“ARAB CHRISTIANS”? NOT IN MY VIEW
by Frederick Aprim
The Baltimore Chronicle, MD
Sept 1 2005
This is in response to the article by Raja G. Mattar, titled “Arab
Christians are Arabs.”
There are a few interesting arguments in the article; however, most
of the other arguments are disturbing, misleading, and completely
inaccurate.
For example, the writer stated that: “The fact that Syriac remains
the language of their [Maronites] liturgy. is irrelevant.”
Fact is that there is neither the evidence that the liturgy of the
Maronite Church was in Arabic before the 19th century nor that they
in Mount Lebanon spoke Arabic before late 18th century and early 19th
century. Assyrians continue to speak Assyrian (Syriac) until today.
Only Arabization policy of the Iraqi past Ba’athist regime has forced
some of them to speak Arabic.
Next, the writer associated all the early Christian communities
in today’s Arab world, including Copts, Nestorians, Jacobites, and
Maronites, with the Arabs and brought the book of El Hassan Bin Talal,
Christianity in the Arab World, as a reference.
The fact is that even the old Arab Islamic writers referred to Egypt
for example as “the house of the Copts,” as there were no Arabs
in Egypt (Antonie Wessels. Arabs and Christians: Christians in the
Middle East. The Netherlands: Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1995). I
challenge the writer to present any reliable historical reference
proving that Arabs existed in Egypt, Mount Lebanon, and northern
Mesopotamia before the Islamic Arab conquest. While there existed,
for example, Arabs who were Nestorian Christians, by the same token
there were Persian, Hindu, Chinese, Mongol, and Assyrian Nestorians
as well. Nestorianism was a faith and many nations professed it,
although today only Assyrians remain linked to the Nestorians.
The Nestorians of Mesopotamia, who carried the gospel to the entire
Asian continent, were not Arabs. Not a single shred of evidence exists
to such fallacy. Arabs never inhabited the mountainous regions of
northern Mesopotamia, the home of the Nestorian Assyrians. Arabs are
well known throughout history to live in plain and desert lands.
The writer stated: “The language prevalent in the Arab world today
is called Arabic, but it is no more than the dialect of one major
Arab tribe, Qureish, which became the language of the Qur’an. That
language spread like wildfire in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and
northern Egypt because the people in these areas were effectively
already speaking dialects of the same language.”
This statement is misleading. While Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac,
for example, are Semitic languages and are close, there are still
distinct differences between them. Arabic only spread through northern
Mesopotamia and Egypt after the Moslem conquest. Arabic was not used
in these regions. Many people who speak any one of these languages is
not necessarily able to communicate with the other two groups. The
grammar of these languages is different. For example, Syriac is
more sophisticated and richer than Arabic. As I wrote in my book,
Assyrians: The Continuous Saga, Philadelphia: Xlibris 2005, page 39:
“Arabic literature prides in maqamat al-Harriri and the one liner
poem that if read from left to right and vice versa it gives the
same meaning. Mar ‘Abd Isho’, Metropolitan of Nisibin (1291-1316)
composed a poem in Syriac from 29 lines. In his poem every single line
could be read from right to left and vice versa without altering the
meaning. Furthermore, in every line, the same exact letters repeated
themselves going from right to left or the other way around.
Additionally, the poem is composed in a way where the first letter
of the subsequent lines are arranged in alphabetical order.”
…fact is that the non-Arabs, non-Moslem Syriac-speaking Nestorian.
and Jacobites have great influence in advancing this civilization and
knowledge because it was these Christians who translated much of the
Greek knowledge from Greek language to Arabic through Syriac. What is
more interesting that the much of the Greek knowledge came originally
from the ancient Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians before Arabs
of the Jazeera had any interest in such knowledge.
…It is well established that many indigenous Christian communities.
in the Middle East remained unassimilated after the Arab Islamic
conquest. They carried the blood of their ancient forefathers,
and continue to be different to this very day. Sweet writes that
the Armenian and Assyrian communities remained unassimilated in the
Moslem world. (Louise Sweet, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East:
Cultural Depth and Diversity. New York: New York Natural History
Press, 1970). The Moslems created what is called the Moslem Umma. It
segregated the Moslems and non-Moslems through the taxes and the
laws applied on both communities. Until very recently, we could see
this to some degree in Christian neighborhoods that remain segregated
from Moslem neighborhoods in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul, Aleppo, Khabor
region, etc.
The writer then stated: “Apart from the obvious racial minorities
(Christians and animists in Southern Sudan, Kurds in Syria and Iraq,
Berbers in North Africa, and a few others), the rest of the population
is culturally Arab. Culture is the language they speak, the poetry
they recite, the songs they sing, the foods they eat, the music they
dance to, and the history they share.”
By stating this, the writer contradicted his entire thesis. Assyrian
culture, including language, food, music, dance, and history,
is different from that of the Arabs. I do not have to prove this;
it is a well-known fact.
Next he stated: “The millions of Christians are a dynamic part of the
Arab landscape and should remain so. They should cooperate with the
Muslims to develop a secular society where all citizens are equal,
regardless of religious affiliation or ethnic (imagined or real)
background.”
I agree with this statement; however, I hope that the writer will
deliver this message to the majority of the Moslem world in Asia and
Africa. Allow me to ask, how did the Arab Moslems become a majority
in northern Mesopotamia and the entire northern Africa when no
Arab existed in these lands before the Islamic conquest of the 7th
century? We all know that not a single Arab existed in northern Africa
before the Islamic conquest. Some of them existed of course in Jazeera,
but they were a minority before Islam.
Finally, I wonder for whom the writer speaks. Is he speaking on his
behalf or is he representing officially a certain community? It
is his privilege to look at himself as an Arab Christian, but he
has no right whatsoever to put that in plural and proclaim “we
Arab Christians.” If the policy of the Arab Moslem governments and
religious leaders in the past has been to protect the non-Moslem,
non-Arab, Syriac-speaking Christians of the Middle East, they would
not have looked for a savior from the West…..
Fred Aprim is a widely published author of articles on this and
related subjects.