Maronites
الموارنة
ܡܪ̈ܘܢܝܐ

Top row (left to right) Estephan El Douaihy • Elias Peter Hoayek • Khalil Gibran • Camille Chamoun • Fairuz • Carlos Slim
Total population
3,500,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Lebanon 1,062,000[1]  Argentina 750,000[1]  Brazil 550,000[1]  United States 215,000[1]  Mexico 160,000[1]  Australia 160,000[1]  Canada 85,000[1]  Syria 52,000[1]  France 52,000[1]  Venezuela 25,000[1]  Cyprus 10,500[1]  Israel 7,000[2]  Germany 5,500[1]  United Kingdom 5,000[1]  Egypt 5,000[1]  Sweden 2,500[1]  Belgium 3,500[1]  Italy 2,500[1]  Jordan 1,000[1]
Languages
Vernacular: Lebanese Arabic, Cypriot Maronite Arabic Historical: Syriac (Aramaic)
Religion
Christianity (Maronite Catholic)
Related ethnic groups
Syriacs/Assyrians, Levantine Arabs Israelites/Jews

Maronites (Arabic: الموارنة‎; al-mawārinah, Syriac: ܡܪ̈ܘܢܝܐ; maronāyé) are a 'Pre-Arab' Semitic Christian ethnoreligious group in the Levant. They derive their name from the Syriac saint Mar Maron whose followers moved to Mount Lebanon from northern Syria establishing the Maronite Church.^[3]

The Maronite were able to maintain an independent status in Greater Syria after the Arab Islamic conquest, maintaining their religion and language until the 13th century.^[3]

The Ottoman Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate and later the Republic of Lebanon were created under the auspice of European powers with the Maronites as their main ethnic component. Mass immigration to the Americas at the wake of the 20th century and the Lebanese Civil War decreased their numbers greatly in the Levant. The Maronites today form less than one quarter of the total population in the country of Lebanon.

History[link]

Origins[link]

Maronite villagers building a church in Mount Lebanon, 1920s

A number of Maronite historians claim that the Maronites were the descendants of the Canaanite/Phoenician Marada (ܡܪܕܐ), residents in parts of Greater Syria, who kept their identity under both Byzantine and Arab authorities. The reason for their adoption of the name is disputed and historian disagree whether this is attributed to Mar Maron, a 4th century Syriac Christian saint, or to John Maron, the first bishop of Lebanon.^[4]

Population[link]

Part of a series of articles on the Maronites History Mardaites County of Tripoli Ottoman rule (1860 conflict  · Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate) 1958 Lebanon crisis  · Greater Lebanon Lebanese Civil War (South Lebanon conflict  · Taif Agreement) Religious affiliation Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Lebanese Maronite Order Mar Bechara Boutros Raï Politics Lebanese politics Lebanese nationalism Phoenicianism Kataeb Party  · Lebanese Forces  · Free Patriotic Movement Languages Arabic (Lebanese Arabic  · Cypriot Arabic)  · Aramaic (Syriac) Communities Cyprus · Israel · Lebanon · Jordan · Syria Diaspora v t e

The worldwide Maronite population is not exactly known, being estimated at more than 3 million, according to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Originating in the northern Levant, it has largely dispersed into diaspora over the last two centuries, now having large communities in the Americas. Significant Maronite communities still reside in the Middle East - most notably in Lebanon and Syria and to a lesser degree in Cyrpus, Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

Lebanon[link]

An estimate of the distribution of Lebanon's main religious groups, 1991, based on a map by GlobalSecurity.org

An estimate of the area distribution of Lebanon's main religious groups

Based on a 2007 report, there are approximately 930,000 Maronites in Lebanon, where they constitute up to 22% of the population.^[5] According to an agreement between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, the president of the country must be a Maronite.^[6]

Syria[link]

Syrian Maronites total 51,000 and they follow the archdioceses of Aleppo and Damascus and the Diocese of Latakia.^[7]

Cyprus[link]

There is also a Maronite community in Cyprus, which speaks Cypriot Maronite Arabic.^[8][9] They are a recognized religious minority on the island and the community elects a representative to sit in the House of Representatives to voice their interests. They are descended from those Maronites who accompanied the crusaders, although more recent Lebanese immigrants are often included as part of the community, which now numbers 10,000.^[7]

Israel[link]

A noticeable Maronite community exists in northern Israel, numbering 7,504,^[7] composed of the long existing community in Jish area, and recent fugitives (mostly former South Lebanon Army militia members and their families), who fled South Lebanon to Galilee in April-May 2000.

Diaspora[link]

Americas[link]

The two residing eparchies in the United States have issued their own "Maronite Census", designed to estimate how many Maronites reside in the United States. Many Maronites have been assimilated into Western Catholicism as there were no Maronite parishes or priests available. The "Maronite Census" was designed to locate these Maronites. There are also eparchies at São Paulo in Brazil; as well as in Argentina, Canada and Mexico.^[7]

Australia[link]

Significant Maronite communities also reside in Australia, many with origins in traders who settled during the 19th Century.

France[link]

An important Maronite community exists in France.

South Africa[link]

The history of the Lebanese Community goes back to the late 19th century, when the first immigrants arrived in Johannesburg, the biggest city in the Transvaal coming from Sebhel, Mesyara, Becharre, Hadath El-Joube, Maghdoushe and other places. It is recorded that in the year 1896 the first Maronite and Lebanese immigrants arrived in Durban, Cape Town and Mozambique, and congregated around their local Catholic Churches. The majority of the Lebanese immigrants were Maronite and were concerned about keeping their Maronite faith alive in a new country, they wrote to the Maronite Patriarch, insisting on a Maronite Priest to come to South Africa to continue their tradition and the Maronite Rite. In 1905, Patriarch Elias El-Hoyek, sent Fr. Emmanuel El-Fadle to South Africa from Kfarhata–Elzawye, North Lebanon. A historical year for the entire Maronite Community in South Africa - Fr. Emmanuel El-Fadle was the first Maronite Priest to walk on South African soil. After time as a student in Rome and Paris, he began serving the South African community on both spiritual and social levels. He converted a building in Johannesburg into a church and residence. He left South Africa after 2 years. Fr. El-Fadle never returned to Lebanon; he was a passenger on board the ship SS Waratah, which disappeared in July 1909 en route from Durban to Cape Town.

In 1910, Fr. Ashkar arrived to build a church and a home for the priests. The Patriarch, then sent another priest to assist - Fr. Wakim Estphan. Fr. Ashkar returned to Lebanon and retired in 1928. The mission was then handed over to The Congregation of Maronite Lebanese Missionaries. Fr. Yousef Juan, who was appointed as a temporary visitor, received instruction from the Patriarch and the General Superior for Fr. Yousef Moubarak to succeed him in serving the South African Maronite Community. The Congregation of Maronite Lebanese Missionaries have since served in South Africa among other countries and continue in their mission in serving and assisting in the Maronite Rite.

Identity[link]

The follower of the Maronite Church are a part of the Syriac Christians and belong to the West Syriac Rite. The Maronite Syriac Church of Antioch has been founded by Maron, an early 5th-century Syriac monk venerated as a saint.^[10][11] Before the conquest by Arabian Muslims reached Lebanon, the Lebanese people including those who would become Muslim and the majority who would remain Christian, spoke a dialect of Aramaic called Syriac.^[12][13][14] Syriac remains the liturgical language of the Maronite Church.^[15]

Phoenicianism[link]

Phoenicianism never developed into an integrated ideology led by key thinkers, but there are a few who stood out more than others: Charles Corm, Michel Chiha, and Said Aql in their promotion of Phoenicianism.^[16]

In post civil-war Lebanon since the Taif agreement, politically Phoenicianism as an alternate to Arabism is restricted to small group.^[17] At the March 1936 Congress of the Coast and Four Districts, the Muslim leadership at this conference made the declaration that Lebanon was an Arab country, indistinguishable from its Arab neighbors. In the April 1936 Beirut municipal elections, Christian and Muslim Politicians were divided along Phoenician and Arab lines in concern of whether the Lebanese coast should be claimed by Syria or given to Lebanon. Increasing the already mounting tensions between the two communities.^[18] Phoeniciansm is disputed by many Arabist scholars who have on occasion tried to convince them these claims are false and to embrace and accept the Arab identity instead.^[19] This conflict of ideas of an identity is believed to be one of the main pivotal disputes between the Muslim and Christian populations of Lebanon and what mainly divides the country from national unity.^[20] It's generalized that Muslims focus more on the Arab identity of Lebanese history and culture whereas the older Christian communities focus on the pre-Arabized, pre-Islamic & non-Arab spectrum of the Lebanese identity and rather refrain from the Arab specification.^[21]

Lebanese nationalism[link]

Lebanese Christians are known to be specifically linked to the root of Lebanese Nationalism and opposition to Pan-Arabism in Lebanon, this being the case during 1958 Lebanon crisis. When Muslim Arab nationalists backed by Gamel Abdel Nasser tried to overthrow the then Christian dominated government in power, due to the displeasure of the government's pro-western policies and their lack of commitment and duty to so called "Arab brotherhood" by preferring keep Lebanon away from the Arab League and the political confrontations of the Middle East. A more hard-nosed nationalism among some Christian leaders, who saw Lebanese nationalism more in terms of its confessional roots and failed to be carried away by Chiha's vision, clung to a more security-minded view of Lebanon. They regarded the national project as mainly a program for the security of Christians and a bulwark against threats from Muslims and their hinterland.^[22]

Also this is seen with its movement members and leaders. With Etienne Saqr, Said Akl, Charles Malik, Camille Chamoun and Bachir Gemayel being notable names. Some being noted go as far as having Anti-Arab views, in his book the Israeli writer Mordechai Nisan who at times met with some of them during the war quoted Said Akl a famous Lebanese poet and philosopher as saying;

Akl believes in emphasis of the Phoenician legacy of the Lebanese people and promoted the use of the Lebanese dialect written in a modified Latin alphabet, that had been influenced by the Phoenician alphabet, rather than the Arabic one.^[19]

With the exiled Leader and founder of the right-wing yet secular Guardians of the Cedars Etienne Saqr also the father of singers Karol Sakr and Pascale Sakr that took no sectarian stance and even had Muslim members who joined in their radical stance against Arabism and Palestinian forces in Lebanon.^[24] Saqr summarized his party's view on the Arab Identity on their official ideological manifesto by stating;

On an Al Jazeera special dedicated to the political Christian clans of Lebanon and their struggle for power in the 2009 election entitled, Lebanon: The Family Business the issue of identity was brought up on several occasions, by various politicians including Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who claimed that all Lebanese lack somewhat of a real identity and the country is yet to discover one everybody could agree on. Sami Gemayel, of the Gemayel clan and son of former president Amin Gemayel, stated he did not consider himself an Arab but instead identified himself as a Syriac, going on to explain that to him and many Lebanese the "acceptance" of Lebanon's "Arab identity" according to the Taef Agreement wasn't something that they "accepted" but instead were forced into signing through pressure.

In a speech in 2009 to a crowd of Christian Kataeb supporters which he stated to him he felt there was importance in Christians finding an identity and went on to state what he finds identification with as a Lebanese Christian concluding with a purposely exclusion of Arab in the segment. The speech met with an applause afterward from the audience;^[26]

Etienne Sakr (of the Guardians of the Cedars Lebanese party) in an interview responded "We are not Arabs" in response to an interview question about the Guardians of the Cedars' ideology of Lebanon being Lebanese. He continues by talking about describing Lebanon as being not Arab as a crime in present day Lebanon, the Lebanese civil war, about Arabism as being first step towards Islamism, that "the Arabs want to annex Lebanon" and in order to do this "to push the Christians out (out of Lebanon)" and it being "the plan since 1975", among other issues.^[27]

Embrace of Arab identity[link]

During a final session of the Lebanese Parliament, a Marada Maronite MP states his identity as an Arab: "I, the Maronite Christian Lebanese Arab, grandson of Patriarch Estefan Doueihy, declare my pride to be a part of our people’s resistance in the South. Can one renounce what guarantees his rights?"^[28]

Lebanese controversial historian Kamal Salibi (a Protestant Christian) in his 'A House of Many Mansions' [1988] states (ch. 6): "It is very possible that the Maronites, as a community of Arabian origin, were among the last Arabian Christian tribes to arrive in Syria before Islam. Certainly, since the 14th century, their language has been Arabic. Syriac, which is the Christian literary form of Aramaic, was originally the liturgical language of all the Semitic Christian sects, in Arabia as well as in the Levant and Mesopotamia."^{[citation needed]}

Culture[link]

Religion[link]

Maronite Patriarch and bishops in Rome, 1906

The Maronites belong to the Maronite Syriac Church of Antioch, which is a Eastern Catholic Syriac Church that had affirmed its communion with Rome since 1180 A.D., although the official view of the Church is that it had never accepted the Monophysitic views held by their Syriac neighbours, which were condemned in the Council of Chalcedon.^[29] The Maronite Patriarch is traditionally seated in Bkerke north of Beirut.

Names[link]

Modern Maronites often adopt French or other Western European given names (with biblical origins) for their children like Michel, Marc, Marie, Georges, Carole, Charles, Antoine and Pierre.

Given names of Arabic origins identical with those of their Muslim neighbors are also common, such as Khalil, Toufic, Jamil, Samir, Salim or Hisham. Other common names are strictly Christian and are Aramaic, or Arabic, forms of biblical, Hebrew, or Greek Christian names, such as Antun (Anthony or Antonios), Butros (Peter), Boulos (Paul), Semaan or Shamaoun (Simon or Simeon), Jergyes (George), Elie (Ilyas or Elias), Iskander (Alexander) and Beshara (literally Good News in reference to the Gospel). Other common names are Sarkis (Sergius) and Bakhos (Bacchus), while others are common both among Christians and Muslims, such as Youssef (Joseph) or Ibrahim (Abraham).

Some Maronite Christians are named in honour of Maronite saints, including the Aramaic names Maroun (after their patron saint, Maron), Nimtullah, Charbel and Rafqa (Rebecca).

Persecution & struggle[link]

Maronite Christians felt fear and exclusion from Pan Arabism in Lebanon.^[30][31] Part of its historic suffering is the Damour massacre by the PLO, which was a response to the Karantina massacre by Phalangist Christians. Until recently, the Cyprus Maronites battle to preserve their ancestral language.^[32] The Maronite monks maintain that Lebanon is synonymous with Maronite history and ethos; that its Maronitism antedates the Arab conquest of Syria and Lebanon and that Arabism is only a historical accident.^[33]

See also[link]

• Religion in Lebanon
• Christianity in Lebanon
• Assyrians
• Jews
• Druze

References[link]

Lebanon portal

Sister Marie Keyrouz (also spelled "Kairouz") (b. 1963) is a chanter of Oriental Church music, a member of the Congrégation des Soeurs Basiliennes Chouérites and founder-president of the National Institute of Sacred Music in Paris.

Biography[link]

She was born in Deir el Ahmar in Lebanon, close to the ancient Roman city of Baalbeck. Raised in the Maronite Church, but being a Melkite through her religious congregation, she took her vows in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. From an early age, she undertook several disciplines of study simultaneously, earning a joint doctorate in musicology and anthropology from the Sorbonne in 1991. She has collected a variety of "Oriental" Christian chants, mostly preserved in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic manuscripts and through oral tradition.

Her debut album Chant byzantin took Europe by surprise upon its arrival in 1989, not only with the apparently ancient repertoire it represents, but also due to her own virtuosity, having a great ability to sing the intervals in rapid flourishes, notes that are difficult for most singers to reproduce. Her repertoire ranges from the Classical Arabic vocal music to western Classical operatic soprano.

On the production of the various Maronite chants, Melkite chants, Milanese chants and even mainstream Gregorian chants, she is accompanied by L'Ensemble de la Paix, a small band of Arabic instrumentalists which she leads.

Marie Keyrouz is founder of L'Instituit International de Chant Sacré (International Institute of Holy Songs) in Paris, which promotes research into ancient sacred song. She has also written several books.

See also[link]

• Syrian chant

External links[link]

• Official site of Sister Marie Keyrouz