Xavier Jacob et Angelo Guido Calonghi, Les Chrétiens du Proche Orient après deux millénaires. Les vicissitudes des Communautés Chrétiennes du Proche Orient des débuts du Christianisme à la fin du IIme Millénaire, Tirrenia Stampatori, Torino 2002, pp. 492, ISBN 88-7763-529-0, € 37,00
Alessandro
Mengozzi
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n2prmengozzi
Alessandro Mengozzi
Xavier Jacob et Angelo Guido Calonghi, Les Chrétiens du Proche Orient après deux millénaires. Les vicissitudes des Communautés Chrétiennes du Proche Orient des débuts du Christianisme à la fin du IIme Millénaire, Tirrenia Stampatori, Torino 2002, pp. 492, ISBN 88-7763-529-0, € 37,00
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N2PRMengozzi.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 7
issue 2
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Xavier Jacob
Angelo Guido Calonghi
History
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[1] Angelo
Guido Calonghi was an esteemed psycho-therapist in Turin, who
cultivated, besides his profession, a learned and passionate
interest for Eastern Christianity. He travelled in the Middle
East and collected much information and bibliographic material
on the subject. This book is the product of his collaboration
with the Assumptionist Father Xavier Jacob, who lived in Turkey
for many years. Unfortunately, it is not specified which parts
of the text are the work of one or the other author.
[2] In the
preface, the authors state that they intend to provide their
readers with a quantitative—i.e.,
demographic—rather than qualitative presentation of the
Christian communities in the Middle East. This purpose is
achieved only in the central part of the volume, which does
indeed represent an outstanding contribution to our factual
knowledge of Eastern-Christian history.
[3] The
first part (19-126) provides a historical overview of the
Christian presence in the East as mentioned in the title and
subtitle of the book. It is mainly based on secondary
literature from the Fifties and Sixties of the 20th century.
The bibliography is incomplete: among the French works alone,
it does not include, e.g., J. M. Fiey, Assyrie
Chrétienne, Beyrouth 1965, R. Khawam, L'univers
culturel des chrétiens d'Orient, Paris 1987, B.
Landron, Chrétiens et musulmans en Irak.
Attitudes nestoriennes vis-à-vis de l'Islam,
Paris 1994, J. M. Billioud, Histoire des chrétiens
d'Orient, Paris 1995, or R. Le Coz, Église
d’Orient. Chrétiens d'Irak, d'Iran et de
Turquie, Paris 1995. An up-dated and richer bibliography
is badly needed on specific topics, such as, e.g., the
beginning of the Chaldean movement (121, carefully studied by
the late Father Joseph Habbi in “Signification de l'union
chaldéenne de Mar Sulaqa avec Rome en 1553”,
L'Orient Syrien 11 (1966) 99-132 and 199-230) or the
Protestant missions in the Middle East (123-24; see, e.g., J.
F. Coakley, The Church of the East and the Church of
England, Oxford 1992, and H.L. Murre-van den Berg,
From a Spoken to a Written Language, Leiden 1999).
[4] The
survey on Eastern Christianity (chapter 1-4) is inserted in the
broader framework of European history and shows traces of a
theological approach. Taking a quite original point of view, at
risk of falling into a vicious circle, the authors maintain
that the cultural differences which conditioned the emergence
of the various Eastern Churches first developed as differences
in the liturgy. The theological interests (and sympathies) of
the authors lead them to address complicated issues such as the
doctrinal and moral features which favoured the spread of
Christianity in the first centuries (23-24, 29) or, later on,
the conversion of many Eastern Christians to Islam (83-83, 93
and 111). The relative mildness of Ottoman policy towards the
Christians is interpreted as influenced by Sufi mysticism
rather than Sunni jurisprudence (115).
[5] The
authors are aware of the problem of self-denomination vs.
polemic and heresiologic terminology (69). Nevertheless, they
resort to terms such as ‘Jacobites’ and
‘Nestorians’ throughout the book. Despite the
important distinctions introduced in a correct approach to this
matter (e.g., S. Brock, "The ‘Nestorian’ Church: A
Lamentable Misnomer," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library
of Manchester 78 (1996) 23-36, not mentioned by the
authors), Nestorianism is said to have become nothing but the
‘official doctrine’ of the Persian Church (45).
[6] The
fourth chapter is dedicated to the relationship between
Christianity and the Turks and is followed by two appendices:
on demographic data in the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent
(1520-1535) and on the Jewish communities in the East from
Biblical times to the 19th century (130-139). The demographic
appendix reproduces the study published by Ö. L. Barkan,
‘Essai sur les données statistiques des registres
de recensements dans l'Empir Ottoman aux XVe et XVIe
siècle’, Journal of the Economic and Social
History of the Orient 1 (1958) 9-36, with critical
comments by our authors.
[7] The
fifth chapter is entitled ‘Christians in the Ottoman
Empire of Asia’. After a survey on the concept and
history of the census as a major institution in modern states
(140-145), two bibliographic sources on Ottoman censuses in the
19th century are presented: V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie,
Géographie Administrative, 4 vols., Paris 1891-1897
and K. H. Karpat, Ottoman Population 1830-1914. Demographic
and Social Characteristics, Madison, The University of
Wisconsin Press 1985. Cuinet integrated the results of Ottoman
censuses with data provided by local informants, oral tradition
and historical notices occasionally given by travellers or in
administrative reports (150-151). Karpat's work concentrates on
the data that Turkish functionaries collected in the censuses
of 1881/82-1893 and 1905-1906, in the context of various
attempts to reform Ottoman bureaucracy and the levy system
(146-150).
[8] Central
to the 5th chapter (153-348) are Cuinet's and Karpat's figures
for each of the 25 provinces (vilâyet or
mutasarriflık) which formed the Ottoman Empire
during the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the
20th centuries. Each province is presented as follows: 1) a map
derived from Cuinet's cartography (names of places are
sometimes reproduced in small characters that make them almost
unreadable); 2) a table giving the administrative districts of
the province (sancàks and kazās);
3) a historical sketch of the province and the districts with
particular reference to the arrival of Christianity, the first
Muslim invasions, the Ottoman conquest, and, when available,
details on the contemporary situation of the Christians; 4)
tables which report the demographic data of the province in
general and of each district.
[9] The
historical notices and the demographic tables are extremely
useful. In a couple of paragraphs, the reader gains an insight
into the history of each district. Unfortunately, no
bibliography is given in these sections. Information on the
contemporary situation was possibly provided by local
informants, especially Western missionaries (see the long list
of prelates, monks and nuns acknowledged in the preface,
14-15). The demographic tables give the absolute and relative
figures of Muslims, Jews, Christians (total number and number
for each denomination, Eastern and Western) and other religious
and/or national minorities (e.g., Yezidis, Tziganes,
Bulgarians, other foreigners), who were present in a given
province or district when the censuses were made. Data of the
two sources are then compared and critically discussed.
[10] In
the appendix to the fifth chapter (349-366), fifteen tables
summarize the numerical consistence of the various religious
communities (Muslim, non Catholic Christian, Catholic, Jewish,
Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Orthodox,
East-Syrian—‘Nestorian’, Protestant, Syrian
Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Chaldean, Maronite, Melkite
Catholic, Syrian Catholic) in the 25 provinces.
[11] The
sixth chapter (367-390) presents the Christian presence in the
Middle East as reflected by the 20th-century censuses. The main
sources are the Annuaire Démographique,
published by the United Nations (the issues considered go from
1956 to 1993) and the Census of Populations published
by the Ankara Institute of Statistics. Nine tables provide the
figures of the religious composition of the population
(Muslims, Christians, Jews, other religions) in various years
in Aden, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Israel, Jordan,
Kuwait, Palestine (Gaza), and Turkey. A historical sketch for
each state and a brief discussion accompany the demographic
tables. An appendix (391-404) outlines the evolution of the
Christian presence in Turkey from the Ottoman to the Republican
periods. The authors attempt then to explain the dramatic
decrease in the number of Christians, mentioning factors such
as the discriminatory policy of the Turkish government in
fiscal matters and in the educational system. Both Muslim and
non Muslim Turkish people emigrated to Europe and Israel, but
Muslim emigration turned out to be an economically motivated
choice limited to certain periods, while for Jews and
Christians there has been a continuous flow of emigration.
[12] The
seventh chapter (405-433) presents the Catholic minority in the
Middle East as recorded in the Annuaire Pontifical,
now published by the Vatican Central Office of Statistics, and
in the World Population Prospects. The 1992 Revision,
published by the United Nations, New York 1993. For each
country, a table gives the numbers of Catholics and of new
baptisms in various years, from 1950 to 1995, specifying the
figures per diocese and rite.
[13] The
eighth chapter (434-485) sums up and continues the historical
outline of the first four chapters. The authors address two
main questions. Firstly, they search the past of the Eastern
Christian communities for the reasons of their demographic
collapse. Secondly, they ask whether, despite the fall in
demographic figures, the Eastern Christians still have a future
in their lands of origin or whether they are condemned to
disappear. The past of the Middle East is scanned once again in
a rather schematic way: Constantine and the Christian Empire of
the Middle East, the Empire of the Arabs and the difficult
condition of the Christians as ‘discriminated
protégées’, the egalitarian reforms
introduced in the Ottoman Empire and the ‘psychological
wall’ that nevertheless divided the religious minorities
from the Muslim majority, the complicated relationships with
the Western powers, the advent of colonialism and the emergence
of Eastern nationalisms. A survey then describes the present
condition of the Christian minorities in the various countries
of the Middle East. The section which concludes the chapter is
a sociological essay on its own, dealing with the subtle
problems of the psychological attitudes, the sociological
status and dynamicity of the Christian minorities as well as
with their possible future in the era of
‘globalization’ and ‘new economy’.
[14]
Notwithstanding the title, the volume does not give a
satisfactory general presentation of the history of Eastern
Christianity. The authors' use of the demographic data to
depict a broader historical picture often fails to apply a
rigorous method. Here and there, the editorial work appears to
have been performed hurriedly: e.g., in the table of contents
(5-10) all the sections of the last two chapters are registered
as being on p. 404, the two last lines of p. 484 are repeated
at the top of the following, not all the publications quoted in
the notes are reported in the general bibliography, etc. As a
demographic study, however, this book is an essential tool for
students of the minorities in the Middle East, Eastern
Christianity, and history of missions. The demographic data and
statistics are arranged in clear tables and diagrams. The
sources and their limitations are always carefully presented
and discussed.