thus resembled Gaza; owing to the fanaticism of the inhabitants, <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were unable to reside within the town itself, they had to quarter themselves in the adjoining villages. Anatolius, the successor of Silvanus, was the first to take up his abode within the town. Theodoret (<a href="../fathers/27023.htm"><em>Church History</em> III.7</a>), writing at the age of <a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian</a>, says that the church there was xxx (newly built). With regard to Heliopolis, we have this definite information, that the town acquired its first church and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, thanks to Constantine, after 325 (cf. "Vita Constant.", III, lviii, and <a href="../cathen/14118b.htm">Socrates</a>, I, xviii). The "Mart. Syriacum" mentions one <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a>, Lucius, at Heliopolis. <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were also deported ("Mart. Pal.", XIII, ii) by Daza to Lebanon for penal servitude. One <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> makes it plain that there were <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> at Byblus. At Choda (Kabun), north of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, there were also numerous Jewish <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> in the days of <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>.</p> <p>We have no information in detail upon the diffusion and density of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> population throughout Ph&oelig;nicia. Rather general and satisfactory information is available for Syria, a province with which Ph&oelig;nicia was at that time very closely bound up; even the Ph&oelig;nicia tongue had long been dislodged by Syriac. From the letters of Chysostum and the state of matters which still obtained in the second half of the sixth century, however, it is quite clear that <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> got a firm footing only on the seaboard, while the inland districts of Ph&oelig;nicia remained <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> for the most part. Yet it was but recently, not earlier than the third century, that these Ph&oelig;nician-Hellenic cults had experienced a powerful revival. The situation is quite clear: wherever <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> went, it implied Hellenizing, and vice versa. <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, in the first instance, only secured a firm footing where there were Greeks. The majority of the Ph&oelig;nicia towns where <a href="../cathen/07326a.htm">Christian bishops</a> can be traced lay on the coast; i.e., there were towns with a strong Greek population. In the large <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> cities, <a href="../cathen/05402a.htm">Emesa</a> and Heliopolis, <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were not tolerated. Once we leave out inland locations where "heretics", viz., <a href="../cathen/09645c.htm">Marcionites</a> and Jewish <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> resided, the only place in the interior where <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> can be found are <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, Paneas, and <a href="../cathen/11433a.htm">Palmyra</a>. Damascus, the great trading city, was Greek (cf. Mommsen, "Rom. Gesch.", V., p. 473; Eng. Trans, II, 146); so was Paneas. In Palmyra, the headquarters of the <a href="../cathen/04749a.htm">desert</a> trade, a strong Greek element also existed (Mommsen, p. 425 sq.; Eng. Trans, II, 96 sq.). The national royal house at <a href="../cathen/11433a.htm">Palmyra</a>, with its Greek infusion, was well-disposed not towards the Greek but towards the scanty indigenous <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> of Syria, as may be inferred from the relations between <a href="../cathen/11589a.htm">Paul of Samosata</a> and Zenobia, no less than from the policy adopted by <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> against him.</p> <p>The Edict of <a href="../cathen/10298a.htm">Milan</a> (A.D. 313) marks the beginning of a better-known period in the history of Syrian <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, during which the See of Antioch was filled by a succession of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> illustrious throughout the church, and the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in Syria was involved in the most troublesome period of <a href="../cathen/07365a.htm">church history</a> and <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theology</a>, which marks the beginning of those fatal <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schisms</a>, <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heresies</a>, and <a href="../cathen/14597a.htm">Christological</a> controversies which led to the final separation of the Syrian Church and the Churches of the East from the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> (see <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">ARIANISM</a>; NESTORIANISM; <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">MONOPHYSITISM</a>). The death of Severus (542), the deposed <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, may be taken to mark the beginning of a new period in the history of the Syrian Church; for from this date the double succession in the See of Antioch has been maintained to the present day. The death of Emperor Maurice (A.D. 602), and the succession of his murderer, Phocas, gave the signal for the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a> to ravage the Roman dominions. Hitherto Mesopotamia had been the arena of <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> between the rival powers, and Dara, <a href="../cathen/01429c.htm">Amida</a>, and Nisibis the keys of possession. But Heraclius came to the throne in 602 to find all Syria in the hands of Chosroes. First Damascus, then the holy city itself fell before the Persian general Shahrbarz (614), and the Patriarch Zecharius was carried off with the <a href="../cathen/04529a.htm">True Cross</a> itself, to grace the infidel's triumph. Never since Constantinople was built had there been such a disaster; and at Chalcedon itself, almost opposite the very walls of the capital, the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a> were encamped, stretching out their hands to the <a href="../cathen/14042a.htm">Slavs</a> and the Avars, who threatened the city on the north side of the isthmus, and inviting them to join in its destruction. An insulting and blasphemous letter from the Persian king aroused the emperor and all <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>; while from Constantinople to Arabia the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> poured forth her treasures of plate and money to help in the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">crusade</a>. Constantinople was fortified, and with a gigantic effort, worthy of the great conquerors of the world's history, Heraclius drove back the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a>, cutting them off in Celicia, and forcing them finally to make an abject appeal for mercy in the very royal palace of Dastagerd itself. Chosroes had been already <a href="../cathen/07441a.htm">murdered</a> by his son, who submitted to Heraclius (A.D. 628). The emperor returned, leaving the East in peace, to restore the cross to its place in <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Meanwhile in an obscure corner of the empire <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammed</a> had been born, and in this very year sent round a letter demanding for a new creed the submission of the kings of the earth. "The year of flight" (622) had passed, and <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammed</a> was at the head of a devoted band of followers ready to conquer Arabia and perhaps the world. It was an epoch of the world's history, and twice the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a> of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> saw the <a href="../cathen/01046a.htm">abomination of desolation</a> standing in the holy place, and thought the end of all things at hand. Ten years after Sharzbarz (637), when the glories of Heraclius paled before the storm of <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> conquest, Sophronius the Patriarch and Omar the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> stood side by side at the altar of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of the Holy Sepulchre in <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. East of the Mediterranean the Roman Empire had given way forever, and the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> arms now ruled the Churches which the councils of two centuries before had cut off from the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> communion. For the future it was not the <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> or Imperialist to whom the <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Churches</a> were to acknowledge an unwilling homage, but the sword of <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Islam</a>. Byzantine history now affected them little, for the successors of Heraclius had enough to do to keep the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracen</a> fleets away from the capital. The famous <a href="../cathen/07620a.htm">Iconoclastic controversy</a> begun by Leo the Isaurian, was continued for nearly a hundred years (720-802) by his successors. How little the second great controversy of the times affected the Syrians may be judged by their own language in regard to the "Procession of the Holy Ghost." The words inserted in the Creed by the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western Church</a> were the occasion of the rupture, for which the rival claims of Gregory of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and John Scholasticus of Constantinople had paved the way; and the ninth century witnessed the unseemly recriminations and the final break between the two great communions.</p> <p>In the seventh century the Syrian <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> fade from the general <a href="../cathen/07365a.htm">history of the Church</a>. The <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a> were inclined to favour them as rivals of the Greeks and early in the eighth century Wâlid secured the entry of their patriarch into Antioch, whence they had been driven by the Greeks since the death of Jacobus Baradæus. But he remained there only a short time, nor where his people free from the persecutions which Abdelmalik and Yazid ordered against the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>; while in 771 the Khalif Abdullah took a census throughout Syria and Mesopotamia, ordering all <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> and <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, especially at <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, to be branded on the neck and forehead. A short-lived union between the Syrians and the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a> (726) was followed by <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> at the hands of the Greeks (750), who took away many Syrians and <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> slaves from Mesopotamia to the West. Two centuries later, Nicephorus Phocas, anxious to unite <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> against the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a>, caused John Sarighta, the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of the Syrians, to be brought to Constantinople, there to discuss with Polyeuctus, patriarch of that city, the differences that divided them. In the letter written by John to Mennas of Alexandria we perceive how much the controversy had become a mere matter of verbal expression, and how the Syrians clung to the words which Greek tyranny had made the badge of a rival party. The <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a> of John, added to other acts of tyranny, confirmed their <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> of the Greeks, and made them prefer even the domination of the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Moslem</a>. From the eighth and ninth century down to our own times the history of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> in Syria is the history of <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorianism</a> and of the <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorian</a> Church, of <a href="../cathen/05633a.htm">Eutychianism</a> and the <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> or Jacobite Syrian Church, of the <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> Church of Syria, of the Greek Schism, and of the Byzantine, Russian, and Greek, or the so-called Orthodox <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Church</a>; the Schismatic and <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> (Catholic) Greek Patriarchates of Antioch, the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch, and the <a href="../cathen/09683c.htm">Maronite</a> Church, for all which see respective articles.</p> <h2>Statistics of the various Christian sects and Churches</h2> <p>The <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> of modern Syria, <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schismatic</a> as well as <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>, are divided into the following <a href="../cathen/13674a.htm">sects</a> and <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">churches</a>:</p> <h3>Greek Orthodox, i. e., the Syrian Greek Schismatic Church</h3> <p>The Greek Orthodox of Syria are under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of the Greek Orthodox of Antioch, whose residence is at <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> and who has under his <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> two suffragan or <a href="../cathen/02145b.htm">auxiliary bishops</a> attached to him personally, and 13 eparchies, or <a href="../cathen/01694b.htm">archdioceses</a>, 50,000 <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">families</a>, or about 250,000 subjects, most of whom dwell in Syria proper. Of these thirteen eparchies, eleven are in Syria, one in Northern Mesopotamia, one in <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenia</a> and <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>. The Greek Orthodox of Syria have 5 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> with 810 pupils in Beirut; 24 in <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> and surrounding villages, with 2215 pupils and 60 teachers; and 12 in northern Syria with 2400 pupils and 65 teachers. The liturgy of the Syrian Greek Orthodox is that of the <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> language, Greek with a great deal of Arabic, which is the vernacular of all the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> of Syria.</p> <h3>Greek Melchites, i.e. the Catholic Syrians of the Greek Rite</h3> <p>These are under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the Greek-Melchite <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, whose residence is at <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, and who has under his patriarchal <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> 4 <a href="../cathen/01694b.htm">archdioceses</a>, 8 <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a>, 2 patriarchal vicariates (at <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and Alexandria), with a total of about 125,000 thousand <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, divided as follows: (1) <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Archdiocese of Aleppo</a>, 6 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, 10,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 86 <a href="../cathen/04107b.htm">colleges</a> superintended by <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a>, <a href="../cathen/03320b.htm">Capuchin</a>, and <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuit</a> missionaries; (2) Archdiocese of <a href="../cathen/02707a.htm">Bostra</a> and Hauran with 12,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 4 churches and 8 <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, 15 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> and 4 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>; (3) Archdiocese of Homs and Hamah, with 8000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 20 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, 20 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> and 18 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Homs; (4) <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Archdiocese of Tyre</a>, with 6200 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 11 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, 20 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, of which 15 are <a href="../cathen/02324a.htm">Basilian</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, and 13 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Sur (Tyre); (5) <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Diocese of Beirut</a> and Djebail, with 15,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, one <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> at Ain-Traz, 150 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, 195 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, and 19 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>; (6) Diocese at Cæsarea-Philipi, or Baneas, with 4500 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 15 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, 9 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, 17 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, and 19 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Gemaidat-Marjoun; (7) <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Diocese of Damascus</a>, of which the patriarch himself is the ordinary, with one suffragan <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, with 12,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 9 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, and 9 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>; (8) Diocese of Heliopolis or Ba'albeck, with 5000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 9 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, 10 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, 15 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> and 8 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Ba'albeck; (9) Diocese of Ptolemais or Saint John of Acre, with 9000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 24 stations, 25 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, 34 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, and 8 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Akka; (10) <a href="../cathen/13776a.htm">Diocese of Sidon</a>, with 18,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 38 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, 41 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, 34 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Sayda; (11) Diocese of Tripoli, erected in 1897; (12) Diocese of Zahle and Furzoul, with 17,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 30 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapels</a>, 35 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, 12 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Zahle.</p> <p>The two patriarchal vicariates at <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and Alexandria have a dozen <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> in the latter and four or five <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> in the former. The Greek-Melchites have also a <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> with a church in <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a>, another in <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> (since 1889), and several in the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a>. In <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> they have the <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> of St. Anne, founded in 1882 by <a href="../cathen/09050d.htm">Cardinal Lavigerie</a>, under the direction of the <a href="../cathen/15613d.htm">White Fathers</a>. The number of these average between 125 and 150. They have also a <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> founded for them in 1577 by <a href="../cathen/07001b.htm">Gregory XIII</a>, under the name of College of St. Athanasius; also a small <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> in <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, and a larger one at Ain-Traz. Three indigenous <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders, for men and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> alike, are still in existence in Syria, viz: The Aleppine, with 40 <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and 18 <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>; the Baladites of the Order of St. John, with 96 <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and 42 <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>; and the Mokhallakites, or Salvatorians, with 200 <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and 25 <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>. The rules followed by these three orders are either those of <a href="../cathen/02322a.htm">St. Basil</a> or <a href="../cathen/06453a.htm">St. George</a>. From the time of <a href="../cathen/07004a.htm">Gregory XIV</a> (1831-46) the patriarch of the Greek-Melchites is allowed to assume the title of "Patriarch of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, Alexandria, and <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>".</p> <h3>The Syrian Jacobites, i.e. Monophysites</h3> <p>They are under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the Syrian Jacobite <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, whose residence is at Der-el-Zafaran near Mardan in Northern Mesopotamia. The Syrian <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a> were formerly very numerous and scattered all over Western <a href="../cathen/01777b.htm">Asia</a>, <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, and <a href="../cathen/07722a.htm">India</a>, having had in the twelfth and thirteen centuries as many as 20 <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitans</a> and 100 <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> or <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a>. At present they have but eight <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a> and 3 <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> with a total of about 80,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, not including those of <a href="../cathen/09558a.htm">Malabar</a>, in <a href="../cathen/07722a.htm">India</a>, who are not under the direct <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the Syrian Jacobite <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>. The <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">episcopal sees</a> of this church, with the exception of that of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, whose <a href="../cathen/08025a.htm">titular</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> resides at Za'faran near Mardan, are all situated in Mesopotamia, and in the extreme northeastern section of Syria. Their <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> language is Syriac (see <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">MONOPHYSITES</a>).</p> <h3>Catholic Syrians</h3> <p>These consist mainly of those Syrian <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a> who in the last five or six centuries have gradually given up the <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heresy</a>, and embraced the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, though retaining their Syrian rite, customs, and liturgy. In course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a> they have become numerous enough to have a patriarch of their own with several diocese and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. They are to be found mainly in Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and <a href="../cathen/02179b.htm">Babylonia</a>. Their patriarch, whose official residence is at <a href="../cathen/09650e.htm">Mardin</a>, but who lives sometimes in Mosul, and sometimes in Aleppo or Beirut, in Syria, is officially entitled the "Syrian Patriarch of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>", having under his <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> nine diocese with a total of about 40,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, divided as follows: (1) <a href="../cathen/02202c.htm">Diocese of Bagdad</a>, with 2000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 3 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, 6 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, and 1 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, residence Bagdad; (2) <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Diocese of Damascus</a> with 4000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 6 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, 6 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, 12 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, and 6 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence Damascus; (3) Archdiocese of Homs and Hanah, with 3000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 5 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> and 5 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, residence Homs; (4) <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Diocese of Aleppo</a>, with 4000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 3 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, 3 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, and 15 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, residence at <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>; (5) <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Diocese of Beirut</a>, with 700 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 1 church and 3 priests; (6) Diocese of Diarbekir, with 1000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 3 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, 3 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, and 7 priests; (7) Diocese of Djezire, with 2000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 7 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, 10 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, and 6 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, residence at Djezire; (8) <a href="../cathen/09650e.htm">Diocese of Mardin</a> with 5000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 7 stations, 9 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, 25 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, and 7 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>; (9) Diocese of Mosul, with 10,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, 8 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, 12 <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, and 25 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, residence Mosul. The <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> language of this church is Syriac.</p> <h3>Catholics of the Latin Rite</h3> <p>The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin Rite</a> in Syria are not very numerous, and are under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">Apostolic Delegate</a> of Syria, whose residence is at <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a> (formerly at <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>). They number about 7000, scattered all over the large towns of Syria, and are either of Italian or French descent, having settled in Syria mainly for commercial or <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> purposes. The so-called Latin Patriarchate of Antioch owes its origins to the times of the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">Crusades</a> of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, in connection with the Latin Patriarchate of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, both of which nowadays are simply titular, without any <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a>, and their titulars reside in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. The Latin <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> has under his titular <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> the following titular archbishoprics: Apamea, <a href="../cathen/01135f.htm">Adana</a>, <a href="../cathen/14461b.htm">Tarsus</a>, Anazarbe, <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a>, <a href="../cathen/08131b.htm">Irenopolis</a>, Cyr, <a href="../cathen/07322a.htm">Hierapolis</a>, <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a>, <a href="../cathen/01429c.htm">Amida</a>, <a href="../cathen/11084c.htm">Nisibis</a>, <a href="../cathen/05402a.htm">Emesa</a>, Heliopolis, <a href="../cathen/11433a.htm">Palmyra</a>, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, Philadelphia, <a href="../cathen/02707a.htm">Bostra</a>, Almire, <a href="../cathen/04738c.htm">Derbe</a>, <a href="../cathen/05503a.htm">Epiphania</a>, <a href="../cathen/06328a.htm">Gabala</a>, and <a href="../cathen/13191a.htm">Rosea</a>. For Armenians (<a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> or <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schismatic</a>), see <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">ARMENIA</a>; for Chaldeans (Catholic) see <a href="../cathen/03559a.htm">CHALDEAN CHRISTIANS</a>. The last group of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> in Syria, and perhaps the most important one, consists of the <a href="../cathen/09683c.htm">Maronites</a> of Mt. Lebanon. They form by far the largest <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> community of Syria and are all in union with the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. (See <a href="../cathen/09683c.htm">MARONITES</a>)</p> <p>The latest approximate statistics of the population and various <a href="../cathen/13674a.htm">denominations</a> of Syria are—total population, 3,226,160; <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, 2,209,450; <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, 555,949; non-Catholic <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, 435,389; Nusairiyyeh, about 150,000; Ismailiyyeh, about 120,000; <a href="../cathen/05166d.htm">Druzes</a>, about 70,000; <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>, 65,246.</p> <h2>Catholic missions in Syria</h2> <p>The beginnings of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> missions in Syria may be appropriately traced back to the age of the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">Crusaders</a> and the establishment of the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch in 1100, and that of the Vicariate Apostolic of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a> in 1762. The first Latin <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> was appointed in either 1100 (according to <a href="../cathen/09187a.htm">Le Quien</a>) or 1098 (according to Mas Latrie) by <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Pope Urban II</a>. The first appointee was Bernard, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Artesia, near Antioch. He died in 1132 and was succeeded by Raoul, from Dumfront in <a href="../cathen/11104a.htm">Normandy</a>, who, owing to flagrant acts of impertinence and insubordination to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, was forced to resign in 1142. He was succeeded by Aimeric or Amaury, of <a href="../cathen/09263a.htm">Limoges</a>, who, having incurred the displeasure of Renaud de Chatillion, Prince of Antioch, was <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecuted</a>, tortured, and finally compelled to flee to Jerusalem. In 1160, however, he was restored to his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> by Baudouin II, Prince of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>. Soon, however, Behemond III, Prince of Antioch, drove Amaury out of his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> and offered it, instead, in 1611, to the Greek patriarch, <a href="../cathen/02035a.htm">Athanasius</a>. On the death of the latter in 1170, caused by a terrific earthquake, in which most of the Greek <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> also lost their lives, the Greeks lost their influence and power with the people. In 1196 Amaury himself died, and was succeeded by Pierre d'Angouléme, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Tripoli. In 1204 Pierre of <a href="../cathen/03319a.htm">Capua</a>, known as Pierre d'Amalfi, was chosen <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>. Bohemond IV, however, soon began to intrigue to replace him with the Greek Patriarch, Simeon III; but he was <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> by the Patriarch and by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> himself, <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a>, which caused the whole Latin <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> to rebel against the king. Pietro d'Amalfi, nevertheless, was <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a> by Bohemond and died in 1208, and was succeeded by the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, Pietro d'Capoa, nephew of the deceased patriarch. Bohemond IV, however refused to acknowledge him. In the meanwhile, after many quarrels and vicissitudes, King Bohemond and the Latin <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> agreed to the election of Ranier, in 1219, as <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, after having succeeded in inducing the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> to create the Greek occupant of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a>, the Patriarch Peter, a <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a>. Ranier died in 1226 and was succeeded in 1228 by Albert Rezato, who was present at the Council of Lyon in 1245 and who died a short time afterwards.</p> <p>In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries several Latin <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a> occupied the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> of Antioch, but were constantly harassed and molested by the Greek <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and by the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> princes themselves, who for political purposes were ever ready to sacrifice religious interests in order to secure the good will of the native Greek Syrians. In the year 1348, however, the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch came to an end, as far as effective <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> was concerned, although it continued to exist till our own time simply as a titular dignity. The present Latin <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> resides in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. In the thirteenth century, however, when it was at its height, the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch had under its <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> Laodicea, <a href="../cathen/06328a.htm">Gabala</a>, Antaradus or Tortosa, Tripoli, Biblos, <a href="../cathen/13689b.htm">Seleucia</a>, <a href="../cathen/14461b.htm">Tarsus</a>, Corycos, Mamistra, <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a>, <a href="../cathen/01592b.htm">Apamea</a>, Balanea, Artesia, Albaria, <a href="../cathen/09004b.htm">Larissa</a>, Mariames, <a href="../cathen/07322a.htm">Hierapolis</a>, Cyr, <a href="../cathen/11071c.htm">Nicosia</a>, <a href="../cathen/11457b.htm">Paphos</a>, <a href="../cathen/05781b.htm">Famagusta</a>, and Limasol (see <a href="../cathen/09187a.htm">Le Quien</a>, "Oriens Christianus", III, 1165-1232). During these two centuries, the presence of so many <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, and lay people in Palestine and Syria was productive of good <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> missionary results, as, owing precisely to the contact of the Latins with the various Oriental Schismatic Churches of the Near East, a large number of Greeks, <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorians</a>, <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobite Syrians</a>, and <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a>, not infrequently led by their own <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, embraced the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">Faith</a>.</p> <p>The second centre of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> propaganda in Syria was the Latin Vicariate Apostolic of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>. This vicariate was first established in 1762, extending its <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> and its beneficial missionary influence all over Syria, <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, and Arabia, all of which provinces were then, by a special <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12456a.htm">Congregation of the Propaganda</a>, detached from the Vicariate Apostolic of Constantinople. Its first occupant was the <a href="../cathen/10357a.htm">Lazarist</a> Bassu. After his death, and, in fact, several decades later, in 1817, he was succeeded by Mgr. Gandolfi, of the <a href="../cathen/10357a.htm">Congregation of the Mission</a>, who was replaced in 1827 by Mgr. Losanna, <a href="../cathen/08025a.htm">titular</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of Abydos. From 1827 down to 1896, owing to the special <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> and privileges enjoyed by the <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscans</a> as the custodians of the Holy Land, all the Latin Vicars Apostolic of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a> were selected from the <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> order as follows: A. Fazio (1836-38); Father Fillardell (1839-52) who died a <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a> in Constantinople in 1852; P. Brunoni (1853); S. Milani (1874-76); L. Piavi in 1877, who in 1899 was made Latin <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>; and G. Bonfigli in 1890, who in 1896 was transferred to the Latin Vicariate Apostolic of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. In the meanwhile the residence was transferred from <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a> to <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, which was gradually becoming the most influential and progressive town of the Near East. In 1896 a French <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominican</a>, Mgr Charles Duval, for nearly thirty years missionary at Mosul, succeeded Bonfigli. Duval died in 1904 and was succeeded on January 17 of the following year (1905) by Mgr. Frediano Giannini, titular <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of Serra.</p> <p>During the course of the nineteenth century the Vicariate Apostolic of Syria suffered several losses. In 1838, <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> and Arabia were taken away; and in 1848 <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> was elevated to the rank of Latin <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchate</a> with <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> over Palestine, Southern Ph&oelig;nicia, and the islands of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>. But on the other hand the Vicariate Apostolic of Syria obtained full <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> over all the Latins of this vicariate, this prerogative being definitely withdrawn from the supervision of the Holy Land. The Vicariate Apostolic of Syria embraces at present the following territory: on the north its boundary line starts from the Gulf of Adalia, and touching the southern limits of Taurus, stretches toward the Euphrates, making a bend at Hamah. On the east it is the <a href="../cathen/04749a.htm">desert</a> of <a href="../cathen/11433a.htm">Palmyra</a>; on the south, Palestine; on the west the Mediterranean Sea. Since their institution the vicars of Syria have held the title <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">vicars Apostolic</a> of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> for the non-Latin <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> who live within the limits of their province. Their power as delegates, however, has not undergone the same restrictions as their authority of Vicars Apostolic; and <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> of the Oriental Rite in the Latin Patriarchate of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> are subject to Syria by way of delegation.</p> <p>The Latin communities, especially the French, have developed very extensively, particularly in this century, under the Vicariate Apostolic of Syria. They afford at the present time the strongest bulwark against the increasing encroachments of both <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> and <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> missions which are seducing with money and promises the hard-working but poor people of Syria. The <a href="../cathen/03320b.htm">Capuchins</a>, stationed in Syria since 1627, care for the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> of Antioch, Baabdath, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a> and <a href="../cathen/15757a.htm">Mersina</a>; they have besides houses at <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, Abey, Ghazir Koderbeck, and Salima. Their religious however are but few in number. The <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscans</a> have twelve <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> in the following places: Aintab, <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, Harissa, Ienige-Kale, Kenaye, Latakie, <a href="../cathen/09636b.htm">Marash</a>, Sayda, Sour, and Tripoli. They also have ten <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> and number about 56 religious. Their college at <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a> is in a flourishing <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">condition</a> and numbers 140 pupils. The <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> have a house at Sheikle by Akbes, near Alexandretta. The <a href="../cathen/10357a.htm">Lazarists</a>, established at Syria since 1784, have five houses with <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> and missions at Antoura, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, and Tripoli. They number about 37 religious and possess in the villages of <a href="../cathen/09104a.htm">Lebanon</a> a large number of primary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> which they themselves visit and maintain. The <a href="../cathen/03354a.htm">Carmelites</a>, stationed in Syria since 1650, have five residences: at Alexandretta, which forms a <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a>, in Beylan, Biscerri, Kobbayat, and Tripoli. Their religious are about 8 in number. The <a href="../cathen/08056a.htm">Brothers of the Christian Schools</a> have four primary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> in <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, Latakie, Tripoli, and Tripoli-by-the-Sea.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> were established for the first time in 1595, and later returned to Syria at the invitation of Mgr. Mazloum and in obedience to the order of <a href="../cathen/07006a.htm">Gregory XVI</a>. Their mission numbers 174 members, of whom 66 are <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, 47 scholastics, and 61 brother assistants. After being stationed at Zeilah, and later in Mesopotamia, the <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> founded at Ghazir in 1846 the oriental Seminary which was transferred to Beirut in 1875 and has an enrollment of 50 students. This <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> has already sent forth over 130 <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>. The younger religious of the Antonines, of the <a href="../cathen/09683c.htm">Maronite Rite</a>, or the <a href="../cathen/02324a.htm">Basilian</a> and of the <a href="../cathen/06774a.htm">Greek Rite</a>, follow their courses of <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophy</a> and <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theology</a> with the seminarists, all being related by similarity of rite. In 1848 the <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> established another college at Ghazir; this, too, was transferred to Beirut and has become the celebrated College of St. Joseph. At 1883 the medical <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> was added, which today is attended by 130 students; the college has 500 students enrolled. Eight religious professors and six French <a href="../cathen/05072b.htm">doctors</a> take part in the instruction of the students and direct the most complete printing establishment in the Orient, publishing a bi-weekly newspaper in Arabic, the "Beshîr", and the bi-monthly Arabic review, "Al-Mashrik". In 1896 P. Barnier founded at Sayda in the region of Akkar a normal <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> which is attended by 40 pupils; also an <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a> at Tanail.</p> <p>During the last three centuries the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> missionaries of Syria have had to contend against heavy odds and difficulties occasioned by the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, the <a href="../cathen/05166d.htm">Druzes</a>, and the various Oriental Schismatic Churches, and, in the last century, also against many obstacles and antagonisms offered by the Syrian Protestant Missions. But notwithstanding opposition they have forged ahead and are regenerating the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> of Syria into a new life, mainly through the channels of religious instruction, conversion, and <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> and philanthropic enterprise. The <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a>, the <a href="../cathen/10357a.htm">Lazarists</a>, and of late the <a href="../cathen/08056a.htm">Christian Brothers</a> have achieved such progress in the line of religious and <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> work that they have under their care, at the present, nearly 300 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, with 400 teachers and some 14,000 pupils. The <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> alone have under their care 155 elementary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> scattered all over Syria; 5 in Beirut with 16 teachers and 900 pupils; 5 in Damascus with 6 teachers and 250 pupils; 19 in Bikfaya with 29 teachers and 1300 pupils; 29 in Ghazir with 27 teachers and nearly 2000 pupils; 21 at Homs with 30 teachers and 1000 students; 27 at Sayda with 55 teachers and 1500 pupils; 18 at Tanail with 22 teachers and 900 students; and 21 at Zahle with 30 teachers and nearly 1300 students. The <a href="../cathen/10357a.htm">Lazarists</a>, established in Syria in 1784, have under their care 110 elementary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> and nearly 6000 pupils. Their high school and college at Antours and Damascus have 300 and 200 students respectively. The Sisters of St. Vincent De Paul have charge of some 80 <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">female</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> and 4000 girls. The Sisters of Nazareth of <a href="../cathen/09472a.htm">Lyons</a>, established in 1871, have <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> and pensionnats at <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, St. John of Acre, Shefamar, Haifa, and <a href="../cathen/10725a.htm">Nazareth</a>, with about 2000 pupils. The <a href="../cathen/08511a.htm">Sisters of St. Joseph</a> of <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a>, established in Syria in 1846, have several <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> at <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, Sayda, <a href="../cathen/10725a.htm">Nazareth</a>, <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, and Deir-el-Qamar, with about 1500 pupils. The Sisters of the Holy Family have a large <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> at <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, with over 250 pupils. The Sisters of the Good Shepard of Angers have an <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a> at Hammana, with 150 inmates. Finally, the Miriamettes, an order of native <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, established in 1860, have under their care not less than 41 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, 85 teachers, and some 3500 pupils, scattered all over Syria; 1 at <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, 2 at Celip, 9 at Bikfaya, 1 in <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, 6 at Ghazir, 2 at Homs, 6 at Sayda, 6 at Tanail, and 8 at Zahle.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">BURCKHARDT, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (1822), 1-309; WORTABET, The Syrians (London, 1896); CHESNET, Euphrates Expedition, (London, 1838); RITTER, Erkunden von Asien, XVII, pts. 1 and 2 (Berlin, 1854-65); VON KREMER, Mittelsyrien und Damascus (Vienna, 1853); BURTON AND DRAKE, Unexplored Syria (London, 1852); RECLUS, Nouv. géog. univers. d'Asie Antérieure (1884); PORTER, Five Years in Damascus (London, 1855); BLUNT, Bedouins of the Euphrates (London, 1870); de VOGUE, Syrie Centrale (Paris, 1865-77); Idem, Syrie, Palestine, Mont Athos (Paris, 1879); SACHAU, Reise in Syrien u. Mesopotamien (Leipzig, 1883); MILLER, Alone through Syria (London, 1891); CHARMES, Voyage en Syrie (Paris, 1891); LADY BURTON, Inner Life of Syria (London, 1875); POST, Flora of Syria, Palestine, and Sinai (Beirut, 1896); HUMANN and PUCKSTEIN, Reisen in Nord-Syrien (1890); POST, Essays on the Sects and Nationalities of Syria, etc. (London, 1890); GOODRICH-FREER, In a Syrian Saddle (London, 1905); "cenotes">For the religious history of Christian Syria, see the bibliographies appended to articles on the various Orientals schisms, Churches, rites, etc.; see also BURKIT, Early Eastern Christianity (London, 1904); HARNACK, Mission and Expansion of Christianity, etc (2 vols., 2nd ed., 1908); ADENEY, The Greek and the Eastern Churches (Edinburgh, 1908); FORTESCUE, The Orthodox Eastern Church (London, 1907); STANLEY, The Eastern Church (London, 1876); PERRY, Six Months in an Eastern Monastery (1905); BADGER, The Nestorians and Their Rituals (London, 1852); NEALE, Hist. of the Holy Eastern Church (5 vols., London, 1850-61); ASSEMANI, Bibliotheca Orientalis (4 vols., Rome, 1719-28); LA QUIEN, Oriens Christianus (Paris, 1740); SIDAROUSS, Des Patriarchats, etc (1906); de JEHAY, De la Situation des sujets Ottomans non-Mussulmans (Brussels, 1906); O'LEARY, The Syrian Church and Fathers (London, 1909); REBBATH, Documents pour servir á l'histoire du Christianisme en Orient I (Paris, 1905); CHARON, Hist. des Patriarchats Melkites etc. (Rome, 1909—); AVRIL, Les Eglises autonomes et autocéphales (1895); Idem, Les Grecs melkites (1988); Idem, Une Mission religieuse en Orient au XVIe siècle (1866); BETH, Die Orientalisch Christenheit der Mittelmeerländer (Berlin, 1902); BREHIER, Le schisme Orientale du XIe siècle (1899); BRIGHTMAN, Liturgies, Eastern and Western, I (Oxford, 1896); DUCHESNE, The Churches Separated from Rome (New York, 1907); HEFELE - LE CLERQ, Hist. de Conciles (Paris, 1907, sqq.); NILLES, Kalendarium Manuale utriusque Ecclesiæ Orientalis et Occidentalis (Innsbruck, 1896-97); PISANI, Etudes d'historie religiuse á travers l'Orient (Paris, 1897); Pitzipios, L'Église Orientale (1855); SHOPOFF, Les Réformes et la Protection des Chrétiens de Turquie 1673-1904 (Paris, 1904); VERNAY and DAMBMANN. Le Puissances étrangères dans le Levant, en Syrie et en Palestine (1900); See also the general histories of the Church by SCHAFF, HERGENBÖTHER, ALZOG, DUCHESNE, etc., and in particular the two French periodicals devoted mainly to the study of the oriental churches, viz: Revue de l'Orient Chrétien and L'Echos d'Orient, Paris; also the full bibliography in Chevalier's Répertoire des sources historiques du Moyen Age, under the articles Syrie and Antioche. BELL, The Desert and the Sown (London, 1907); LORTET, La Syrie d'aujord'hui (Paris, 1884); CURTIS, Today in Syria and Palestine (New York, 1903); LIBBY AND HOSKINS, The Jordan Valley and Petra (New York, 1905); INCHBOLD, Under the Syrian Sun (Philadelphia, 1907); KELMAN and THOMAS, From Damascus to Palmyra (London, 1908); MARGOLIOUTH, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Damascus (London, 1907); QUINET, Syrie, Lebon, et Palestine (Paris, 1896); BAEDEKER, Palestine and Syria (Leipsic, 1906); DUPONT, Cours Géographique dé l'Empire Ottoman (Paris, 1907); G. SMITH, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1900).</p><p class="cenotes">Catholic Missions.—WADDING, Anales Minorum (10 vols, 1731-45); MARCELLINO da CIVEZZO, Storia Universale delle Missioni francescane (4 vols, 1859); LA QUIEN, Oriens Christ. (Paris, 1740); Missiones Catholicæ descriptæ (Rome, 1901); PIOLET, Les Missions Cath. Francasies au XIXe siècle I (Paris, 1901), 295-360; LIVET, Les Missions Cath. au XIXe siècle (Lille, 1895); LAUNAY, Hist. des Missions Etrangères (3 vols., Paris, 1894); HENRION, Hist. des Missions Cath. (Paris, 1847); PISANI, op. cit.; WERNER, Atlas des Missions Cath. (Freiburg, 1886); Annales des Propagation de la foi (Lyons), passim; Bulletin des &OElig;uvres d'Orient, passim; SILBERNAGL, Verfassung der Kirchen des Orients (Ratisbon, 1865); KOEHLER, Die katholischen der Kirchen des Morganlandes (Darmstadt, 1906)' WERNER, Orbis terrarum catholicus (Freiburg, 1890); FRANCO, L'Église Greque Melchite, etc. (1898); JULIEN, La nouvelle mission de la compagnie de Jésus en Syrie (Tours, 1899); W. M. MARSHALL, Christian Missions (London, 1888); HAHN, Gesch. des katho. Missionen (5 vols., Cologne, 1857-1865); DJUNKOVSKY, Dict. des Missions Cath (Paris, 1864); BERNARDEN DE ROUEN, Hist. universalle des missions franciscaines (Paris, 1898); and the two reviews mentioned above viz: Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, passim, and L'Echos d'Orient.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Oussani, G.</span> <span id="apayear">(1912).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Syria.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14399a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Oussani, Gabriel.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Syria."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 14.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1912.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14399a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by M. Donahue.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</strong></center></td></tr></table><p align="center"><a href="../utility/contactus.htm">CONTACT US</a> | <a href="https://cleanmedia.net/p/?psid=491-308-20180429T2217479770">ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT</a></p></div> <ins class="CANBMDDisplayAD" data-bmd-ad-unit="30849120210203T1734389107AB67D35C03D4A318731A4F337F60B3E" style="display:block"></ins> <script src="https://secureaddisplay.com/au/bmd/"></script>  <ins class="CMAdExcludeArticles"></ins> </body> </html>