"Beirut church chronicle": a record of the 19th century events

Abstract

This publication contains the Russian translation of the last fragment of the Beirut Church Chronicle. According to A. Krymskiy, this part was compiled by Khalīl Fayyāḍ, who was the copyist of the Kiev manuscript, and covers the period of the 1820s — 1880s. This text is a logical continuation of the main body of the chronicle compiled in the Orthodox milieu of Beirut in the 18th and 19th centuries and in the original entitled Muḫtaṣar tārīḫ al-asāqifa al-lazīna raqū martabat ri’āsat al-kahanūt al-ğalīla fī madīnat Bayrūt. The fragment translated here describes the life of Beirut Orthodox community and main events in the Orthodox Church of Antioch in the times of Patriarchs Methodius (1823–1850) and Hierotheos (1850–1885). The attention of the chronicler, like in the previous parts, is focused mainly on the spread of Unia in the territory of the Church of Antioch. Besides, a specifi c feature of this part of the text is a narrative of contradictions within the Orthodox community, which gives an idea of the Arab-Greek confl ict in the Patriarchate of Antioch that had intensifi ed by then. The translation is based on the Kiev manuscript of the chronicle preserved at the Manuscript Institute of V. I. Vernadskiy National Library of Ukraine (fund І, No. 25709). Variant readings of the MS version from the library of the Patriarchate of Antioch, used as a basis for the critical edition by Nā’ila Qā’idbeyh (2002), are indicated as well.

Keywords

• arab orthodox chronicles
• orthodox church of antioch
• lebanon
• beirut diocese
• unia
• greek catholics
• greek-arab confl ict in orthodox church
• арабо-православное летописание
• антиохийская православная церковь
• ливан
• бейрутская епархия
• уния
• греко-католики
• греко-арабский конфликт в православной церкви