Les Arméniens d’Égypte et Jérusalem : entre proximité et éloignement (première moitié du 19e siècle)

Abstract

In the early nineteenth century, Armenians in Egypt were connected to Jerusalem thanks to longstanding, diverse, and close ties. Many went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and in the time they spent there they discovered the Holy City and its Armenian institutions, most notably the Monastery of St James, and contributed to the making of Jerusalem in general and of Armenian Jerusalem in particular. Indeed, the Armenian community of Egypt was all the more closely connected to that of Jerusalem because it fell under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Yet, over the course of the nineteenth century this attachment declined as the Armenians of Egypt decided to emancipate themselves from the Patriarchate’s authority and also because of their growing secularisation. They moved from proximity to a kind of estrangement.

Keywords

• Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem
• Monastery of St James
• pilgrimages
• Armenians of Egypt