The article is devoted to the migration situation in Syria from 2010 to 2025. It examines in detail the forced external and internal displacement of ethno-religious groups, as well as their return migration. It establishes that, as a result of military action, over half of the Syrian population was forced to flee their homes, moving to other parts of the country or becoming refugees abroad. As a result of emigration, the country’s population decreased by more than a third: the demographic imbalance led to significant shifts in the religious composition of Syria’s population, resulting in an increase in the proportion of Alawites and other Shiite communities, as well as Kurds, while the proportion of Sunni Arabs and Christians decreased. The majority of those temporarily displaced from government-controlled areas to the northern regions of Idlib and Aleppo provinces were Sunni Arabs, while the counter-flow from Islamist-held areas consisted largely of members of religious minorities. The stabilization of the political situation in the country in 2024 became the main incentive for Syrians to return home. Internally displaced persons returned most frequently to provinces that experienced the largest displacements, including forced displacements — Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, Homs, and Damascus. Most returns from abroad occurred to Sunni provinces, while regions home to minorities — primarily Kurds and Alawites — received far fewer migrants. Based on statistical sources, it is concluded that the return of Syrians to their former areas of residence will likely not lead to the restoration of the country’s previous religious landscape.

Keywords: Syria, ethno-confessional groups, intercommunal conflict, migration, internally displaced persons, refugees, readmission.

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Gorokhov S.A., Dmitriev R.V., Agafoshin M.M. Syria: migration processes in the country torn by civil war. Christianity in the Middle East, 2026, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 5–15. https://doi.org/10.65324/cme013

One of the features of the theology of medieval Arab-Christian thinkers, which distinguishes these authors from their Greek predecessors, is that Arabic-speaking Christian theologians and apologists often preferred arguments based on various philosophical concepts to traditional arguments based on the Holy Scripture and Tradition. In the doctrine of the Trinity, this led to the emergence of a system of attributive Trinitarian teaching, to the use of the so-called intellectual analogy, to the use of some other ideas not found in the works of the Greek Fathers of the era of the Ecumenical Councils. Among such ideas, one can also include the idea of the unity of God as a unity in species (Israel of Kashkar, Abdallah ibn al-Fadl). To this day, the question of who introduced this idea into the context of Trinitarian discussions and when remains unclear. The first Arab-Christian author who discussed the possibility of defining God as one in species was the famous Syriac Jacobite theologian and philosopher Abu Ra’ita at-Takriti (first half of the 9th century). However, it remains unclear from his reasoning whether he himself accepted this point of view or not. Researchers on this issue are divided into two equal groups: some (G. Graf, B. Holmberg, T. Ricks, S. Noble) believe that Abu Ra’ita rejected the opinion about the unity of God in species, while others (S. Keating, S. L. Husseini, B. Ebied, V. Abdi), on the contrary, assert that this was precisely the position of at-Takriti. At the same time, none of the researchers tries to substantiate their opinion. The article attempts to analyze the argumentation of Abu Ra’ita from the point of view of the goals and method of his Trinitarian apologetics. Based on the study, it is concluded that the opinion about the unity of God in the species was not only shared by al-Takriti, but also played a significant role in his apologetic argumentation. This idea was necessary for the Syriac-Jacobite theologian in order to present the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as a kind of teaching about the Divine unity and to show, based on the philosophical positions shared by his opponents, that it is the Christian understanding of the unity of the Creator that is the most perfect.

Keywords: Arab Christians, Syriac-Jacobites, Arab Christian literature, Trinitarian theology, Christian-Muslim polemics, kalam, mutakallims.

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Davydenkov O.V. The Unity of God as Unity in Species: Abu Ra’ita al-Takriti’s Trinitarian Apologetics. Christianity in the Middle East, 2026, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 16–29. https://doi.org/10.65324/cme014

This article examines the journeys of medieval Jewish travelers Benjamin of Tudela and Petachia of Regensburg (12th century) to the Holy Land, analyzing their observations and interactions with representatives of different religious groups. The authors of the abovementioned travelogues aim to construct a plausible picture of the current political situation and daily life in the region for their readers in Europe. At the same time, they conveyed their attitudes both explicitly and implicitly toward the ethno-religious groups they encountered (Franks, Muslims, and local Christians) through their deliberate choice of ethnonyms and confessional designations. For the most part these terms are seemingly neutral but could, when necessary, reflect a particular stance toward a given group, even if the author himself did not intend it as a value judgement. The Holy Land in the travelers’ accounts is indeed Jewish by nature, which is reflected by the names of shrines and other landmarks, at the same time, real local Jews are of little interest to travelogue authors. This analysis allows us to deepen our understanding of interfaith relations during the Crusades and the subsequent era, as well as to consider the role of the Jewish communities throughout Europe as a cultural transmitter and observer in the complex religious and political landscape of the Holy Land.

Keywords: travelogue, Jewish travelers, holy places, image, Holy Land, Jerusalem.

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Zanozina A.V. Images of Christians and Muslims of the Holy Land in the travelogues of Benjamin of Tudela and Petachia of Regensburg. Christianity in the Middle East, 2026, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 30–43. https://doi.org/10.65324/cme015

The article is dedicated to the attitude of Muslim theologians in early Ottoman Egypt (16–17th centuries) towards visible and audible manifestations of Christianity and its sacred space under Islamic rule. The study concerns visual manifestations, such as candles, crosses, palm branches and other symbolic objects in churches or religious festivals and processions. It also deals with auditory symbols, like chanting, sound of wooden clappers, and the ringing of church bells, demarcating Christian sacral time and space. Special attention is paid to the attitude of al-Shaʻrānī (d. 1565), one of the biggest Sufi leaders and religious authorities of the period, because his works contain deep perspective on the relations between religious communities and regulation for non-Muslims. The study introduces into scholarly discourse his unique work, preserved in the manuscript that has not been an object of academic research before. This text sheds new light on how al-Shaʻrānī raised questions of religious regulation for non-Muslims, balancing between citations, historical precedent and reality. The research is also based on other unpublished manuscripts that have not yet been integrated into academic discourse. These materials provide valuable insights into local practices of restrictions (or sometimes selective acceptation) imposed on Christian religious rites. The article shed the light on two main rhetorical and jurisprudential strategies of Muslim theologians: appeals to the ʻPact of ʻUmarʼ and references to the practices of previous rulers of Egypt. The study demonstrates how religious boundaries were set up and changed in early Ottoman Egypt, revealing the complex relations between officially declared Islamic norms, interpretation of the Sharīʻa, and actual social experience in a multiconfessional society.

Keywords: Egypt, Ottoman Empire, Christians, churches, bells, candles, Pact of Umar.

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Rozov V.A. The Attitude of Muslim Religious Authorities towards Marking Christian Sacred Spaces in Early Ottoman Egypt. Christianity in the Middle East, 2026, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 44–56. https://doi.org/10.65324/cme016

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical fate of Caucasian Albania and its Church during the pivotal 7th and 8th centuries, a period marked by the collapse of the Sasanian Empire and the establishment of Umayyad hegemony in the Near East and adjacent territories. This study reconstructs the process of the systemic dismantling of Albanian state and religious institutions—a subject that frequently remains on the periphery of modern Caucasian studies. The research addresses the rapid decline of Sasanian Iran, attributed to ethno-religious particularism and the centrifugal aspirations of regional elites. Special attention is devoted to the fiscal policy of the Umayyads: it is argued that the Arab administration implemented a pragmatic reception of Sasanian taxation models, transforming them into instruments for the rigorous exploitation of the Christian population. Central to the study is the tragedy of the Caucasian Albanian Church. Through an analysis of the activities of Patriarchs Viro, Nerses Bakur, and Michael, the mechanisms behind the loss of ecclesiastical autocephaly are identified. The circumstances of the Council of Barda (704–705 AD) are examined in detail, characterizing it as an act of institutional absorption of the Albanian See by the See of Dvin, facilitated by the direct political support of the Caliphate. The scholarly novelty of the research lies in substantiating the thesis that the liquidation of Albanian ecclesiastical independence and the subsequent loss of the national script resulted from a purposeful alliance of interests between the Arab administration, which sought centralized control, and the Armenian Church, which pursued canonical unification. In conclusion, it is argued that the replacement of the Albanian liturgical language with Old Armenian (Grabar) in the early 8th century served as a “point of no return,” predetermining the cultural assimilation of the Albanian ethnic group and the final disappearance of a distinct Albanian literary tradition within an Islamic environment.

Keywords: Christianity in Azerbaijan, Caucasian Albania, Caucasian Albanian Church, Umayyad Caliphate, Sasanian Empire, Mihranids, Nerses Bakur, Jevanshir, South Caucasus.

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Nikonorov A.V. Caucasian Albania and Its Church under the Rule of the Umayyad Caliphate in the 7th–8th centuries. Christianity in the Middle East, 2026, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 57–82. https://doi.org/10.65324/cme017

The article examines the most famous interpretation in church practice (primarily due to the Catechetical Homily on Pascha by St. John Chrysostom), yet at the same time the most unusual and completely unexplored Christological interpretation of the taunt song against the King of Babylon (Isa. 14:4–21). Within this interpretation, the phrase of the prophet Isaiah, “Hades below was embittered to meet you” (Isa. 14:9), and certain other words of the song are applied to Christ, specifically to His Descent into Hades. For the first time, the article collects and analyzes all the written testimonies of the first millennium that contain such an interpretation, and identifies its probable earliest source — the Odes of Solomon (1st-2nd century AD). It is shown that the Christological understanding of Isa. 14:9 is absent in line-by-line commentaries on the book of the prophet, and it is primarily represented in church homiletics and hymnography (from the 4th century). Based on key witnesses (the Odes — the Catechetical Homily on Pascha — the Questions and Answers of Pseudo-Caesarius — the kontakia of St. Romanos the Melodist — the canons of Sts. Andrew of Crete and Theodore the Studite), it is hypothesized that the interpretation first appeared in Syria and was then (apparently no later than the 6th century) transferred to Constantinople, where it was definitively established in church tradition in the 9th-10th centuries, when Chrysostom’s Catechetical Homily became the statutory reading for Pascha. Possible reasons for the emergence of the Christological interpretation are proposed. The main role here was apparently played by the word ἐπικράνθη (“became bitter” or “was embittered”) present in Isa. 14:9 LXX, which, when applied to Hades, could have been understood in a physical sense, giving rise to the metaphor of Hades’ “stomach ailment”: when Hades tasted the bitterness of Christ’s arrival, it led to the vomiting forth of the dead from Hades. The article also examines the other four variants of interpreting the taunt song against the King of Babylon that existed in the first millennium, in order to highlight, against this background, the uniqueness of the Christological interpretation, as well as to demonstrate the full diversity of church exegesis concerning these prophetic words.

Keywords: Holy Scripture, Old Testament, Book of Prophet Isaiah, Song of the King of Babylon, Lucifer, Orthodox exegesis, Odes of Solomon, John Chrysostom, hymnography, Syria, Constantinople.

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Serebryakov N.S., Potryasaeva N.A. “Hades below was embittered to meet you”: a Christological Interpretation of the taunt song against the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4–21) in the Christian Tradition of the I–X centuries. Christianity in the Middle East, 2026, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 83–105. https://doi.org/10.65324/cme018