Arab Christians

This article is about Arabs of the Christian faith. For Christian communities and sects (including non-Arab Christians), see Christianity in the Middle East.

Arab Christians
ﺍﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ
Greek Orthodox Easter in As-Suwayda, Syria
Total population
10–15+ million[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Syria1,200,000[2]
 Lebanon1,150,000–1,200,000[3][4]
 Jordan250,000–400,000[5]
 Israel133,130[6]
 Sudan100,000
excluding 500,000 Copts[7]
 Iraq50,000[4]
excluding 1,500,000 Assyrians[8]
 Palestine50,000[9]
excluding disputed territories
 Algeria45,000–380,000[10]
 Morocco40,000[11]–150,000[12]
 Tunisia23,500[13]
 Turkey18,000[14]
 Egypt10,000[15]–350,000[4]
excluding 6–11  million Copts[16][17]
 Libya1,500[18]
 Bahrain1,000[19]
 Yemen400[20]
 Kuwait259–400[21]
Languages
Arabic
Liturgical: Coptic, Koine Greek, Latin, Classical Syriac, Classical Arabic
Religion
Greek Orthodox Church
Catholic Church
Oriental Orthodox Church
Protestantism
Related ethnic groups
[22][23]

Arab Christians (Arabic: ﺍﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, romanized: al-Masīḥiyyūn al-ʿArab) are ethnic Arabs, Arab nationals, or Arabic speakers, who follow Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million.[1] Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world, but are concentrated in the Eastern Mediterranean region of the Levant and Egypt, with smaller communities present throughout the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.

The history of Arab Christians coincides with the history of Eastern Christianity and the history of the Arabic language; Arab Christian communities either result from pre-existing Christian communities adopting the Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. The jurisdictions of three of the five patriarchates of the Pentarchy primarily became Arabic-speaking after the early Muslim conquests – the Church of Alexandria, the Church of Antioch and the Church of Jerusalem – and over time many of their adherents adopted the Arabic language and culture.[24] Separately, a number of early Arab kingdoms and tribes adopted Christianity, including the Nabataeans, Lakhmids, Salihids, Tanukhids, ʿIbādī of al-Hira, and the Ghassanids.

In modern times, Arab Christians have played important roles in the Nahda movement, and they have significantly influenced and contributed to the fields of literature, politics,[25] business,[25] philosophy,[26] music, theatre and cinema,[27] medicine,[28] and science.[29] Today Arab Christians still play important roles in the Arab world, and are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate.[30] Emigrants from Arab Christian communities also make up a significant proportion of the Middle Eastern diaspora, with sizable population concentrations across the Americas, most notably in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and the US. However those emigrants to the Americas, especially from the first wave of emigration, have often not passed the Arabic language to their descendants.[31]

The concept of an Arab Christian identity remains contentious, with some Arabic-speaking Christian groups in the Middle East, such as Assyrians, Armenians, Greeks and others, rejecting an Arab identity. Individuals from Egypt's Coptic Christian community and Lebanon's Maronite community sometimes assume a non-Arab identity.[32][33]

  1. ^ a b Chapman, Colin (2012). "Christians in the Middle East – Past, Present and Future". Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies. 29 (2): 91–110. doi:10.1177/0265378812439955. S2CID 145722860.
  2. ^ "Syria's beleaguered Christians". BBC News. 23 April 2013.
  3. ^ "Minority Rights Group International : Lebanon : Lebanon Overview". www.minorityrights.org. 22 February 2014. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014.
  4. ^ a b c "Christians of the Middle East – Country by Country Facts and Figures on Christians of the Middle East". Middleeast.about.com. 9 May 2009. Archived from the original on 18 November 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  5. ^ "Abouna.org : الأب د. حنا كلداني: نسبة الأردنيين المسيحيين المقيمين 3.68% - انفوجرافيك". www.abouna.org. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  6. ^ "CBS data on Christian population in Israel (2016)" (in Hebrew). Cbs.gov.il. Archived from the original on 15 November 2018. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  7. ^ "Sudan's Copts See Hope in Appointment of First Christian". 9 October 2019.
  8. ^ see #Chaldeans, #Assyrians below
  9. ^ Chehata, Hanan (22 March 2016). "The plight and flight of Palestinian Christians" (PDF). Middle East Monitor. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  10. ^ Duane Alexander Miller; Patrick Johnstone (2015). "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census". Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. 11.
  11. ^ "'House-Churches' and Silent Masses —The Converted Christians of Morocco Are Praying in Secret". Vice. 23 March 2015. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  12. ^ "Morocco: No more hiding for Christians". Evangelical Focus.
  13. ^ "Tunisia – Open Doors USA – Open Doors USA". Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  14. ^ Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (12 June 2008). "Christen in der islamischen Welt". Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  15. ^ "Who are Egypt's Christians?". BBC News. 26 February 2000. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  16. ^ "Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 8 November 2017. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021. Egypt has the Middle East's largest Orthodox population (an estimated 4 million Egyptians, or 5% of the population), mainly members of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
  17. ^ "BBC – Religions – Christianity: Coptic Orthodox Church". bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021. The Coptic Orthodox Church is the main Christian Church in Egypt, where it has between 6 and 11 million members.
  18. ^ Miller, Duane A. "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census".
  19. ^ "Bahraini Census 2010 - تعداد السكــان العام للبحريــن 2010". www.census2010.gov.bh. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  20. ^ Johnstone, Patrick; Miller, Duane A (2015). "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: a global census". IJRR. 11: 17. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  21. ^ "التقارير الإحصائية". stat.paci.gov.kw. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  22. ^ Haber, M; Platt, DE; Badro, DA; et al. (2011). "Influences of history, geography, and religion on genetic structure: the Maronites in Lebanon". European Journal of Human Genetics. 19 (3): 334–40. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.177. PMC 3062011. PMID 21119711.
  23. ^ Haber et al. 2013. Quote:1-"We show that religious affiliation had a strong impact on the genomes of the Levantines. In particular, conversion of the region's populations to Islam appears to have introduced major rearrangements in populations' relations through admixture with culturally similar but geographically remote populations, leading to genetic similarities between remarkably distant populations like Jordanians, Moroccans, and Yemenis. Conversely, other populations, like Christians and Druze, became genetically isolated in the new cultural environment. We reconstructed the genetic structure of the Levantines and found that a pre-Islamic expansion Levant was more genetically similar to Europeans than to Middle Easterners."
    2-"The predominantly Muslim populations of Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians cluster on branches with other Muslim populations as distant as Morocco and Yemen."
    3-Lebanese Christians and all Druze cluster together, and Lebanese Muslims are extended towards Syrians, Palestinians, and Jordanians, which are close to Saudis and Bedouins."
  24. ^ Ellis, K.C. (2018). Secular Nationalism and Citizenship in Muslim Countries: Arab Christians in the Levant. Minorities in West Asia and North Africa. Springer International Publishing. p. 34. ISBN 978-3-319-71204-8. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
  25. ^ a b Pacini, Andrea (1998). Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future. Clarendon Press. pp. 38, 55. ISBN 978-0-19-829388-0. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  26. ^ C. Ellis, Kail (2004). Nostra Aetate, Non-Christian Religions, and Interfaith Relations. Springer Nature. p. 172. ISBN 978-3-030-54008-1.
  27. ^ Hourani, Albert (1983) [First published 1962]. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27423-4.
  28. ^ Prioreschi, Plinio (1 January 2001). A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic medicine. Horatius Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-1-888456-04-2. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  29. ^ Ira M. Lapidus, Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History, (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 200.
  30. ^ Curtis, Michael (2017). Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East. Routledge. p. 173. ISBN 9781351510721.
  31. ^ "Demographics". Arab American Institute. Archived from the original on 23 October 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  32. ^ "Coptic assembly of America – Reactions in the Egyptian Press To a Lecture Delivered by a Coptic Bishop in Hudson Institute". Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  33. ^ "Phoenician or Arab? A never-ending debate in Lebanon". independent.co.uk. Independent. 12 June 2010. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021.