HISTORY

By Dr. Amine Jules Iskandar President of the Syriac Maronite Union – Tur Levnon Why is epigraphy important for our Lebanese culture and history? And what is it exactly about? Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions in hard material, mainly stones and rocks. The Syriac Maronites have left their traces all over Lebanon,…

This article was originally published by AINA News on 11 November 2020. The original can be found here. By Abdulmesih BarAbraham Hakkari, Turkey (AINA) — The EU and Turkish Journalists Society sponsored a 40-minutes documentary capturing and documenting the remains of Assyrian churches in the region. Until the mid-1920s, Assyrian…

Originally published by History of Information. For the Original here The first book printed in the Arab world was a bilingual Psalter in small folio of 260 pages which was printed in the Maronite Monastery of St. Anthony at Qozhaya in Northern Lebanon in 1610.  Sarkis el-Rizzi, a former pupil of the…

By Dr. Amine Jules Iskandar President of the Syriac Maronite Union – Tur Levnon What is the difference between the Phoenician and Syriac alphabets? Actually, there isn’t any. Syriacs use the Phoenician alphabet of 22 letters called Olaph-bet. Only the shapes of the letters have been modified with evolution over time. The names…

By Denho Bar Mourad-Özmen journalist and TV moderator Suroyo TV  Early years – Mor Shamoun Zayte or St Simon of the Olives was born in 657 A.D. in the village of Hapses, Tur Abdin. His father Mandar was one of the village’s notables and the Mandar family house is still…

By Marta Sömek Birds view of the Syriacs The Syriacs, the first people to accept Jesus as Savior and Son of God, are divided into Western and Eastern Syriacs. Over time, the Syriacs divided into Christian denominational communities e.g. Nestorians, Chaldeans, Maronites, and Melkites. These Christian denominations organized internally into…

DARAMSUQ / TADMORTO, Syria — The General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Syria announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Association of the Russian Stone Industry seeking the assistance of their experts and specialists to restore the Arch of Triumph in Tadmorto (Palmyra). The Arch was…

By Heleen Murre-van den Berg Professor of Global Christianity, director Institute of Eastern Christian Studies (hlmvandenberg.me) (12 January 2018) – One of the highlights of a student trip to Jerusalem last summer was a tour through the Armenian compound. I’d been visiting the Armenian St. James Church a number of times, usually when…

By Dr. Amine Jules Iskandar President of the Syriac Maronite Union – Tur Levnon What role does Syriac play in Lebanese art? What are the characteristics of Syriac Maronite iconography? Does it have any influence on Modern art in Lebanon? The history of Maronite art starts with the Codex Rabulensis, an illustrated manuscript that…

By Dr. Amine Jules Iskandar President of the Syriac Maronite Union–Tur Levnon When one travels to Greece, Cappadocia, France, Ravenna in Italy or to any other ancient Christian country, one discovers the magnitude and splendor of the art of frescoes. But did you ever suspect the existence of the world’s largest collection…