Towards the Arab National Renaissance: the Struggle for the Throne of Antioch in the 2nd Half of the 19th Century and Russia

Abstract

The article is focused on little known pages of the Russian support to the Arabic church and national movement during the last decades of the 19th century. Supporting the Arab Orthodox population of Syria and Lebanon was an important part of the Russian policy in the Near East. The attempt to convert part of the Melkites to Orthodoxy in the 1860-s was not successful, but already in 1869 the Russian Consul in Beirut managed to ensure the election of a pro-Russian Arab Gabriel Shatila as Metropolitan of Beirut. After few failures of the Arabic candidates in the struggle for the Patriarchal see, in 1899, despite the opposition of the French diplomatic representatives (who supported the candidates of the Holy Sepulcher brotherhood), the Russians achieved the enthronement of Patriarch Melety Dumani. The newly discovered archive materials show the details of these events and contribute to their understanding in the course of the French-Russian confrontation in the region.