Syriac Orthodox Church

The Syriac Orthodox Church (Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܬܪܝܨܬ ܫܘܒܚܐ‎), also known as the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with diaspora spread throughout the world, notably in Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom. It claims to employ the oldest surviving liturgy in Christianity, the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle, with Syriac as its official and liturgical language. The church is led by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Aphrem II since 2014.

The Syriac Orthodox Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodoxy, which has been a distinct church body since the schism following the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, although it claims its roots to back one of the first Christian communities in Antioch in AD 37, described in the Acts of the Apostles (New Testament, Acts 11:26) and established by the Apostle St. Peter.

The second schism occurred in 1781 when Syriac Orthodox Patriarch George IV died. Five bishops, clergy and laity met in the Dayr al-Zafaran monastery to elect Catholic convert Ignatius Michael III Jarweh as Patriarch, reinitiating the Eastern Catholic Syriac Catholic Church. Yet, two Syriac Orthodox bishops opposed his election. Two days after Michael's enthronement, they took the money of the monastery and paid a group of Kurds to attack Mardin, making fatalities. Michael survived but took time to recover. In the meantime, one of the two Syriac Orthodox bishops, Bishop Matta ben Abdel-Ahad Saalab of Mosul, consecrated four of his monks to bishops, in order to hold a second election. He was thus elected Syriac Orthodox patriarch. The Syriac Orthodox party arrived at Istanbul before Michael's envoy, and received formal approval of the Ottoman authorities, thus continuing a parallell Syriac Orthodox tradition until present day.

Syriac

Syriac may refer to:

See also

Syriac Christianity

Syriac Christianity (Syriac: ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ‎ / mšiḥāiūṯā suryāiṯā) encompasses the multiple Churches of Eastern Christianity whose services tend to feature liturgical use of ancient Syriac, a dialect of Middle Aramaic that emerged in Edessa in the early 1st century AD, and is closely related to the Aramaic of Jesus. Jesus Christ was known as Yešua` mšiḥā in Aramaic.

With a history going back to the 1st century AD, in modern times Syriac Christianity is represented by denominations primarily in the Middle East, Asia Minor and in Kerala, India.

Christianity began in the Middle East in Jerusalem among Jewish Aramaic-speaking Semitic peoples of Judah (modern Israel, Palestinian Territories and Jordan). It quickly spread, initially to other Semitic peoples, in Parthian-ruled Assyria and Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), Roman-ruled Syria (ancient Aramea), Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), southern and eastern Asia Minor (modern Turkey), and northwestern Persia (modern Iran) and Malta. From there it spread to Greece, Armenia, Egypt, Georgia, the Caucasus region and on into The Balkans, India, North Africa, Rome, Ethiopia, Nubia (modern Sudan) and Arabia, and eventually southern and western Europe.

Nouri Iskandar

Nuri Iskandar (Syriac: ܢܘܪܝ ܐܣܟܢܕܪ‎, Arabic: نوري إسكندر‎, born 1938 in Deir al-Zur, Syria), is an Assyrian Syrian musicologist and composer, he is known for his work in Syriac sacral and folk music.

Biography

Nuri Iskandar was born in Deir al-Zur to an Assyrian family originally from Urfa in modern day Turkey. His family moved to Aleppo in 1941, he joined the local Syriac Orthodox scout band where he took his first music lessons. He studied at the higher institute of music at the University of Cairo Between 1959 and 1964 and graduated with B.A degree in music.

He started composing Syriac folk music in the early 1970s popular songs like ܐܘ ܚܒܝܒܐ O habibo, ܙܠܩ̈ܐ ܦܪܣܝ Zliqe frisi, ܠܐ ܬܗܦܟ Lo tehfukh and others. Upon returning to Syria he established a number of Choirs, and in 1973, he participated in the first modern festival of Assyrian music in Beirut. Presenting a number of Assyrian/Syriac folk songs with the Lebanese musician Wadi al-Safi.

He presented a number of Operettas in Syriac and Arabic the most notable of them were ܦܪܩܐܢܐ Furqono. Nouri is currently the director of the Music Conservatory of Aleppo.