Noble, Samuel and Treiger, Alexander (2014) The Orthodox Church in the Arab World, 700 - 1700: An Anthology of Sources/Foreword by Metropolitan Ephrem (Kyriakos). DeKalb, IL.: Northern Illinois University Press. - 355 p.

The book "The Orthodox Church in the Arab World (700-1700): An Anthology of Sources", compiled by Samuel Noble, PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Yale University, and Alexander Treiger, Ph. D. (Islam and Middle Eastern Christianity), associate professor at Dalhousie University (Canada), consists of three main parts-introduction (pp. 3-39), sequences of chapters containing relevant sources or fragments thereof, the publication of which (in the English translation) is preceded by the translator's preface and accompanied by a bibliography (40-275), and, finally, detailed notes to the introductory and source study sections (277_349) - The publication also contains an index of biblical and Quranic quotations (354-366), index of names (366-375), preface by Ephraim (Kyriakos), Orthodox Metropolitan of Tripoli, Al-Kura and surrounding area of Antioch-

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articles (vii-viii) and information about researchers and translators from whose works this anthology is compiled (351~352)-

The introduction is a series of chapters that provide an overview of the history of Arab Christianity. It opens with the chapter "Arab Christianity-a neglected area of ecclesiastical history", in which the authors point out the contrast between the richness of the heritage of this part of the Christian world and the paucity of attention paid to it by Christian historians. It is impossible not to share the authors ' regret in this regard. The point is not that a certain "national tradition" is left without proper attention. Arab Christianity encompasses an astounding diversity, ethnic, cultural, confessional, and political, with innumerable connections that diverge in all directions, both geographically and culturally and religiously. The next three chapters," Arab Christianity before the advent of Islam"," Arab Christianity during the life of Muhammad"," Arab Christianity and the Muslim conquest of the Middle East", provide a historical and cultural overview of the" common " periods for all faiths in the Arab-Christian East. In the next six chapters, researchers focus on the fate of the Melkite Orthodox community: "Orthodox Arabs under Umayyad rule", "Abbasid Rule and the Birth of Arab-Christian writing", "Orthodox Arabs in Fatimid Palestine", "Byzantine Reconquest of Antioch", "Orthodox Arabs under the Rule of Crusaders, Mongols and Mamluks", "Orthodox Arabs under Ottoman rule". Such attention is dictated by the very idea of the anthology.

The main section of the book, the anthology itself, opens with a chapter devoted to an early written monument of Arab-Christian thought created in the second half of the eighth century, the Apology of the Christian Confession. The introduction and translation of the main extant parts of this work were prepared by Mark N. Swanson. The second chapter focuses on a well-known author of this early period, Theodore Abu Kurra, who was Bishop of Harran (now southeastern Turkey) in the early ninth century. The text proposed in the translation by John C. Lamoreaux, conventionally referred to as Theologus Autodidactus , is part of a large treatise On the Existence of the Creator and True Religion. The third chapter presents the "Pre --

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the Writings of the Monk Abraham of Tiberias, translated by Krisztina Szilagyi. Monk Abraham during the debate (held ca. 820) refutes the objections of three Muslim opponents in the presence of the Emir and performs miracles designed to leave no doubt. The text was apparently used as a kind of catechism. The fourth chapter, "Hagiography" (John Lamoreau), is composed of three monuments: the Martyrdom of St. Anthony Rauch (martyred in Raqqa in 799), the Martyrdom of St. Abd al-Masih al-Ghassani (martyred in Ramla in Palestine in 857), and the story of a Muslim who converted to Christianity (and suffered as a result) He was impressed by the miracle he witnessed in the Church of the Great Martyr George in Lydda. In the next, fifth chapter, John Lamoreau presents excerpts from the world history of Agapius, Bishop of Hierapolis (also known as Mahbub of Manbij) in the tenth century. The proposed part of the text is devoted to the history of the creation of the Septuagint, the Christian attitude to the Holy Scriptures, and the Christian-Jewish controversy on this issue. The sixth chapter introduces the reader to the life and work of Suleiman, Bishop of Gaza, who lived during the era of the unstable Caliph Al-Hakim (996-1021). Excerpts from the poetic works of this author are presented here for the first time in translation (made by Samuel Noble). In the next chapter, Samuel Noble introduces the reader to Abd Allah ibn al-Fadl al-Antaki, a prominent figure in the Arab-Christian East (11th century), a deacon and prolific translator of Biblical texts and church literature from Greek to Arabic, who lived during the "Byzantine Reconquista" - in the Greek reconquest of Antioch. The next two chapters are prepared by Alexander Treiger: one is devoted to the work" Smart Paradise "- an anonymous treatise on spiritual life, which was originally written in Greek, and then translated into Arabic (see the special publication of A. Treiger in the thematic issue of the magazine" Symbol " N58); the other presents the Arabic-Slavic text of the book.the Holy Bishop of Homs and his treatise on the priesthood. The tenth chapter, written by Sidney H. Griffith, introduces the reader to the" Epistle to a Muslim Friend " of Paul, a monk from Antioch (he entered the history of church writing as Paul of Antioch and Bulus ar-Rahib - Paul the Monk), who became the Arab-Orthodox bishop of Sidon (now known as Sidon) in the early 13th century.

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in Lebanon). The next two chapters-the eleventh, "Patriarch Makariy Ibn az-Za'im", which is a short treatise on the meaning of the names of saints, translated by Nikolai Igorevich Serikov, and the final twelfth, "Paul of Aleppo", prepared by Ioana Feodorov-are devoted to already well-known figures of the Orthodox East to the Russian reader. The description of the journey of Patriarch Macarius of Antioch (1647-1671), compiled by his son, known in Russia as Paul of Aleppo, is an extremely important monument of the history, culture and everyday life of the countries through which the messengers from the East passed. He became widely known both among researchers who devoted many works to this travelogue, and among fans of Eastern Christian books.

The reader who has read the texts presented in the anthology and the introductory articles prepared by its authors-compilers, is introduced to the most important materials and main problems of studying the Orthodox East. Such a good introduction will undoubtedly serve a good service not only to the Western audience, to whom the anthology is primarily addressed, being a university publication in English, but also to a wide range of people interested in the Christian East and sympathetic to its fate. At the same time, the anthology leaves the question of the representativeness of the materials presented in it not completely resolved. If the purpose of the publication is to acquaint researchers of the history of Christianity and Christian writing with the heritage of the Arab-Christian East, then one might assume that the book will feature the most famous monuments of this culture. But in the very first paragraph of the preface, sent to the anthology by Metropolitan Ephraim (Kyriakos), the reader is informed that the anthology will acquaint him with " many works previously unpublished and unknown and in Arabic." Do these words mean that among the current representatives of the Arab Orthodox tradition, their own classical heritage is forgotten, or that some of the monuments selected by the compilers of the anthology are not included in the main body of the tradition? Judging by the final words of the introduction (p. 39), the authors themselves believe that the first answer to this question is rather correct and see their task in restoring the written monuments that have been forgotten by the authors themselves.-

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They will also be able to meet the needs of the Orthodox Believers of the Arab Orthodox tradition, while providing access to them to all interested parties. The solution to the question of representativeness will probably become possible when several dozen more volumes similar to the one discussed in this review are published.

Among the technical shortcomings of the publication is the name index, which does not take into account many very important names for the researcher from the extensive (pp. 277-349) section of notes. You can find them only by reading this section thoroughly, which is also typed in small print. This circumstance dramatically reduces the reference value of the book. However, converting the book to electronic format (at the time of writing the review, the publisher provides for providing readers with this book in Kindle format) solves the problem - in this case, the search becomes possible automatically.

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