16/10/2021

Syriac Identity of Lebanon – part 1: Who are the Syriacs?

ܗܺܝܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܳܝܬܐ ܕܰܒܠܶܒܢܳܢ

By Dr Amine Jules Iskandar Syriac Maronite Union–Tur Levnon


Do we Lebanese have an identity? What is this identity? And where is it? In our series of 20 articles, we will discover together the different manifestations of our culture and our specificities through art, history, literature, iconography, philology, liturgy, music, architecture and theology. Let us first try to understand who the Syriacs are, who we are, and to where we belong.

Below is a map of the region of the Levant and Middle East. The northern part was entirely Aramaic speaking. But the Syriac area, is only in the far north, highlighted here by a red line.


Map 1: Topography of the Levant and the Middle East

This region is actually the Hellenized part. Ancient Semitic languages here were merged with Greek. Then they where Christianized, causing even more Greek vocabulary to enrich the local tongue, because the new Christian culture needed new terminology for its own theology. This new terminology was provided by the Greek language.

Since this region was called ‘Provincia Syria’ by the Romans, local Christians adopted this name for their new language and for their Christian identity. They became the Syriacs.


Map 2: Modern borders

The second map shows the region with modern borders. Inside the red area we can see first, from left to right, Lebanon. Then going up is Antioch, the spiritual capital of the Syriac Churches. Further to the East is Aleppo in modern Syria and Edessa in modern Turkey. Edessa was the capital of the Syriac language. Even more to the East, is Mardin and then Tur Abdin, both in modern Turkey. Tur Abdin is a mountain like Lebanon. Tur Abdin means ‘The Worshipers of God’. And finally, to the far East, we go down to the Ninawa plain in modern Iraq.

The western part of the area marked red in Map 2 is Canaan, land of the Cananeans or Phoenicians. The Eastern part is Upper Mesopotamia.


Diagram 1: The Syriac peoples

So again, who are the inhabitants? There were actually three origins that made together today’s Syriac people: the Cananeans (in blue), the Arameans (in red), and the Mesopotamians (in green).

Diagram 2 shows that when they where Hellenized and Christianized, they became Syriacs. But it also shows us that to this day they never lost their origins. The Cananeans, in blue, became today’s Maronites and Roum. The Maronites being the Catholic branch. The Arameans, in red, as well as Mesopotamians, became today’s Syriac Orthodox, with a Catholic branch known as the Syriac Catholics. And the Mesopotamians, in green, became today’s Assyrians, with the Chaldeans being the Catholic branch.


Diagram 2: The Syriac churches

Why did they split into so many churches? The Mesopotamians, also called Eastern Syriacs, separated from the Western Syriacs after the Council of Ephesus in 431. They became the Eastern Church which later split into Assyrians and Catholic Chaldeans. Later in 451, the council of Chalcedon caused a second split. In this council the Roman Emperor Marcianus condemned Monophysitism. However, in addition to his goal to unify the Church and its dogma, the Emperor also tried to introduce a cultural unification by imposing his Greek language. This led to a new split causing the creation of three Western Syriac Churches:

1 – The first group rejected Chalcedon entirely in dogma and culture. They will be called Monophysites, then Jacobites, and today they are the Syriac Orthodox, from which the Syriac Catholics originate.

2 – The second group accepted the Chalcedonian dogma and with it the Greek liturgy and language. They were called Roum, and later Greek Orthodox, from which the Greek Catholics arose.

3- The third group accepted the Chalcedonian dogma and the unity of the Church, but insisted on preserving their Syriac liturgy, identity, and language. They will be called the Syriacs of Beit Morun, today’s Syriac Maronites.

Because our focus is on Lebanon, those Western Syriacs are the main subject of this series of twenty articles.

And, if we want to understand and visit Lebanon, what is more useful than perusing the writings of the Orientalists, the European travelers who described Lebanon, its people, spirit, and language. Let us start in the seventeenth century with Eugène Roger:

“In Mount Lebanon I have noticed 3 villages, close to the Great Cedars, where the current spoken language is Syriac, which they deeply respect and esteem so much. They refuse to make use of Arabic even though they are able to speak it…”

Again in the seventeenth century, Jean de la Roque wrote in his biography of the Maronite scholar Faustus Nairon:

He was originally from Ban, an important village of Mount Lebanon, facing Cannobin, and whose inhabitants still speak the Syriac language today.”

In the nineteenth century, Constantin François Chasseboeuf (known as Volney) said:

“They celebrate mass in Syriac, of which most of them are not able to understand a single word.”

The analysis of this weird phenomenon is given to us by Alphonse de Lamartine. He writes:

“In every village there is a chapel where liturgy is celebrated in the Syriac language. While reading the Gospel, however, the priest turns to the people and reads the Gospel in Arabic.”

And here is Lamartine’s interesting input:

“Because religions that last longer than human races, maintain their sacred tongues even when the people have lost theirs.”

There is no such beautiful description of the Syriac language, culture, and identity, then the following description given by Ernest Renan in 1861 in his “Mission de Phénicie”:

“Under the name of Syriac and identified with the dialect of the populations of Lebanon, … Phoenician crossed the middle Ages…”

And in 1917, René Ristelhueber describes the languages used in Lebanon:

“Arabic has gradually replaced Syriac. The Syriac language was commonly used up till the sixteenth century, but now only survives as a liturgical language.”

The Dominican Jean-Maurice Fiey takes us deep into our Lebanese mountains, valleys, and caves, searching for their spiritual and historical identity:

“History has only kept the memory of the great convents that must have existed near the coastal cities, Hellenized than Byzantized, during the first centuries of Christianity. But as we penetrate inside the Syriac depth of the country, we find the rocks of the hills full of caves and monastic sanctuaries.”

Our series of twenty articles will take us on a journey to discover these valleys, rocks, and caves full of artistic and historical treasures to witness the presence of Christianity and of Syriac spirituality.


Dr Amine Jules Iskandar is an architect and the former president of the Syriac Maronite Union-Tur Levnon. Amine Jules Iskandar has written several articles on the Syriac Maronites, their language, culture, and history. You can follow him @Amineiskandar2For the article in Spanish

Also: Watch the TV-series as broadcast by Nour Al-Sharq TV.