A comprehensive study of the history of the Orthodox Churches under Ottoman rule is now available. Arab Orthodox Christians under the Ottomans: 1516-1831 focuses on the middle period of the Ottoman Empire spanning the years from the Ottoman conquest of Syria in 1516 to the Egyptian invasion of 1831. It offers a vivid and compelling account of a vital but still little known and frequently misunderstood spiritual and political culture. The book is illustrated with full color pictures and maps. A glossary of terms is also provided.
The new English language edition is complemented by a Foreword from His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and all the East. He writes:
The Church of Antioch has faced many challenges throughout its two thousand year history, but through such hardship firm and unshakeable faith in the Lord is produced. As much as this was the case in the past it is true today, when our Antiochian people in the Middle East are enduring countless trials that cause some to even call into question their continued existence in the land of their ancestors.
I am grateful to Dr. Constantine Panchenko for his great labors in revealing to the world more fully the history of our people in the Middle East, drawing upon sources both previously known and unknown to us, many of which have only survived in archives in Russia.
Written by Dr. Constantin Panchenko, professor of Middle Eastern History at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, this study was first published in Russian in 2012. It has been translated into English by the husband and wife team of Samuel and Brittany Pheiffer Noble, utilizing their knowledge of Middle Eastern and Slavic languages respectively, and further edited and prepared by Holy Trinity Seminary Press (Jordanville, New York). The official publication date is June 1, 2016.
Arab Orthodox Christians under the Ottomans: 1516-1831 is available now from all good bookstores and web sellers as well as directly from the publishers.