Post on 27-Jan-2023
After the Ottomans: The Renewal of the Syrian
Orthodox Church in the Twentieth and Twenty
First Centuries1
In the aftermath of the First World War and the break-up of
the Ottoman Empire, members of the Syrian Orthodox Church
found themselves scattered and divided amongst a new network
of nation states. Like their co-religionists in the Church of
the East, many Syrian Orthodox Christians had died or been
displaced as they got caught up in the Turkish persecution of
Armenians. In a number of regions in eastern Turkey, and
notably in the ancient city of Edessa (Urfa, Şanliurfa), the
Syrian Orthodox residents spoke an Armenian dialect and
intermarried with their Armenian neighbours so that it was
impossible for outsiders to tell them apart and many Syriani2
suffered the same fate as their Armenian friends and
relatives.
As the colonial powers oversaw the dismantling of the
Ottoman territories the Suryani found themselves divided amongst
three new countries; Turkey, Syria and Iraq. In Turkey they
were clustered in villages and small towns across the Tur
‘Abdin region and Iraq they lived mainly in the region of
Mosul and the north of the country, with a growing urban
presence of professionals in Baghdad. Syria was the exception
in many ways; apart from a handful of villages in the
Mouhafazat3of Homs, that had been Syrian Orthodox since late
antiquity, the majority of Syrian Orthodox Christians appear
to have headed for northern towns, particularly Aleppo in the
north-west and Hasakeh and Qamishli in the north-east.
A collective identity of the Suryani as a separate ethnic
group was continued by the practice of people from the same
town or village choosing to settle in the same part of Syria;
the most famous example of this are the people of Hay al- Suryan4
in Aleppo. This group are the last remnant of the Christian
population of Edessa, who were forced into exile by Turkish
forces in 1923 and walked in convoy as far as the outskirts of
Aleppo. Having over a period of years built huts and then
apartment blocks on the places that their tents once stood,
Hay al-Suryan still constitutes a city-within-a-city in Aleppo
and this strong sense of affinity amongst the Urfali, as the
community call themselves, is a barrier to integration with
the other Suryani in Aleppo. However it is not only the Urfali
who act in this manner. Many Suryani in contemporary Syria will
refer to their heritage as Mardinli or Kharputli or relate 1 The majority of the information in this article has been
gathered through empirical research over a number of years
living and working with the Syrian Orthodox and Syrian
Catholic Churches in Syria. With the notable exception of the
work of Sebastian Brock, who has been exceptional in every
respect and spent years living with and studying the Suryani,
very little has been written about the contemporary Syrian
Orthodox Church. Therefore the bibliography is relatively
short and I have tried to avoid relying too heavily on Dr
Brock’s material by using my own experiences and points of
view as reference points.
2 Henceforth I shall refer to members of the Syrian Orthodox
Church as “Suryani” as this is the term by which they define
themselves in contemporary Syria. I am aware of the fact that
this is not universally accepted, particularly by a number of
diaspora groups who classify themselves as “Assyrian” rather
themselves to any number of towns and villages located in
south-east Turkey as they attempt to hold on to their
ancestral identity. This is not just a feature of those who
have stayed in the Middle East; those communities that have
left for Europe for example, behave in the same way with whole
villages relocating to the same region of Germany, Sweden or
the Netherlands.
Obviously these seismic changes for the Syrian Orthodox
Community have been continually exacerbated throughout the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries with the last, and by no
means the least, challenging event being the implications of
the Iraq war for native Christians. The Syrian Orthodox
than “Syrian”. These issues of designation and identity are
hotly disputed by European, North American and Australasian
diaspora communities but are given less prominence within
contemporary Syria, which is the focus of this article.
3 Administrative district.
4 ‘The Quarter of the Syrians’
population of Iraq being based in Baghdad and in and around
Mosul meant that they were caught up in some of the worst of
the fighting, and the majority of the Christian population of
Iraq has been forced to flee the country; this too has been an
event that has had a major impact on the Syrian Orthodox
population of Syria and which has raised new questions about
ethnicity and nationality as many Middle Eastern Christians
question their place in society.
A Question of Identity
One of the most divisive debates in Middle Eastern
Christianity today is that of identity. These questions hinge
on language, bloodlines, diaspora communities and political
affiliation and, trivial as these arguments can sometimes seem
to outsiders, they threaten the entire future of Middle
Eastern Christianity. In the Syrian Orthodox community these
issues are multi-layered and complex and spread from petty
local rivalries into more politically-charged questions of
politics in the contemporary nation state. To begin at the
local level there is the separatism of some groups, such as
the Urfali, who have maintained the integrity of their
traditions and bloodlines to such an extent that they are seen
as unwelcoming and exclusive to other Syriani. In Aleppo the
denizens of Hay al-Suryan are famous for marrying amongst
themselves and, on the occasions that a boy (and it is usually
a boy) chooses a spouse from elsewhere, the new bride often
feels ostracised from the wider community. This has created
the situation where the two Aleppian quarters home to the
Syrian Orthodox, Hay al-Suryan and Sulaimanieh, are often on ‘non-
speaking’ terms and there is almost always low-level hostility
between the two groups.
Another issue is raised by the question of ethnicity. The
Syrian Orthodox villagers of the Mouhafazat of Homs regard
themselves as Arabs, indeed some of them are even Bedu, so
there is no denying their Arab heritage. This is something
that they accept without questioning and they are proud of
their unbroken line of occupation in the same region of the
Syrian desert for almost two thousand years. For the other
Syrian Orthodox Christians of Syria this is a thorny issue.
As the majority of them are descended from people from the
highlands of south-east Turkey, they are adamant that they are
not Arabs and resent the implication that they are. However a
divide has sprung up even in this group between those who
regard themselves as ‘Aramaean’ and those who say they are
‘Assyrian’ and this distinction is being fiercely fought over
not only in Syria, but also across the world in a variety of
diaspora communities. This kind of debate is discouraged in
Syria by the church authorities not least because their
accommodation with the Syrian government depends on them
upholding a policy of Arab solidarity and a pan-religious
Syrian national identity in order that they are not viewed as
a destabilising influence on society. Therefore the survival
of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Syria means that they must
conform with state ideas on what it means to be a good Syrian
citizen whilst accommodating the wishes of a community who
hark back to a pre-nation state status quo. This creates a
confusing juxtaposition in which many Syrian Orthodox support
the ruling Ba‘ath Party, believing that the Party is the
balance that keeps Syria stable, whilst at the same time
railing against corruption in the system and the unstable
economic situation. The symbiotic relationship between the
Syrian Ba‘ath Party and religious minorities in the country
means that neither side can achieve stability without the
other and gives Syrian Christians a great deal more power and
influence (known in Arabic as wasta) than in any other country
in the region, save for Lebanon.
The Experiment; Ma‘arrat Saidnaya
On the Feast of the Cross, 14th September 1996, the Syrian
Orthodox Patriarchal Monastery of St. Ephrem the Syrian was
consecrated by the current Patriarch, Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka
Iwas I. The monastery, known as Dayr Mar Efrem by the Suryani, was
an initiative by the Patriarch to try and instil some sense of
coherent identity into Syrian Orthodox priests, monks and
deacons that could then be relayed to the wider community,
whether in the Middle East or further afield, by these future
church leaders. One of the most significant problems for the
Syrian Orthodox, and for other Christians in the same
situation, is language. Historically all members of the
Church spoke classical Syriac or, later, the modern Syriac
dialect known as Turoyo or Turani for the Tur ‘Abdin region
where it originates. Only the Suryani villages of central Syria
had spoken Arabic for any length of time5 and this situation
was further complicated by regional differences, such as the
fact that the Urfali spoke a dialect of Armenian native to
Edessa. In the twentieth century this became a major issue as
the generation who had emigrated to Syria continued to speak
their vernacular, whilst their children were in the common
immigrant situation of speaking the ancestral language at home
and the language of the country at school and work. A
fracture appeared with the second generation to be born in
Syria as these children largely spoke only Arabic, and
although they could understand their grandparents, they were
not fluent in the languages of their ancestors. If this had
just been the situation in Syria it would have been
complicated enough, but with so many families leaving for
destinations across the globe it meant that for the first time
the Suryani had no common language of communication.5 It is difficult to be certain but the sources show a movement
towards the use of garshuni (Syriac characters writing Arabic
words) from around the seventeenth century onwards suggesting
a slow decline in the use of Syriac.
The Patriarchal Monastery was the proposed solution to this
growing crisis. By founding a centre where all aspiring
clergy from across the globe have to study in order to be
ordained in the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch ensured
that all clergy share the same formative experience and are
taught the same doctrinal and liturgical traditions; a major
issue considering the schisms that have already occurred in
India and Sweden.6 Secondly all classes are conducted in
classical Syriac, which serves a dual purpose; not only does
it make sure that the future priests are fully cognisant of
the language in which they will conduct the liturgy, it also
means that they all have a common language in which to
converse and socialise outside the classroom or church. In
this way it is hoped that bonds of friendship forged between
these young men will be an extra strand helping to unite the
6 These divisions both occurred because the communities in
question wanted the right to appoint their own ecclesiastical
leaders, rather than have a man chosen for them by the
Patriarch in Damascus.
diaspora community across the globe and prevent a polarisation
and loss of a coherent, central Syrian Orthodox identity.
In this way the Monastery of St. Ephrem acts as a spiritual
centre for all Syrian Orthodox Christians. The difficulty of
accessing the Syrian Orthodox monastery in Iraq7 and sporadic
instability, caused by conflict between the Turkish government
and the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party), limiting access to the
traditional seats of Syrian Orthodox learning in Turkey8 has
meant that these foundations can no longer serve as the
administrative and ceremonial centres of the Syrian Orthodox
Church. In Syria where the Church hierarchy has been at pains
to conform and become an integral part of modern Syrian
society, there have been the right political and social
conditions for such a project, but not an existing monastery
that could be adopted to fill such a role. The only two Syrian
Orthodox monasteries to survive late antiquity passed to the
Syrian Catholic Church in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries9 meaning that a totally new location was required for
the new foundation.
The success of the project has in large part been down to
an intelligent investment by the Patriarch. By buying up many
acres of land across the valley from the ancient Christian
shrine of Saidnaya, he tapped in to an existing Christian
pilgrimage site and created a sense of continuity of worship
even though the region is not an historic home for the Suryani.
The shrine of Our Lady at Saidnaya is said to go back to the
sixth century and its most important treasure is an icon of
the Virgin believed to have been painted by the Evangelist
Luke. Whatever the truth of these beliefs, the mountains
around the town are filled with small chapels, many converted
from early Christian tombs, and a converted pagan temple at
Cherubim above the settlement, which all attest to the fact
that Saidnaya has been Christian since late antiquity.
Therefore, by building a monastery overlooking these sites the
Syrian Orthodox hierarchy has reinforced this sense of an
ancient Christian heritage in Syria and subtly suggested to
their flock that there is an ancient continuity of worship in
the region that they are continuing; the fact that this new
centre is the furthest south the Syrian Orthodox have ever
been, with the notable exception of their presence in the Holy
Land, is conveniently overlooked in favour of political
expediency. Saidnaya is practically a suburb of Damascus
these days as the city continues to expand, and the town is
used in Syrian tourist literature, along with nearby Maaloula,
as a symbol of Syrian tolerance and amity with Christians; by
subscribing to the government endorsed image of a Christian
‘Holy Valley’ at Saidnaya the Syrian Orthodox hierarchy is
demonstrating that the Church is putting down roots in Syria
with the blessings of the ruling regime.
This policy has definitely succeeded with the wider Syrian
Orthodox community, who regard the Patriarchal Monastery as
being akin to the Vatican for the Suryani,10 but has perhaps
been less successful amongst those who are resident in the
country and there are a variety of underlying social problems
that have caused this apathy towards the Church, not least a
resentment of any money spent on ecclesiastical building
projects at a time of economic hardship. Whilst this
resentment can be understood, it must nevertheless be noted
that the Syrian Orthodox Church appears to have spent
significantly less money on such projects than some other
denominations, and that projects such as Dayr Mar Efrem have
become so much part of the Church infrastructure that the
money spent on their construction must be viewed as a positive
move for the future evolution of the Church rather than the
creation of an unnecessary white elephant.
7 Dayr Mar Mattai near Mosul
8 Dayr al-Za‘faran and Dayr Mar Gabriel in south-east Turkey
9 Dayr Mar Musa al-Habashi (the Monastery of St. Moses the
Abyssinian) east of the town of An-Nabk in central Syria,
passed into the hands of the Syrian Catholic Church in 1831.
Approximately 45km north-east of Dayr Mar Musa is the town of
Qaryatayn where Dayr Mar Elian esh-Sharqi (the Monastery of
St. Julian of the East) is located. This foundation appears to
have fallen into disuse at some point between the sixteenth
and eighteenth centuries, but legal challenges over ownership
between the Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholic Churches
continued until the 1950s. In both these cases the change of
ownership was due to the local population converting to
Catholicism from Orthodoxy. In An-Nabk the change appears to
In an echo of the Patriarchal Seminary and Monastery, the
Metropolitan of Hassakeh, Mor Eustathius Matta Rohom, has
built another monastery at Tel Wardiyat, west of Hassakeh.
This is the Monastery of Yoldat Aloho (the Theotokos or God
Bearer) dedicated to the Virgin and which was consecrated in
2000. However, although an interesting building harking back
to the style of the fifth century (it is modelled on the
Church of Qal’at Sem‘an, the site where Simeon Stylites stood
on a column for 36 years in the mid fifth century), it has so
far functioned more as a community centre than a monastery due
to a lack of vocations to fill it.
Economics and Atheism: The Problems of Those Who Stay Behind
Some years ago, whilst walking through the streets of Hay al-
Suryan with a friend, an interesting observation was made to
have been relatively peaceful as the entire community
converted en masse, but in Qaryatayn only a proportion
converted and this has led to friction with the remaining
Syrian Orthodox community.
me. My friend pointed out that we were both the same age and
had been born in the 1970’s and that in the thirty years since
our birth (as it was then) Hay al-Suryan had gone from a shanty
town with no electricity, mains water supply, sanitation and
roads into the suburb of apartment blocks that we were now
walking through. His point was that instead of people
castigating Syria and her people for being backward, we should
instead be praising them all for how far they had come in such
a remarkably short period of time. Such a massive
improvement, he said, was even more exceptional in the case of
the Syrian Orthodox Community of Aleppo, who had only moved to
the city from the 1920s onwards. He was absolutely right of
course, but this is one point that outsiders, and members of
the community themselves are apt to forget and it needs to be
remembered when we address the causes of discontent amongst
the Suryani who have stayed in Syria.
10 In June 2008 the author attended the consecration of a
Bishop for a diocese in Kerala, India and witnessed firsthand
the excitement and awe of the family and friends of the new
Bishop who had travelled to Syria for the consecration.
Again it is obvious, but needs reiterating here, that the
majority of Suryani who have remained in Syria are those who do
not have the skills that other nations require – otherwise
they would have become part of the brain-drain that entices
doctors, scientists and academics overseas. A frustration
with lack of economic progress is often tied to anti-
clericalism as many members of the community perceive that
married parish priests are significantly better off than many
of their parishioners. Obviously this is sometimes, but not
always, the case and the growing lack of respect for priests
is linked to many other social factors. One of these problems
is in the process of being resolved if the Patriarchal
Monastery can maintain a certain standard of academic
achievement, and that is the question of clerical education;
with such a surge in anti-clericalism and a growing lack of
respect for the priesthood, families encourage their children
to study medicine, or failing that, engineering in order to
achieve wealth, status and a possible passport overseas. A
clerical career is not considered desirable for the brightest
and the best, and it is perhaps no surprise that the largest
number of vocations comes from the poorest regions of the
country, like the desert villages, where both education and
steady employment are a distant dream for most teenagers. The
urban Suryani who have greater educational and employment
opportunities are far less likely to enter the church.
Unfortunately this perception is exacerbated by the fact that
the parish priests are less educated than monks in the Syrian
Orthodox Church. The fact that married clergy can never rise
beyond the rank of parish priest means that the Patriarchate
has a policy of only sending monks overseas for postgraduate
studies. Whilst one can see the need for the education of
future church leaders, it also means that there is
dissatisfaction with the level of education of many parish
clergy. If the spiritual life is to be reinvigorated in the
Church it is a movement that needs to permeate the secular
life as well as being a renewal in the monasteries; it is
short-sighted to not be looking at the education of future
generations and, whereas young boys are able (subject to the
periodic interference of the Turkish state) to attend
afterschool classes in Syriac in the Tur ‘Abdin at the
Monastery of Mar Gabriel, such options are not open to
children in Syria. Primary school Syriac classes are
available in some areas and Friday classes in others, but
neither of these arrangements offers a comprehensive education
in Syriac language and culture so that most of the children
swiftly forget what they have learned on entering secondary
school and leaving the classes behind. Without a comprehensive
plan to focus on community education spiritual renewal will
become increasingly difficult in Syria itself and the
community will have to start to look at the diaspora for a
lead in these matters; within the diaspora communities there
is generally a higher standard of living, particularly for
those whose ancestors moved to countries such as the USA in
the 1930s, and this financial security has enabled their
descendants to take more interest in their culture and history
and so for the first time, second or third generation Syrian
Orthodox overseas are beginning to see their language and
literature as a valid area of research.11 This is a situation
that is polarising the two communities and, unless those
remaining in Syria re-evaluate their opinions on culture –
which is currently placed low on their list of priorities, in
another couple of generations it will only be the diaspora
community that possesses the knowledge to keep ancient
traditions alive.
This disillusionment is actually the fault of both sides.
Some clergy are obviously rapacious and do feather their own
nests, but many other members of the congregation have
unrealistic expectations of just how much financial help the
Church is able to give them and this colours their attitudes
to all aspects of church life. Another far bigger problem is
that of education. The fall in calibre of priests in the mid-
to late-twentieth century meant that many priests barely
understood the words that they recited in the liturgy, much
less had the doctrinal and linguistic knowledge necessary to
adequately explain this to the people, in turn this led to a
loss in faith in all aspects of the priestly vocation and they
had diminishing authority in matters of pastoral care as
people failed to respect the authority traditionally embodied
by the person of the priest.
In 1997-1998 this author was involved with a series of
social experiments to raise knowledge in Aleppo, and later
repeated these ideas with Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholic
villagers in the town of Qaryatayn and the results were
startling.12 A community leader collected a “tax” on all the
old men he found playing backgammon in the community centre
whilst Holy Communion was being celebrated in the church.
Then on the following Sunday he hired a bus and I was asked to
lead them on a tour of ruined churches in the mountains to the
west of Aleppo, the so-called ‘dead cities’. By explaining
the history of the sites they began to engage with their
Christian heritage in the region and were soon praying in a
ruined chapel with an elderly deacon leading the prayers.
They requested another such trip several weeks later and have
held similar trips ever since. Indeed, on a visit to the
community centre some 7-8 years after that initial journey I
was proudly led into a room of elderly men drinking coffee and
playing backgammon under several enlarged, framed photographs
recording our first day out. This strategy has also been
extended to youth and women’s groups and is now a preferred
way of spending days out for the community, with an early
start and breakfast on the road followed by some visits,
before a late lunch (around 3-4pm) at a local restaurant.
This interest has also been noted by some of the younger
priests. After a lecture to a social group for middle-aged
married couples, one priest observed to me that more of them
were attending the church services properly rather than
turning up for the last five minutes because his explanation 11 See for example Nicholas Awde, Nicholas Al-Jeloo and Nineb
Lamassu, Modern Aramaic (Assyrian/Syriac) Phrasebook and Dictionary
(Hippocrene Books, New York, 2007, 300 pages) as an example of
the new movement of young diaspora scholars reclaiming the
academic initiative in the study of their language and, most
notably the foundation of Gorgias Press by George Kiraz, a
Syrian Orthodox Christian now resident in New Jersey. Gorgias
Press re-issues out-of-print books and articles relating to
Eastern Christian culture, but also provides a specialist
publishing outlet for scholars in the field. By mixing
established academics with PhD theses and other works by young
scholars, Kiraz is almost single-handedly keeping Syriac
literary culture alive outside the Middle East. It must be
noted at this point that Lebanese publishing houses frequently
print on these themes but are generally quite Maronite-centric
and difficult to obtain outside the country.
of the liturgy meant that ‘now they understood what they were
listening to and watching and it wasn’t so boring as before’.13
As the benefits of community education are realised the bonds
of the Syrian Orthodox community in Syria are strengthened
and, as younger members of the congregation noted, with a
strong support network of relatives and friends, the only
motive to emigrate is a purely financial one; making staying
in Syria appear rather more attractive when factors of
friendship, lifestyle, language and culture are added into the
equation.
The problem in the more remote areas is one of self-esteem.
As poor towns and villages in the Syrian desert, towns like
Qaryatayn are forgotten by the majority of the population and
opportunities for work are limited. This means that there is
an exodus of young people, both Christian and Muslim, from the
area as they leave in an attempt to find jobs and send money
back, in the hope of one day building a house and returning
to their natal village. In a situation like this lack of
morale is the biggest problem facing the community as a whole
and that was raised almost accidentally by the presence of
‘outsiders’ in the form of a team of archaeologists working at
a ruined monastery on the edge of town. It quickly became
apparent that the presence of foreigners and cosmopolitan
Syrians from Damascus and elsewhere was a source of pride to
the villagers. By taking an interest in the Christian history
of the region and questioning village elders about their
memories and experiences, the villagers felt somehow validated
and began to show more interest in their own culture. Lack of
finance has meant that the results of this are still limited
but the excavation coincided with the appointment of two
dynamic new parish priests (both monks) who have revitalised
village social life; schemes such as a share-cropping system
where villagers can farm land owned by the Syrian Catholic
Church and then pay ‘rent’ in the form of a percentage of the
produce are working well and moves by the two parish priests
to foster a ‘Christian’ rather than denominational identity by
running a joint Friday class (equivalent to Sunday School) for
all the Christian children of the village together are
definitely beginning to bear fruit.
The Challenges of the Twenty First Century
Whilst both the top-down model instituted by the
Patriarchate and the bottom-up model put in place by parish
clergy and community workers have both been successful, the
big question now is how these green shoots of community
recovery will withstand the massive pressures that Syrian
society has been under over the last few years. In the summer
of 2006 Syria was deluged with refugees from the conflict
between Lebanon and Israel, and this was in addition to the
numerous Iraqi refugees that had been fleeing into the country
since the Iraq war began in 2003. These huge numbers of
displaced persons would have placed an enormous burden on the
infra-structure of a far more developed country than Syria,
and have caused massive problems with the extra demand for
such basic necessities as electricity and water supply.
Whilst the Lebanese were short-term visitors and soon moved
back to their country when the bombing ceased, things have not12 For further details see Loosley, E, Archaeology and Cultural
Belonging in Contemporary Syria, World Archaeology (2005), pp.
589-596.
13 Pers. Comm. Fr. Antoun Deliapo, Hay al-Suryan, Aleppo.
been so easy for the Iraqis. As a much larger proportion of
Christian Iraqis has fled the country than any other group,
the Syrian Christians have been directly affected by the
events across the border and, whilst in an ideal world this
would have brought out a fraternal feeling, the reality is far
more fraught with discord.
The Syrian Orthodox Church was not by any means the largest
Christian denomination in Iraq, but they were present around
Mosul and in Baghdad in numbers significant enough to have an
impact on the Syrian Orthodox community in Syria. One of the
main problems has been inflation caused in basic foodstuffs
due to the demands of another 1-1,500,000 people (official
figures vary, but the Syrian sources always quote this number)
flooding into the country and, more specifically for
Christians, the fact that the incoming Christian refugees into
Syria have moved into the poorer Christian suburbs of the
cities, pricing many younger Syrian Christians out of the
market. In a situation like this the issues of daily survival
outweigh other considerations and the Iraq war has added
another strain on the Syrian Orthodox hierarchy which already
has tensions due to friction between a perceived “Iraqi” and a
“Tur ‘Abdini” faction in the Church leadership. How much this
rift is a reality and how much it is a power struggle between
those at the top of the ecclesiastical tree is another issue,
but the situation has been recognised by the laity;
particularly as the Patriarch is elderly and in poor health
and the community debate who might be a likely successor.
It is obvious that the Syrian Orthodox Church has as much of
a stake in seeking peace in the region as any other
organisation in the region and the situation in Iraq is a very
real and immediate problem for the Church. A lasting peace
plan with Israel would enable the Syrian government to enter
into normalised economic relations with the wider world and a
growing economy would both stem emigration and encourage more
vocations and cultural research as the necessity to
financially support relatives recedes.
Until that time the cultural and spiritual future of the
Syrian Orthodox Church rests on the Patriarchal Monastery and
the fragile threads of a few individuals such as George Kiraz
of Gorgias Press and Malfono (teacher) Isa Gulten in the Tur
‘Abdin who tirelessly works at keeping the Syriac language
alive, as well as a few enterprising priests, monks and
community workers across the country. The encouraging shoots
of renewal are beginning within the diaspora community and it
is to be hoped that in this way the knowledge is not lost and
can be re-established at a time in the future when some of the
emigrants feel secure enough to return to the Middle East.
Dr Emma Loosley is Lecturer in Oriental Christian and Islamic
Art and Architecture at the University of Manchester. She
studied at the University of York, the Courtauld Institute of
Art, University of London and the School of Oriental and
African Studies, University of London. Until taking up her
position at the University of Manchester in 2004, she lived in
Syria for four years working and studying with the Syrian
Orthodox and Syrian Catholic Churches. Her current research
is on the material culture of Christians in Iran and she
supervises a number of PhD students on a variety of topics
related to Christian and Islamic Art and History.
emma.loosley@manchester.ac.uk
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brock, S., ‘The Syriac Churches in Ecumenical Dialogue on
Christology’, in O’Mahony, A. (ed), Eastern Christianity: Studies in
Modern History, Religion and Politics, Melisende, London, 2004, pp. 44-
65.
Brock, S., ‘The Syrian Orthodox Church in Modern History’, in
O’Mahony, A. (ed), Christianity in the Middle East: Studies in Modern History,
Theology and Politics, Melisende, London, 2008, pp. 17-28.
Loosley, E, Archaeology and Cultural Belonging in Contemporary
Syria, World Archaeology (2005), pp. 589-596.
Rassam, S., Christianity in Iraq, Gracewing, Leominster, 2005.