{"history":[],"article":{"id":"a2f1f495-457e-419a-93d0-42a4fc76f884","title":"Christianity in the Middle East","slug":"christianity-in-the-middle-east","content":":::summary\n![Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Golgotha///%28Church///of///the///Holy///Sepulchre%29.jpg)\n**Group:** Middle Eastern Christians \n**Population:** 15–20 million \n**Region 5:** 🇮🇷 [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran) \n**Pop 5:** 369,000–370,000 \n**Region 3:** [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/undefined) \n**Pop 3:** 850,000–950,000 (2018 est.) \n**Region 2:** 🇱🇧 [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) \n**Pop 2:** 1,700,000–2,000,000 (est.) \n**Region 4:** 🇨🇾 [Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus) \n**Pop 4:** 793,000 (2008) \n**Region 6:** 🇮🇶 [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq) \n**Pop 6:** 300,000–490,000 \n**Region 8:** 🇹🇷 [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey) \n**Pop 8:** 200,000–320,000 \n**Region 1:** 🇪🇬 [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt) \n**Pop 1:** 10–15 million \n**Region 1 5:** 🇸🇦 [Saudi Arabia](https://bliptext.com/articles/saudi-arabia) \n**Pop 1 5:** <10 \n**Region 7:** 🇯🇴 [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan) \n**Pop 7:** 250,000–400,000 \n**Region 9:** 🇮🇱 [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel) \n**Pop 9:** 185,000 \n**Region 1 0:** [Palestine](https://bliptext.com/articles/undefined) \n**Pop 1 0:** 50,000–100,000 \n**Region 1 1:** 🇧🇭 [Bahrain](https://bliptext.com/articles/bahrain) \n**Pop 1 1:** 1,000 \n**Region 1 2:** 🇰🇼 [Kuwait](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuwait) \n**Pop 1 2:** 400 \n**Region 1 3:** 🇾🇪 [Yemen](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemen) \n**Pop 1 3:** <100 \n**Region 1 4:** 🇶🇦 [Qatar](https://bliptext.com/articles/qatar) \n**Pop 1 4:** <10 \n**Region 1 6:** 🇦🇪 [United Arab Emirates](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-arab-emirates) \n**Pop 1 6:** <10 \n**Region 1 7:** 🇴🇲 [Oman](https://bliptext.com/articles/oman) \n**Pop 1 7:** <10 \n**Langs:** [Arabic](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabic-language), [Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language), [Coptic](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-language), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-language), [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-language), [Georgian](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgian-language), [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-language), [Turkish](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-language), [Hebrew](https://bliptext.com/articles/hebrew-language), [Bulgarian](https://bliptext.com/articles/bulgarian-language) \n**Rels:** [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) \n**Footnotes:** [a].(excluding foreign residents) \n:::\n\n# \n[Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity), which [originated](https://bliptext.com/articles/origins-of-christianity) in the [Middle East](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-east) during the [1st century AD](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-the-1st-century), is a significant minority religion within the region, characterized by the diversity of its beliefs and traditions, compared to [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) in other parts of the [Old World](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-world).\nToday, [Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/christians) make up approximately 5% of the Middle Eastern population, down from 13% in the early 20th century.\n[Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus) is the only Christian majority country in the Middle East, with Christians forming between 76% and 78% of the country's total population, most of them adhering to [Eastern Orthodox Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-christianity).\n[Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) has the second highest proportion of Christians in the Middle East, around 40%, predominantly [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christians).\nAfter [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt) has the next largest proportion of Christians (predominantly [Copts](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-christians)), at around 10% of its total population.\nCopts, numbering around 10 million, constitute the single largest Christian community in the Middle East.\nThe [Eastern Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-aramaic) speaking [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) of northern [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq), northeastern [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria), southeastern [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), and parts of [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran) have suffered due to [ethnic cleansing](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-cleansing), [religious discrimination](https://bliptext.com/articles/religious-discrimination), and [persecution](https://bliptext.com/articles/persecution-of-christians) for many centuries.\nDuring the 20th century, the percentage of Christians in the Middle East fell mainly as a result of the [late Ottoman genocides](https://bliptext.com/articles/late-ottoman-genocides): the [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), [Greek genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-genocide), and [Assyrian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-genocide) committed against them by the [Ottoman Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-empire) and their allies, leading many to flee and congregate in areas in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, [North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-america), and [Western Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-europe).\nThe great majority of Aramaic speaking Christians are followers of the [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), [Chaldean Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-catholic-church), [Syriac Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church), [Ancient Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-church-of-the-east), [Assyrian Pentecostal Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-pentecostal-church) and [Assyrian Evangelical Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-evangelical-church).\nIn Iraq, the numbers of Christians has declined to between 300,000 and 500,000 (from 0.8 to 1.4 million before 2003 US invasion).\nAssyrian Christians were between 800,000 and 1.2 million before 2003.\nIn 2014, the population of the [Nineveh Plains](https://bliptext.com/articles/nineveh-plains) in northern Iraq was scattered to [Dohuk](https://bliptext.com/articles/dohuk), [Erbil](https://bliptext.com/articles/erbil) and [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan) due to ISIS forcing the Assyrian community out of their historical homeland, but since the [defeat of the Islamic State in 2017](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-in-iraq-2013-2017), Christians have slowly began returning.\nThe next largest Christian group in the Middle East are the once [Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language) speaking and now Arabic-speaking [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites) who are [Eastern-Rite Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-catholic-churches) and number some 1.1–1.2 million across the Middle East, mainly concentrated within [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon).\nIn [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites-in-israel) together with smaller Aramaic-speaking Christian populations of [Syriac Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church) and [Greek Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church-in-greece) adherence, are legally and ethnically classified as either [Arameans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arameans-in-israel) or [Arabs](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-christians), per their choice.\n[Arab Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-christians) are descended from Arab Christian tribes, Arabized Greeks or recent converts to [Protestantism](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism).\nMost Arab Christians are adherents of the Melkite Catholic Church and [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church).\nThey numbered over 1 million before the Syrian Civil War: some 700,000 in Syria, 400,000 in Lebanon, 200,000 in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, with small numbers in Iraq and Egypt.\nMost Arab Catholic Christians are originally non-Arab, with Melkites and Rum Christians who are descended from Arabized Greek-speaking Byzantine populations.\nThey are members of the [Melkite Greek Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-greek-catholic-church), an [Eastern Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-catholic-church).\nThey number over 1 million in the Middle East.\nThey came into existence as a result of a [schism](https://bliptext.com/articles/schism) within the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch due to the election of a Patriarch in 1724.\n[Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-the-middle-east) are present in the Middle East, and their largest community, estimated to have 200,000 members, is located in [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran).\nThe number of [Armenians in Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-turkey) is disputed and a wide range of estimates is given as a result.\nMore Armenian communities reside in [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan), [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq), [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt), [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), and formerly also [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria) until the [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria)n Civil War.\nThe [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), which was perpetrated by the [Ottoman government](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-government) and [Turkish Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam-in-turkey) both during and after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i), drastically reduced the once sizeable Armenian population in the Middle East.\nThe [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks), who had once inhabited large parts of the western Middle East and [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia), declined in number due to the [Arab–Byzantine wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-byzantine-wars), then suffered another decline after the [Ottoman invasion of Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-ottoman-wars), and all but vanished from Turkey as a result of the [Greek genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-genocide), which was perpetrated by the [Ottoman government](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-government) and [Turkish Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam-in-turkey) both during and after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i), and the [expulsions](https://bliptext.com/articles/population-exchange-between-greece-and-turkey) that followed the war.\nToday, the largest Middle Eastern Greek community resides in [Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus) and numbers around 810,000 Cypriot Greeks constitute the only [Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-lebanon) majority state in the Middle East, although [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) was founded with a [Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-lebanon) majority in the first half of the 20th century.\nSmaller Christian groups in the Middle East include [Georgians](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgian-people), [Ossetians](https://bliptext.com/articles/ossetians), and [Russians](https://bliptext.com/articles/russians).\nThere are also several million foreign Christian workers in the [Gulf](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-gulf) states, mostly from the [Philippines](https://bliptext.com/articles/philippines), [India](https://bliptext.com/articles/india), [Sri Lanka](https://bliptext.com/articles/sri-lanka), and [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia): [Bahrain](https://bliptext.com/articles/bahrain) has 1,000 Christian citizens, and [Kuwait](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuwait) has 400 native Christian citizens, in addition to 450,000 Christian foreign residents in [Kuwait](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuwait).\nAlthough the vast majority of Middle Eastern populations descend from Pre-[Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) and Non-[Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) peoples extant long before the 7th century AD [Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) [Islamic conquest](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-muslim-conquests), a 2015 study estimates there are also 483,500 Christian believers from a previously Muslim background in the Middle East, most of them being adherents of various [Protestant](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestant) churches.\nConverts to Christianity from other religions such as [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam), [Yezidism](https://bliptext.com/articles/yezidism), [Mandeanism](https://bliptext.com/articles/mandeanism), [Yarsan](https://bliptext.com/articles/yarsan), [Zoroastrianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroastrianism), [Baháʼísm](https://bliptext.com/articles/bah-faith), [Druze](https://bliptext.com/articles/druze), and [Judaism](https://bliptext.com/articles/judaism) exist in relatively small numbers amongst the [Kurdish](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-christians), [Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-people), [Turcoman](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkmen-people), [Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-peoples), [Azeri](https://bliptext.com/articles/azerbaijanis), [Circassian](https://bliptext.com/articles/circassians), [Israelis](https://bliptext.com/articles/israelis), [Kawliya](https://bliptext.com/articles/kawliya), [Yezidis](https://bliptext.com/articles/yezidis), [Mandeans](https://bliptext.com/articles/mandeans), and [Shabaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/shabaks).\nChristians are [persecuted widely](https://bliptext.com/articles/persecution-of-christians) across the [Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world) and [Muslim world](https://bliptext.com/articles/muslim-world) and the ongoing situation has been compared to a genocide.\nAccording to a 2018 report commissioned by the [British government](https://bliptext.com/articles/government-of-the-united-kingdom), Christians are “on the verge of extinction in the Middle East”, explaining that “Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity.\nIn some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), according to that adopted by the UN.” In 2024, the [International Christian Concern](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-christian-concern) again raised warnings about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.\nChristian communities have played a vital role in the Middle East.\nMiddle Eastern Christians are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate, as they have today an active role in social, economic, sporting and political spheres in their societies in the Middle East.\nScholars and intellectuals agree Christians in the Middle East have made significant contributions to Arab and [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam)ic civilization since the introduction of [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam), and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the [Mashriq](https://bliptext.com/articles/mashriq), [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), and [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran).\n\n# History\n\n## Evangelization and early history\n[Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) spread rapidly from [Jerusalem](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) along major trade routes to major settlements, finding its strongest growth among [Hellenized Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/hellenistic-judaism) in places like [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) and [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity).\nThe Greek-speaking Mediterranean region was a powerhouse for the Early Church, producing many revered [Church Fathers](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-fathers) as well as those who became labelled as [heresiarchs](https://bliptext.com/articles/heresiarch), such as [Nestorius](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorius).\nFrom [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch), where Christians were first so called, came [Ignatius](https://bliptext.com/articles/ignatius-of-antioch), [Diodore of Tarsus](https://bliptext.com/articles/diodore-of-tarsus), [John Chrysostom](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-chrysostom), [Theodore of Mopsuestia](https://bliptext.com/articles/theodore-of-mopsuestia), [Nestorius](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorius), [Theodoret](https://bliptext.com/articles/theodoret), John of [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch), Severus of [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch) and [Peter the Fuller](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-the-fuller), many of whom are associated with the School of [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch).\nIn like manner, [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexandria) boasted many prominent theologians, including [Athenagoras](https://bliptext.com/articles/athenagoras-of-athens), [Pantaenus](https://bliptext.com/articles/pantaenus), [Clement](https://bliptext.com/articles/clement-of-alexandria), [Origen](https://bliptext.com/articles/origen), [Dionysius](https://bliptext.com/articles/pope-dionysius-of-alexandria), [Gregory Thaumaturgus](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregory-thaumaturgus), [Arius](https://bliptext.com/articles/arius), [Athanasius](https://bliptext.com/articles/pope-athanasius-i-of-alexandria), [Didymus the Blind](https://bliptext.com/articles/didymus-the-blind), [Cyril](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyril-of-alexandria) and [Dioscorus](https://bliptext.com/articles/pope-dioscorus-i-of-alexandria), associated with School of [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexandria).\nThe two schools dominated the theological controversies of the first centuries of Christian theology.\nWhereas Antioch traditionally focused on the grammatical and historical interpretation of Scripture and developed a [dyophysite](https://bliptext.com/articles/diophysitism) [christology](https://bliptext.com/articles/christology), Alexandria was much influenced by [neoplatonism](https://bliptext.com/articles/neoplatonism), using an [allegorical](https://bliptext.com/articles/allegory) interpretation and developing [miaphysitism](https://bliptext.com/articles/miaphysitism).\nOther prominent centres of Christian learning developed in [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) (most remarkably among the [Cappadocian Fathers](https://bliptext.com/articles/cappadocian-fathers)) and the Levantine coast ([Gaza](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-city), [Caesarea](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) and [Beirut](https://bliptext.com/articles/beirut)).\nPolitically, the Middle East of the first four Christian centuries was divided between the [Roman Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-empire) and the [Parthian Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/parthian-empire) (later [Sasanian Persia](https://bliptext.com/articles/sassanid-empire)).\nChristians experienced sporadic persecutions in both political spheres.\nWithin the Parthian Empire, most Christians lived in the region of [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia)/[Asuristan](https://bliptext.com/articles/asuristan) ([Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)) and were ethnic [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)n [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia)ns who spoke [eastern](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-world) [Aramaic dialects](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language) loosely related to those Western [Aramaic dialects](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language) spoken by their co-religionists just across the Roman border, but with [Akkadian](https://bliptext.com/articles/akkadian-language) influences.\nLegendary accounts are of the evangelization of the East by [Thomas](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-the-apostle) ([Mar Toma](https://bliptext.com/articles/mar-toma)), [Addai](https://bliptext.com/articles/addai)/[Thaddaeus](https://bliptext.com/articles/thaddeus-of-edessa) and [Mari](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-mari).\n[Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) (Syrian//[Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) are etymologically derived from Assyrian) emerged as the standard Aramaic dialect of the three Assyrian border cities of [Edessa](https://bliptext.com/articles/edessa-mesopotamia), [Nisibis](https://bliptext.com/articles/nusaybin) and [Arbela](https://bliptext.com/articles/erbil).\nTranslation of the scriptures into Syriac began early in this region, with a Jewish group (probably non-rabbinic) producing a translation of the [Hebrew Bible](https://bliptext.com/articles/hebrew-bible) becoming the basis of the [Church of the Easts](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-the-east) Christian [Peshitta](https://bliptext.com/articles/peshitta).\n[Syriac Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-christianity) is most famous for its poet-theologians, [Aphrahat](https://bliptext.com/articles/aphrahat), [Ephrem](https://bliptext.com/articles/ephrem-the-syrian), [Narsai](https://bliptext.com/articles/narsai) and [Jacob of Serugh](https://bliptext.com/articles/jacob-of-serugh).\n[Eusebius](https://bliptext.com/articles/eusebius) credits [Mark the Evangelist](https://bliptext.com/articles/mark-the-evangelist) as the bringer of Christianity to Egypt, and manuscript evidence shows that the faith was firmly established there by the middle of the 2nd century.\nAlthough the Greek-speaking community of Alexandria dominated the Egyptian church, speakers of native Coptic and many bilingual Christians were the majority.\nFrom the early 4th century, at the latest, the [monastic movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/monasticism) emerged in the Egyptian desert, led by [Anthony](https://bliptext.com/articles/anthony-the-great) and [Pachomius](https://bliptext.com/articles/pachomius) (see [Desert Fathers](https://bliptext.com/articles/desert-fathers)).\nEusebius (EH 6:20) also mentions the appointment of a bishop and the holding of a [synod](https://bliptext.com/articles/synod) in [Bostra](https://bliptext.com/articles/bosra) around 240, which is the earliest reference to church organisation in an Arabic-speaking area.\nLater that decade, Eusebius (6:37) describes another synod in [Arabia Petraea](https://bliptext.com/articles/petra).\nSome scholars have followed hints in Eusebius and Jerome that [Philip the Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-the-arab), the son of an Arab [sheikh](https://bliptext.com/articles/sheikh), may have been the first Christian Roman Emperor.\nHowever, evidence to support this theory is thin.\nThe [Ghassanid](https://bliptext.com/articles/ghassanids) tribe were important Christian foederati of Rome, while the [Lakhmids](https://bliptext.com/articles/lakhmids) were an Arab Christian tribe that fought for the Persians.\nAlthough the [Hejaz](https://bliptext.com/articles/hejaz) was never a stronghold of Arab Christianity, there are reports of Christians around [Mecca](https://bliptext.com/articles/mecca) and [Yathrib](https://bliptext.com/articles/yathrib) before the advent of Islam.\nChristianity came to [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia) both from the south, [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia)/[Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria), and the west, [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia-minor), as demonstrated by the Greek and [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)n-Syriac origin of Christian terms in early [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia)n texts.\nEusebius (EH 6:46, 2) mentions Meruzanes as the bishop of the Armenians around 260.\nFollowing the conversion of King [Trdat III](https://bliptext.com/articles/tiridates-iii-of-armenia) to Christianity (circa 301), [Gregory the Illuminator](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregory-the-illuminator) was consecrated Bishop of Armenia in 314.\nArmenians continue to celebrate their church as the oldest [national church](https://bliptext.com/articles/national-church).\nGregory was consecrated at [Caesarea](https://bliptext.com/articles/kayseri) in [Cappadocia](https://bliptext.com/articles/cappadocia).\nThe [Georgian](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgia-country) kingdom of [Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasian-iberia) ([Kartli](https://bliptext.com/articles/kartli)) was probably evangelized first in the 2nd or 3rd century.\nHowever, the church was only established there in 330s.\nA number of sources, both in Georgian and other languages, associate [Nino of Cappadocia](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-nino) with bringing Christianity to the Georgians and converting King [Mirian III of Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mirian-iii-of-iberia).\nGeorgian Christian literature emphasizes her connection with Jerusalem and the role played by the Georgian Jewish community in the growth of Christianity.\nCertainly, early Georgian liturgy does share a number of conspicuous features with that of Jerusalem.\nThe [Black Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/black-sea) coastal kingdom of [Lazica](https://bliptext.com/articles/egrisi) (Egrisi) had closer ties to [Constantinople](https://bliptext.com/articles/constantinople), and its bishops were by imperial appointment.\nAlthough the Lazican church originated around the same time as its Iberian neighbour, it was not until 523 when its king, [Tzath](https://bliptext.com/articles/tzath-i-of-lazica), accepted the faith.\nThe Iberian church was under the authority of the [Patriarch of Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarch-of-antioch), until the reforming king [Vakhtang Gorgasali](https://bliptext.com/articles/vakhtang-i-of-iberia) set up an independent [catholicos](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholicos) in 467.\nIn 314, the [Edict of Milan](https://bliptext.com/articles/edict-of-milan) proclaimed [religious toleration](https://bliptext.com/articles/religious-toleration) in the Roman Empire, and Christianity rapidly rose to prominence.\nThe church's [dioceses](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese) and bishoprics came to be modelled on state administration: partly the motive for the [Council of Nicaea](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-council-of-nicaea) in 325.\nHowever, Christians in the [Zoroastrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroastrian) [Sasanian Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/sasanian-empire) (speaking variously Syriac, Armenian or Greek) are often found distancing themselves politically from their Roman co-religionists to appease the [shah](https://bliptext.com/articles/shah).\nThus, around 387, when the [Armenian Highland](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-highland) came under [Sasanian control](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-the-persian-empire), a separate leadership from that in Caesarea developed and eventually settled in [Echmiadzin](https://bliptext.com/articles/echmiadzin), a division that still, to some extent, exists to this day.\nLikewise, in the 4th century, the bishop of [Seleucia-Ctesiphon](https://bliptext.com/articles/seleucia-ctesiphon), the Sasanian capital, was recognised as leader of the Syriac and Greek-speaking Christians in the Persian empire, assuming the title catholicos, later [patriarch](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarch).\nChristianity in [Ethiopia](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopia) and [Nubia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nubia) is traditionally linked to the biblical tale of the conversion of the [Ethiopia](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopia)n eunuch in the [Acts of the Apostles](https://bliptext.com/articles/acts-of-the-apostles) (8. 26–30).\nThe [Kebra Nagast](https://bliptext.com/articles/kebra-nagast) also connects the [Yemenite](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemen) [Queen of Sheba](https://bliptext.com/articles/queen-of-sheba) with the royal line of [Axum](https://bliptext.com/articles/aksumite-empire).\nEvidence from coinage and other historical references point to the early 4th-century conversion of King [Ezana of Axum](https://bliptext.com/articles/ezana-of-axum) as the establishment of Christianity, whence [Nubia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nubia) and other surrounding areas were evangelized, all under the oversight of the [Patriarch of Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarch-of-alexandria).\nIn the 6th century, Ethiopian military might conquered a large portion of Yemen, strengthening Christian concentration in southern Arabia.\n# [{{legend|#1F63A7|Spread of Christianity to AD 325}} {{legend|#6AB4FF|Spread of Christianity to AD 600|undefined | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Spread///of///Christianity///to///AD///600///%281%29.png]\n\n## Schisms\nThe first major disagreement that led to a fracturing of the church was the so-called [Nestorian Schism](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorian-schism) of the 5th century.\nThis argument revolved around claims by Alexandrians over alleged theological extremism by Antiochians, and its battleground was the Roman capital, Constantinople, originating from its bishop's, Nestorius's, teaching on the nature of Christ.\nHe was condemned for splitting Christ's person into separate divine and human natures; the extremes of this view, however, were not preached by Nestorius.\nCyril of Alexandria succeeded in the deposition of Nestorius at the [First Council of Ephesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-council-of-ephesus) in 431.\nThe result led to a crisis among the Antiochians, some of whom, including Nestorius himself, found protection in Persia, which continued to espouse traditional Antiochian theology.\nThe schism led to the total isolation of the Persian-sphere [Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), and the adoption of much Alexandrian theology in the Antiochian sphere of influence.\nSome of the Alexandrian victors at Ephesus, however, began to push their anti-Nestorian agenda too far, of whom [Eutyches](https://bliptext.com/articles/eutyches) was the most prominent.\nMuch back and forth led to the [Council of Chalcedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/council-of-chalcedon) of 451, which found a compromise that returned to a theology closer to that of Antioch, refereed by Rome, and condemned the [monophysite](https://bliptext.com/articles/monophysitism) theology of Eutyches.\nHowever, the outcome was rejected by many Christians in the Middle East, especially by non-Greek-speaking Christians on the fringe of the Roman Empire – Copts, Syriacs, Assyrians and Armenians.\nIn 482, Emperor [Zeno](https://bliptext.com/articles/zeno-emperor) attempted to reconcile his church with his [Henotikon](https://bliptext.com/articles/henotikon).\nHowever, reunion was never achieved, and the non-Chalcedonians adopted [miaphysitism](https://bliptext.com/articles/miaphysitism) based on traditional Alexandrian doctrine, in revolt against the Byzantine Church.\nThese so-called [Oriental Orthodox Churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-orthodoxy) include the majority of Egyptian Christians – the [Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-orthodox-church-of-alexandria) – majority of [Ethiopian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopian-orthodox-tewahedo-church) and [Eritrean](https://bliptext.com/articles/eritrean-orthodox-tewahdo-church) Christians – the [Ethiopian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopian-orthodox-tewahedo-church) and [Eritrean](https://bliptext.com/articles/eritrean-orthodox-tewahdo-church) Orthodox Tewahedo Churches – many Syriacs – the [Syriac Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church) – and the majority of Armenians – the [Armenian Apostolic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-apostolic-church).\nThe name [Melkite](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite) (meaning 'of the king' in [Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic)), originally intended as a slur applied to those who adhered to Chalcedon (it is no longer used to describe them), who continued to be organised into the historic and [autocephalous](https://bliptext.com/articles/autocephaly) patriarchates of [Constantinople](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecumenical-patriarchate-of-constantinople), [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church-of-antioch), [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church-of-alexandria) and [Jerusalem](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-patriarchate-of-jerusalem).\nCollectively they form the traditional basis for the [Greek Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church), known as Rūm Orthodox in Arabic, which is their language of worship throughout [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Christian diaspora.\nThe [Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgian-orthodox-and-apostolic-church) held to a moderate Antiochian doctrine through these schisms and began aligning itself with Byzantium from the early 7th century, and finally broke off ties with their Armenian non-Chalcedonian neighbours in the 720s.\nThe term Melkite refers to the adherents of the Antiochene Greek Orthodox Patriarchy who switched allegiance to the Papacy in 1729 after a disputed election to the Patriarchal See in 1724 because the See of Constantinople which objected to the canonically elected Patriarch Cyril who was considered to be too pro-Roman consecrated another candidate (until then the See was technically still in union with the Constantinople and Rome despite the split of 1054).\n\n## Muslim conquests\nThe Arab [Muslim conquests](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-muslim-conquests) of the 7th century brought to end the hegemony of Byzantium and Persia over the Middle East.\nThe conquest came at the end of a particularly gruelling period of the [Roman-Persian Wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-persian-wars), from the beginning of the 7th century, in which the Sasanid Shah [Khosrau II](https://bliptext.com/articles/khosrau-ii) had captured much of the Syria, Egypt, Anatolia and the Caucasus, and the Byzantines under [Heraclius](https://bliptext.com/articles/heraclius) only managed a decisive counter-attack in the 620s.\nThe Greek-Orthodox Patriarch [Sophronius](https://bliptext.com/articles/sophronius-of-jerusalem) negotiated with [Caliph](https://bliptext.com/articles/caliph) [Umar](https://bliptext.com/articles/umar) in 637 for the peaceful transfer of Jerusalem into Arab control (including the [Umar](https://bliptext.com/articles/umar)iyya Covenant).\nLikewise, resistance to the Arab onslaught in Egypt was minimal.\nThis seems to be more due to the war fatigue throughout the region rather than entirely due to religious differences.\nAfter the conquests, Muslims initially remained a ruling minority within the conquered territories in the Middle East and North Africa.\nBy the 12th century the non-Muslim population had become a minority.\nThe factors and processes that led to the progressive [Islamization](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamization) of these regions during this period, as well as the speed at which conversions happened, is a complex subject that is not fully understood by historians.\nAmong other new rules, the Muslim rulers imposed a special poll tax, the [jizya](https://bliptext.com/articles/jizya), on non-Muslims, which acted as an economic pressure to convert alongside other social advantages converts could gain in Muslim society.\nIn Egypt, Islamization was likely slower than in other Muslim-controlled regions, with Christians likely constituting a majority of the population until the Fatimid period (10th to 12th centuries), though scholarly estimates on this issue are tentative and vary between authors.\nIn the period prior to the establishment of Abbasid rule in AD 750, many pastoral Kurds moved into upper Mesopotamia, taking advantage of an unstable situation.\nCities in northern and northeastern ancient [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria) were raided and attacked by the Kurds of Persian Azerbaijan, \"who killed, looted, and enslaved the indigenous population\", and the Kurds were moving into various regions in east of ancient [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria).\nWhen the Seljuks invaded Mesopotamia, they recruited the Kurds for their campaigns.\nThe invading Seljuks and Kurds \"destroyed whatever they encountered\" and enslaved [women](https://bliptext.com/articles/women).\nThe Seljuks rewarded the Kurds for their support with land, and the Seljuk leader Sinjur renamed the region called Kirmanshah in Persia as Kurdistan.\nMosul, historically a Christian city, was repeatedly attacked.\nThe historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that 'the Kurds spoiled and spread horror everywhere'.\nThe historian Al Makrezi, referring to the situation that emerged after the Kurdish settlement in al Jazirah, wrote that \"they were able to establish Kurdish centres as their shares for helping the Turkish race in their conquest\".\nIn time, [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia) and Assyria became \"Kurdistan\".\nAfterwards happened the raids of Timur Lang, \"whom the Kurds loyally followed and who enabled them to occupy the land of the Armenians, who were forcibly expelled\".\nTimur Lang rewarded the Kurds by \"settling them in the devastated regions, which until then had been inhabited by the followers of the [Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-the-east).\"\n# [Largely extinct Church of the East and its largest extent during the Middle Ages | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Church///of///the///East///in///the///Middle///Ages.svg]\n\n## Ottoman Empire\nThe [Ottoman Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-turks) carried out a series of violent [anti-Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/anti-christian-sentiment) genocides of [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-genocide), and [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-genocide) between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.\nThese include the massacres of ethnic [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) and [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) Christians in the 1870s; these killings, which resulted in over ten thousand deaths, were known as the [Hamidian massacres](https://bliptext.com/articles/hamidian-massacres).\nThe settlement of [Muslim Kurds](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-muslims) from the [Qajar Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/qajar-iran) along the eastern border was the first powerful action in changing the demographics of the [Assyrian homeland](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-homeland).\nThe Muslim Kurds remained loyal to the Ottoman Turks as long as they were enjoying power and greatness.\nThe Ottoman Turks conducted a large-scale [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) and [ethnic cleansing](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-cleansing) of the ancient and indigenous [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), and [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) Christian inhabitants of Anatolia, northwestern Iran, the fringes of northern Iraq and northern Syria, and Mount Lebanon during and immediately after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i), resulting in well over 3 million deaths among the 6 million Christians who were living in the Ottoman Empire in 1914 of 26 million inhabitants and large-scale deportations in the [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), the [Dersim Massacre](https://bliptext.com/articles/dersim-massacre), and the [Great Famine of Mount Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-of-mount-lebanon).\nThe Ottoman Turks reinforced their eastern frontier with what they \"considered a loyal Sunni Kurd element\".\nThey settled the Kurds in these regions in return for their support in their campaigns against the [Safavid Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/safavid-iran).\nIn 1583, the [Ottoman sultan](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-sultan) [Murad IV](https://bliptext.com/articles/murad-iv) \"gave huge provinces to the Kurdish tribe of Mokri\", whose leader claimed to descend from [Saladin](https://bliptext.com/articles/saladin).\nThe French traveler Monsieur Tavernier noted that in 1662, Van and Urmia were purely [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians); however, only a century later, another European traveler, Carsten Niebuhr, noted that both [Turkomans](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkmens) and [Kurds](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurds) were involved in spreading disturbances.\nIn 1840, Hortio Southgate visited these same regions, he was surprised by the \"dramatic changes\" and by \"the decline in the number of the Armenians compared with the number of the new Kurdish settlers who then were still in the process of moving in\".\nSouthgate ascribed these changes to \"the Kurdish persecution of the indigenous people\".\nThe inhabitants of Salamis, for instance, had been forced to leave.\nThe Russian historian Minorsky at about the same time also stated that \"the Kurds had occupied parts of [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia) permanently and were no longer living on their original land.\"\nAccording to Aboona, \"the majorities, in particular the Kurds, rejected any form of coexistence\" with Assyrians, and \"in the eyes of the Kurds\", the presence of Assyrian tribes in the midst of their own \"settlements represented a serious challenge to their dominance of the region. The remaining Assyrian settlements prevented Kurdish settlements from forming a cohesive, homogenous ethnic block\" and the \"Kurds' aspirations remained unfulfilled\".\nBut when Nadir Shah invaded the territory of ancient Assyria in 1743 he got the full backing and support of the Kurds.\nThis was a further step to \"strengthening both the older Kurdish settlements, including those made after [Çaldıran](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-ald-ran), and the newer ones that followed Nadir Shah's İnvasİon.\"\nHence the Assyrians lost both land and numbers.\nAfter Nadir Shah's invasion, the \"Assyrian tribes also faced further tightening of the Kurdish circle around their country\".\nAccording to Adoona, \"in the end, the independence of the Assyrian tribes was destroyed not directly by the Turks but by their Kurdish neighbours under [Turkish](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey) auspices.\"\n# [Of this photo, the U.S. ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. wrote, \"Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces, in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms—massacre, starvation, exhaustion—destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation\". | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Morgenthau336.jpg]\n# [Greek Christians in 1922, fleeing from their homes in Kharput and moving to Trebizond. In the 1910s and 1920s, the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides were perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Kharput///Greek-Orthodox///refugees///-///C.D.Morris///-///National///Geographic%2C///Nov.///1925.jpg]\n\n## Under European colonial rule\n\n# Persecution of Christians in Middle East\nIn spite of the fact that every country in the Middle East has at least a small number of worshippers of Christ from a Muslim background, and in spite of the fact that the vast majority of native Christians are [Arabic speakers](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabic-speakers) themselves, Christians in the Middle East face persecution –in various grades, depending on the residence country– and are often isolated.\nThe [defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/defeat-and-dissolution-of-the-ottoman-empire) (1908–1922) and [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i) (1914–1918) ushered in the greatest period of violence against Christians in the region.\nThe [Ottoman Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-turks) conducted a large-scale [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) and [ethnic cleansing](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-cleansing) of the ancient and indigenous [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), and [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) Christian inhabitants of Anatolia, north-western Iran, the fringes of northern Iraq and northern Syria, and Mount Lebanon during and immediately after the First World War, resulting in well over 3 million deaths and large-scale deportations in the [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), the [Dersim Massacre](https://bliptext.com/articles/dersim-massacre), and [Great Famine of Mount Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-of-mount-lebanon).\nMore recently, the [fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/2003-invasion-of-iraq), the [Syrian Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/syrian-civil-war) and the concomitant rise of [ISIS](https://bliptext.com/articles/isis) have greatly increased violence against Christians in those countries.\nSome, including [Hillary Clinton](https://bliptext.com/articles/hillary-clinton) or the [European Parliament](https://bliptext.com/articles/european-parliament) referred to the [ISIS](https://bliptext.com/articles/isis) campaign against Christians and other religious minorities in the region [as a genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide-of-christians-by-isil).\nLater on, in March 2016 the United States officially joined this view, with [U.S. Secretary of State](https://bliptext.com/articles/u-s-secretary-of-state) [John Kerry](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-kerry) declaring during a news conference at the State Department that ISIS \"is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including [Yazidis](https://bliptext.com/articles/yazidis), [Assyrian Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-christians), [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) and [Shia Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/shia-muslims)\"; it was the first time since [Darfur (2004)](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-in-darfur) that the United States declared a genocide.\nKurdish tribes in Turkey, Syria, and Iran have conducted regular raids against their Christian neighbors and even paramilitary assaults during World War I. Kurds were responsible for most of the atrocities committed against the Assyrian Christians due also to a long tradition of perceived Kurdish rights to pillage Christians.\nA Kurdish chieftain assassinated the patriarch of the church of the East at the negotiation dinner in 1918, and the aftermath led to further decimation of the Christian population.\n# [About 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the Armenian genocide in 1915–1918. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Armenian///genocide4.jpg]\n\n# Christians today\n\n## Bahrain\nBahrain's second largest religion is Christianity forming a minority of 14.5% of Bahrain.\nChristians in Bahrain number 205,000 people.\nIn the 5th century, Bahrain was a center of [Nestorian Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-the-east), including two of its [bishoprics](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese).\nThe [ecclesiastical province](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecclesiastical-province) covering Bahrain was known as Bet Qatraye.\n[Samahij](https://bliptext.com/articles/samahij) was the seat of bishops.\nBahrain was a center of Nestorian Christianity until al-Bahrain adopted Islam in 629 AD. As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the [Byzantine Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-empire), but Bahrain was outside the Empire's control offering some safety.\nThe names of several of [Muharraq Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/muharraq-island)'s villages today reflect this Christian legacy, with [Al Dair](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-dair) meaning \"the monastery\" or \"the parish.\"\nIn 410 AD, according to the Oriental Syriac Church synodal records, a bishop named Batai was [excommunicated](https://bliptext.com/articles/excommunication) from the church in Bahrain.\n[Alees Samaan](https://bliptext.com/articles/alees-samaan), the former Bahraini ambassador to the [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) is a native Christian.\n# [Sacred Heart Church in Manama | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Sacred///Heard///church///in///Bahrain///A421.jpg]\n\n## Egypt\nMost Christians in Egypt are [Copts](https://bliptext.com/articles/copts), who are mainly members of the [Coptic Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-orthodox-church).\nThe [Coptic language](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-language) – a derivative of the [Ancient Egyptian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-egyptian) language, written mainly in the [Greek alphabet](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-alphabet), is used as the liturgical language of all Coptic churches inside and outside of Egypt.\nAlthough ethnic [Copts in Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/copts-in-egypt) now speak [Egyptian Arabic](https://bliptext.com/articles/egyptian-arabic) (the Coptic language having ceased to be a working language by the 18th century), they believe in an [Ancient Egyptian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-egypt) [Coptic identity](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-identity) rather than an Arab identity (also referred to as [Pharaonism](https://bliptext.com/articles/pharaonism)).\nCopts reside mainly in Egypt, but also in [Sudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sudan) and [Libya](https://bliptext.com/articles/libya), with tiny communities in [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), [Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus), [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan), [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), and [Tunisia](https://bliptext.com/articles/tunisia).\nCopts presently constitute the largest Christian population in the Middle East, generally estimated at 10–15% by officials, or in the 20 million range.\nHowever, as Egyptian censuses since 2006 have not reported religious affiliation due to being optional, along with the government acknowledging the census is not a proper representation of Christians, various Coptic groups and churches claim a higher number in the range of 15 to 23 million.\nMany Copts are internationally renowned.\nSome of the most well known Copts include [Boutros Boutros-Ghali](https://bliptext.com/articles/boutros-boutros-ghali), the sixth [Secretary-General](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-nations-secretary-general) of the [United Nations](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-nations); [Sir Magdi Yacoub](https://bliptext.com/articles/sir-magdi-yacoub), the cardiothoracic surgeon; [Hani Azer](https://bliptext.com/articles/hani-azer), the civil engineer; billionaire [Fayez Sarofim](https://bliptext.com/articles/fayez-sarofim), one of the richest men in the world; and [Naguib Sawiris](https://bliptext.com/articles/naguib-sawiris), the CEO of [Orascom](https://bliptext.com/articles/orascom).\n# [St. Mark Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/StMarkCathAlex.jpg]\n\n## Iraq\nChristianity has a long history in Iraq, with the early conversions of the indigenous [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) inhabitants of [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria) (Parthian controlled [Assuristan](https://bliptext.com/articles/assuristan)) dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. This region was the birthplace of [Eastern Rite](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-syriac-rite) ([Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) Church of the East) Christianity, a flourishing [Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) literary tradition, and the centre of a missionary expansion that stretched as far as [India](https://bliptext.com/articles/india), [Central Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-asia) and [China](https://bliptext.com/articles/china).\nBy one estimate, there was about 1.5 million largely Assyrian Christians in Iraq by 2003, or 7% of the population, but with the [fall of Saddam Hussein](https://bliptext.com/articles/2003-invasion-of-iraq) Christians began to leave Iraq in large numbers, and the population shrank to less than 500,000 today.\nAssyrian Christians still made up the majority population in northern Iraq until the massacres conducted by [Tamurlane](https://bliptext.com/articles/tamurlane) in the 14th century, which also saw their ancient city of [Assur](https://bliptext.com/articles/assur) finally abandoned after 4,000 years.\nIn modern times, [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) Christians numbered about 636,000 to 800,000 in 2005, representing 3% to 5% of the population of the country, mostly in Iraqi Kurdistan.\nThe vast majority are [Neo-Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/neo-aramaic) speaking ethnic [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq) (also known as Chaldo-[Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq)), descendant from the ancient [Mesopotamians](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamians) in general and the ancient [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq) more specifically, who are concentrated in the north, particularly the [Nineveh Plains](https://bliptext.com/articles/nineveh-plains), [Dohuk](https://bliptext.com/articles/duhok-governorate) and [Sinjar](https://bliptext.com/articles/sinjar) regions, border regions with south east Turkey, north west Iran and northern Syria, and in and around cities such as [Mosul](https://bliptext.com/articles/mosul), [Erbil](https://bliptext.com/articles/erbil), [Kirkuk](https://bliptext.com/articles/kirkuk), and also in [Baghdad](https://bliptext.com/articles/baghdad).\nThere are also a very small proportion of Arab Christians and small numbers of [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Kurdish](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-christians), [Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran) and [Turcoman](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkmen-people) Christians.\nThe Iraqi Christian population is also declining due to lower birth rates and higher death rates than their Muslim compatriots.\nSince the 2003 invasion, Iraqi Christians suffer from lack of security.\nMany lived in the capital Baghdad and in Mosul prior to the [Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq-war), but most have since fled to northern Iraq, where Assyrian Christians form a majority in some districts.\n[Assyrian Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-christians) belong to [Syriac churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-christianity) such as the [Chaldean Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-catholic-church), the [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), the [Ancient Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-church-of-the-east), the [Syriac Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-catholic-church) and the [Syriac Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church), with a small number of [Protestant](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestant) converts following the [Assyrian Pentecostal Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-pentecostal-church) and [Assyrian Evangelical Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-evangelical-church).\nThe Iraqi former foreign minister and deputy prime minister [Tariq Aziz](https://bliptext.com/articles/tariq-aziz) (real name [Michael Youkhanna](https://bliptext.com/articles/michael-youkhanna)) is probably the most famous Assyrian Iraqi Christian, along with the footballer [Ammo Baba](https://bliptext.com/articles/ammo-baba).\nAssyrians in Iraq have traditionally excelled in business, sports, the arts, music, and the military.\nAssyrians are distinct from other [Semitic](https://bliptext.com/articles/semitic-languages) Christian groups in the Middle East in that they have retained their original [Neo-Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/neo-aramaic) language and [Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) written script, and have maintained an [Assyrian continuity](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-continuity) from ancient times to the present, resisting the adoption of Arabic language and [Arabization](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabization).\nIn his recent PhD thesis and in his recent book the Israeli scholar [Mordechai Zaken](https://bliptext.com/articles/mordechai-zaken) discussed the history of the Assyrian Christians of Turkey and Iraq (in the Kurdish vicinity) during the last 180 years, from 1843 onwards.\nIn his studies Zaken outlines three major eruptions that took place between 1843 and 1933 during which the Assyrian Christians lost their land and hegemony in their habitat in the Hakkārī (or Julamerk) region in southeastern Turkey and became refugees in other lands, notably Iran and Iraq, and ultimately in exiled communities in Western countries (the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Russia and within many of the 27 [EU member states](https://bliptext.com/articles/eu-member-states) like Sweden, France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands).\nMordechai Zaken wrote this important study from an analytical and comparative point of view, comparing the Assyrian Christians experience with the experience of the Kurdish Jews who had been dwelling in Kurdistan for two thousands years or so, but were forced to migrate the land to Israel in the early 1950s.\nThe Jews of Kurdistan were forced to leave and migrate as a result of the Arab-Israeli war, as a result of the increasing hostility and acts of violence against Jews in Iraq and Kurdish towns and villages, and as a result of a new situation that had been built up during the 1940s in Iraq and Kurdistan in which the ability of Jews to live in relative comfort and relative tolerance (that was erupted from time to time prior to that period) with their Arab and Muslim neighbors, as they did for many years, practically came to an end.\nAt the end, the Jews of Kurdistan had to leave their Kurdish habitat en masse and migrate into Israel.\nThe Assyrian Christians on the other hand, came to similar conclusion but migrated in stages following each and every eruption of a political crisis with the regime in which boundaries they lived or following each conflict with their Muslim, Turkish, Arabs or Kurdish neighbors, or following the departure or expulsion of their patriarch Mar Shimon in 1933, first to Cyprus and then to the United States.\nConsequently, indeed there is still a small and fragile community of [Assyrians in Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq), however, millions of Assyrian Christians live today in exile in many communities in the West.\n# [Celebration of Corpus Christi in Iraq, 1920, attended by Assyrians and Armenians | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/BaghdadCorpus1920.jpg]\n# [Mor Mattai Monastery in Nineveh | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Saint///Matthew///Monastery///%28Der///Mar///Matti%29%2C///overlooking///Bashiqa///and///Bartella%2C///between///the///Kurdistan///Region///and///Iraq///06.jpg]\n\n## Iran\nIran's Christian minority numbers some 300,000–370,000.\nMost are ethnic [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-iran) (up to 250,000–300,000 ) and [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iran) (up to 40,000), who follow [Armenian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-orthodox) and [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east) Christianity respectively.\nThere are at least 600 churches serving the nation's Christian adherents.\nChristianity has a long history in Iran, dating back to [Parthian](https://bliptext.com/articles/parthian-empire) times, in the early years of the Christian faith, although the major religion among the [Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-peoples) peoples themselves was [Zoroastrianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroastrianism).\nThe [Sasanian Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/sasanian-empire) was the centre of the [Nestorian Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorian-church).\nMany of the early followers were [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), and transplanted [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) living in the [Urmia](https://bliptext.com/articles/urmia) region, and along the north western border with [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia).\nThese were added to by other [Semites](https://bliptext.com/articles/semitic-people), followers of the Nestorian church, some of whom were Assyrians from Mesopotamia, others being from Syria.\nFurthermore, there has been a thriving native Christian [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-iran) community since ancient times in northwestern Iran, nowadays [Iranian Azerbaijan](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-azerbaijan).\nThe many Armenian churches and monasteries in the region, such as the notable [St. Thaddeus Monastery](https://bliptext.com/articles/st-thaddeus-monastery), are extant remainders of this.\nOther significantly Christian populated areas in Parthian and Sassanid Iran included the provinces of [Persian Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-armenia), [Caucasian Albania](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasian-albania), and [Caucasian Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasian-iberia), amongst others.\nIn the course of the 20th century, Iran's large Christian minority, mainly the native Armenians and Assyrians who have a presence in Iran for millennia, took a heavy blow due to the [Assyrian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-genocide) (by Ottoman troops crossing the border), [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide) (by Ottoman troops crossing the border), the [Iranian Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-revolution) and the [Iran–Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran-iraq-war).\nEspecially due to the two Ottoman-conducted genocides, regions where Christians even made up majorities or had a significant native historical presence for millennia, never became the same again.\nHowever, due to the same genocides, Iran's Christian community was boosted as well at the same time as many migrated to Iran from the Ottoman regions.\nThe most famous contemporary Christian of Iranian origin is probably the American tennis player [Andre Agassi](https://bliptext.com/articles/andre-agassi), who is ethnically [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians)-[Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people).\nThe \"Armenian Monastic Ensemble\", which includes several of the nation's most ancient Christian Armenian churches and monasteries, are inscribed on the [UNESCO](https://bliptext.com/articles/unesco) world heritage list.\n# [St. Thaddeus Monastery, or \"Kara Kelissa\", in Iran's West Azarbaijan province | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Qareh///kelissa.jpg]\n\n## Israel\nSome 80% of Christians residing permanently in Israel are Arabs, numbering at least 180,400 as of 2019.\nOf all Christians, around 60% belong to the [Melkite Greek Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-greek-catholic-church), 32% of all Christians belong to the [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church), mainly the [Jerusalem Patriarchate](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-patriarchate-of-jerusalem) though some recent immigrants are [Russian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-orthodox).\nSmaller numbers are [Roman Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-catholic-church), [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites-in-israel), [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-israel), [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Georgians](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgians) and [Messianic Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/messianic-jews).\nDuring the 1990s, the Christian community had been increased due to the immigration of Jewish-Christian [mixed marriages](https://bliptext.com/articles/interfaith-marriage), who had predominantly arrived from the countries of the former Soviet Union.\nThis added another 20–30 thousands of mostly [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox) Christians with [Russian](https://bliptext.com/articles/russians) and [Ukrainian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ukrainians) ancestry.\nMany Christian towns or neighborhoods were totally or partially destroyed during the creation of the State in the 1940s and 1950s such as [Iqrith](https://bliptext.com/articles/iqrit), [Al bassa](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-bassa), [kufur birim](https://bliptext.com/articles/kafr-bir-im), [Ma’loul](https://bliptext.com/articles/ma-alul), West Jerusalem neighborhoods, all residents of [Safed](https://bliptext.com/articles/safed), [Beisan](https://bliptext.com/articles/beit-she-an), [Tiberias](https://bliptext.com/articles/tiberias) (including Christians), a big part of the Christians in [Haifa](https://bliptext.com/articles/haifa), [Jaffa](https://bliptext.com/articles/jaffa), [Lydda](https://bliptext.com/articles/lod), [Ramleh](https://bliptext.com/articles/ramla) and other places.\nIn recent years, the Christian population in Israel has increased significantly by presence of foreign workers from a number of countries (predominantly the Philippines and Romania).\nNumerous churches have opened in [Tel Aviv](https://bliptext.com/articles/tel-aviv), in particular.\nNine churches are officially recognized under Israel's [confessional system](https://bliptext.com/articles/marriage-in-israel), for the self-regulation of status issues, such as marriage and divorce.\nThese are the [Eastern Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox), [Roman Catholic (Latin rite)](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-catholic-latin-rite), [Gregorian-Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregorian-armenian), [Armenian Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-catholic), [Syriac Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-catholic-church), [Chaldean (Uniate)](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-uniate), [Melkite (Greek Catholic)](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-greek-catholic), [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), [Ethiopian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopian-orthodox), [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) and [Syriac Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox) churches.\nThere are more informal arrangements with other churches such as the [Anglican Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglican-bishop-of-jerusalem) and [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints).\nArab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel.\n[Maariv](https://bliptext.com/articles/maariv) have described the Arab Christians sectors as \"the most successful in education system\", since Arab Christians fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other group receiving an education in Israel.\nArab Christians have one of the highest rates of success in the matriculation examinations, (64%) both in comparison to the [Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/muslims) and the [Druze](https://bliptext.com/articles/druze) and in comparison to all students in the [Jewish](https://bliptext.com/articles/jewish) education system as a group.\nThe rate of students studying in the field of [medicine](https://bliptext.com/articles/medicine) was also higher among the Arab Christian students, compared with all the students from other sectors.\nThe percentage of Arab Christian women who are higher education students is higher than other sectors.\n# [Catholic Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Arab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Wikimania///2011-08-07///by-RaBoe-078.jpg]\n\n## Jordan\nIn Jordan, Christians constitute 6% of the population as of 2017 according to the Jordanian government.\nThis percentage represents a sharp decrease from a figure of 18% in the early 20th century.\nThis drop is largely due to an influx of Muslim Arabs from the Hijaz after the First World War.\nAlmost 50% of Jordanian Christians belong to the [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church), 45% are Catholics, with a small minority adhering to Protestantism.\nA part of Jordanian Christians have [Palestinian](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinians) roots since 1948.\nChristians are well integrated in the Jordanian society and have a high level of freedom.\nNearly all Christians belong to the middle or upper classes.\nMoreover, Christians enjoy more economic and social opportunity in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan than elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.\nThey have a disproportionately large representation in the Jordanian parliament (10% of the Parliament) and hold important government portfolios, ambassadorial appointments abroad, and positions of high military rank.\nA survey by a Western embassy found that half of Jordan's prominent business families were Christians.\nChristians run about a third of Jordan's economy.\nJordanian Christians are allowed by the public and private sectors to leave work to attend Divine Liturgy or Mass on Sundays.\nAll Christian religious ceremonies are publicly celebrated.\nChristians have established good relations with the royal family and the various Jordanian government officials and they have their own ecclesiastic courts for matters of personal status.\nMost native Christians in Jordan identify themselves as Arab, though there are also non-Arab [Assyrian/Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-people) and [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) groups in the country.\n# [John of Damascus an Arab monk and presbyter, 7th-century (Greek icon) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/John-of-Damascus///01.jpg]\n\n## Lebanon\n[Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) holds the largest proportion of Christians in the [Arab world](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world) proportionally and falls behind only Egypt in absolute numbers.\nChristians were half of [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon)'s population before the [Lebanese Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanese-civil-war) (1975–1990), but in 2012 they are believed to form a large minority of 40.5% of the country's population (according to the last official Lebanese Census of 1932, the Lebanese Christian population was 51% of the country's population).\nHowever, if one counts the estimated 8–14-million-strong [Lebanese diaspora](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanese-diaspora), they form far more than the majority of the population.\nThe exact number of Christians is uncertain because no official census has been made in [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) since 1932.\n[Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) Christians belong mostly to the [Maronite Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) and [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-christianity-in-lebanon), with sizable minorities belonging to the [Melkite Greek Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-christianity-in-lebanon).\nLebanese Christians are the only Christians in the Middle East with a sizable political role in the country.\nAs a result of the [National Pact](https://bliptext.com/articles/national-pact) the [Lebanese president](https://bliptext.com/articles/president-of-lebanon), half of the cabinet, and half of the parliament follow one of the various Lebanese Christian rites.\n[Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) tradition can be traced back to [Saint Maron](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-maron) in the 4th century, the founder of national and ecclesiastical Maronitism.\nSaint Maron adopted an ascetic, reclusive life on the banks of the Orontes river near [Homs](https://bliptext.com/articles/homs)–Syria and founded a community of monks who preached the Gospel in the surrounding area.\nThe Saint Maron Monastery was too close to Antioch, making the monks vulnerable to emperor [Justinian II](https://bliptext.com/articles/justinian-ii)'s persecution.\nTo escape persecution, [Saint John Maron](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-maron), the first Maronite patriarch-elect, led his monks into the [Lebanese mountains](https://bliptext.com/articles/mount-lebanon); the Maronite monks finally settled in the [Qadisha valley](https://bliptext.com/articles/kadisha-valley).\nDuring the Muslim conquest, Muslims persecuted the Christians, particularly the Maronites, with the persecution reaching a peak during the Umayyad caliphate.\nNevertheless, the influence of the Maronite establishment spread throughout the Lebanese mountains and became a considerable [feudal](https://bliptext.com/articles/feudalism) force.\nAfter the Muslim Conquest, the [Maronite Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) became isolated and did not reestablish contact with the Church of Rome until the 12th century.\nAccording to [Kamal Salibi](https://bliptext.com/articles/kamal-salibi), a Lebanese [Protestant Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism-in-lebanon), some Maronites may have been descended from an Arabian tribe, who immigrated thousands of years ago from the Southern [Arabian Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabian-peninsula).\nSalibi maintains \"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\".\nAs a matter of fact, Salibi bases his conclusions, not on scientific evidences or irrefutable historical facts, but rather on his pan Arabic ideology.\nHence, the majority of Lebanese Maronite Christians rejects his ideas, and points out that they are of pre-Arab origin.\nAs a further matter, recent studies confirmed the Lebanese (the Maronites especially) lineage to the Phoenicians/Canaanites by DNA genome study.\nThe study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics shows that present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in the Levant since at least the Bronze Age.\nMany [Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) Christians consider themselves of indigenous [Phoenician](https://bliptext.com/articles/phoenicia) ancestry, arguing that their presence predates the arrival of Arabs in the region.\nThough they originate from the Orontes river near Homs, Syria and founded a community of monks who left the Syriac Orthodox church.\nThe [Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) town of [Bsharri](https://bliptext.com/articles/bsharri) is the largest predominantly Christian town in Lebanon and the [Middle East](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-east) (with [Maronite Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites) greater than 99.5% of the town and [District's](https://bliptext.com/articles/bsharri-district) total population) and the one with the largest number of [Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholics).\nWhile several Middle Eastern cities ([Damascus](https://bliptext.com/articles/damascus), [Cairo](https://bliptext.com/articles/cairo), [Jerusalem](https://bliptext.com/articles/jerusalem)) have larger Christian communities, yet these do not constitute a majority.\nThe capital [Beirut](https://bliptext.com/articles/beirut) also has a larger Christian population than Bsharri (in the city proper), though most belong to the [Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) confession.\n\n## Turkey\nChristianity has a long history in [Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia) (now part of the [Republic of Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-turkey)), which is the birthplace of numerous Christian [Apostles](https://bliptext.com/articles/twelve-apostles) and [Saints](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint), such as [Paul](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-the-apostle) of [Tarsus](https://bliptext.com/articles/tarsus-city), [Timothy](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-timothy), [Nicholas](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-nicholas) of [Myra](https://bliptext.com/articles/myra), [Polycarp](https://bliptext.com/articles/polycarp) of [Smyrna](https://bliptext.com/articles/smyrna) and many others.\nTwo out of the five centers ([Patriarchates](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarchate)) of the ancient [Pentarchy](https://bliptext.com/articles/pentarchy) are in Turkey: [Constantinople](https://bliptext.com/articles/constantinople) ([Istanbul](https://bliptext.com/articles/istanbul)) and [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch) ([Antakya](https://bliptext.com/articles/antakya)).\nThe Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople still today has his residence in Istanbul.\nAntioch was also the place where the followers of [Jesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesus) were called \"Christians\" for the first time in history, as well as being the site of [one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-saint-peter), established by [Saint Peter](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-peter) himself.\nFor a thousand years, the [Hagia Sophia](https://bliptext.com/articles/hagia-sophia) was the largest church in the world.\nThe [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks) of western Anatolia and [Georgians](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgians) of the [Black Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/black-sea) region have histories dating from the 20th and 10th centuries BC respectively, and were also Christianized during the first few centuries AD. Similarly the [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) and [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) peoples have an ancient history in southeastern Anatolia, dating back to 2000 BC and 600 BC respectively; both of these peoples were Christianized between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD.\nThese ancient Christian ethnic groups were drastically reduced by [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) during and after World War I (see Armenian [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), Assyrian [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) and Greek [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide)) at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish army and their Kurdish allies.\n[Population exchange between Greece and Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/population-exchange-between-greece-and-turkey) is another reason.\nThe percentage of Christians in Turkey fell from 19 percent in 1914 or 3 million (thought to be an undercount by one-third omitting 600,000 [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), 500,000 [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks) and 400,000 Assyrians) to 2.5 percent in 1927 in a population of 14 million, due to events which had a significant impact on the country's demographic structure, such as the [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), the [population exchange between Greece and Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/population-exchange-between-greece-and-turkey), and the [emigration of Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/christian-emigration) (such as [Levantines](https://bliptext.com/articles/levantines), [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks), [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) etc.) to foreign countries (mostly in Europe and the Americas) that actually began in the late 19th century and gained pace in the first quarter of the 20th century, especially during World War I and after the [Turkish War of Independence](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-war-of-independence).\nToday there are more than 160,000 people of different [Christian denominations](https://bliptext.com/articles/christian-denominations), representing less than 0.2 percent of Turkey's population, including an estimated 80,000 [Oriental Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-orthodox), 35,000 [Roman Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church), 18,000 [Antiochian Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/antiochian-greeks), 5,000 [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church) and smaller numbers of [Protestants](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism) (mostly [ethnic Turkish](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-people)).\nCurrently there are 236 churches open for worship in Turkey.\nThe [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) has been [headquartered in Istanbul](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecumenical-patriarchate-of-constantinople) since the 4th century.\n# [Hagia Triada Greek Orthodox Church, Istanbul | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/TR-Istanbul///photo///%2835%29.JPG]\n# [Antiochian Orthodox Christians from Antakya | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Turkish///Christians///from///Antakya.jpg]\n\n## Palestine\nAbout 173,000 Arab [Palestinian Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinian-christians) lived in the Palestinian Authority (including the [West Bank](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-bank) and [Gaza Strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-strip)) in the 1990s.\nBoth the founder of the [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine](https://bliptext.com/articles/popular-front-for-the-liberation-of-palestine), [George Habash](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-habash), and the founder if its offshoot the [DFLP](https://bliptext.com/articles/dflp), [Nayif Hawatmeh](https://bliptext.com/articles/nayif-hawatmeh), were Christians, as is prominent Palestinian activist and former [Palestinian Authority](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinian-authority) minister [Hanan Ashrawi](https://bliptext.com/articles/hanan-ashrawi).\nNowadays, 50% of all Palestinian Christians are Catholics.\nOver the last years, unlike the increase trend in the Christian population of Israel, the number of Christians in the Palestinian Authority has declined severely.\nThe decline of Christianity in the Palestinian Authority is largely attributed to poor birth rates, compared with the dominant Muslim population.\nThe updated number of Arab Christians in the Palestinian Authority is under 75,000.\n# [Married Eastern Orthodox priest from Jerusalem with his family (three generations), circa 1893 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Orthodox///priest///family.jpg]\n\n### Gaza Strip\nSince the [Hamas](https://bliptext.com/articles/hamas) [takeover](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-gaza-2007) of the [Gaza Strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-strip) in 2007, anti-Christian attitudes have been on the increase.\nUnlike in the [Palestinian Authority](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinian-authority) in the [West Bank](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-bank), the Hamas administration does not include Christians.\nFrom about 2,000 –3,000 Christians before Hamas takeover, as few as one thousand remain in the [Gaza Strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-strip) under Hamas rule.\n\n## Syria\nIn Syria, Christians formed just under 15% of the population (about 1.2 million people) according to the 1960 census, but no newer census has been taken.\nCurrent estimates suggest that they now comprise about 3% of the population, due to higher emigration rates than their Muslim compatriots.\nThe largest Churches are the [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox) and [Greek Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-catholic).\nThere are also [Syriac Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox), [Syriac Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-catholic-church), [Armenian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-orthodox), [Armenian Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-catholic), [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east) and [Chaldean Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-catholic-church) Christians.\nAs of 2018, more than half of the nation's Christians left the country due to the [Syrian Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/syrian-civil-war).\nSyrian Christians are largely [Arab Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-christians) in the bulk of the country, though some may identify as Arabized Greeks (Melkites and Orthodox Church of Antioch) and ethnic [Arameans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arameans) (among Jacobites).\nIn the big cities there are many ethnic [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-syria) and in the northeastern [Al-Hasakah Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-hasakah-governorate) the majority of the Christians are ethnic [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-syria).\n# [Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Damascus | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Melkite///Greek///Catholic///Church%2C///Damascus%2C///Syria.jpg]\n\n# Emigration\nMany millions of Middle Eastern Christians currently live in the [diaspora](https://bliptext.com/articles/diaspora), elsewhere in the world.\nThese include such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela among them.\nThere are also many Middle Eastern Christians in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, France (due to its historical connections with Lebanon, Egypt, Syria), and to a lesser extent, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, and the Netherlands.\nThe largest number of Middle Eastern Christians residing in the diaspora is that of [Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) Christians, who have migrated out of [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) for security and economic reasons since WWI.\nMany fled [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) during the [Lebanese Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanese-civil-war).\nThe countries with significant Lebanese Christians include such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela among them.\nAssyrian Christians currently reside in diaspora with large communities in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, reaching more than a million outside of the Middle East.\nMuch of these is attributed to the massive Assyrian Christian exodus from northern Iraq following the 2003 invasion and the consequent [Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq-war), and from north-eastern Syria following the 2011 Arab Spring and the consequent [Syrian Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/syrian-civil-war).\nAmong the Arab Christians, about a million Palestinian Christians reside in the diaspora, largely in the Americas, where their communities have been established since the late 19th century and peaked following the [1948 Arab–Israeli War](https://bliptext.com/articles/1948-arab-israeli-war).\nMore emigrated from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War.\nThe majority of self-identifying [Arab Americans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-american) are [Eastern Rite Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-rite-catholic) or [Orthodox Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/orthodoxy), according to the [Arab American Institute](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-american-institute).\nOn the other hand, most American Muslims are black (African Americans or Sub-Saharan Africans) or of South Asian (Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi) origin.\n# [Most Arab Americans are Christian. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Arab///American///religions.png]\n\n# Churches\n\n## Coptic Christians\nCoptic churches are mainly divided into:\n\n## Assyrian Christians\nMany Christians who originate from the Middle East are ethnic [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), a [Semitic people](https://bliptext.com/articles/semitic-people) who follow various rites of [Syriac Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-christianity), and are ethnically and linguistically distinct from Arabs.\nOther Syriac-rite Christians also include the [Arameans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arameans) of [Maaloula](https://bliptext.com/articles/maaloula) and [Jubb'adin](https://bliptext.com/articles/jubb-adin) in Syria.\nIn all, the Assyrians are divided into the following churches:\n\n## Melkite/Greek Christians\nChristians, belonging mostly to [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox) and [Melkite](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite) churches:\nAll of them are mainly found in countries like [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria), [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), [Palestine](https://bliptext.com/articles/state-of-palestine), [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan), [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt) and to a lesser degree in [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq), [Libya](https://bliptext.com/articles/libya), and [Sudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sudan).\n\n## Maronite Christians\n[Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites) are part of a continuous history of [Christianity in Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-lebanon), and have traditionally adhered to the [Maronite Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-catholic-church).\nTheir highest population can be found in Lebanon, where they make up 34% of the population.\nOther sizeable Maronite populations can be found in Syria and Israel, with smaller numbers in Egypt and Jordan, and a diaspora community in [the Americas](https://bliptext.com/articles/americas).\n\n## Armenian Christians\nThere is also the [Armenian Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-church) with its divisions:\nArmenia, historically, was the first state to accept Christianity.\nThere are small numbers of Russian Orthodox and Assyrian Christians in Armenia also.\nArmenian Christians are also to be found in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf states as expats.\n\n## Kurdish Christians\nThe [Kurdish-Speaking Church of Christ](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-christians) (The Kurdzman Church of Christ) is an [Evangelical](https://bliptext.com/articles/evangelicalism) church with mainly Kurdish adherents.\n\n## Anglicans\nThe [Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East](https://bliptext.com/articles/episcopal-church-in-jerusalem-and-the-middle-east) is the [Anglican](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglican) church responsible for the Middle East and North Africa.\nIt is quite small, with only some 35,000 members throughout the area.\nThe Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf looks after 30,000-40,000 Anglicans in the area and ministers to Protestants and others.\n\n## Turkish Christians\n\n## Expatriate Christians\n\n# Notable Middle Eastern Christians\nNotable Christians of Middle Eastern ancestry in Middle East and Diaspora:","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T10:19:22.569Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T10:19:22.569Z","search_vector":"'christian':1 'east':5 'middl':4","search_content":" \n \n**Group:** Middle Eastern Christians \n**Population:** 15–20 million \n**Region 5:** 🇮🇷 [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran) \n**Pop 5:** 369,000–370,000 \n**Region 3:** [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/undefined) \n**Pop 3:** 850,000–950,000 (2018 est.) \n**Region 2:** 🇱🇧 [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) \n**Pop 2:** 1,700,000–2,000,000 (est.) \n**Region 4:** 🇨🇾 [Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus) \n**Pop 4:** 793,000 (2008) \n**Region 6:** 🇮🇶 [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq) \n**Pop 6:** 300,000–490,000 \n**Region 8:** 🇹🇷 [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey) \n**Pop 8:** 200,000–320,000 \n**Region 1:** 🇪🇬 [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt) \n**Pop 1:** 10–15 million \n**Region 1 5:** 🇸🇦 [Saudi Arabia](https://bliptext.com/articles/saudi-arabia) \n**Pop 1 5:** <10 \n**Region 7:** 🇯🇴 [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan) \n**Pop 7:** 250,000–400,000 \n**Region 9:** 🇮🇱 [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel) \n**Pop 9:** 185,000 \n**Region 1 0:** [Palestine](https://bliptext.com/articles/undefined) \n**Pop 1 0:** 50,000–100,000 \n**Region 1 1:** 🇧🇭 [Bahrain](https://bliptext.com/articles/bahrain) \n**Pop 1 1:** 1,000 \n**Region 1 2:** 🇰🇼 [Kuwait](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuwait) \n**Pop 1 2:** 400 \n**Region 1 3:** 🇾🇪 [Yemen](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemen) \n**Pop 1 3:** <100 \n**Region 1 4:** 🇶🇦 [Qatar](https://bliptext.com/articles/qatar) \n**Pop 1 4:** <10 \n**Region 1 6:** 🇦🇪 [United Arab Emirates](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-arab-emirates) \n**Pop 1 6:** <10 \n**Region 1 7:** 🇴🇲 [Oman](https://bliptext.com/articles/oman) \n**Pop 1 7:** <10 \n**Langs:** [Arabic](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabic-language), [Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language), [Coptic](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-language), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-language), [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-language), [Georgian](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgian-language), [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-language), [Turkish](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-language), [Hebrew](https://bliptext.com/articles/hebrew-language), [Bulgarian](https://bliptext.com/articles/bulgarian-language) \n**Rels:** [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) \n**Footnotes:** [a].(excluding foreign residents) \n \n\n# \n[Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity), which [originated](https://bliptext.com/articles/origins-of-christianity) in the [Middle East](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-east) during the [1st century AD](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-the-1st-century), is a significant minority religion within the region, characterized by the diversity of its beliefs and traditions, compared to [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) in other parts of the [Old World](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-world).\nToday, [Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/christians) make up approximately 5% of the Middle Eastern population, down from 13% in the early 20th century.\n[Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus) is the only Christian majority country in the Middle East, with Christians forming between 76% and 78% of the country's total population, most of them adhering to [Eastern Orthodox Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-christianity).\n[Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) has the second highest proportion of Christians in the Middle East, around 40%, predominantly [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christians).\nAfter [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt) has the next largest proportion of Christians (predominantly [Copts](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-christians)), at around 10% of its total population.\nCopts, numbering around 10 million, constitute the single largest Christian community in the Middle East.\nThe [Eastern Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-aramaic) speaking [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) of northern [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq), northeastern [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria), southeastern [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), and parts of [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran) have suffered due to [ethnic cleansing](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-cleansing), [religious discrimination](https://bliptext.com/articles/religious-discrimination), and [persecution](https://bliptext.com/articles/persecution-of-christians) for many centuries.\nDuring the 20th century, the percentage of Christians in the Middle East fell mainly as a result of the [late Ottoman genocides](https://bliptext.com/articles/late-ottoman-genocides): the [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), [Greek genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-genocide), and [Assyrian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-genocide) committed against them by the [Ottoman Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-empire) and their allies, leading many to flee and congregate in areas in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, [North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-america), and [Western Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-europe).\nThe great majority of Aramaic speaking Christians are followers of the [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), [Chaldean Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-catholic-church), [Syriac Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church), [Ancient Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-church-of-the-east), [Assyrian Pentecostal Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-pentecostal-church) and [Assyrian Evangelical Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-evangelical-church).\nIn Iraq, the numbers of Christians has declined to between 300,000 and 500,000 (from 0.8 to 1.4 million before 2003 US invasion).\nAssyrian Christians were between 800,000 and 1.2 million before 2003.\nIn 2014, the population of the [Nineveh Plains](https://bliptext.com/articles/nineveh-plains) in northern Iraq was scattered to [Dohuk](https://bliptext.com/articles/dohuk), [Erbil](https://bliptext.com/articles/erbil) and [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan) due to ISIS forcing the Assyrian community out of their historical homeland, but since the [defeat of the Islamic State in 2017](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-in-iraq-2013-2017), Christians have slowly began returning.\nThe next largest Christian group in the Middle East are the once [Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language) speaking and now Arabic-speaking [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites) who are [Eastern-Rite Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-catholic-churches) and number some 1.1–1.2 million across the Middle East, mainly concentrated within [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon).\nIn [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites-in-israel) together with smaller Aramaic-speaking Christian populations of [Syriac Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church) and [Greek Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church-in-greece) adherence, are legally and ethnically classified as either [Arameans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arameans-in-israel) or [Arabs](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-christians), per their choice.\n[Arab Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-christians) are descended from Arab Christian tribes, Arabized Greeks or recent converts to [Protestantism](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism).\nMost Arab Christians are adherents of the Melkite Catholic Church and [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church).\nThey numbered over 1 million before the Syrian Civil War: some 700,000 in Syria, 400,000 in Lebanon, 200,000 in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, with small numbers in Iraq and Egypt.\nMost Arab Catholic Christians are originally non-Arab, with Melkites and Rum Christians who are descended from Arabized Greek-speaking Byzantine populations.\nThey are members of the [Melkite Greek Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-greek-catholic-church), an [Eastern Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-catholic-church).\nThey number over 1 million in the Middle East.\nThey came into existence as a result of a [schism](https://bliptext.com/articles/schism) within the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch due to the election of a Patriarch in 1724.\n[Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-the-middle-east) are present in the Middle East, and their largest community, estimated to have 200,000 members, is located in [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran).\nThe number of [Armenians in Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-turkey) is disputed and a wide range of estimates is given as a result.\nMore Armenian communities reside in [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan), [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq), [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt), [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), and formerly also [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria) until the [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria)n Civil War.\nThe [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), which was perpetrated by the [Ottoman government](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-government) and [Turkish Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam-in-turkey) both during and after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i), drastically reduced the once sizeable Armenian population in the Middle East.\nThe [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks), who had once inhabited large parts of the western Middle East and [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia), declined in number due to the [Arab–Byzantine wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-byzantine-wars), then suffered another decline after the [Ottoman invasion of Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-ottoman-wars), and all but vanished from Turkey as a result of the [Greek genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-genocide), which was perpetrated by the [Ottoman government](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-government) and [Turkish Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam-in-turkey) both during and after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i), and the [expulsions](https://bliptext.com/articles/population-exchange-between-greece-and-turkey) that followed the war.\nToday, the largest Middle Eastern Greek community resides in [Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus) and numbers around 810,000 Cypriot Greeks constitute the only [Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-lebanon) majority state in the Middle East, although [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) was founded with a [Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-lebanon) majority in the first half of the 20th century.\nSmaller Christian groups in the Middle East include [Georgians](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgian-people), [Ossetians](https://bliptext.com/articles/ossetians), and [Russians](https://bliptext.com/articles/russians).\nThere are also several million foreign Christian workers in the [Gulf](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-gulf) states, mostly from the [Philippines](https://bliptext.com/articles/philippines), [India](https://bliptext.com/articles/india), [Sri Lanka](https://bliptext.com/articles/sri-lanka), and [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia): [Bahrain](https://bliptext.com/articles/bahrain) has 1,000 Christian citizens, and [Kuwait](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuwait) has 400 native Christian citizens, in addition to 450,000 Christian foreign residents in [Kuwait](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuwait).\nAlthough the vast majority of Middle Eastern populations descend from Pre-[Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) and Non-[Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) peoples extant long before the 7th century AD [Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) [Islamic conquest](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-muslim-conquests), a 2015 study estimates there are also 483,500 Christian believers from a previously Muslim background in the Middle East, most of them being adherents of various [Protestant](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestant) churches.\nConverts to Christianity from other religions such as [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam), [[Yezidis](https://bliptext.com/articles/yezidis)m](https://bliptext.com/articles/yezidism), [Mandeanism](https://bliptext.com/articles/mandeanism), [Yarsan](https://bliptext.com/articles/yarsan), [Zoroastrianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroastrianism), [Baháʼísm](https://bliptext.com/articles/bah-faith), [Druze](https://bliptext.com/articles/druze), and [Judaism](https://bliptext.com/articles/judaism) exist in relatively small numbers amongst the [Kurdish](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-christians), [Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-people), [Turcoman](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkmen-people), [Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-peoples), [Azeri](https://bliptext.com/articles/azerbaijanis), [Circassian](https://bliptext.com/articles/circassians), [Israelis](https://bliptext.com/articles/israelis), [Kawliya](https://bliptext.com/articles/kawliya), [Yezidis](https://bliptext.com/articles/yezidis), [Mandeans](https://bliptext.com/articles/mandeans), and [Shabaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/shabaks).\nChristians are [persecuted widely](https://bliptext.com/articles/persecution-of-christians) across the [Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world) and [Muslim world](https://bliptext.com/articles/muslim-world) and the ongoing situation has been compared to a genocide.\nAccording to a 2018 report commissioned by the [British government](https://bliptext.com/articles/government-of-the-united-kingdom), Christians are “on the verge of extinction in the Middle East”, explaining that “Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity.\nIn some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), according to that adopted by the UN.” In 2024, the [International Christian Concern](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-christian-concern) again raised warnings about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.\nChristian communities have played a vital role in the Middle East.\nMiddle Eastern Christians are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate, as they have today an active role in social, economic, sporting and political spheres in their societies in the Middle East.\nScholars and intellectuals agree Christians in the Middle East have made significant contributions to Arab and [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam)ic civilization since the introduction of [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam), and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the [Mashriq](https://bliptext.com/articles/mashriq), [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), and [Iran](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran).\n\n# History\n\n## Evangelization and early history\n[Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) spread rapidly from [Jerusalem](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) along major trade routes to major settlements, finding its strongest growth among [Hellenized Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/hellenistic-judaism) in places like [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) and [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity).\nThe Greek-speaking Mediterranean region was a powerhouse for the Early Church, producing many revered [Church Fathers](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-fathers) as well as those who became labelled as [heresiarchs](https://bliptext.com/articles/heresiarch), such as [Nestorius](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorius).\nFrom [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch), where Christians were first so called, came [Ignatius](https://bliptext.com/articles/ignatius-of-antioch), [Diodore of Tarsus](https://bliptext.com/articles/diodore-of-tarsus), [John Chrysostom](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-chrysostom), [Theodore of Mopsuestia](https://bliptext.com/articles/theodore-of-mopsuestia), [Nestorius](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorius), [Theodoret](https://bliptext.com/articles/theodoret), John of [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch), Severus of [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch) and [Peter the Fuller](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-the-fuller), many of whom are associated with the School of [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch).\nIn like manner, [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexandria) boasted many prominent theologians, including [Athenagoras](https://bliptext.com/articles/athenagoras-of-athens), [Pantaenus](https://bliptext.com/articles/pantaenus), [Clement](https://bliptext.com/articles/clement-of-alexandria), [Origen](https://bliptext.com/articles/origen), [Dionysius](https://bliptext.com/articles/pope-dionysius-of-alexandria), [Gregory Thaumaturgus](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregory-thaumaturgus), [Arius](https://bliptext.com/articles/arius), [Athanasius](https://bliptext.com/articles/pope-athanasius-i-of-alexandria), [Didymus the Blind](https://bliptext.com/articles/didymus-the-blind), [Cyril](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyril-of-alexandria) and [Dioscorus](https://bliptext.com/articles/pope-dioscorus-i-of-alexandria), associated with School of [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexandria).\nThe two schools dominated the theological controversies of the first centuries of Christian theology.\nWhereas Antioch traditionally focused on the grammatical and historical interpretation of Scripture and developed a [dyophysite](https://bliptext.com/articles/diophysitism) [christology](https://bliptext.com/articles/christology), Alexandria was much influenced by [neoplatonism](https://bliptext.com/articles/neoplatonism), using an [allegorical](https://bliptext.com/articles/allegory) interpretation and developing [miaphysitism](https://bliptext.com/articles/miaphysitism).\nOther prominent centres of Christian learning developed in [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) (most remarkably among the [Cappadocian Fathers](https://bliptext.com/articles/cappadocian-fathers)) and the Levantine coast ([Gaza](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-city), [Caesarea](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-centers-of-christianity) and [Beirut](https://bliptext.com/articles/beirut)).\nPolitically, the Middle East of the first four Christian centuries was divided between the [Roman Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-empire) and the [Parthian Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/parthian-empire) (later [Sasanian Persia](https://bliptext.com/articles/sassanid-empire)).\nChristians experienced sporadic persecutions in both political spheres.\nWithin the Parthian Empire, most Christians lived in the region of [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia)/[Asuristan](https://bliptext.com/articles/asuristan) ([Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)) and were ethnic [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)n [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia)ns who spoke [eastern](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-world) [Aramaic dialects](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language) loosely related to those Western [Aramaic dialects](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic-language) spoken by their co-religionists just across the Roman border, but with [Akkadian](https://bliptext.com/articles/akkadian-language) influences.\nLegendary accounts are of the evangelization of the East by [Thomas](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-the-apostle) ([Mar Toma](https://bliptext.com/articles/mar-toma)), [Addai](https://bliptext.com/articles/addai)/[Thaddaeus](https://bliptext.com/articles/thaddeus-of-edessa) and [Mari](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-mari).\n[Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) (Syrian//[Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) are etymologically derived from Assyrian) emerged as the standard Aramaic dialect of the three Assyrian border cities of [Edessa](https://bliptext.com/articles/edessa-mesopotamia), [Nisibis](https://bliptext.com/articles/nusaybin) and [Arbela](https://bliptext.com/articles/erbil).\nTranslation of the scriptures into Syriac began early in this region, with a Jewish group (probably non-rabbinic) producing a translation of the [Hebrew Bible](https://bliptext.com/articles/hebrew-bible) becoming the basis of the [Church of the Easts](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-the-east) Christian [Peshitta](https://bliptext.com/articles/peshitta).\n[Syriac Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-christianity) is most famous for its poet-theologians, [Aphrahat](https://bliptext.com/articles/aphrahat), [Ephrem](https://bliptext.com/articles/ephrem-the-syrian), [Narsai](https://bliptext.com/articles/narsai) and [Jacob of Serugh](https://bliptext.com/articles/jacob-of-serugh).\n[Eusebius](https://bliptext.com/articles/eusebius) credits [Mark the Evangelist](https://bliptext.com/articles/mark-the-evangelist) as the bringer of Christianity to Egypt, and manuscript evidence shows that the faith was firmly established there by the middle of the 2nd century.\nAlthough the Greek-speaking community of Alexandria dominated the Egyptian church, speakers of native Coptic and many bilingual Christians were the majority.\nFrom the early 4th century, at the latest, the [monastic movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/monasticism) emerged in the Egyptian desert, led by [Anthony](https://bliptext.com/articles/anthony-the-great) and [Pachomius](https://bliptext.com/articles/pachomius) (see [Desert Fathers](https://bliptext.com/articles/desert-fathers)).\nEusebius (EH 6:20) also mentions the appointment of a bishop and the holding of a [synod](https://bliptext.com/articles/synod) in [Bostra](https://bliptext.com/articles/bosra) around 240, which is the earliest reference to church organisation in an Arabic-speaking area.\nLater that decade, Eusebius (6:37) describes another synod in [Arabia Petraea](https://bliptext.com/articles/petra).\nSome scholars have followed hints in Eusebius and Jerome that [Philip the Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-the-arab), the son of an Arab [sheikh](https://bliptext.com/articles/sheikh), may have been the first Christian Roman Emperor.\nHowever, evidence to support this theory is thin.\nThe [Ghassanid](https://bliptext.com/articles/ghassanids) tribe were important Christian foederati of Rome, while the [Lakhmids](https://bliptext.com/articles/lakhmids) were an Arab Christian tribe that fought for the Persians.\nAlthough the [Hejaz](https://bliptext.com/articles/hejaz) was never a stronghold of Arab Christianity, there are reports of Christians around [Mecca](https://bliptext.com/articles/mecca) and [Yathrib](https://bliptext.com/articles/yathrib) before the advent of Islam.\nChristianity came to [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia) both from the south, [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia)/[Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria), and the west, [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia-minor), as demonstrated by the Greek and [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)n-Syriac origin of Christian terms in early [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia)n texts.\nEusebius (EH 6:46, 2) mentions Meruzanes as the bishop of the Armenians around 260.\nFollowing the conversion of King [Trdat III](https://bliptext.com/articles/tiridates-iii-of-armenia) to Christianity (circa 301), [Gregory the Illuminator](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregory-the-illuminator) was consecrated Bishop of Armenia in 314.\nArmenians continue to celebrate their church as the oldest [national church](https://bliptext.com/articles/national-church).\nGregory was consecrated at [Caesarea](https://bliptext.com/articles/kayseri) in [Cappadocia](https://bliptext.com/articles/cappadocia).\nThe [Georgian](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgia-country) kingdom of [Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasian-iberia) ([Kartli](https://bliptext.com/articles/kartli)) was probably evangelized first in the 2nd or 3rd century.\nHowever, the church was only established there in 330s.\nA number of sources, both in Georgian and other languages, associate [Nino of Cappadocia](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-nino) with bringing Christianity to the Georgians and converting King [Mirian III of Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mirian-iii-of-iberia).\nGeorgian Christian literature emphasizes her connection with Jerusalem and the role played by the Georgian Jewish community in the growth of Christianity.\nCertainly, early Georgian liturgy does share a number of conspicuous features with that of Jerusalem.\nThe [Black Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/black-sea) coastal kingdom of [Lazica](https://bliptext.com/articles/egrisi) (Egrisi) had closer ties to [Constantinople](https://bliptext.com/articles/constantinople), and its bishops were by imperial appointment.\nAlthough the Lazican church originated around the same time as its Iberian neighbour, it was not until 523 when its king, [Tzath](https://bliptext.com/articles/tzath-i-of-lazica), accepted the faith.\nThe Iberian church was under the authority of the [Patriarch of Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarch-of-antioch), until the reforming king [Vakhtang Gorgasali](https://bliptext.com/articles/vakhtang-i-of-iberia) set up an independent [catholicos](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholicos) in 467.\nIn 314, the [Edict of Milan](https://bliptext.com/articles/edict-of-milan) proclaimed [religious toleration](https://bliptext.com/articles/religious-toleration) in the Roman Empire, and Christianity rapidly rose to prominence.\nThe church's [dioceses](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese) and bishoprics came to be modelled on state administration: partly the motive for the [Council of Nicaea](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-council-of-nicaea) in 325.\nHowever, Christians in the [Zoroastrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroastrian) [Sasanian Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/sasanian-empire) (speaking variously Syriac, Armenian or Greek) are often found distancing themselves politically from their Roman co-religionists to appease the [shah](https://bliptext.com/articles/shah).\nThus, around 387, when the [Armenian Highland](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-highland) came under [Sasanian control](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-the-persian-empire), a separate leadership from that in Caesarea developed and eventually settled in [Echmiadzin](https://bliptext.com/articles/echmiadzin), a division that still, to some extent, exists to this day.\nLikewise, in the 4th century, the bishop of [Seleucia-Ctesiphon](https://bliptext.com/articles/seleucia-ctesiphon), the Sasanian capital, was recognised as leader of the Syriac and Greek-speaking Christians in the Persian empire, assuming the title catholicos, later [patriarch](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarch).\nChristianity in [Ethiopia](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopia) and [Nubia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nubia) is traditionally linked to the biblical tale of the conversion of the [Ethiopia](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopia)n eunuch in the [Acts of the Apostles](https://bliptext.com/articles/acts-of-the-apostles) (8. 26–30).\nThe [Kebra Nagast](https://bliptext.com/articles/kebra-nagast) also connects the [Yemenite](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemen) [Queen of Sheba](https://bliptext.com/articles/queen-of-sheba) with the royal line of [Axum](https://bliptext.com/articles/aksumite-empire).\nEvidence from coinage and other historical references point to the early 4th-century conversion of King [Ezana of Axum](https://bliptext.com/articles/ezana-of-axum) as the establishment of Christianity, whence [Nubia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nubia) and other surrounding areas were evangelized, all under the oversight of the [Patriarch of Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarch-of-alexandria).\nIn the 6th century, Ethiopian military might conquered a large portion of Yemen, strengthening Christian concentration in southern Arabia.\n# [{{legend|#1F63A7|Spread of Christianity to AD 325}} {{legend|#6AB4FF|Spread of Christianity to AD 600|undefined | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Spread///of///Christianity///to///AD///600///%281%29.png]\n\n## Schisms\nThe first major disagreement that led to a fracturing of the church was the so-called [Nestorian Schism](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorian-schism) of the 5th century.\nThis argument revolved around claims by Alexandrians over alleged theological extremism by Antiochians, and its battleground was the Roman capital, Constantinople, originating from its bishop's, Nestorius's, teaching on the nature of Christ.\nHe was condemned for splitting Christ's person into separate divine and human natures; the extremes of this view, however, were not preached by Nestorius.\nCyril of Alexandria succeeded in the deposition of Nestorius at the [First Council of Ephesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-council-of-ephesus) in 431.\nThe result led to a crisis among the Antiochians, some of whom, including Nestorius himself, found protection in Persia, which continued to espouse traditional Antiochian theology.\nThe schism led to the total isolation of the Persian-sphere [Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), and the adoption of much Alexandrian theology in the Antiochian sphere of influence.\nSome of the Alexandrian victors at Ephesus, however, began to push their anti-Nestorian agenda too far, of whom [Eutyches](https://bliptext.com/articles/eutyches) was the most prominent.\nMuch back and forth led to the [Council of Chalcedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/council-of-chalcedon) of 451, which found a compromise that returned to a theology closer to that of Antioch, refereed by Rome, and condemned the [monophysite](https://bliptext.com/articles/monophysitism) theology of Eutyches.\nHowever, the outcome was rejected by many Christians in the Middle East, especially by non-Greek-speaking Christians on the fringe of the Roman Empire – Copts, Syriacs, Assyrians and Armenians.\nIn 482, Emperor [Zeno](https://bliptext.com/articles/zeno-emperor) attempted to reconcile his church with his [Henotikon](https://bliptext.com/articles/henotikon).\nHowever, reunion was never achieved, and the non-Chalcedonians adopted [miaphysitism](https://bliptext.com/articles/miaphysitism) based on traditional Alexandrian doctrine, in revolt against the Byzantine Church.\nThese so-called [Oriental Orthodox Churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-orthodoxy) include the majority of Egyptian Christians – the [Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-orthodox-church-of-alexandria) – majority of [Ethiopian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopian-orthodox-tewahedo-church) and [Eritrean](https://bliptext.com/articles/eritrean-orthodox-tewahdo-church) Christians – the [Ethiopian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopian-orthodox-tewahedo-church) and [Eritrean](https://bliptext.com/articles/eritrean-orthodox-tewahdo-church) Orthodox Tewahedo Churches – many Syriacs – the [Syriac Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church) – and the majority of Armenians – the [Armenian Apostolic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-apostolic-church).\nThe name [Melkite](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite) (meaning 'of the king' in [Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/aramaic)), originally intended as a slur applied to those who adhered to Chalcedon (it is no longer used to describe them), who continued to be organised into the historic and [autocephalous](https://bliptext.com/articles/autocephaly) patriarchates of [Constantinople](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecumenical-patriarchate-of-constantinople), [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church-of-antioch), [Alexandria](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church-of-alexandria) and [Jerusalem](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-patriarchate-of-jerusalem).\nCollectively they form the traditional basis for the [Greek Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church), known as Rūm Orthodox in Arabic, which is their language of worship throughout [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Christian diaspora.\nThe [Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgian-orthodox-and-apostolic-church) held to a moderate Antiochian doctrine through these schisms and began aligning itself with Byzantium from the early 7th century, and finally broke off ties with their Armenian non-Chalcedonian neighbours in the 720s.\nThe term Melkite refers to the adherents of the Antiochene Greek Orthodox Patriarchy who switched allegiance to the Papacy in 1729 after a disputed election to the Patriarchal See in 1724 because the See of Constantinople which objected to the canonically elected Patriarch Cyril who was considered to be too pro-Roman consecrated another candidate (until then the See was technically still in union with the Constantinople and Rome despite the split of 1054).\n\n## Muslim conquests\nThe Arab [Muslim conquests](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-muslim-conquests) of the 7th century brought to end the hegemony of Byzantium and Persia over the Middle East.\nThe conquest came at the end of a particularly gruelling period of the [Roman-Persian Wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-persian-wars), from the beginning of the 7th century, in which the Sasanid Shah [Khosrau II](https://bliptext.com/articles/khosrau-ii) had captured much of the Syria, Egypt, Anatolia and the Caucasus, and the Byzantines under [Heraclius](https://bliptext.com/articles/heraclius) only managed a decisive counter-attack in the 620s.\nThe Greek-Orthodox Patriarch [Sophronius](https://bliptext.com/articles/sophronius-of-jerusalem) negotiated with [Caliph](https://bliptext.com/articles/caliph) [Umar](https://bliptext.com/articles/umar) in 637 for the peaceful transfer of Jerusalem into Arab control (including the [Umar](https://bliptext.com/articles/umar)iyya Covenant).\nLikewise, resistance to the Arab onslaught in Egypt was minimal.\nThis seems to be more due to the war fatigue throughout the region rather than entirely due to religious differences.\nAfter the conquests, Muslims initially remained a ruling minority within the conquered territories in the Middle East and North Africa.\nBy the 12th century the non-Muslim population had become a minority.\nThe factors and processes that led to the progressive [Islamization](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamization) of these regions during this period, as well as the speed at which conversions happened, is a complex subject that is not fully understood by historians.\nAmong other new rules, the Muslim rulers imposed a special poll tax, the [jizya](https://bliptext.com/articles/jizya), on non-Muslims, which acted as an economic pressure to convert alongside other social advantages converts could gain in Muslim society.\nIn Egypt, Islamization was likely slower than in other Muslim-controlled regions, with Christians likely constituting a majority of the population until the Fatimid period (10th to 12th centuries), though scholarly estimates on this issue are tentative and vary between authors.\nIn the period prior to the establishment of Abbasid rule in AD 750, many pastoral Kurds moved into upper Mesopotamia, taking advantage of an unstable situation.\nCities in northern and northeastern ancient [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria) were raided and attacked by the Kurds of Persian Azerbaijan, \"who killed, looted, and enslaved the indigenous population\", and the Kurds were moving into various regions in east of ancient [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria).\nWhen the Seljuks invaded Mesopotamia, they recruited the Kurds for their campaigns.\nThe invading Seljuks and Kurds \"destroyed whatever they encountered\" and enslaved [women](https://bliptext.com/articles/women).\nThe Seljuks rewarded the Kurds for their support with land, and the Seljuk leader Sinjur renamed the region called Kirmanshah in Persia as Kurdistan.\nMosul, historically a Christian city, was repeatedly attacked.\nThe historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that 'the Kurds spoiled and spread horror everywhere'.\nThe historian Al Makrezi, referring to the situation that emerged after the Kurdish settlement in al Jazirah, wrote that \"they were able to establish Kurdish centres as their shares for helping the Turkish race in their conquest\".\nIn time, [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia) and Assyria became \"Kurdistan\".\nAfterwards happened the raids of Timur Lang, \"whom the Kurds loyally followed and who enabled them to occupy the land of the Armenians, who were forcibly expelled\".\nTimur Lang rewarded the Kurds by \"settling them in the devastated regions, which until then had been inhabited by the followers of the [Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-the-east).\"\n# [Largely extinct Church of the East and its largest extent during the Middle Ages | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Church///of///the///East///in///the///Middle///Ages.svg]\n\n## Ottoman Empire\nThe [Ottoman Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-turks) carried out a series of violent [anti-Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/anti-christian-sentiment) genocides of [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-genocide), and [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-genocide) between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.\nThese include the massacres of ethnic [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) and [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) Christians in the 1870s; these killings, which resulted in over ten thousand deaths, were known as the [Hamidian massacres](https://bliptext.com/articles/hamidian-massacres).\nThe settlement of [Muslim Kurds](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-muslims) from the [Qajar Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/qajar-iran) along the eastern border was the first powerful action in changing the demographics of the [Assyrian homeland](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-homeland).\nThe Muslim Kurds remained loyal to the Ottoman Turks as long as they were enjoying power and greatness.\nThe Ottoman Turks conducted a large-scale [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) and [ethnic cleansing](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-cleansing) of the ancient and indigenous [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), and [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) Christian inhabitants of Anatolia, northwestern Iran, the fringes of northern Iraq and northern Syria, and Mount Lebanon during and immediately after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i), resulting in well over 3 million deaths among the 6 million Christians who were living in the Ottoman Empire in 1914 of 26 million inhabitants and large-scale deportations in the [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), the [Dersim Massacre](https://bliptext.com/articles/dersim-massacre), and the [Great Famine of Mount Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-of-mount-lebanon).\nThe Ottoman Turks reinforced their eastern frontier with what they \"considered a loyal Sunni Kurd element\".\nThey settled the Kurds in these regions in return for their support in their campaigns against the [Safavid Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/safavid-iran).\nIn 1583, the [Ottoman sultan](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-sultan) [Murad IV](https://bliptext.com/articles/murad-iv) \"gave huge provinces to the Kurdish tribe of Mokri\", whose leader claimed to descend from [Saladin](https://bliptext.com/articles/saladin).\nThe French traveler Monsieur Tavernier noted that in 1662, Van and Urmia were purely [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians); however, only a century later, another European traveler, Carsten Niebuhr, noted that both [Turkomans](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkmens) and [Kurds](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurds) were involved in spreading disturbances.\nIn 1840, Hortio Southgate visited these same regions, he was surprised by the \"dramatic changes\" and by \"the decline in the number of the Armenians compared with the number of the new Kurdish settlers who then were still in the process of moving in\".\nSouthgate ascribed these changes to \"the Kurdish persecution of the indigenous people\".\nThe inhabitants of Salamis, for instance, had been forced to leave.\nThe Russian historian Minorsky at about the same time also stated that \"the Kurds had occupied parts of [Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenia) permanently and were no longer living on their original land.\"\nAccording to Aboona, \"the majorities, in particular the Kurds, rejected any form of coexistence\" with Assyrians, and \"in the eyes of the Kurds\", the presence of Assyrian tribes in the midst of their own \"settlements represented a serious challenge to their dominance of the region. The remaining Assyrian settlements prevented Kurdish settlements from forming a cohesive, homogenous ethnic block\" and the \"Kurds' aspirations remained unfulfilled\".\nBut when Nadir Shah invaded the territory of ancient Assyria in 1743 he got the full backing and support of the Kurds.\nThis was a further step to \"strengthening both the older Kurdish settlements, including those made after [Çaldıran](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-ald-ran), and the newer ones that followed Nadir Shah's İnvasİon.\"\nHence the Assyrians lost both land and numbers.\nAfter Nadir Shah's invasion, the \"Assyrian tribes also faced further tightening of the Kurdish circle around their country\".\nAccording to Adoona, \"in the end, the independence of the Assyrian tribes was destroyed not directly by the Turks but by their Kurdish neighbours under [Turkish](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey) auspices.\"\n# [Of this photo, the U.S. ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. wrote, \"Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces, in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms—massacre, starvation, exhaustion—destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation\". | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Morgenthau336.jpg]\n# [Greek Christians in 1922, fleeing from their homes in Kharput and moving to Trebizond. In the 1910s and 1920s, the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides were perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Kharput///Greek-Orthodox///refugees///-///C.D.Morris///-///National///Geographic%2C///Nov.///1925.jpg]\n\n## Under European colonial rule\n\n# Persecution of Christians in Middle East\nIn spite of the fact that every country in the Middle East has at least a small number of worshippers of Christ from a Muslim background, and in spite of the fact that the vast majority of native Christians are [Arabic speakers](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabic-speakers) themselves, Christians in the Middle East face persecution –in various grades, depending on the residence country– and are often isolated.\nThe [defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/defeat-and-dissolution-of-the-ottoman-empire) (1908–1922) and [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i) (1914–1918) ushered in the greatest period of violence against Christians in the region.\nThe [Ottoman Turks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ottoman-turks) conducted a large-scale [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) and [ethnic cleansing](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-cleansing) of the ancient and indigenous [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), and [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) Christian inhabitants of Anatolia, north-western Iran, the fringes of northern Iraq and northern Syria, and Mount Lebanon during and immediately after the First World War, resulting in well over 3 million deaths and large-scale deportations in the [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-people) [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), the [Dersim Massacre](https://bliptext.com/articles/dersim-massacre), and [Great Famine of Mount Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-of-mount-lebanon).\nMore recently, the [fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/2003-invasion-of-iraq), the [Syrian Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/syrian-civil-war) and the concomitant rise of [ISIS](https://bliptext.com/articles/isis) have greatly increased violence against Christians in those countries.\nSome, including [Hillary Clinton](https://bliptext.com/articles/hillary-clinton) or the [European Parliament](https://bliptext.com/articles/european-parliament) referred to the [ISIS](https://bliptext.com/articles/isis) campaign against Christians and other religious minorities in the region [as a genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide-of-christians-by-isil).\nLater on, in March 2016 the United States officially joined this view, with [U.S. Secretary of State](https://bliptext.com/articles/u-s-secretary-of-state) [John Kerry](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-kerry) declaring during a news conference at the State Department that ISIS \"is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including [Yazidis](https://bliptext.com/articles/yazidis), [Assyrian Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-christians), [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) and [Shia Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/shia-muslims)\"; it was the first time since [Darfur (2004)](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-in-darfur) that the United States declared a genocide.\nKurdish tribes in Turkey, Syria, and Iran have conducted regular raids against their Christian neighbors and even paramilitary assaults during World War I. Kurds were responsible for most of the atrocities committed against the Assyrian Christians due also to a long tradition of perceived Kurdish rights to pillage Christians.\nA Kurdish chieftain assassinated the patriarch of the church of the East at the negotiation dinner in 1918, and the aftermath led to further decimation of the Christian population.\n# [About 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the Armenian genocide in 1915–1918. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Armenian///genocide4.jpg]\n\n# Christians today\n\n## Bahrain\nBahrain's second largest religion is Christianity forming a minority of 14.5% of Bahrain.\nChristians in Bahrain number 205,000 people.\nIn the 5th century, Bahrain was a center of [Nestorian Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-the-east), including two of its [bishoprics](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese).\nThe [ecclesiastical province](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecclesiastical-province) covering Bahrain was known as Bet Qatraye.\n[Samahij](https://bliptext.com/articles/samahij) was the seat of bishops.\nBahrain was a center of Nestorian Christianity until al-Bahrain adopted Islam in 629 AD. As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the [Byzantine Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-empire), but Bahrain was outside the Empire's control offering some safety.\nThe names of several of [Muharraq Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/muharraq-island)'s villages today reflect this Christian legacy, with [Al Dair](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-dair) meaning \"the monastery\" or \"the parish.\"\nIn 410 AD, according to the Oriental Syriac Church synodal records, a bishop named Batai was [excommunicated](https://bliptext.com/articles/excommunication) from the church in Bahrain.\n[Alees Samaan](https://bliptext.com/articles/alees-samaan), the former Bahraini ambassador to the [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) is a native Christian.\n# [Sacred Heart Church in Manama | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Sacred///Heard///church///in///Bahrain///A421.jpg]\n\n## Egypt\nMost Christians in Egypt are [Copts](https://bliptext.com/articles/copts), who are mainly members of the [Coptic Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-orthodox-church).\nThe [Coptic language](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-language) – a derivative of the [Ancient Egyptian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-egyptian) language, written mainly in the [Greek alphabet](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-alphabet), is used as the liturgical language of all Coptic churches inside and outside of Egypt.\nAlthough ethnic [Copts in Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/copts-in-egypt) now speak [Egyptian Arabic](https://bliptext.com/articles/egyptian-arabic) (the Coptic language having ceased to be a working language by the 18th century), they believe in an [Ancient Egyptian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-egypt) [Coptic identity](https://bliptext.com/articles/coptic-identity) rather than an Arab identity (also referred to as [Pharaonism](https://bliptext.com/articles/pharaonism)).\nCopts reside mainly in Egypt, but also in [Sudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sudan) and [Libya](https://bliptext.com/articles/libya), with tiny communities in [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), [Cyprus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cyprus), [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan), [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), and [Tunisia](https://bliptext.com/articles/tunisia).\nCopts presently constitute the largest Christian population in the Middle East, generally estimated at 10–15% by officials, or in the 20 million range.\nHowever, as Egyptian censuses since 2006 have not reported religious affiliation due to being optional, along with the government acknowledging the census is not a proper representation of Christians, various Coptic groups and churches claim a higher number in the range of 15 to 23 million.\nMany Copts are internationally renowned.\nSome of the most well known Copts include [Boutros Boutros-Ghali](https://bliptext.com/articles/boutros-boutros-ghali), the sixth [Secretary-General](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-nations-secretary-general) of the [United Nations](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-nations); [Sir Magdi Yacoub](https://bliptext.com/articles/sir-magdi-yacoub), the cardiothoracic surgeon; [Hani Azer](https://bliptext.com/articles/hani-azer), the civil engineer; billionaire [Fayez Sarofim](https://bliptext.com/articles/fayez-sarofim), one of the richest men in the world; and [Naguib Sawiris](https://bliptext.com/articles/naguib-sawiris), the CEO of [Orascom](https://bliptext.com/articles/orascom).\n# [St. Mark Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/StMarkCathAlex.jpg]\n\n## Iraq\nChristianity has a long history in Iraq, with the early conversions of the indigenous [[Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)n](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) inhabitants of [Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria) (Parthian controlled [Assuristan](https://bliptext.com/articles/assuristan)) dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. This region was the birthplace of [Eastern Rite](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-syriac-rite) ([[Assyria](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyria)n](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) Church of the East) Christianity, a flourishing [Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) literary tradition, and the centre of a missionary expansion that stretched as far as [India](https://bliptext.com/articles/india), [Central Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-asia) and [China](https://bliptext.com/articles/china).\nBy one estimate, there was about 1.5 million largely Assyrian Christians in Iraq by 2003, or 7% of the population, but with the [fall of Saddam Hussein](https://bliptext.com/articles/2003-invasion-of-iraq) Christians began to leave Iraq in large numbers, and the population shrank to less than 500,000 today.\nAssyrian Christians still made up the majority population in northern Iraq until the massacres conducted by [Tamurlane](https://bliptext.com/articles/tamurlane) in the 14th century, which also saw their ancient city of [Assur](https://bliptext.com/articles/assur) finally abandoned after 4,000 years.\nIn modern times, [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) Christians numbered about 636,000 to 800,000 in 2005, representing 3% to 5% of the population of the country, mostly in Iraqi Kurdistan.\nThe vast majority are [Neo-Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/neo-aramaic) speaking ethnic [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq) (also known as Chaldo-[Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq)), descendant from the ancient [Mesopotamians](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamians) in general and the ancient [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq) more specifically, who are concentrated in the north, particularly the [Nineveh Plains](https://bliptext.com/articles/nineveh-plains), [Dohuk](https://bliptext.com/articles/duhok-governorate) and [Sinjar](https://bliptext.com/articles/sinjar) regions, border regions with south east Turkey, north west Iran and northern Syria, and in and around cities such as [Mosul](https://bliptext.com/articles/mosul), [Erbil](https://bliptext.com/articles/erbil), [Kirkuk](https://bliptext.com/articles/kirkuk), and also in [Baghdad](https://bliptext.com/articles/baghdad).\nThere are also a very small proportion of Arab Christians and small numbers of [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Kurdish](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-christians), [Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran) and [Turcoman](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkmen-people) Christians.\nThe Iraqi Christian population is also declining due to lower birth rates and higher death rates than their Muslim compatriots.\nSince the 2003 invasion, Iraqi Christians suffer from lack of security.\nMany lived in the capital Baghdad and in Mosul prior to the [Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq-war), but most have since fled to northern Iraq, where Assyrian Christians form a majority in some districts.\n[Assyrian Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-christians) belong to [Syriac churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-christianity) such as the [Chaldean Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-catholic-church), the [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), the [Ancient Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-church-of-the-east), the [Syriac Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-catholic-church) and the [Syriac Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox-church), with a small number of [Protestant](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestant) converts following the [Assyrian Pentecostal Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-pentecostal-church) and [Assyrian Evangelical Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-evangelical-church).\nThe Iraqi former foreign minister and deputy prime minister [Tariq Aziz](https://bliptext.com/articles/tariq-aziz) (real name [Michael Youkhanna](https://bliptext.com/articles/michael-youkhanna)) is probably the most famous Assyrian Iraqi Christian, along with the footballer [Ammo Baba](https://bliptext.com/articles/ammo-baba).\nAssyrians in Iraq have traditionally excelled in business, sports, the arts, music, and the military.\nAssyrians are distinct from other [Semitic](https://bliptext.com/articles/semitic-languages) Christian groups in the Middle East in that they have retained their original [Neo-Aramaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/neo-aramaic) language and [Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-language) written script, and have maintained an [Assyrian continuity](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-continuity) from ancient times to the present, resisting the adoption of Arabic language and [Arabization](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabization).\nIn his recent PhD thesis and in his recent book the Israeli scholar [Mordechai Zaken](https://bliptext.com/articles/mordechai-zaken) discussed the history of the Assyrian Christians of Turkey and Iraq (in the Kurdish vicinity) during the last 180 years, from 1843 onwards.\nIn his studies Zaken outlines three major eruptions that took place between 1843 and 1933 during which the Assyrian Christians lost their land and hegemony in their habitat in the Hakkārī (or Julamerk) region in southeastern Turkey and became refugees in other lands, notably Iran and Iraq, and ultimately in exiled communities in Western countries (the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Russia and within many of the 27 [EU member states](https://bliptext.com/articles/eu-member-states) like Sweden, France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands).\nMordechai Zaken wrote this important study from an analytical and comparative point of view, comparing the Assyrian Christians experience with the experience of the Kurdish Jews who had been dwelling in Kurdistan for two thousands years or so, but were forced to migrate the land to Israel in the early 1950s.\nThe Jews of Kurdistan were forced to leave and migrate as a result of the Arab-Israeli war, as a result of the increasing hostility and acts of violence against Jews in Iraq and Kurdish towns and villages, and as a result of a new situation that had been built up during the 1940s in Iraq and Kurdistan in which the ability of Jews to live in relative comfort and relative tolerance (that was erupted from time to time prior to that period) with their Arab and Muslim neighbors, as they did for many years, practically came to an end.\nAt the end, the Jews of Kurdistan had to leave their Kurdish habitat en masse and migrate into Israel.\nThe Assyrian Christians on the other hand, came to similar conclusion but migrated in stages following each and every eruption of a political crisis with the regime in which boundaries they lived or following each conflict with their Muslim, Turkish, Arabs or Kurdish neighbors, or following the departure or expulsion of their patriarch Mar Shimon in 1933, first to Cyprus and then to the United States.\nConsequently, indeed there is still a small and fragile community of [Assyrians in Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iraq), however, millions of Assyrian Christians live today in exile in many communities in the West.\n# [Celebration of Corpus Christi in Iraq, 1920, attended by Assyrians and Armenians | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/BaghdadCorpus1920.jpg]\n# [Mor Mattai Monastery in Nineveh | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Saint///Matthew///Monastery///%28Der///Mar///Matti%29%2C///overlooking///Bashiqa///and///Bartella%2C///between///the///Kurdistan///Region///and///Iraq///06. jpg]\n\n## Iran\nIran's Christian minority numbers some 300,000–370,000.\nMost are ethnic [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-iran) (up to 250,000–300,000 ) and [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-iran) (up to 40,000), who follow [Armenian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-orthodox) and [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east) Christianity respectively.\nThere are at least 600 churches serving the nation's Christian adherents.\nChristianity has a long history in Iran, dating back to [Parthian](https://bliptext.com/articles/parthian-empire) times, in the early years of the Christian faith, although the major religion among the [Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-peoples) peoples themselves was [Zoroastrianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroastrianism).\nThe [Sasanian Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/sasanian-empire) was the centre of the [Nestorian Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorian-church).\nMany of the early followers were [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), and transplanted [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) living in the [Urmia](https://bliptext.com/articles/urmia) region, and along the north western border with [Mesopotamia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mesopotamia).\nThese were added to by other [Semites](https://bliptext.com/articles/semitic-people), followers of the Nestorian church, some of whom were Assyrians from Mesopotamia, others being from Syria.\nFurthermore, there has been a thriving native Christian [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-iran) community since ancient times in northwestern Iran, nowadays [Iranian Azerbaijan](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-azerbaijan).\nThe many Armenian churches and monasteries in the region, such as the notable [St. Thaddeus Monastery](https://bliptext.com/articles/st-thaddeus-monastery), are extant remainders of this.\nOther significantly Christian populated areas in Parthian and Sassanid Iran included the provinces of [Persian Armenia](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-armenia), [Caucasian Albania](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasian-albania), and [Caucasian Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasian-iberia), amongst others.\nIn the course of the 20th century, Iran's large Christian minority, mainly the native Armenians and Assyrians who have a presence in Iran for millennia, took a heavy blow due to the [Assyrian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-genocide) (by Ottoman troops crossing the border), [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide) (by Ottoman troops crossing the border), the [Iranian Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-revolution) and the [Iran–Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran-iraq-war).\nEspecially due to the two Ottoman-conducted genocides, regions where Christians even made up majorities or had a significant native historical presence for millennia, never became the same again.\nHowever, due to the same genocides, Iran's Christian community was boosted as well at the same time as many migrated to Iran from the Ottoman regions.\nThe most famous contemporary Christian of Iranian origin is probably the American tennis player [Andre Agassi](https://bliptext.com/articles/andre-agassi), who is ethnically [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians)-[Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people).\nThe \"Armenian Monastic Ensemble\", which includes several of the nation's most ancient Christian Armenian churches and monasteries, are inscribed on the [UNESCO](https://bliptext.com/articles/unesco) world heritage list.\n# [St. Thaddeus Monastery, or \"Kara Kelissa\", in Iran's West Azarbaijan province | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Qareh///kelissa.jpg]\n\n## Israel\nSome 80% of Christians residing permanently in Israel are Arabs, numbering at least 180,400 as of 2019.\nOf all Christians, around 60% belong to the [Melkite Greek Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-greek-catholic-church), 32% of all Christians belong to the [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church), mainly the [Jerusalem Patriarchate](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-patriarchate-of-jerusalem) though some recent immigrants are [Russian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-orthodox).\nSmaller numbers are [Roman Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-catholic-church), [Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites-in-israel), [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-israel), [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), [Georgians](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgians) and [Messianic Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/messianic-jews).\nDuring the 1990s, the Christian community had been increased due to the immigration of Jewish-Christian [mixed marriages](https://bliptext.com/articles/interfaith-marriage), who had predominantly arrived from the countries of the former Soviet Union.\nThis added another 20–30 thousands of mostly [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox) Christians with [Russian](https://bliptext.com/articles/russians) and [Ukrainian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ukrainians) ancestry.\nMany Christian towns or neighborhoods were totally or partially destroyed during the creation of the State in the 1940s and 1950s such as [Iqrith](https://bliptext.com/articles/iqrit), [Al bassa](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-bassa), [kufur birim](https://bliptext.com/articles/kafr-bir-im), [Ma’loul](https://bliptext.com/articles/ma-alul), West Jerusalem neighborhoods, all residents of [Safed](https://bliptext.com/articles/safed), [Beisan](https://bliptext.com/articles/beit-she-an), [Tiberias](https://bliptext.com/articles/tiberias) (including Christians), a big part of the Christians in [Haifa](https://bliptext.com/articles/haifa), [Jaffa](https://bliptext.com/articles/jaffa), [Lydda](https://bliptext.com/articles/lod), [Ramleh](https://bliptext.com/articles/ramla) and other places.\nIn recent years, the Christian population in Israel has increased significantly by presence of foreign workers from a number of countries (predominantly the Philippines and Romania).\nNumerous churches have opened in [Tel Aviv](https://bliptext.com/articles/tel-aviv), in particular.\nNine churches are officially recognized under Israel's [confessional system](https://bliptext.com/articles/marriage-in-israel), for the self-regulation of status issues, such as marriage and divorce.\nThese are the [Eastern Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox), [Roman Catholic (Latin rite)](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-catholic-latin-rite), [Gregorian-Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregorian-armenian), [Armenian Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-catholic), [Syriac Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-catholic-church), [Chaldean (Uniate)](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-uniate), [Melkite (Greek Catholic)](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-greek-catholic), [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east), [Ethiopian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethiopian-orthodox), [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) and [Syriac Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox) churches.\nThere are more informal arrangements with other churches such as the [Anglican Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglican-bishop-of-jerusalem) and [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints).\nArab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel.\n[Maariv](https://bliptext.com/articles/maariv) have described the Arab Christians sectors as \"the most successful in education system\", since Arab Christians fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other group receiving an education in Israel.\nArab Christians have one of the highest rates of success in the matriculation examinations, (64%) both in comparison to the [Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/muslims) and the [Druze](https://bliptext.com/articles/druze) and in comparison to all students in the [Jewish](https://bliptext.com/articles/jewish) education system as a group.\nThe rate of students studying in the field of [medicine](https://bliptext.com/articles/medicine) was also higher among the Arab Christian students, compared with all the students from other sectors.\nThe percentage of Arab Christian women who are higher education students is higher than other sectors.\n# [Catholic Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Arab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Wikimania///2011-08-07///by-RaBoe-078.jpg]\n\n## Jordan\nIn Jordan, Christians constitute 6% of the population as of 2017 according to the Jordanian government.\nThis percentage represents a sharp decrease from a figure of 18% in the early 20th century.\nThis drop is largely due to an influx of Muslim Arabs from the Hijaz after the First World War.\nAlmost 50% of Jordanian Christians belong to the [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church), 45% are Catholics, with a small minority adhering to Protestantism.\nA part of Jordanian Christians have [Palestinian](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinians) roots since 1948.\nChristians are well integrated in the Jordanian society and have a high level of freedom.\nNearly all Christians belong to the middle or upper classes.\nMoreover, Christians enjoy more economic and social opportunity in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan than elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.\nThey have a disproportionately large representation in the Jordanian parliament (10% of the Parliament) and hold important government portfolios, ambassadorial appointments abroad, and positions of high military rank.\nA survey by a Western embassy found that half of Jordan's prominent business families were Christians.\nChristians run about a third of Jordan's economy.\nJordanian Christians are allowed by the public and private sectors to leave work to attend Divine Liturgy or Mass on Sundays.\nAll Christian religious ceremonies are publicly celebrated.\nChristians have established good relations with the royal family and the various Jordanian government officials and they have their own ecclesiastic courts for matters of personal status.\nMost native Christians in Jordan identify themselves as Arab, though there are also non-Arab [Assyrian/Syriac](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-people) and [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite) groups in the country.\n# [John of Damascus an Arab monk and presbyter, 7th-century (Greek icon) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/John-of-Damascus///01.jpg]\n\n## Lebanon\n[Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) holds the largest proportion of Christians in the [Arab world](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world) proportionally and falls behind only Egypt in absolute numbers.\nChristians were half of [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon)'s population before the [Lebanese Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanese-civil-war) (1975–1990), but in 2012 they are believed to form a large minority of 40.5% of the country's population (according to the last official Lebanese Census of 1932, the Lebanese Christian population was 51% of the country's population).\nHowever, if one counts the estimated 8–14-million-strong [Lebanese diaspora](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanese-diaspora), they form far more than the majority of the population.\nThe exact number of Christians is uncertain because no official census has been made in [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) since 1932.\n[Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) Christians belong mostly to the [Maronite Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) and [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-christianity-in-lebanon), with sizable minorities belonging to the [Melkite Greek Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite-christianity-in-lebanon).\nLebanese Christians are the only Christians in the Middle East with a sizable political role in the country.\nAs a result of the [National Pact](https://bliptext.com/articles/national-pact) the [Lebanese president](https://bliptext.com/articles/president-of-lebanon), half of the cabinet, and half of the parliament follow one of the various Lebanese Christian rites.\n[Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) tradition can be traced back to [Saint Maron](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-maron) in the 4th century, the founder of national and ecclesiastical Maronitism.\nSaint Maron adopted an ascetic, reclusive life on the banks of the Orontes river near [Homs](https://bliptext.com/articles/homs)–Syria and founded a community of monks who preached the Gospel in the surrounding area.\nThe Saint Maron Monastery was too close to Antioch, making the monks vulnerable to emperor [Justinian II](https://bliptext.com/articles/justinian-ii)'s persecution.\nTo escape persecution, [Saint John Maron](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-maron), the first Maronite patriarch-elect, led his monks into the [Lebanese mountains](https://bliptext.com/articles/mount-lebanon); the Maronite monks finally settled in the [Qadisha valley](https://bliptext.com/articles/kadisha-valley).\nDuring the Muslim conquest, Muslims persecuted the Christians, particularly the Maronites, with the persecution reaching a peak during the Umayyad caliphate.\nNevertheless, the influence of the Maronite establishment spread throughout the Lebanese mountains and became a considerable [feudal](https://bliptext.com/articles/feudalism) force.\nAfter the Muslim Conquest, the [Maronite Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) became isolated and did not reestablish contact with the Church of Rome until the 12th century.\nAccording to [Kamal Salibi](https://bliptext.com/articles/kamal-salibi), a Lebanese [Protestant Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism-in-lebanon), some Maronites may have been descended from an Arabian tribe, who immigrated thousands of years ago from the Southern [Arabian Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabian-peninsula).\nSalibi maintains \"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\".\nAs a matter of fact, Salibi bases his conclusions, not on scientific evidences or irrefutable historical facts, but rather on his pan Arabic ideology.\nHence, the majority of Lebanese Maronite Christians rejects his ideas, and points out that they are of pre-Arab origin.\nAs a further matter, recent studies confirmed the Lebanese (the Maronites especially) lineage to the Phoenicians/Canaanites by DNA genome study.\nThe study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics shows that present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in the Levant since at least the Bronze Age.\nMany [Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) [Maronite](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-christianity-in-lebanon) Christians consider themselves of indigenous [Phoenician](https://bliptext.com/articles/phoenicia) ancestry, arguing that their presence predates the arrival of Arabs in the region.\nThough they originate from the Orontes river near Homs, Syria and founded a community of monks who left the Syriac Orthodox church.\nThe [Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) town of [Bsharri](https://bliptext.com/articles/bsharri) is the largest predominantly Christian town in Lebanon and the [Middle East](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-east) (with [Maronite Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites) greater than 99.5% of the town and [District's](https://bliptext.com/articles/bsharri-district) total population) and the one with the largest number of [Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholics).\nWhile several Middle Eastern cities ([Damascus](https://bliptext.com/articles/damascus), [Cairo](https://bliptext.com/articles/cairo), [Jerusalem](https://bliptext.com/articles/jerusalem)) have larger Christian communities, yet these do not constitute a majority.\nThe capital [Beirut](https://bliptext.com/articles/beirut) also has a larger Christian population than Bsharri (in the city proper), though most belong to the [Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) confession.\n\n## Turkey\nChristianity has a long history in [Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia) (now part of the [Republic of Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-turkey)), which is the birthplace of numerous Christian [Apostles](https://bliptext.com/articles/twelve-apostles) and [Saints](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint), such as [Paul](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-the-apostle) of [Tarsus](https://bliptext.com/articles/tarsus-city), [Timothy](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-timothy), [Nicholas](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-nicholas) of [Myra](https://bliptext.com/articles/myra), [Polycarp](https://bliptext.com/articles/polycarp) of [Smyrna](https://bliptext.com/articles/smyrna) and many others.\nTwo out of the five centers ([Patriarchates](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriarchate)) of the ancient [Pentarchy](https://bliptext.com/articles/pentarchy) are in Turkey: [Constantinople](https://bliptext.com/articles/constantinople) ([Istanbul](https://bliptext.com/articles/istanbul)) and [Antioch](https://bliptext.com/articles/antioch) ([Antakya](https://bliptext.com/articles/antakya)).\nThe Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople still today has his residence in Istanbul.\nAntioch was also the place where the followers of [Jesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesus) were called \"Christians\" for the first time in history, as well as being the site of [one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-saint-peter), established by [Saint Peter](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-peter) himself.\nFor a thousand years, the [Hagia Sophia](https://bliptext.com/articles/hagia-sophia) was the largest church in the world.\nThe [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks) of western Anatolia and [Georgians](https://bliptext.com/articles/georgians) of the [Black Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/black-sea) region have histories dating from the 20th and 10th centuries BC respectively, and were also Christianized during the first few centuries AD. Similarly the [Assyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people) and [Armenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) peoples have an ancient history in southeastern Anatolia, dating back to 2000 BC and 600 BC respectively; both of these peoples were Christianized between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD.\nThese ancient Christian ethnic groups were drastically reduced by [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) during and after World War I (see Armenian [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide), Assyrian [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide) and Greek [genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/genocide)) at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish army and their Kurdish allies.\n[Population exchange between Greece and Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/population-exchange-between-greece-and-turkey) is another reason.\nThe percentage of Christians in Turkey fell from 19 percent in 1914 or 3 million (thought to be an undercount by one-third omitting 600,000 [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians), 500,000 [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks) and 400,000 Assyrians) to 2.5 percent in 1927 in a population of 14 million, due to events which had a significant impact on the country's demographic structure, such as the [Armenian genocide](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-genocide), the [population exchange between Greece and Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/population-exchange-between-greece-and-turkey), and the [emigration of Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/christian-emigration) (such as [Levantines](https://bliptext.com/articles/levantines), [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/greeks), [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians) etc.) to foreign countries (mostly in Europe and the Americas) that actually began in the late 19th century and gained pace in the first quarter of the 20th century, especially during World War I and after the [Turkish War of Independence](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-war-of-independence).\nToday there are more than 160,000 people of different [Christian denominations](https://bliptext.com/articles/christian-denominations), representing less than 0.2 percent of Turkey's population, including an estimated 80,000 [Oriental Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-orthodox), 35,000 [Roman Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church), 18,000 [Antiochian Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/antiochian-greeks), 5,000 [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox-church) and smaller numbers of [Protestants](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism) (mostly [ethnic Turkish](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkish-people)).\nCurrently there are 236 churches open for worship in Turkey.\nThe [Eastern Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) has been [headquartered in Istanbul](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecumenical-patriarchate-of-constantinople) since the 4th century.\n# [Hagia Triada Greek Orthodox Church, Istanbul | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/TR-Istanbul///photo///%2835%29.JPG]\n# [Antiochian Orthodox Christians from Antakya | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Turkish///Christians///from///Antakya.jpg]\n\n## Palestine\nAbout 173,000 Arab [Palestinian Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinian-christians) lived in the Palestinian Authority (including the [West Bank](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-bank) and [Gaza Strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-strip)) in the 1990s.\nBoth the founder of the [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine](https://bliptext.com/articles/popular-front-for-the-liberation-of-palestine), [George Habash](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-habash), and the founder if its offshoot the [DFLP](https://bliptext.com/articles/dflp), [Nayif Hawatmeh](https://bliptext.com/articles/nayif-hawatmeh), were Christians, as is prominent Palestinian activist and former [Palestinian Authority](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinian-authority) minister [Hanan Ashrawi](https://bliptext.com/articles/hanan-ashrawi).\nNowadays, 50% of all Palestinian Christians are Catholics.\nOver the last years, unlike the increase trend in the Christian population of Israel, the number of Christians in the Palestinian Authority has declined severely.\nThe decline of Christianity in the Palestinian Authority is largely attributed to poor birth rates, compared with the dominant Muslim population.\nThe updated number of Arab Christians in the Palestinian Authority is under 75,000.\n# [Married Eastern Orthodox priest from Jerusalem with his family (three generations), circa 1893 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Orthodox///priest///family.jpg]\n\n### Gaza Strip\nSince the [Hamas](https://bliptext.com/articles/hamas) [takeover](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-gaza-2007) of the [Gaza Strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-strip) in 2007, anti-Christian attitudes have been on the increase.\nUnlike in the [Palestinian Authority](https://bliptext.com/articles/palestinian-authority) in the [West Bank](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-bank), the Hamas administration does not include Christians.\nFrom about 2,000 –3,000 Christians before Hamas takeover, as few as one thousand remain in the [Gaza Strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaza-strip) under Hamas rule.\n\n## Syria\nIn Syria, Christians formed just under 15% of the population (about 1.2 million people) according to the 1960 census, but no newer census has been taken.\nCurrent estimates suggest that they now comprise about 3% of the population, due to higher emigration rates than their Muslim compatriots.\nThe largest Churches are the [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox) and [Greek Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-catholic).\nThere are also [Syriac Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-orthodox), [Syriac Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-catholic-church), [Armenian Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-orthodox), [Armenian Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-catholic), [Assyrian Church of the East](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-church-of-the-east) and [Chaldean Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/chaldean-catholic-church) Christians.\nAs of 2018, more than half of the nation's Christians left the country due to the [Syrian Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/syrian-civil-war).\nSyrian Christians are largely [Arab Christians](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-christians) in the bulk of the country, though some may identify as Arabized Greeks (Melkites and Orthodox Church of Antioch) and ethnic [Arameans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arameans) (among Jacobites).\nIn the big cities there are many ethnic [Armenians](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenians-in-syria) and in the northeastern [Al-Hasakah Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-hasakah-governorate) the majority of the Christians are ethnic [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrians-in-syria).\n# [Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Damascus | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Melkite///Greek///Catholic///Church%2C///Damascus%2C///Syria.jpg]\n\n# Emigration\nMany millions of Middle Eastern Christians currently live in the [diaspora](https://bliptext.com/articles/diaspora), elsewhere in the world.\nThese include such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela among them.\nThere are also many Middle Eastern Christians in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, France (due to its historical connections with Lebanon, Egypt, Syria), and to a lesser extent, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, and the Netherlands.\nThe largest number of Middle Eastern Christians residing in the diaspora is that of [Lebanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) Christians, who have migrated out of [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) for security and economic reasons since WWI.\nMany fled [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon) during the [Lebanese Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanese-civil-war).\nThe countries with significant Lebanese Christians include such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela among them.\nAssyrian Christians currently reside in diaspora with large communities in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, reaching more than a million outside of the Middle East.\nMuch of these is attributed to the massive Assyrian Christian exodus from northern Iraq following the 2003 invasion and the consequent [Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq-war), and from north-eastern Syria following the 2011 Arab Spring and the consequent [Syrian Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/syrian-civil-war).\nAmong the Arab Christians, about a million Palestinian Christians reside in the diaspora, largely in the Americas, where their communities have been established since the late 19th century and peaked following the [1948 Arab–Israeli War](https://bliptext.com/articles/1948-arab-israeli-war).\nMore emigrated from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War.\nThe majority of self-identifying [Arab Americans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-american) are [Eastern Rite Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-rite-catholic) or [Orthodox Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/orthodoxy), according to the [Arab American Institute](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-american-institute).\nOn the other hand, most American Muslims are black (African Americans or Sub-Saharan Africans) or of South Asian (Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi) origin.\n# [Most Arab Americans are Christian. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Arab///American///religions.png]\n\n# Churches\n\n## Coptic Christians\nCoptic churches are mainly divided into:\n\n## Assyrian Christians\nMany Christians who originate from the Middle East are ethnic [Assyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/assyrian-people), a [Semitic people](https://bliptext.com/articles/semitic-people) who follow various rites of [Syriac Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/syriac-christianity), and are ethnically and linguistically distinct from Arabs.\nOther Syriac-rite Christians also include the [Arameans](https://bliptext.com/articles/arameans) of [Maaloula](https://bliptext.com/articles/maaloula) and [Jubb'adin](https://bliptext.com/articles/jubb-adin) in Syria.\nIn all, the Assyrians are divided into the following churches:\n\n## Melkite/Greek Christians\nChristians, belonging mostly to [Greek Orthodox](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-orthodox) and [Melkite](https://bliptext.com/articles/melkite) churches:\nAll of them are mainly found in countries like [Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/lebanon), [Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria), [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), [Palestine](https://bliptext.com/articles/state-of-palestine), [Jordan](https://bliptext.com/articles/jordan), [Egypt](https://bliptext.com/articles/egypt) and to a lesser degree in [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), [Iraq](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq), [Libya](https://bliptext.com/articles/libya), and [Sudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sudan).\n\n## Maronite Christians\n[Maronites](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronites) are part of a continuous history of [Christianity in Lebanon](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity-in-lebanon), and have traditionally adhered to the [Maronite Catholic Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/maronite-catholic-church).\nTheir highest population can be found in Lebanon, where they make up 34% of the population.\nOther sizeable Maronite populations can be found in Syria and Israel, with smaller numbers in Egypt and Jordan, and a diaspora community in [the Americas](https://bliptext.com/articles/americas).\n\n## Armenian Christians\nThere is also the [Armenian Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/armenian-church) with its divisions:\nArmenia, historically, was the first state to accept Christianity.\nThere are small numbers of Russian Orthodox and Assyrian Christians in Armenia also.\nArmenian Christians are also to be found in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf states as expats.\n\n## Kurdish Christians\nThe [Kurdish-Speaking Church of Christ](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurdish-christians) (The Kurdzman Church of Christ) is an [Evangelical](https://bliptext.com/articles/evangelicalism) church with mainly Kurdish adherents.\n\n## Anglicans\nThe [Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East](https://bliptext.com/articles/episcopal-church-in-jerusalem-and-the-middle-east) is the [Anglican](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglican) church responsible for the Middle East and North Africa.\nIt is quite small, with only some 35,000 members throughout the area.\nThe Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf looks after 30,000-40,000 Anglicans in the area and ministers to Protestants and others.\n\n## Turkish Christians\n\n## Expatriate Christians\n\n# Notable Middle Eastern Christians\nNotable Christians of Middle Eastern ancestry in Middle East and Diaspora:","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}