Syriac Epigraphy in Lebanon: Syriac inscriptions and Art on Maronite Churches (part 1)
By Dr Amine-Jules Iskandar President of Tur Levnon-Syriac Maronite Union
Associations and movements like our Tur Levnon-the Syriac Maronite Union aim to preserve Syriac heritage in Lebanon and to revive the Syriac language. This project can be made achievable by reintroducing Syriac to Christian schools and to the Maronite mass. For this aspiration to become possible, it is necessary to show Maronites what they are losing when they abandon Syriac language and script by replacing them with another language and script.
Why is it fundamental to reintroduce the Syriac language and history in our teaching?
Because today our society ignores everything about its identity, its heritage, culture and spirituality. People have no idea what is being said in Syriac during the Maronite mass. Some Maronites have no idea what language they are listening to. Others think Syriac is being used because it is the language of Jesus Christ. No one suspects this is really something of our past, our literature and our living identity. No one suspects these are the last traces of our identity that need to be saved, valued and revived if we intend to remain as a living people in this part of the world. That is why in our previous researches we first intended to make people aware of their heritage and its existing traces in our contemporary environment. It was necessary to first explain our history and literature, and then expand the study to shed light on the manifestations of our Syriac identity in art and Lebanese architecture (1). In this study we want to go deeper into our past and culture and we will try to express our spirituality and the quality of our relation with the Divine.
How does Syriac culture approach the Divine, the Beyond and the concept of Existence? And what would we – Syriac Maronites – lose when we abandon the Syriac language and Syriac script developed by and for our Syriac way of thinking, philosophy and understanding?
The approach below focuses on the field of Epigraphy. This science concerns inscriptions on hard supports like stone and even rock. The study concentrates on the territory of historical Mount Lebanon, from Qebayet to Jezzine, being the homeland of the Maronites. First, it was necessary to create a repertoire of epigraphs from all over this territory and belonging to all periods because, unfortunately, nothing was ever done in this field regarding Lebanon. Several archaeological campaigns were done and published regarding the rest of the Syriac Fertile Crescent –from Edessa and Tur Abdin, up to Nineveh and Diyarbakir- covering most of Syria-Mesopotamia. These publications started as far back as 1907 with Henri Pognon (2). But the Lebanon of the Maronites never got its share of publications except very exceptional and brief approaches like Mission de Phénicie of Ernest Renan in 1860 (3). The French writer mentioned some Syriac epigraphs he found randomly while searching for Phoenician and Greek inscriptions. Authors like the Jesuits René Mouterde (4), Paul Mouterde (5), the Vicomte Philippe de Tarazi (6) and, later, Salamé-Sarkis (7) -who worked on the garshouné inscriptions of Tripoli – also mentioned only very few Epigraphs in Lebanon. Others like Pierre Chébli (8), Henri Leclercq (9) and Alain Desreumaux (10) chose to repeat in their publications the older discoveries of Ernest Renan.
This general observation proves that a fully new survey and documentation was necessary to support and base our research on. The result was a catalog of a hundred inscriptions (11) from which 36 were chosen to elaborate a theory of the expression of Syriac spirituality around this type of art. The 36 inscriptions selected are interesting because they belong to a complete environment or building. The other examples couldn’t be part of the selection because they were either isolated or seemed amputated from the architecture or ensemble to which they might have belonged. After the catalog was completed and published (12), it was finally possible to start the analysis phase. The observations made during our study were fascinating as they were very unexpected. Facts that could have sounded completely random and thoughtless appeared to be repeated in exact ways in very different places and periods. Coincidence could not explain these similitudes anymore. The elaboration of a certain number of canons and rules was imposing. Two types of configurations are described here to substantiate the idea of this phenomena. The first is about the Saint Bernard prayer, and the second is about the squarish movement.
The Saint Bernard prayer
With the creation of the Maronite College in Rome in 1584, the latinization of the Maronite Church was increased with more and more noticeable influences. One of them was the use of the prayer, or Memorare, of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to the Virgin Mary. It was somehow modified to be adapted to garshouné, but the meaning remains the same. We read in it:
He who becomes a servant to the Virgin Mary, will never perish.
This prayer written in garshouné appears five times between the Metn Mountain and the Jezzine area in Southern Lebanon. We find it in a circular shape at Notre-Dame-du-Pré in Qornet-Hamra from 1703 (13) (fig. 1), Notre-Dame de Machmouché, dated 1732 (fig. 2) and Saint-Maron in Mazraat-Yéshou, dated 1814 (fig. 3):
We encounter it again but in strait lines in Notre-Dame de Tamish, dated 1807 (fig. 4) and Notre-Dame-des-Semences in Kphiphén, dated 1838 (fig. 5). Hence, from the Metn Mountain to the Jezzine area, the example repeats itself five times, three of which respect the same configuration: It is circular and turns around an oculus. Without the corpus provided by our catalog, no one would have ever suspected this circular garshouné inscription of Saint Bernard evolved a continuous code in the Maronite Church.
The squarish movement
We notice that the gyratory inscriptions inside squares have a particular organization. Instead of turning in respect to a swastika shape, or equal-armed cross, the movement does not obey any sort of equality between the four sides. In fact, the top lines are the longest, using the entire width of the square. The vertical lines to the left as well as the horizontal lines in the bottom, use the 2/3 of the width of the square, and respect therefore the logic of the swastika. But the only space left for the last side (vertical lines to the right) is ½ the width of the square. The whole composition looks like a mistake and as if a lack of planning lead to this forced shrinking of the last lines. But if we consider several examples of squarish movement compositions, we notice they all follow the same rules.
Let us contemplate four examples, of which three are from Lebanon (17th-18th century) and one from Medieval Syria-Mesopotamia: Saint-Shalito in Gosta, dated 1628 (fig. 6), Saint-Antoine-le-Grand in Daraoun, dated 1656 (fig. 7), and Saint-Georges-Martyr in Néemé, dated 1756 (fig. 8) all show the identical logic described above. In Syria-Mesopotamia, the unchanged code is visible again on the Chair of Bennaoui (14) (fig. 9). The similar space organization is respected; nothing is random. It is even possible to say that this lack of balance between the lines is desired by the sculptor to emphasize the direction of the text. He clearly wants to avoid the equality between the lines. He therefore neglected the equal-armed cross composition which was very well known at the time as is shown by many swastika representations on stones and mosaics all over Phoenicia and Syria-Mesopotamia. The huge difference in time and space, is a proof that Maronite sculptors were not working randomly, but rather following a clear set of canons and conscious tradition reflecting their living identity, and going back many centuries in time.
The pyramidal composition
The most characteristic feature in the art of epigraphs appears to be the pyramidal composition “Soyumuto Piramidoyto”. It is represented by the 36 examples selected from the hundred inscriptions of our catalogue because they are part of a complete and coherent set involving architecture, art and inscriptions.
The architectural style typical of Maronite churches is very stark, simple, ascetic and severe. The atmosphere of humility and modesty reigns everywhere. There is very rarely any type of ornamentation or virtuosity of any kind; just as the Mimré of the Syriac Fathers of the Church remain humble and poetic away from Greek theological controversy. The Syriac Maronite tradition is deeply monachal. Its architecture is sometimes harsh or even troglodytic, and its art is reduced to the Crosses. All the life of the Maronites is oriented and focused on the Eucharistic. Saint Ephrem and other Syriac authors wrote in poetry. The Maronite hymns and prayers are chanted, by the clergy and the people. The concept of virtuosity was an alien in the valleys and on the slopes of Lebanon continuously covered with the smoke of incense “bésmé” rising from every cave, every church and every house. The monks, like the people, were peasants harboring the terraces of the mountains.
In this atmosphere of austerity, nothing could disturb the silence of contemplation. The churches were called sanctuaries “Hayklo”. They were sanctuaries for the Eucharist in the communion. They are the house of communion, horizontally between the worshipers and then vertically with Christ-Hosts. The Syriacs call the Eucharist Qurbono and the mass Qurobo. But the Maronites call them both Qurbono and make no difference between the two, because for them, Mass is the Eucharist.
What do we see when we look at a Maronite church that presents an epigraph? Simplicity is always there all over the facade. Then appears the entrance door “Tar‘o” emphasized by its frame consisting in megalithic stones. Above it, sits the epigraph with its simple calligraphy as austere as the architecture and the peasants’ life. There is no place for embellishment and certainly no virtuosity. Somewhere on the facade, under or above the epigraph, rules the cross “Slivo”, and sometimes it is flanked by the two circles representing the sun “Shemsho” and the moon “Sahro”. If we look above, we might find an oculus or a simple opening. And some churches even offer the representation of the Chalice “Koso” and occasionally the Paten “Pénko”. This is all that can be found on the entrance facade of a Maronite Church that has a Syriac epigraph. What is the meaning of each of these elements, what is the message conveyed by their juxtaposition?
Tomorrow part 2 of Syriac Epigraphy in Lebanon: Syriac inscriptions and Art on Maronite Churches by Amine-Jules Iskandar
See notes Here