Chagatay
Chagatay (Chagatai). Political and ethnic term derived from the name of Chagatay (d. 1242), Genghis Khan’s second son by his chief wife. The term Chagatay also designates the territory of the appanage (ulus) assigned to Chagatay by his father at the time of the division of the Mongol Empire in 1224. The territory of the Ulus Chagatay consisted of Transoxiana (roughly the area between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers in present day Uzbekistan, the Semirechie region of present day Kazakhstan, eastern Turkestan (present day Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of Chna), and northern and eastern Afghanistan. Its capital was at Almaligh in the Ili Valley (near present day Kuldja).
The Chagatay khanate was founded after Chagatay Khan’s death by his grandson, Kara Hulegu (r. 1242-1246) on the territory of the Ulus Chagatay. The early khans preserved the nomadic Mongol traditions and avoided mixing with the sedentary population of Transoxiana. There was no centralized authority until the accession of Kebek Khan (r. 1318-1326), who attempted to consolidate his power in Transoxiana. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the khanate split into two sections: the western in Transoxiana, which retained the name Chagatay and favored assimilation with the sedentary Muslim population, and the eastern in Semirechie and eastern Turkestan, which did not want to break with the nomadic traditions. The latter became known as Mughalistan and its inhabitants as Mughals (i. e., Mongols). After the death of Kazan Khan in 1347, power in Transoxiana passed to various local Turkic emirs, and the Chagatay khans remained only nominal rulers until Timur (Tamerlane) established his supremacy in 1370.
The term Chagatay was also applied, by extension, to the nomadic Turkic and turkicized Mongol population (as distinct from the sedentary Iranian) that inhabited the territory of the Ulus Chagatay and constituted a privileged military caste. The term continued to be used in this sense in the fifteenth century under the rule of the Timurids and was used loosely to designate the entire Turkic population of the Timurid Empire. After the collapse of the Timurids, the Chagatay became mixed with the nomadic Uzbeks, but the name was still used as a tribal designation. Moreover, the descendants of Timur who departed from Transoxiana under pressure from the Uzbeks at the beginning of the sixteenth century and founded an empire in India were also called Chagatay.
As an ethnic, tribal designation, Chagatay today is applied to a portion of the sedentary population of the Kashka-Darya and Surkhandarya regions of Uzbekistan, which is partly Uzbek and partly Tajik speaking. The term is also applied to the Eastern Turkic literary language that was formed in the fifteenth century on the territory of the former Ulus Chagatay.
Chagatai see Chagatay
The Chagatay khanate was founded after Chagatay Khan’s death by his grandson, Kara Hulegu (r. 1242-1246) on the territory of the Ulus Chagatay. The early khans preserved the nomadic Mongol traditions and avoided mixing with the sedentary population of Transoxiana. There was no centralized authority until the accession of Kebek Khan (r. 1318-1326), who attempted to consolidate his power in Transoxiana. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the khanate split into two sections: the western in Transoxiana, which retained the name Chagatay and favored assimilation with the sedentary Muslim population, and the eastern in Semirechie and eastern Turkestan, which did not want to break with the nomadic traditions. The latter became known as Mughalistan and its inhabitants as Mughals (i. e., Mongols). After the death of Kazan Khan in 1347, power in Transoxiana passed to various local Turkic emirs, and the Chagatay khans remained only nominal rulers until Timur (Tamerlane) established his supremacy in 1370.
The term Chagatay was also applied, by extension, to the nomadic Turkic and turkicized Mongol population (as distinct from the sedentary Iranian) that inhabited the territory of the Ulus Chagatay and constituted a privileged military caste. The term continued to be used in this sense in the fifteenth century under the rule of the Timurids and was used loosely to designate the entire Turkic population of the Timurid Empire. After the collapse of the Timurids, the Chagatay became mixed with the nomadic Uzbeks, but the name was still used as a tribal designation. Moreover, the descendants of Timur who departed from Transoxiana under pressure from the Uzbeks at the beginning of the sixteenth century and founded an empire in India were also called Chagatay.
As an ethnic, tribal designation, Chagatay today is applied to a portion of the sedentary population of the Kashka-Darya and Surkhandarya regions of Uzbekistan, which is partly Uzbek and partly Tajik speaking. The term is also applied to the Eastern Turkic literary language that was formed in the fifteenth century on the territory of the former Ulus Chagatay.
Chagatai see Chagatay
Chagatay Khan
Chagatay Khan (Chagatai Khan) (d.1241 [1242?]). Founder of the Chagatay khanate. He was the second son of Jenghiz Khan, and the greatest authority on the tribal laws of the Mongols. He reigned over the Uighur territory between Bukhara, in the east, and Samarkand, in the west. Notwithstanding his intimate relations with his Muslim minister Qutb al-Din Habash ‘Amid, he was not favorably inclined towards Islam, since certain Islamic prescriptions like slaughtering an animal by cutting its throat and ablutions in running water constituted infringements of Mongol law. {See also Chagatay; Jenghiz Khan; Khan; Mongols; and Uighur.}
Chagatai Khan inherited most of what are now the five Central Asian states after the death of his father and ruled until his death in 1241. He was also appointed by Genghis Khan to oversee the execution of the Yassa, the written code of law created by Genghis Khan, though that lasted only until Genghis Khan was crowned Khan of the Mongol Empire. The Empire later came to be known as the Chagatai Khanate, a descendant empire of the Mongol Empire.
The real founder of the state was Chagatai's grandson Alghu. The state was much less influenced by Islam than the Ilkhanate to the southeast, but there were Muslims within the state and some did convert. However, they kept to old nomadic traits much longer. Some historians have said this was a major reason for the decline in urbanism and agriculture in this area which is known to have occurred. The first ruler who actually converted to Islam was Mubarak-Shah. His conversion occurred in 1256, however this was very problematic because in less than 30 years other rulers would renounce Islam and return to older beliefs. Tarmarshirin converted to Islam and tried to turn the dynasty back toward Islam. His conversion provoked a huge backlash from nomadic groups in the eastern part of the realm who eventually killed him in 1334. After his death the Chagatai state lost its status and disintegrated. Tamerlane would later marry into his family. By the early 1500 they had reasserted themselves in present day Uzbekistan and continued a realm there until the 1700s Shaybanid ruling house of the Uzbeks.
Chagatai Khan see Chagatay Khan
Chagatay Khan (Chagatai Khan) (d.1241 [1242?]). Founder of the Chagatay khanate. He was the second son of Jenghiz Khan, and the greatest authority on the tribal laws of the Mongols. He reigned over the Uighur territory between Bukhara, in the east, and Samarkand, in the west. Notwithstanding his intimate relations with his Muslim minister Qutb al-Din Habash ‘Amid, he was not favorably inclined towards Islam, since certain Islamic prescriptions like slaughtering an animal by cutting its throat and ablutions in running water constituted infringements of Mongol law. {See also Chagatay; Jenghiz Khan; Khan; Mongols; and Uighur.}
Chagatai Khan inherited most of what are now the five Central Asian states after the death of his father and ruled until his death in 1241. He was also appointed by Genghis Khan to oversee the execution of the Yassa, the written code of law created by Genghis Khan, though that lasted only until Genghis Khan was crowned Khan of the Mongol Empire. The Empire later came to be known as the Chagatai Khanate, a descendant empire of the Mongol Empire.
The real founder of the state was Chagatai's grandson Alghu. The state was much less influenced by Islam than the Ilkhanate to the southeast, but there were Muslims within the state and some did convert. However, they kept to old nomadic traits much longer. Some historians have said this was a major reason for the decline in urbanism and agriculture in this area which is known to have occurred. The first ruler who actually converted to Islam was Mubarak-Shah. His conversion occurred in 1256, however this was very problematic because in less than 30 years other rulers would renounce Islam and return to older beliefs. Tarmarshirin converted to Islam and tried to turn the dynasty back toward Islam. His conversion provoked a huge backlash from nomadic groups in the eastern part of the realm who eventually killed him in 1334. After his death the Chagatai state lost its status and disintegrated. Tamerlane would later marry into his family. By the early 1500 they had reasserted themselves in present day Uzbekistan and continued a realm there until the 1700s Shaybanid ruling house of the Uzbeks.
Chagatai Khan see Chagatay Khan
Chagri Beg
Chagri Beg (Dawud Chagri Beg) (989 - July 16, 1060). Oghuz leader who, with Tughril Beg, founded the Saljuq (Seljuk) dynasty. In 1040, they defeated the Ghaznavid Mas‘ud I, and Chagri Beg established Saljuq power in Khurasan. In 1060, peace was concluded between the Saljuqs and the Ghaznavids.
Čaghrī Beg Dawud (also Chagri, Çağrı or Tschaghri) * 989, † July 16th 1060) was a Saljuqs ruler and brother of Tughril (Tughrul) Beg. He was the son of Michael and grandson of the namesake of the dynasty of Seljuk Khan / bin Saldschūq Duqaq. The name translates as Čaghrī Little Hawk or Merlin.
Dawud Chagri Beg see Chagri Beg
Chagri Beg Dawud see Chagri Beg
Cagri
see Chagri Beg
Tschaghri see Chagri Beg
Chagri Beg (Dawud Chagri Beg) (989 - July 16, 1060). Oghuz leader who, with Tughril Beg, founded the Saljuq (Seljuk) dynasty. In 1040, they defeated the Ghaznavid Mas‘ud I, and Chagri Beg established Saljuq power in Khurasan. In 1060, peace was concluded between the Saljuqs and the Ghaznavids.
Čaghrī Beg Dawud (also Chagri, Çağrı or Tschaghri) * 989, † July 16th 1060) was a Saljuqs ruler and brother of Tughril (Tughrul) Beg. He was the son of Michael and grandson of the namesake of the dynasty of Seljuk Khan / bin Saldschūq Duqaq. The name translates as Čaghrī Little Hawk or Merlin.
Dawud Chagri Beg see Chagri Beg
Chagri Beg Dawud see Chagri Beg
Cagri
see Chagri Beg
Tschaghri see Chagri Beg
Chairil Anwar
Chairil Anwar (b. July 26, 1922, Medan, North Sumatra - d. April 28, 1949, Jakarta). Indonesian poet. Chairil Anwar was a member of a family from Medan, East Sumatra, which had moved to Djakarta. Chairil Anwar started writing in 1942 soon after the Japanese occupation. Although a vagabond by nature, and with little formal education, Chairil Anwar translated the poems of Rilke and the Dutch writers Marsman and Slauerhoff, and modelled his Indonesian poems on them.
With his burning vitality and poetic feeling, Chairil Anwar is regarded as the principal figure of the Angkatan Empatpuluh Lima (“Generation of 1945”) and the greatest of Indonesian poets. Chairil Anwar has described his approach as follows: “In Art, vitality is the chaotic initial state; beauty the cosmic final state.”
In Chairil Anwar’s hands the developing Indonesian language attained equality with other languages as a literary medium. Chairil Anwar’s collections of poems were all published in Djakarta after his early death. Deru tjampur Debu (“Cries in the Dust”) was published in 1949; Kerikil Tadjam (“Sharp Gravel”) in 1951; and Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus (“The Robbed and the Broken”) also in 1951.
Chairil Anwar's father, Toeloes, was the former regent of Indragiri, Riau. His parents migrated from Payakumbuh, West Sumatra. Toeloes came from Taeh Baruah and his mother Saleha from Situjuh.
Chairil was educated at Dutch schools, but dropped out at the age of 19. He moved to Jakarta with his mother after his parents divorced and began to read western literature, which influenced his own writing and distinguished him from the previous generation of traditional writers. His poems were circulated on cheap paper during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia and were not published until 1945.
It was apparently the death of his grandmother that inspired Chairil to write poetry and death became a theme of many of his poems. His collected poems were published as Deru Campur Debu [Roar Mixed with Dust] in 1949. By then his health was suffering as a result of his lifestyle and he died at CBZ Hospital (now Ciptomangunkusomo Hospital) on April 28, 1949. This day is celebrated as literature day in Indonesia.
Anwar, Chairil see Chairil Anwar
Chairil Anwar (b. July 26, 1922, Medan, North Sumatra - d. April 28, 1949, Jakarta). Indonesian poet. Chairil Anwar was a member of a family from Medan, East Sumatra, which had moved to Djakarta. Chairil Anwar started writing in 1942 soon after the Japanese occupation. Although a vagabond by nature, and with little formal education, Chairil Anwar translated the poems of Rilke and the Dutch writers Marsman and Slauerhoff, and modelled his Indonesian poems on them.
With his burning vitality and poetic feeling, Chairil Anwar is regarded as the principal figure of the Angkatan Empatpuluh Lima (“Generation of 1945”) and the greatest of Indonesian poets. Chairil Anwar has described his approach as follows: “In Art, vitality is the chaotic initial state; beauty the cosmic final state.”
In Chairil Anwar’s hands the developing Indonesian language attained equality with other languages as a literary medium. Chairil Anwar’s collections of poems were all published in Djakarta after his early death. Deru tjampur Debu (“Cries in the Dust”) was published in 1949; Kerikil Tadjam (“Sharp Gravel”) in 1951; and Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus (“The Robbed and the Broken”) also in 1951.
Chairil Anwar's father, Toeloes, was the former regent of Indragiri, Riau. His parents migrated from Payakumbuh, West Sumatra. Toeloes came from Taeh Baruah and his mother Saleha from Situjuh.
Chairil was educated at Dutch schools, but dropped out at the age of 19. He moved to Jakarta with his mother after his parents divorced and began to read western literature, which influenced his own writing and distinguished him from the previous generation of traditional writers. His poems were circulated on cheap paper during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia and were not published until 1945.
It was apparently the death of his grandmother that inspired Chairil to write poetry and death became a theme of many of his poems. His collected poems were published as Deru Campur Debu [Roar Mixed with Dust] in 1949. By then his health was suffering as a result of his lifestyle and he died at CBZ Hospital (now Ciptomangunkusomo Hospital) on April 28, 1949. This day is celebrated as literature day in Indonesia.
Anwar, Chairil see Chairil Anwar
Chaks
Chaks. Tribal group in Kashmir (r.1561-1588), when they were crushed by the Mughals.
Chaks. Tribal group in Kashmir (r.1561-1588), when they were crushed by the Mughals.
Chalabi, Ahmed
Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi (b. October 30, 1944 – d. November 3, 2015) was an Iraqi politician.
He was interim Minister of Oil in Iraq in April–May 2005 and December 2005 – January 2006 and Deputy Prime Minister from May 2005 to May 2006. Chalabi failed to win a seat in parliament in the December 2005 elections, and when the new Iraqi cabinet was announced in May 2006, he was not given a post. Once dubbed the "George Washington of Iraq" by American supporters, he later fell out of favor and came under investigation by several United States government sources. He was also the subject of a 2008 biography by investigative journalist Aram Roston: The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, And Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi and a 2011 biography by 60 Minutes producer Richard Bonin, Arrows of the Night: Ahmad Chalabi's Long Journey to Triumph in Iraq.
Chalabi was a controversial figure, especially in the United States, for many reasons. In the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), with the assistance of lobbying powerhouse BKSH & Associates, provided a major portion of the information on which United States Intelligence based its condemnation of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, including reports of weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al-Qaeda. Most, if not all, of this information has turned out to be false and Chalabi has been called a fabricator. That, combined with the fact that Chalabi subsequently boasted, in an interview with the British Sunday Telegraph, about the impact that their alleged falsifications had on American policy, led to a falling out between him and the United States government. Furthermore, Chalabi was found guilty in the Petra banking scandal in Jordan. In January 2012, a French intelligence official stated that they believed Chalabi to be an Iranian agent.
Chaldean Catholics
Chaldean Catholics. Semi-autonomous religious group who are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church through the Eastern Rite. The Chaldean Catholics are allowed to retain their customs and rites, even when these differ from the traditions of the Roman church. There are historical ties with the Nestorian Church in Iraq, but these 2 branches split 450 years ago when, in 1551, the Nestorian Patriarch John Sulaka went to Rome and professed his Catholic faith. Many Nestorians followed Sulaka, while others did not accept this conversion. The Catholic branch of the Nestorian Church came to be called Chaldean, or Chaldean Catholic, or East Syriac. The name of the church was changed because referring to Nestor (Nestorius) would not have been acceptable to the Catholic Church. Over the next three centuries, the relationship between the Chaldean Catholics and the Roman Catholics was turbulent resulting in periods of non-affiliation. However, in 1830, there was a final unification with Rome.
The head of the Chaldean Catholic church is based in Baghdad, Iraq, and his title is Catholicos Patriarch. Below him, there are four archdioceses (2 in Iraq and 2 in Iran) and 7 dioceses. The Syrian members are headed by the Diocese of Aleppo. The few thousand members in Iran are headed by 3 archbishops, in Ahwaz, Teheran and in Orumiyeh, who is also bishop of Salmas. The Lebanese members are led by the diocese of Beirut. The Chaldeans still hold on to their East Syrian liturgy of Addai and Mari, and it is performed in Syriac (close to Aramiac, the language of Jesus).
The early history of Chaldean Catholics is linked with the Nestorian Church. However, beginning in the sixteenth century, the history of the Chaldean Catholics began to diverge from the Nestorian Church when the Nestorian community of India joined the Roman Catholic Church after the influence of the Portuguese traders and colonists. {See also Eastern Rite Catholics; Nestorians; and Roman Catholics.}
The Chaldean Christians are adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church. In the 16th century, a major segment of the Nestorian church united with Rome while retaining its ancient liturgy.
A former Nestorian denomination, the Chaldean Christians were united with the Roman Catholic Church in 1553. The Chaldean Catholic Church was established, and its first patriarch was proclaimed patriarch of "Mosul and Athur" (Nineveh and Assyria) on February 20, 1553 by Pope Julius III.
Chaldean Catholics have no direct or absolute lineage with the Neo-Babylonian Empire "Chaldeans", but were designated with the name Chaldean in the 16th century when they reunited with the Catholic Church to distinguish from the adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East.
Also sometimes known as "Chaldean Christians" are the Christians of St. Thomas in India (also called the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church), ethnically Nasrani (speakers of Malayalam).
Strictly, the name of Chaldeans is no longer correct; in Chaldea proper, apart from Baghdad, there are now very few adherents of this rite, most of the Chaldean population being found in the cities of Kerkuk, Arbil, and Mosul, in the heart of the Tigris valley, in the valley of the Zab, in the mountains of northern Iraq. It is in the former ecclesiastical province of Ator (Assyria) that are now found the most flourishing of the Catholic Chaldean communities. There are also significant communities of Chaldean Catholics in other Middle eastern countries (for instance Iran and Lebanon) and in the United States (where there are two dioceses). The native population accepts the name of Atoraya-Kaldaya (Assyro-Chaldeans) while in the neo-Syriac vernacular Christians generally are known as Syrians. The territory now occupied by these Chaldeans belonged once to the Sassanid Empire of Persia, later Umayyad and then the Abbassid caliphs of Islam. Turkish and Mongol invasions, and later efforts to reconstruct the former Kingdom of Persia shattered effectually the earlier political unity of this region; since the end of the 16th century the territory of the Chaldeans has been under Turkish or Persian rule. In fact, however, a number of the mountain tribes are only nominally subject to either.
The patriarch considers Baghdad as the principal city of his see. His title of "Patriarch of Babylon" results from the erroneous identification (in the seventeenth century) of modern Baghdad with ancient Babylon. As a matter of fact the Chaldean patriarch resides habitually at Mosul and reserves for himself the direct administration of this diocese and that of Baghdad. There are five archbishops (resident respectively at Bassora, Diarbekir, Kerkuk, Salamas, and Urmia) and seven bishops. Eight patriarchal vicars govern the small Chaldean communities dispersed throughout Turkey and Persia. The Chaldean clergy, especially the monks of Rabban-Hormizd, have established some missionary stations in the mountain districts inhabited by Nestorians. Three dioceses are in Persia, the others in Turkey.
The liturgical language of the Chaldean Church is Syriac and Arabic. Other languages such as Turkish, Persian and Kurdish are variously spoken by the people. In some districts the vernacular is neo-Syriac. The liturgical books are those of the ancient Nestorian Church, corrected in the sense of Catholic orthodoxy. Unfortunately, without doctrinal necessity, they have in some places been made to conform with Latin usage.
The literary revival in the early 20th century was mostly due to the Lazarist, Pere Bedjan, a Persian Chaldean, who devoted much industry and learning to popularizing among his people, both Catholics and Nestorians, their ancient chronicles, the lives of Chaldean saints and martyrs, even works of the ancient Nestorian doctors.
In recent times, Chaldeans suffered discrimination in Iraq and were deported from the Nineveh plains under Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist rule.
In mid-March 2008, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho was found dead, having been kidnapped two weeks earlier. Pope Benedict XVI condemned his death, by saying it was an act of inhuman violence. Sunni and Shia Muslims also expressed their condemnation.
Chaldean Catholics. Semi-autonomous religious group who are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church through the Eastern Rite. The Chaldean Catholics are allowed to retain their customs and rites, even when these differ from the traditions of the Roman church. There are historical ties with the Nestorian Church in Iraq, but these 2 branches split 450 years ago when, in 1551, the Nestorian Patriarch John Sulaka went to Rome and professed his Catholic faith. Many Nestorians followed Sulaka, while others did not accept this conversion. The Catholic branch of the Nestorian Church came to be called Chaldean, or Chaldean Catholic, or East Syriac. The name of the church was changed because referring to Nestor (Nestorius) would not have been acceptable to the Catholic Church. Over the next three centuries, the relationship between the Chaldean Catholics and the Roman Catholics was turbulent resulting in periods of non-affiliation. However, in 1830, there was a final unification with Rome.
The head of the Chaldean Catholic church is based in Baghdad, Iraq, and his title is Catholicos Patriarch. Below him, there are four archdioceses (2 in Iraq and 2 in Iran) and 7 dioceses. The Syrian members are headed by the Diocese of Aleppo. The few thousand members in Iran are headed by 3 archbishops, in Ahwaz, Teheran and in Orumiyeh, who is also bishop of Salmas. The Lebanese members are led by the diocese of Beirut. The Chaldeans still hold on to their East Syrian liturgy of Addai and Mari, and it is performed in Syriac (close to Aramiac, the language of Jesus).
The early history of Chaldean Catholics is linked with the Nestorian Church. However, beginning in the sixteenth century, the history of the Chaldean Catholics began to diverge from the Nestorian Church when the Nestorian community of India joined the Roman Catholic Church after the influence of the Portuguese traders and colonists. {See also Eastern Rite Catholics; Nestorians; and Roman Catholics.}
The Chaldean Christians are adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church. In the 16th century, a major segment of the Nestorian church united with Rome while retaining its ancient liturgy.
A former Nestorian denomination, the Chaldean Christians were united with the Roman Catholic Church in 1553. The Chaldean Catholic Church was established, and its first patriarch was proclaimed patriarch of "Mosul and Athur" (Nineveh and Assyria) on February 20, 1553 by Pope Julius III.
Chaldean Catholics have no direct or absolute lineage with the Neo-Babylonian Empire "Chaldeans", but were designated with the name Chaldean in the 16th century when they reunited with the Catholic Church to distinguish from the adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East.
Also sometimes known as "Chaldean Christians" are the Christians of St. Thomas in India (also called the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church), ethnically Nasrani (speakers of Malayalam).
Strictly, the name of Chaldeans is no longer correct; in Chaldea proper, apart from Baghdad, there are now very few adherents of this rite, most of the Chaldean population being found in the cities of Kerkuk, Arbil, and Mosul, in the heart of the Tigris valley, in the valley of the Zab, in the mountains of northern Iraq. It is in the former ecclesiastical province of Ator (Assyria) that are now found the most flourishing of the Catholic Chaldean communities. There are also significant communities of Chaldean Catholics in other Middle eastern countries (for instance Iran and Lebanon) and in the United States (where there are two dioceses). The native population accepts the name of Atoraya-Kaldaya (Assyro-Chaldeans) while in the neo-Syriac vernacular Christians generally are known as Syrians. The territory now occupied by these Chaldeans belonged once to the Sassanid Empire of Persia, later Umayyad and then the Abbassid caliphs of Islam. Turkish and Mongol invasions, and later efforts to reconstruct the former Kingdom of Persia shattered effectually the earlier political unity of this region; since the end of the 16th century the territory of the Chaldeans has been under Turkish or Persian rule. In fact, however, a number of the mountain tribes are only nominally subject to either.
The patriarch considers Baghdad as the principal city of his see. His title of "Patriarch of Babylon" results from the erroneous identification (in the seventeenth century) of modern Baghdad with ancient Babylon. As a matter of fact the Chaldean patriarch resides habitually at Mosul and reserves for himself the direct administration of this diocese and that of Baghdad. There are five archbishops (resident respectively at Bassora, Diarbekir, Kerkuk, Salamas, and Urmia) and seven bishops. Eight patriarchal vicars govern the small Chaldean communities dispersed throughout Turkey and Persia. The Chaldean clergy, especially the monks of Rabban-Hormizd, have established some missionary stations in the mountain districts inhabited by Nestorians. Three dioceses are in Persia, the others in Turkey.
The liturgical language of the Chaldean Church is Syriac and Arabic. Other languages such as Turkish, Persian and Kurdish are variously spoken by the people. In some districts the vernacular is neo-Syriac. The liturgical books are those of the ancient Nestorian Church, corrected in the sense of Catholic orthodoxy. Unfortunately, without doctrinal necessity, they have in some places been made to conform with Latin usage.
The literary revival in the early 20th century was mostly due to the Lazarist, Pere Bedjan, a Persian Chaldean, who devoted much industry and learning to popularizing among his people, both Catholics and Nestorians, their ancient chronicles, the lives of Chaldean saints and martyrs, even works of the ancient Nestorian doctors.
In recent times, Chaldeans suffered discrimination in Iraq and were deported from the Nineveh plains under Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist rule.
In mid-March 2008, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho was found dead, having been kidnapped two weeks earlier. Pope Benedict XVI condemned his death, by saying it was an act of inhuman violence. Sunni and Shia Muslims also expressed their condemnation.
Cham
Cham. An ethnic group of Southeast Asia.
The Cham and their close relatives are remnant populations of the ancient kingdom of Champa, which is usually said to have been destroyed by the Vietnamese in 1471. At that time, most of the Cham fled to Angkor (a predecessor state of Kampuchea), where they were well received by the Khmer king. The remainder sought refuge along the least agriculturally attractive portions of the central and southern Vietnamese coast or in the highlands of the Darlac plateau.
Before the fall of Champa, the Cham had been very active in the long distance sea trade between India and China and were allied to the Malays of Melaka both economically and politically. After defeat, the Cham who fled to Angkor re-established their ties with the Malays and other Islamic peoples, but those who remained in Vietnam became increasingly isolated and less orthodox, some even losing most if not all of their Islamic traditions.
The Cham people are concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and central Vietnam's Phan Rang-Thap Cham, Phan Thiet, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang areas. Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in Thailand; many of whom have moved south to the Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla Provinces for work. Cham form the core of the Muslim communities in both Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Cham are remnants of the Kingdom of Champa (7th to 15th centuries). They are closely related to other Austronesian peoples and speak Cham, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family (Aceh-Chamic subgroup).
A section of the Kambysene hordes that settled in the north-west of India later came to be known as Kambojas and their province as Kamboja in ancient Indian traditions. A section of these Scythianized Kambojas is believed to have reached the Tibetan plateau where they mixed with the locals; as a result some Tibetans are still called Kambojas. Through Tibet, they went further to the Mekong valley where they were called Kambujas (Cambodians), now represented by the Chams, still a tall, fair people with non-Mongoloid eyes, of the Mon-Khmers.
Records of the Champa kingdom go as far back as the second century C.C. China. At its height in the 9th century, the kingdom controlled the lands between Hue, in central Annam, to the Mekong Delta in Cochinchina. Its prosperity came from maritime trade in sandalwood and slaves and probably included piracy.
In the 12th century C.C., the Cham fought a series of wars with the Angkorian Khmer to the west. In 1177, the Cham and their allies launched an attack from the lake Tonle Sap and managed to sack the Khmer capital. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII.
Between the rise of the Khmer Empire around 800 and Vietnam's territorial push to the south, the Champa kingdom began to diminish. In 1471, it suffered a massive defeat by the Vietnamese, in which 120,000 people were either captured or killed, and the kingdom was reduced to a small enclave near Nha Trang. Between 1607 and 1676, the Champa king converted to Islam, and during this period Islam became a dominant feature of Cham society.
Further expansion by the Vietnamese in 1720 resulted in the annexation of the Champa kingdom and its persecution by the Vietnamese king, Minh Mang. As a consequence, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, decided to gather his people (those on the mainland) and migrate south to Cambodia, while those along the coastline migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). A tiny group fled northward to the Chinese island of Hainan where they are known today as the Utsuls. The area of Cambodia where the king and the mainlanders settled is still known as Kompong Cham, where they scattered in communities across the Mekong River. Not all the Champa Muslims migrated with the king. A few groups stayed behind in the Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiết provinces of central Vietnam.
In the 1960s there were various movements of uprising to free the Cham people and create their own state. The movements were the Liberation Front of Champa (FLC - Le Front pour la Libération de Cham) and the Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux. The latter sought cooperation with other hilltribes. The initial name of the movement was called "Front des Petits Peuples" from 1946 to 1960. In 1960 the name was changed to "Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux" and joined, with the FLC, the "Front unifié pour la Libération des Races opprimées" (FULRO) at some point in the 1960s.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Cham experienced genocide under the Khmer Rouge. During the massacres by the government, a disproportionate number of Chams were killed compared with ethnic Khmers. Perhaps as many as 500,000 died. They were considered, along with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge's primary enemy. The plan was to exterminate the Cham because they stood out. They worshiped their own god. Their diet was different. Their names and language were different. They lived by different rules. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be equal, but when the Chams practiced Islam they did not appear to be equal. So they were punished.
The Vietnamese Chams live mainly in coastal and Mekong Delta provinces. They have two distinct religious communities, Muslim or Cham Bani constitute about 80%–85% of the Cham, and Hindu or Balamon (deriving from the word "Brāhman" and used both in Cham and in Vietnamese), who constitute about 15%–20% of the Cham. While they share a common language and history, there is no intermarriage between the groups. A small number of the Cham also follow Mahayana Buddhism. Many emigrated to France in the late 1960s after the civil war broke out in Saigon city.
In Cambodia, the Chams are 90% Muslim, as are the Utsuls of Hainan. The isolation of Cham Muslims in central Vietnam resulted in an increased syncretism with Buddhism until recent restoration of contacts with other global Muslim communities in Vietnamese cities, but Islam is now seeing a renaissance, with new mosques being built. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Chams of that country suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated.
Malaysia has some Cham immigrants and the link between the Chams and the Malaysian state of Kelantan is an old one. The Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra status, and the Cham communities in Malaysia and along the Mekong River in Vietnam continue to have strong interactions.
The first religion of the Champa was a form of Shaivite Hinduism, brought by sea from India. As Arab merchants stopped along the Vietnam coast en route to China, Islam began to influence the civilization.
The exact date that Islam came to Champa is unknown, but grave markers dating to the 11th century have been found. It is generally assumed that Islam came to Indochina much after its arrival in China during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), and that Arab traders in the region came into direct contact only with the Chams, and not others. This might explain why only the Chams have been traditionally identified with Islam in Indochina.
Most of the Cham Hindus belong to the Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste, but a considerable minority are Brahmins.
Cham. An ethnic group of Southeast Asia.
The Cham and their close relatives are remnant populations of the ancient kingdom of Champa, which is usually said to have been destroyed by the Vietnamese in 1471. At that time, most of the Cham fled to Angkor (a predecessor state of Kampuchea), where they were well received by the Khmer king. The remainder sought refuge along the least agriculturally attractive portions of the central and southern Vietnamese coast or in the highlands of the Darlac plateau.
Before the fall of Champa, the Cham had been very active in the long distance sea trade between India and China and were allied to the Malays of Melaka both economically and politically. After defeat, the Cham who fled to Angkor re-established their ties with the Malays and other Islamic peoples, but those who remained in Vietnam became increasingly isolated and less orthodox, some even losing most if not all of their Islamic traditions.
The Cham people are concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and central Vietnam's Phan Rang-Thap Cham, Phan Thiet, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang areas. Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in Thailand; many of whom have moved south to the Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla Provinces for work. Cham form the core of the Muslim communities in both Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Cham are remnants of the Kingdom of Champa (7th to 15th centuries). They are closely related to other Austronesian peoples and speak Cham, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family (Aceh-Chamic subgroup).
A section of the Kambysene hordes that settled in the north-west of India later came to be known as Kambojas and their province as Kamboja in ancient Indian traditions. A section of these Scythianized Kambojas is believed to have reached the Tibetan plateau where they mixed with the locals; as a result some Tibetans are still called Kambojas. Through Tibet, they went further to the Mekong valley where they were called Kambujas (Cambodians), now represented by the Chams, still a tall, fair people with non-Mongoloid eyes, of the Mon-Khmers.
Records of the Champa kingdom go as far back as the second century C.C. China. At its height in the 9th century, the kingdom controlled the lands between Hue, in central Annam, to the Mekong Delta in Cochinchina. Its prosperity came from maritime trade in sandalwood and slaves and probably included piracy.
In the 12th century C.C., the Cham fought a series of wars with the Angkorian Khmer to the west. In 1177, the Cham and their allies launched an attack from the lake Tonle Sap and managed to sack the Khmer capital. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII.
Between the rise of the Khmer Empire around 800 and Vietnam's territorial push to the south, the Champa kingdom began to diminish. In 1471, it suffered a massive defeat by the Vietnamese, in which 120,000 people were either captured or killed, and the kingdom was reduced to a small enclave near Nha Trang. Between 1607 and 1676, the Champa king converted to Islam, and during this period Islam became a dominant feature of Cham society.
Further expansion by the Vietnamese in 1720 resulted in the annexation of the Champa kingdom and its persecution by the Vietnamese king, Minh Mang. As a consequence, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, decided to gather his people (those on the mainland) and migrate south to Cambodia, while those along the coastline migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). A tiny group fled northward to the Chinese island of Hainan where they are known today as the Utsuls. The area of Cambodia where the king and the mainlanders settled is still known as Kompong Cham, where they scattered in communities across the Mekong River. Not all the Champa Muslims migrated with the king. A few groups stayed behind in the Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiết provinces of central Vietnam.
In the 1960s there were various movements of uprising to free the Cham people and create their own state. The movements were the Liberation Front of Champa (FLC - Le Front pour la Libération de Cham) and the Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux. The latter sought cooperation with other hilltribes. The initial name of the movement was called "Front des Petits Peuples" from 1946 to 1960. In 1960 the name was changed to "Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux" and joined, with the FLC, the "Front unifié pour la Libération des Races opprimées" (FULRO) at some point in the 1960s.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Cham experienced genocide under the Khmer Rouge. During the massacres by the government, a disproportionate number of Chams were killed compared with ethnic Khmers. Perhaps as many as 500,000 died. They were considered, along with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge's primary enemy. The plan was to exterminate the Cham because they stood out. They worshiped their own god. Their diet was different. Their names and language were different. They lived by different rules. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be equal, but when the Chams practiced Islam they did not appear to be equal. So they were punished.
The Vietnamese Chams live mainly in coastal and Mekong Delta provinces. They have two distinct religious communities, Muslim or Cham Bani constitute about 80%–85% of the Cham, and Hindu or Balamon (deriving from the word "Brāhman" and used both in Cham and in Vietnamese), who constitute about 15%–20% of the Cham. While they share a common language and history, there is no intermarriage between the groups. A small number of the Cham also follow Mahayana Buddhism. Many emigrated to France in the late 1960s after the civil war broke out in Saigon city.
In Cambodia, the Chams are 90% Muslim, as are the Utsuls of Hainan. The isolation of Cham Muslims in central Vietnam resulted in an increased syncretism with Buddhism until recent restoration of contacts with other global Muslim communities in Vietnamese cities, but Islam is now seeing a renaissance, with new mosques being built. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Chams of that country suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated.
Malaysia has some Cham immigrants and the link between the Chams and the Malaysian state of Kelantan is an old one. The Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra status, and the Cham communities in Malaysia and along the Mekong River in Vietnam continue to have strong interactions.
The first religion of the Champa was a form of Shaivite Hinduism, brought by sea from India. As Arab merchants stopped along the Vietnam coast en route to China, Islam began to influence the civilization.
The exact date that Islam came to Champa is unknown, but grave markers dating to the 11th century have been found. It is generally assumed that Islam came to Indochina much after its arrival in China during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), and that Arab traders in the region came into direct contact only with the Chams, and not others. This might explain why only the Chams have been traditionally identified with Islam in Indochina.
Most of the Cham Hindus belong to the Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste, but a considerable minority are Brahmins.
Chamoun
Chamoun (Camille Nimer Chamoun) (Camille Nimr Chamoun) (Kamil Sham'un) (April 3, 1900 – August 7, 1987). President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958, and one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War (1975 - 1990).
Camille Nimr Chamoun was born at Deir el-Qamar (Dayru al-Qamar) on April 3, 1900, into a prominent Maronite Christian family.
He was educated in France and later studied law. In 1925, he received a degree from the French Law College in Beirut.
In 1934, Chamoun was elected to parliament, and in 1938, was appointed finance minister. This appointment was followed by his appointment (in 1943) as Lebanon’s interior minister and in 1944 as Lebanon’s envoy to Great Britain. In 1946, Chamoun was Lebanon’s chief representative to the United Nations.
He was educated in France and became a lawyer. He was first elected to the Lebanese parliament in 1934, and was re-elected in 1937. In 1938, he was appointed finance minister. This appointment was followed by his appointment (in 1943) as Lebanon's interior minister. A champion of independence from France, he was arrested on November 11, 1943, and was imprisoned in Rashaïa castle, where he was held for eleven days, along with Bishara el-Khoury and Riad el-Solh, who were to become the first President and Prime Minister, respectively, of the new republic. Massive public protests led to their release on November 22, 1943, which has since been celebrated as the Lebanese Independence Day.
Chamoun was reelected to parliament, now called the National Assembly, in 1947 and 1951. He was frequently absent, however, as he served as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1944 to 1946, and as ambassador to the United Nations thereafter.
When President Bishara el-Khoury was forced to resign amid corruption allegations in 1952, Chamoun was elected to replace him. Near the end of his term, Pan-Arabists and other groups backed by Nasser, with considerable support in Lebanon's politically disadvantaged Muslim community, attempted to overthrow Chamoun's government in June 1958 after Chamoun tried to illegally seek another term as president. Chamoun appealed to the United States for help under the new Eisenhower Doctrine, and American marines landed in Beirut. The revolt was squashed. However, to appease Muslim anger, General Fuad Chehab who, although Christian, enjoyed considerable popularity in the Muslim community, was elected to succeed Chamoun. The American diplomat Robert Murphy, sent to Lebanon as personal representative of President Eisenhower, played a significant role in persuading Chamoun to resign and Chehab to take his place.
On his retirement from the presidency, Chamoun founded the National Liberal Party (al-Ahrar). As the leader of this party, Chamoun was elected to the National Assembly again in 1960, much to the consternation of President Chehab. He was defeated in 1964, due to changes to the boundaries of his electoral district, which he and his supporters protested as deliberate gerrymandering. He was re-elected to the National Assembly, however, in 1968, and again in 1972 - Lebanon's last parliamentary election held in his lifetime. Following the election of 1968, the National Liberal Party held 11 seats out of 99, becoming the largest single party in the notoriously fractured National Assembly. It was the only political party to elect representatives from all of Lebanon's major religious confessions.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Chamoun served in a variety of portfolios in the Cabinet. This was during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90), in which Chamoun and the NLP participated through the party's militia, the "Tigers" (in Arabic, nimr means tiger). In the early stages of the war, he helped found the Lebanese Front, a coalition of mostly Christian politicians and parties, whose united militia - dominated by the Kataeb Party - became known as the Lebanese Forces (LF). Chamoun was chairman of the Front in 1976-78.
Though initially aligned with Syria, and inviting its army to intervene against the Muslim-leftist Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its Palestinian allies in 1976, Chamoun then gravitated towards opposition to the Syrian presence. In 1980, the NLP's Tigers militia was virtually destroyed by a surprise attack from Chamoun's Christian rival, Bashir Gemayel, and the LF forces under his command. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Chamoun decided to enter a tactical cooperation with Israel, in order to oppose what he considered a Syrian occupation.
In 1984, Chamoun agreed to join the National Unity government as Deputy Prime Minister, a post he held until his death in Beirut on August 7, 1987, at the age of 87. He is remembered as one of the main Christian nationalist leaders, and one of the last significant figures of Lebanon's pre-war generation of politicians, whose political influence was eclipsed during the war by that of younger militia commanders and warlords.
Chamoun’s main political goal in national politics was to reorganize the departments so that they would function more efficiently. But he was not able to bring this to the anticipated results. Through much of his politics, Chamoun’s orientation was towards the Western countries. But this orientation was disdained by many of his allies.
Chamoun was also active over many years in a Christian movement that wanted to build a bridge between the Muslims and Christians in Lebanon. He was a power politician who forged alliances with the powerful Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt in order to remove president Bishara Khouri from power, so that he could become president. But as soon as that was achieved, he cut links with Jumblatt. This would backfire on him six years later with the Civil War of 1958, where Jumblatt was central in forcing him out of the president’s office.
After this political defeat, Chamoun was never able to return as the same political force in Lebanese politics.
Camille Chamoun was survived by his two sons, Dany and Dory, both of whom followed in his footsteps as NLP leaders and politicians in their own right.
Camille Nimer Chamoun see Chamoun
Camille Nimr Chamoun see Chamoun
Kamil Sham'un see Chamoun
Chamoun (Camille Nimer Chamoun) (Camille Nimr Chamoun) (Kamil Sham'un) (April 3, 1900 – August 7, 1987). President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958, and one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War (1975 - 1990).
Camille Nimr Chamoun was born at Deir el-Qamar (Dayru al-Qamar) on April 3, 1900, into a prominent Maronite Christian family.
He was educated in France and later studied law. In 1925, he received a degree from the French Law College in Beirut.
In 1934, Chamoun was elected to parliament, and in 1938, was appointed finance minister. This appointment was followed by his appointment (in 1943) as Lebanon’s interior minister and in 1944 as Lebanon’s envoy to Great Britain. In 1946, Chamoun was Lebanon’s chief representative to the United Nations.
He was educated in France and became a lawyer. He was first elected to the Lebanese parliament in 1934, and was re-elected in 1937. In 1938, he was appointed finance minister. This appointment was followed by his appointment (in 1943) as Lebanon's interior minister. A champion of independence from France, he was arrested on November 11, 1943, and was imprisoned in Rashaïa castle, where he was held for eleven days, along with Bishara el-Khoury and Riad el-Solh, who were to become the first President and Prime Minister, respectively, of the new republic. Massive public protests led to their release on November 22, 1943, which has since been celebrated as the Lebanese Independence Day.
Chamoun was reelected to parliament, now called the National Assembly, in 1947 and 1951. He was frequently absent, however, as he served as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1944 to 1946, and as ambassador to the United Nations thereafter.
When President Bishara el-Khoury was forced to resign amid corruption allegations in 1952, Chamoun was elected to replace him. Near the end of his term, Pan-Arabists and other groups backed by Nasser, with considerable support in Lebanon's politically disadvantaged Muslim community, attempted to overthrow Chamoun's government in June 1958 after Chamoun tried to illegally seek another term as president. Chamoun appealed to the United States for help under the new Eisenhower Doctrine, and American marines landed in Beirut. The revolt was squashed. However, to appease Muslim anger, General Fuad Chehab who, although Christian, enjoyed considerable popularity in the Muslim community, was elected to succeed Chamoun. The American diplomat Robert Murphy, sent to Lebanon as personal representative of President Eisenhower, played a significant role in persuading Chamoun to resign and Chehab to take his place.
On his retirement from the presidency, Chamoun founded the National Liberal Party (al-Ahrar). As the leader of this party, Chamoun was elected to the National Assembly again in 1960, much to the consternation of President Chehab. He was defeated in 1964, due to changes to the boundaries of his electoral district, which he and his supporters protested as deliberate gerrymandering. He was re-elected to the National Assembly, however, in 1968, and again in 1972 - Lebanon's last parliamentary election held in his lifetime. Following the election of 1968, the National Liberal Party held 11 seats out of 99, becoming the largest single party in the notoriously fractured National Assembly. It was the only political party to elect representatives from all of Lebanon's major religious confessions.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Chamoun served in a variety of portfolios in the Cabinet. This was during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90), in which Chamoun and the NLP participated through the party's militia, the "Tigers" (in Arabic, nimr means tiger). In the early stages of the war, he helped found the Lebanese Front, a coalition of mostly Christian politicians and parties, whose united militia - dominated by the Kataeb Party - became known as the Lebanese Forces (LF). Chamoun was chairman of the Front in 1976-78.
Though initially aligned with Syria, and inviting its army to intervene against the Muslim-leftist Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its Palestinian allies in 1976, Chamoun then gravitated towards opposition to the Syrian presence. In 1980, the NLP's Tigers militia was virtually destroyed by a surprise attack from Chamoun's Christian rival, Bashir Gemayel, and the LF forces under his command. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Chamoun decided to enter a tactical cooperation with Israel, in order to oppose what he considered a Syrian occupation.
In 1984, Chamoun agreed to join the National Unity government as Deputy Prime Minister, a post he held until his death in Beirut on August 7, 1987, at the age of 87. He is remembered as one of the main Christian nationalist leaders, and one of the last significant figures of Lebanon's pre-war generation of politicians, whose political influence was eclipsed during the war by that of younger militia commanders and warlords.
Chamoun’s main political goal in national politics was to reorganize the departments so that they would function more efficiently. But he was not able to bring this to the anticipated results. Through much of his politics, Chamoun’s orientation was towards the Western countries. But this orientation was disdained by many of his allies.
Chamoun was also active over many years in a Christian movement that wanted to build a bridge between the Muslims and Christians in Lebanon. He was a power politician who forged alliances with the powerful Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt in order to remove president Bishara Khouri from power, so that he could become president. But as soon as that was achieved, he cut links with Jumblatt. This would backfire on him six years later with the Civil War of 1958, where Jumblatt was central in forcing him out of the president’s office.
After this political defeat, Chamoun was never able to return as the same political force in Lebanese politics.
Camille Chamoun was survived by his two sons, Dany and Dory, both of whom followed in his footsteps as NLP leaders and politicians in their own right.
Camille Nimer Chamoun see Chamoun
Camille Nimr Chamoun see Chamoun
Kamil Sham'un see Chamoun
Chappelle, David
David Chappelle (b. David Khari Webber Chappelle, August 24, 1973, Washington, D. C.) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer and producer. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including five Emmy Awards and three Grammy Awards as well as the Mark Twain Prize. He is known for his satirical comedy sketch series Chappelle's Show (2003-2006). The series, co-written with Neal Brennan, ran until Chappelle quit the show in the middle of production of the third season. After leaving the show, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the United States. By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire magazine. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Chappelle No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time".
Chappelle converted to Islam in 1991. He told Time magazine in May 2005, "I don't normally talk about my religion publicly because I don't want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way." Chappelle appears in a video explaining the religious backstory of the Well of Zamzam in Mecca.
Chappelle married Elaine Mendoza Erfe in 2001. They live with their two sons, Sulayman and Ibrahim, and their daughter, Sanaa, on a 65-acre (26 ha) farm near Yellow Springs, Ohio. He also owned several houses in Xenia, Ohio.
Chechen-Ingush
Chechen-Ingush. Inhabitants of the mountain valleys of the northern Caucasus. The Chechen and Ingush have lived for centuries in the remote mountain valleys of the northern Caucasus. Their rugged homeland today is known as Chechnya. Islam has been present among the Chechen at least since the first Cossack settlements were founded along the Terek River after the sixteenth century. Perhaps Islam even predated the Golden Horde in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Many of the Ingush were still Christian in the early nineteenth century. Today, they are all Muslim or descendants of Muslim.
The Chechens are one of the Vainakh peoples, who have lived in the highlands of the North Caucasus region since prehistory (there is archeological evidence of historical continuity dating back since 10,000 B.C.). In the Middle Ages, the Chechens were dominated by the Khazars and then the Alans. Local culture was also subject to Byzantine influence and some Chechens converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Gradually, Islam prevailed, although the Chechens' own pagan religion was still strong until at least the 19th century. Society was organized along feudal lines. The North Caucasus was devastated by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century and those of Tamerlane in the 14th.
In the late Middle Ages, the Little Ice Age forced the Chechens down from the hills into the lowlands where they came into conflict with the Terek and Greben Cossacks who had also begun to move into the region. The Caucasus was also the focus for three competing empires: Ottoman Turkey, Persia and Russia. As Russia expanded southwards from the 16th century, clashes between Chechens and the Russians became more frequent. In the late 18th century Sheikh Mansur led a major Chechen resistance movement. In the early 1800s, Russia embarked on full-scale conquest of the North Caucasus in order to protect the route to its new territories in Transcaucasia. The campaign was led by General Yermolov who particularly disliked the Chechens, describing them as "a bold and dangerous people". Angered by Chechen raids, Yermolov resorted to a "scorched earth" policy and deportations. He also founded the fort of Grozny (now the capital of Chechnya) in 1818. Chechen resistance to Russian rule reached its peak under the leadership of the Dagestani Shamil in the mid-19th century. The Chechens were finally defeated after a long and bloody war. In the aftermath, large numbers of muhajir refugees emigrated or were forcibly deported to the Ottoman Empire. Since then there have been various Chechen rebellions against Russian power, as well as nonviolent resistance to Russification and the Soviet Union's collectivization and antireligious campaigns.
The central fact of Chechen history which still dominates legend and national identity is the Shamil revolt of the nineteenth century. Led by the Imam Shamil, the revolt against Russian encroachment (1834-1858) was only one of a number led by imams, but the Shamilist came to stand for Muslim nationalist fervor against Russian occupation. The revolt ended in defeat for most of the peoples of the Caucasus and the flight of some, such as the Chechen Karabulak, to Turkey. Those who remained in Chechnya were only lightly touched by Russian culture, although some of the Chechen-Ingush fought on the side of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War (1918-1921). Despite early indications that the Chechen-Ingush would be allowed to live in their traditional fashion, they came under the brunt of Stalin’s nationality purges (1930-1941). Most of the Chechen-Ingush leadership were eliminated prior to 1941. Even though Chechen-Ingush units served in the Red Army and partisans fought against the Germans as they entered Chechnya, the Chechen-Ingush were chosen for deportation after the German retreat. In 1944, all were deported to the east (to Kazakhstan and Siberia), their republic was abolished and their literary language proscribed. At least one-quarter and perhaps half of the entire Chechen nation perished in the process.
As with other deported groups, the Chechen-Ingush were rehabilitated after the Twentieth Party Congress, and on January 9, 1957, the Presidium of the Soviet Union restored them as a people and provided for their return to Chechnya.
Although "rehabilitated" in 1956 and allowed to return the next year, the Chechen-Ingush survivors lost economic resources and civil rights and, under both Soviet and post-Soviet governments, they have been the objects of (official and unofficial) discrimination and discriminatory public discourse. Chechen attempts to regain independence in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union led to two devastating wars with the new Russian state.
In November 1990, the Chechen republic issued a declaration of its sovereignty and in May 1991 an independent Chechen-Ingush Republic was pronounced, which was subsequently divided into independent Chechen Republic and the Republic of Ingushetia. Today, both are Federal Subjects of Russia.
Ingush see Chechen-Ingush.
Chechen-Ingush. Inhabitants of the mountain valleys of the northern Caucasus. The Chechen and Ingush have lived for centuries in the remote mountain valleys of the northern Caucasus. Their rugged homeland today is known as Chechnya. Islam has been present among the Chechen at least since the first Cossack settlements were founded along the Terek River after the sixteenth century. Perhaps Islam even predated the Golden Horde in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Many of the Ingush were still Christian in the early nineteenth century. Today, they are all Muslim or descendants of Muslim.
The Chechens are one of the Vainakh peoples, who have lived in the highlands of the North Caucasus region since prehistory (there is archeological evidence of historical continuity dating back since 10,000 B.C.). In the Middle Ages, the Chechens were dominated by the Khazars and then the Alans. Local culture was also subject to Byzantine influence and some Chechens converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Gradually, Islam prevailed, although the Chechens' own pagan religion was still strong until at least the 19th century. Society was organized along feudal lines. The North Caucasus was devastated by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century and those of Tamerlane in the 14th.
In the late Middle Ages, the Little Ice Age forced the Chechens down from the hills into the lowlands where they came into conflict with the Terek and Greben Cossacks who had also begun to move into the region. The Caucasus was also the focus for three competing empires: Ottoman Turkey, Persia and Russia. As Russia expanded southwards from the 16th century, clashes between Chechens and the Russians became more frequent. In the late 18th century Sheikh Mansur led a major Chechen resistance movement. In the early 1800s, Russia embarked on full-scale conquest of the North Caucasus in order to protect the route to its new territories in Transcaucasia. The campaign was led by General Yermolov who particularly disliked the Chechens, describing them as "a bold and dangerous people". Angered by Chechen raids, Yermolov resorted to a "scorched earth" policy and deportations. He also founded the fort of Grozny (now the capital of Chechnya) in 1818. Chechen resistance to Russian rule reached its peak under the leadership of the Dagestani Shamil in the mid-19th century. The Chechens were finally defeated after a long and bloody war. In the aftermath, large numbers of muhajir refugees emigrated or were forcibly deported to the Ottoman Empire. Since then there have been various Chechen rebellions against Russian power, as well as nonviolent resistance to Russification and the Soviet Union's collectivization and antireligious campaigns.
The central fact of Chechen history which still dominates legend and national identity is the Shamil revolt of the nineteenth century. Led by the Imam Shamil, the revolt against Russian encroachment (1834-1858) was only one of a number led by imams, but the Shamilist came to stand for Muslim nationalist fervor against Russian occupation. The revolt ended in defeat for most of the peoples of the Caucasus and the flight of some, such as the Chechen Karabulak, to Turkey. Those who remained in Chechnya were only lightly touched by Russian culture, although some of the Chechen-Ingush fought on the side of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War (1918-1921). Despite early indications that the Chechen-Ingush would be allowed to live in their traditional fashion, they came under the brunt of Stalin’s nationality purges (1930-1941). Most of the Chechen-Ingush leadership were eliminated prior to 1941. Even though Chechen-Ingush units served in the Red Army and partisans fought against the Germans as they entered Chechnya, the Chechen-Ingush were chosen for deportation after the German retreat. In 1944, all were deported to the east (to Kazakhstan and Siberia), their republic was abolished and their literary language proscribed. At least one-quarter and perhaps half of the entire Chechen nation perished in the process.
As with other deported groups, the Chechen-Ingush were rehabilitated after the Twentieth Party Congress, and on January 9, 1957, the Presidium of the Soviet Union restored them as a people and provided for their return to Chechnya.
Although "rehabilitated" in 1956 and allowed to return the next year, the Chechen-Ingush survivors lost economic resources and civil rights and, under both Soviet and post-Soviet governments, they have been the objects of (official and unofficial) discrimination and discriminatory public discourse. Chechen attempts to regain independence in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union led to two devastating wars with the new Russian state.
In November 1990, the Chechen republic issued a declaration of its sovereignty and in May 1991 an independent Chechen-Ingush Republic was pronounced, which was subsequently divided into independent Chechen Republic and the Republic of Ingushetia. Today, both are Federal Subjects of Russia.
Ingush see Chechen-Ingush.
Chehab
Chehab (Fuad Chehab) (Fouad Shihab) (1902 - April 25, 1973). Lebanese military leader and the president of Lebanon (1958-1964). .
Born in 1902 to a Maronite Christian family of noble ancestry, General Fouad Chehab became commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in 1945, after Lebanon gained its independence and upon the end of the French mandate and military presence.
In 1952, Chehab refused to let the army interfere in the uprising which forced President Bechara El Khoury to resign. After the resignation Chehab was appointed Prime Minister with the duty to ensure an emergency democratic presidential election. Four days later, Camille Chamoun was elected to succeed El Khoury.
The gerrymandering and alleged electoral frauds of the 1957 parliamentary election, followed by the dismissal of several pro-Arab ministers, sparked a violent Muslim revolt. It came to be known as the Lebanon Crisis of 1958, with the tensions that would result in the long civil war 17 years later (1975-1991) already exposed. Like in 1952, Chehab, still commander of the army, refused to allow the military to interfere. He thus prevented both the opposition and the government partisans from taking places of strategic importance, such as airports and government buildings.
To quell the uprising, President Chamoun, had requested American intervention, and Marines duly landed in Beirut. Widely trusted by the Muslims for his impartiality and now supported by the Americans, Chehab was chosen as the consensus candidate to succeed Chamoun as President and bring back peace to the country. On taking office, Chehab followed a path of moderation and cooperated closely with the different religious groups and with both secular and religious forces, managing to cool down all the tensions and bring back stability to the country.
In 1960, two years into his 6-year presidential mandate, seeing that the country had been stabilized and having paved the way for reforms, Chehab offered to resign. However, he was persuaded by the members of the Lebanese parliament to remain in office for the rest of his mandate. In 1961, he suppressed an attempted coup by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and to hinder such future threats, he strengthened the Lebanese intelligence and security services preventing any foreign interference in internal affairs.
Chehab’s rule was a delicate balancing act to maintain harmony between the nation's Christian and Muslim population. He followed the path and principles of dialogue and moderation, coupled with public reforms which came to be known as Chehabism. Generally deeply respected for his honesty and integrity, Chehab is credited with a number of reform plans and regulations to create a modern administration and efficient public services. This eventually brought him into conflict with the traditional feudal, confessional, and clan based politicians who saw their grip on power diminish.
In 1964, Chehab, whose presence at the head of the country was still seen by many as the best option for stability and future reforms, refused to allow the Constitution to be amended to permit him to run for another presidential term. He backed the candidacy of Charles Helou who became the next president. Chehab later became dissatisfied with Helou's presidency over the perceived mishandling of the armed presence of Palestinian guerrillas in Southern Lebanon and over Helou's maneuvers to pave the way for the traditional feudal politicians to regain power.
Chehab was widely expected to contest the presidential election of 1970, but in a historical declaration he said that his experience in office convinced him that the people of his country were not ready to put aside feudal traditional politics and support him in building a modern state. He chose to endorse his protégé Elias Sarkis instead. In the closest vote in Lebanese history, Sarkis lost the election to the feudal leader Suleiman Frangieh by a single vote in the National Assembly. The election was regarded as a defeat for the old statesman and marked the end of the Chehabist reforms and era.
The first months of the Frangieh mandate saw the dismantling of the country’s intelligence and security services built by Chehab. They were feared and accused of still having a strong hold on political life. But this allowed rapidly multiple foreign interferences in the internal affairs of the country, soon manifesting as a Palestinian military presence in 1973 and the start of civil war in 1975. Fouad Chehab died in Beirut on April 25, 1973 at the age of 71.
Chehab was generally deeply respected for his honesty and integrity. He took over after the Civil War of 1958, where the tensions that would result in the long civil war 17 years later were exposed. Chehab still managed to bring stability and progress to Lebanon.
Chehab’s presidency was a balancing act. He cooperated with different religious groups, and with both secular and religious forces. He was able to work closely with the government, still keeping direct control of the ministries of defense and the interior.
Chehab also started reforms to create a modern administration of Lebanon. Until then, the country had been dominated by feudal values and differences of religion and clan membership.
Fuad Chehab see Chehab
Fouad Shihab see Chehab
Chehab (Fuad Chehab) (Fouad Shihab) (1902 - April 25, 1973). Lebanese military leader and the president of Lebanon (1958-1964). .
Born in 1902 to a Maronite Christian family of noble ancestry, General Fouad Chehab became commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in 1945, after Lebanon gained its independence and upon the end of the French mandate and military presence.
In 1952, Chehab refused to let the army interfere in the uprising which forced President Bechara El Khoury to resign. After the resignation Chehab was appointed Prime Minister with the duty to ensure an emergency democratic presidential election. Four days later, Camille Chamoun was elected to succeed El Khoury.
The gerrymandering and alleged electoral frauds of the 1957 parliamentary election, followed by the dismissal of several pro-Arab ministers, sparked a violent Muslim revolt. It came to be known as the Lebanon Crisis of 1958, with the tensions that would result in the long civil war 17 years later (1975-1991) already exposed. Like in 1952, Chehab, still commander of the army, refused to allow the military to interfere. He thus prevented both the opposition and the government partisans from taking places of strategic importance, such as airports and government buildings.
To quell the uprising, President Chamoun, had requested American intervention, and Marines duly landed in Beirut. Widely trusted by the Muslims for his impartiality and now supported by the Americans, Chehab was chosen as the consensus candidate to succeed Chamoun as President and bring back peace to the country. On taking office, Chehab followed a path of moderation and cooperated closely with the different religious groups and with both secular and religious forces, managing to cool down all the tensions and bring back stability to the country.
In 1960, two years into his 6-year presidential mandate, seeing that the country had been stabilized and having paved the way for reforms, Chehab offered to resign. However, he was persuaded by the members of the Lebanese parliament to remain in office for the rest of his mandate. In 1961, he suppressed an attempted coup by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and to hinder such future threats, he strengthened the Lebanese intelligence and security services preventing any foreign interference in internal affairs.
Chehab’s rule was a delicate balancing act to maintain harmony between the nation's Christian and Muslim population. He followed the path and principles of dialogue and moderation, coupled with public reforms which came to be known as Chehabism. Generally deeply respected for his honesty and integrity, Chehab is credited with a number of reform plans and regulations to create a modern administration and efficient public services. This eventually brought him into conflict with the traditional feudal, confessional, and clan based politicians who saw their grip on power diminish.
In 1964, Chehab, whose presence at the head of the country was still seen by many as the best option for stability and future reforms, refused to allow the Constitution to be amended to permit him to run for another presidential term. He backed the candidacy of Charles Helou who became the next president. Chehab later became dissatisfied with Helou's presidency over the perceived mishandling of the armed presence of Palestinian guerrillas in Southern Lebanon and over Helou's maneuvers to pave the way for the traditional feudal politicians to regain power.
Chehab was widely expected to contest the presidential election of 1970, but in a historical declaration he said that his experience in office convinced him that the people of his country were not ready to put aside feudal traditional politics and support him in building a modern state. He chose to endorse his protégé Elias Sarkis instead. In the closest vote in Lebanese history, Sarkis lost the election to the feudal leader Suleiman Frangieh by a single vote in the National Assembly. The election was regarded as a defeat for the old statesman and marked the end of the Chehabist reforms and era.
The first months of the Frangieh mandate saw the dismantling of the country’s intelligence and security services built by Chehab. They were feared and accused of still having a strong hold on political life. But this allowed rapidly multiple foreign interferences in the internal affairs of the country, soon manifesting as a Palestinian military presence in 1973 and the start of civil war in 1975. Fouad Chehab died in Beirut on April 25, 1973 at the age of 71.
Chehab was generally deeply respected for his honesty and integrity. He took over after the Civil War of 1958, where the tensions that would result in the long civil war 17 years later were exposed. Chehab still managed to bring stability and progress to Lebanon.
Chehab’s presidency was a balancing act. He cooperated with different religious groups, and with both secular and religious forces. He was able to work closely with the government, still keeping direct control of the ministries of defense and the interior.
Chehab also started reforms to create a modern administration of Lebanon. Until then, the country had been dominated by feudal values and differences of religion and clan membership.
Fuad Chehab see Chehab
Fouad Shihab see Chehab
Chiragh ‘Ali
Chiragh ‘Ali (1844-1895). Indian modernist author. Chiragh ‘Ali came to prominence as a supporter of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh movement. He came from a Kashmiri family settled in the United Provinces and served the British administration in North India in various judicial and revenue positions. In 1877, thanks to the recommendation of Sir Sayyid, he entered the service of the nizam of Hyderabad. There he rose to the position of Revenue and Political Secretary and was known by the title Nawab ‘Azam Yar Jang.
Chiragh ‘Ali agreed with Sir Sayyid that there could be no conflict between the word of God, as contained in the Qur’an, and the work of God, as expounded in modern science. His writings are modernist apologetics designed to refute missionary and orientalist criticisms of Islam as incapable of reform. Among his works are The Proposed Political, Constitutional and Legal Reforms in the Ottoman Empire and Other Mohammedan States (1883) and A Critical Exposition of the Popular Jihad (1885). He also wrote frequently in Sir Sayyid’s journal of Muslim social reform, Tahdhib al-akhlaq (The Muslim Reformer), published in Aligarh.
Chiragh ‘Ali maintained that Islamic religion inculcated no set political or social system and that the schools of Islamic law, as human institutions, were subject to revision. Muslim governments were in no way theocratic, nor did jihad imply a forcible expansion of the faith. On the contrary, according to Chiragh 'Ali, all the Prophet’s wars were defensive in nature. Chiragh ‘Ali, as a modernist, based his ideas on the teachings of the Qur’an. All other sources of law, including hadith, were subject to interpretation. He was particularly dismissive of the founders of the classical schools of Islamic law, whose writings, he felt, reflected the needs of their times but had little applicability to the modern age.
Chiragh ‘Ali’s writings were influential among Western educated Muslims of the Aligarh school in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He championed education for women and was critical of polygamy and divorce. He also argued that slavery was incompatible with the true spirit of Islam. His favorable discussion of political reforms in the Ottoman Empire was a factor, albeit a minor one, in the Indian Muslims’ growing sympathy for Turkey in the period before World War I.
'Ali, Chiragh see Chiragh ‘Ali
Nawab ‘Azam Yar Jang see Chiragh ‘Ali
‘Azam Yar Jang, Nawab see Chiragh ‘Ali
Jang, Nawab 'Azam Yar see Chiragh ‘Ali
Chiragh ‘Ali (1844-1895). Indian modernist author. Chiragh ‘Ali came to prominence as a supporter of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh movement. He came from a Kashmiri family settled in the United Provinces and served the British administration in North India in various judicial and revenue positions. In 1877, thanks to the recommendation of Sir Sayyid, he entered the service of the nizam of Hyderabad. There he rose to the position of Revenue and Political Secretary and was known by the title Nawab ‘Azam Yar Jang.
Chiragh ‘Ali agreed with Sir Sayyid that there could be no conflict between the word of God, as contained in the Qur’an, and the work of God, as expounded in modern science. His writings are modernist apologetics designed to refute missionary and orientalist criticisms of Islam as incapable of reform. Among his works are The Proposed Political, Constitutional and Legal Reforms in the Ottoman Empire and Other Mohammedan States (1883) and A Critical Exposition of the Popular Jihad (1885). He also wrote frequently in Sir Sayyid’s journal of Muslim social reform, Tahdhib al-akhlaq (The Muslim Reformer), published in Aligarh.
Chiragh ‘Ali maintained that Islamic religion inculcated no set political or social system and that the schools of Islamic law, as human institutions, were subject to revision. Muslim governments were in no way theocratic, nor did jihad imply a forcible expansion of the faith. On the contrary, according to Chiragh 'Ali, all the Prophet’s wars were defensive in nature. Chiragh ‘Ali, as a modernist, based his ideas on the teachings of the Qur’an. All other sources of law, including hadith, were subject to interpretation. He was particularly dismissive of the founders of the classical schools of Islamic law, whose writings, he felt, reflected the needs of their times but had little applicability to the modern age.
Chiragh ‘Ali’s writings were influential among Western educated Muslims of the Aligarh school in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He championed education for women and was critical of polygamy and divorce. He also argued that slavery was incompatible with the true spirit of Islam. His favorable discussion of political reforms in the Ottoman Empire was a factor, albeit a minor one, in the Indian Muslims’ growing sympathy for Turkey in the period before World War I.
'Ali, Chiragh see Chiragh ‘Ali
Nawab ‘Azam Yar Jang see Chiragh ‘Ali
‘Azam Yar Jang, Nawab see Chiragh ‘Ali
Jang, Nawab 'Azam Yar see Chiragh ‘Ali
Chishtiyya
Chishtiyya (Chishti Tariqa) (Cishtiyya). One of the most popular and influential mystical orders of India. It was founded by Khwaja Mu‘in al-Din Cishti (Muinuddin Chishti) (1141-1236). The Chishti Tariqa was a Sufi order of northern India. Its followers trace their spiritual genealogy back to Hasan al-Basra (d. 728), but the order’s name derives from the natal village, near Herat, of another progenitor, Khwajah Abu Ishaq (d. 940). Nevertheless, the Chishti is the most uniquely Indian of the Sufi orders. Muinuddin, who eventually settled at Ajmer and died in 1236, brought it to the subcontinent. Saints of the Chishti order, including Baba Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakar (d. 1265), Nizam ud-Din Auliya (d. 1323), Muhammad Gisudaraz (d. 1422), and Shaikh Salim Sikri (d. 1571) were among the most famous in South and West Asia. Influenced by the teachings on the immanence of God of the Islamic mystic philosopher Ibn al-Arabi, some Chishtis established close links with Hindu mystics of similar monist tendencies. That openness, however, made Chishtis most effective as Muslim missionaries. The order also accepted the use of music as an aid to mystical experience. When reformers such as Shah Walliullah (d. 1762) and his son 'Abd al-Aziz (d. 1824) began accepting membership in all major orders, the teachings and practices of the Chishtis came to resemble more closely those of other orders.
The Chishtī Order is a Sufi order within the mystic branches of Islam which was founded in Chisht, a small town near Herat, about 930 C.C. and which continues to this day. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness.
The order was founded by Abu Ishaq Shami (“the Syrian”) who introduced the ideas of Sufism in the town of Chisht, some 95 miles east of Herat in present-day western Afghanistan. Before returning to Syria, Shami initiated, trained and deputized the son of the local emir, Abu Ahmad Abdal (d. 966). Under the leadership of Abu Ahmad’s descendants, the Chishtiya as they are also known, flourished as a regional mystical order.
The most famous of the Chishti saints is Moinuddin Chishti (popularly known as Gharib Nawaz meaning 'Benefactor of the Poor') who settled in Ajmer, India. He oversaw the growth of the order in the 13th century as Islamic religious laws were canonized. He reportedly saw the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a dream and then set off on a journey of discovery. Other famous saints of the Chishti Order are Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, Fariduddin Ganjshakar, Nizamuddin Auliya, Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir Kalyari, Mohammed Badesha Qadri, and Ashraf Jahangir Semnani.
The Chishti saints had two hallmarks which differentiate them from other Sufi saints. The first was their ethical relations to the institutional powers. This meant voluntarily keeping a distance from the ruler or the government mechanism. It did not matter if the ruler was a patron or a disciple: he was always kept at bay since it was felt that mixing with the ruler would corrupt the soul by indulging it in worldly matters. The second distinctive dimension was related to the religious practice of the Chishtis. It was aggressive rather than passive; a ceaseless search for the divine other. In this respect the Chishtis followed a particular ritual more zealously then any other brotherhood. This was the practice of sema, evoking the divine presence through song or listening to music. The genius of the Chishti saints was that they accommodated the practice of sema with the full range of Muslim obligations.
The Chishti Order can also be characterized by the following principles:
The Chishti Order is indigenous to Afghanistan and South Asia (mainly India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). It was the first of the four main Sufi Orders, namely Chishtia, Qadiria, Suhurawadia and Naqshbandia, to be established in this region. Moinuddin Chishti introduced the Chishti Order in India, sometime in the middle of the 12th century C.C.. He was eighth in the line of succession from the founder of the Chishti Order, Abu Ishq Shami. The devotees of this order practise chilla, i.e., they observe seclusion for forty days during which they refrain from talking beyond what is absolutely necessary, eat little and spend most of their time in prayer and meditation. Another characteristic of the followers of this order is their fondness for devotional music. They hold musical festivals, and enter into ecstasy while listening to singing.
The Chishti master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) was the first to bring the Sufi path to the West, arriving in America in 1910 and later settling near Paris, France. His approach exemplified the tolerance and openness of the Chishti Order, following a custom begun by Moinuddin Chishti of initiating and training disciples regardless of religious affiliation and which continued through Nizamuddin Auliya and Shaykh ul-Masha”ikh Kalimullah Jehanabadi (d. 1720). All his teaching was given in English, and 12 volumes of his discourses on topics related to the spiritual path are still available from American, European, and Indian sources. Initiates of his form of Sufi practice now number in the several thousands all over the world.
Chishti Tariqa see Chishtiyya
Cishtiyya see Chishtiyya
Chishtiyya (Chishti Tariqa) (Cishtiyya). One of the most popular and influential mystical orders of India. It was founded by Khwaja Mu‘in al-Din Cishti (Muinuddin Chishti) (1141-1236). The Chishti Tariqa was a Sufi order of northern India. Its followers trace their spiritual genealogy back to Hasan al-Basra (d. 728), but the order’s name derives from the natal village, near Herat, of another progenitor, Khwajah Abu Ishaq (d. 940). Nevertheless, the Chishti is the most uniquely Indian of the Sufi orders. Muinuddin, who eventually settled at Ajmer and died in 1236, brought it to the subcontinent. Saints of the Chishti order, including Baba Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakar (d. 1265), Nizam ud-Din Auliya (d. 1323), Muhammad Gisudaraz (d. 1422), and Shaikh Salim Sikri (d. 1571) were among the most famous in South and West Asia. Influenced by the teachings on the immanence of God of the Islamic mystic philosopher Ibn al-Arabi, some Chishtis established close links with Hindu mystics of similar monist tendencies. That openness, however, made Chishtis most effective as Muslim missionaries. The order also accepted the use of music as an aid to mystical experience. When reformers such as Shah Walliullah (d. 1762) and his son 'Abd al-Aziz (d. 1824) began accepting membership in all major orders, the teachings and practices of the Chishtis came to resemble more closely those of other orders.
The Chishtī Order is a Sufi order within the mystic branches of Islam which was founded in Chisht, a small town near Herat, about 930 C.C. and which continues to this day. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness.
The order was founded by Abu Ishaq Shami (“the Syrian”) who introduced the ideas of Sufism in the town of Chisht, some 95 miles east of Herat in present-day western Afghanistan. Before returning to Syria, Shami initiated, trained and deputized the son of the local emir, Abu Ahmad Abdal (d. 966). Under the leadership of Abu Ahmad’s descendants, the Chishtiya as they are also known, flourished as a regional mystical order.
The most famous of the Chishti saints is Moinuddin Chishti (popularly known as Gharib Nawaz meaning 'Benefactor of the Poor') who settled in Ajmer, India. He oversaw the growth of the order in the 13th century as Islamic religious laws were canonized. He reportedly saw the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a dream and then set off on a journey of discovery. Other famous saints of the Chishti Order are Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, Fariduddin Ganjshakar, Nizamuddin Auliya, Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir Kalyari, Mohammed Badesha Qadri, and Ashraf Jahangir Semnani.
The Chishti saints had two hallmarks which differentiate them from other Sufi saints. The first was their ethical relations to the institutional powers. This meant voluntarily keeping a distance from the ruler or the government mechanism. It did not matter if the ruler was a patron or a disciple: he was always kept at bay since it was felt that mixing with the ruler would corrupt the soul by indulging it in worldly matters. The second distinctive dimension was related to the religious practice of the Chishtis. It was aggressive rather than passive; a ceaseless search for the divine other. In this respect the Chishtis followed a particular ritual more zealously then any other brotherhood. This was the practice of sema, evoking the divine presence through song or listening to music. The genius of the Chishti saints was that they accommodated the practice of sema with the full range of Muslim obligations.
The Chishti Order can also be characterized by the following principles:
The Chishti Order is indigenous to Afghanistan and South Asia (mainly India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). It was the first of the four main Sufi Orders, namely Chishtia, Qadiria, Suhurawadia and Naqshbandia, to be established in this region. Moinuddin Chishti introduced the Chishti Order in India, sometime in the middle of the 12th century C.C.. He was eighth in the line of succession from the founder of the Chishti Order, Abu Ishq Shami. The devotees of this order practise chilla, i.e., they observe seclusion for forty days during which they refrain from talking beyond what is absolutely necessary, eat little and spend most of their time in prayer and meditation. Another characteristic of the followers of this order is their fondness for devotional music. They hold musical festivals, and enter into ecstasy while listening to singing.
The Chishti master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) was the first to bring the Sufi path to the West, arriving in America in 1910 and later settling near Paris, France. His approach exemplified the tolerance and openness of the Chishti Order, following a custom begun by Moinuddin Chishti of initiating and training disciples regardless of religious affiliation and which continued through Nizamuddin Auliya and Shaykh ul-Masha”ikh Kalimullah Jehanabadi (d. 1720). All his teaching was given in English, and 12 volumes of his discourses on topics related to the spiritual path are still available from American, European, and Indian sources. Initiates of his form of Sufi practice now number in the several thousands all over the world.
Chishti Tariqa see Chishtiyya
Cishtiyya see Chishtiyya
Choucair, Saloua Raouda
Saloua Raouda Choucair (b. June 24, 1916, Beirut, Lebanon – d. January 26, 2017, Beirut, Lebanon) was a Lebanese painter and sculptor. She is said to have been the first abstract artist in Lebanon although she sold nothing there until 1962.
Born in 1916 in Beirut, Choucair started painting in the studios of Lebanese painters Moustafa Farroukh (1935) and Omar Onsi (1942). Her exhibition in 1947 at the Arab Cultural Gallery in Beirut is considered to have been the Arab world's first abstract painting exhibition. In 1948 she left Lebanon and went to Paris, where she studied at the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux Arts and attended Fernand Leger's studio. In 1950, she was one of the first Arab artists to participate in the Salon des Realites Nouvelles in Paris and had in 1951 a solo exhibition at Colette Allendy's gallery, which was better received in Paris than in Beirut.
In 1959, Choucair began to concentrate on sculpture, which became her main preoccupation in 1962. In 1963, she was awarded the National Council of Tourism Prize for the execution of a stone sculpture for a public site in Beirut. In 1974, the Lebanese Artists Association sponsored an honorary retrospective exhibition of her work at the National Council of Tourism in Beirut. In 1985, Choucair won an appreciation prize from the General Union of Arab Painters. In 1988, she was awarded a medal by the Lebanese government. A retrospective exhibition organized by Saleh Barakat was presented at the Beirut Exhibition Center in 2011.
Choucair's work has been considered as one of the best examples of the spirit of abstraction characteristic of Arabic visual art, completely disconnected from the observation of nature and inspired by Arabic geometric art.
Choucair received an honorary doctorate from the American University of Beirut in May of 2014.
Choucair turned 100 on June 24, 2016 and she died on January 26, 2017, Beirut, Lebanon.
Chowdhury
Chowdhury (Abu Sayeed Chowdhury) (January 31, 1921 - August 2, 1987). President of Bangladesh from January 1972 to December 1973. Before becoming president, Chowdhury served as a justice of the East Pakistan High Court and vice chancellor of Dhaka University. In March 1971, he was attending a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva when the Bangladesh civil war began. Thereupon, he began to serve as an unofficial roving ambassador of the Bangladesh government-in-exile. He served briefly as the foreign minister of Bangladesh in 1975.
Abu Sayeed Choudhury was born on January 31, 1921 in a landed family of Nagbari in Tangail District. His father Abdul Hamid Choudhury was the speaker of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. In 1960, he was appointed advocate general of East Pakistan and was made a judge of the high court in July 1961. He had been a member of the Constitution Commission (1960-61) and chairman of the Bengali Development Board (1963-1968). Justice Choudhury was appointed vice-chancellor of Dhaka University in 1969. In 1971, while in Geneva he resigned from his post as vice-chancellor as a protest against the genocide in East Pakistan by the Pakistan army. From Geneva, he went to the United Kingdom and became the special envoy of the provisional 'Mujibnagar' government. An umbrella organization, 'The Council for the People's Republic of Bangladesh in UK' was formed on April 24, 1971, in Coventry, England, by the expatriate Bengalis, and a five member Steering Committee (central committee) of the Council was elected by them.
After liberation, Justice Choudhury returned to Dhaka and was elected the President of Bangladesh on January 12, 1972. On April 10, 1973, he was again elected the President of Bangladesh, and in the same year (December) he resigned to become special envoy for external relations with the rank of a minister. On August 8, 1975, Choudhury was included in the cabinet of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as minister of Ports and Shipping. After Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was assassinated, he became the minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of President Khondakar Mostaq Ahmad (August 1975), a position which he held until November 7, 1975.
In 1978, Justice Choudhury was elected a member of the United Nations Sub-committee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. In 1985, he was elected chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. He was honored with the insignia of 'Deshikottam' by Visvabharati University. Calcutta University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law. His book Probasey Muktijuddher Dingooli (1990) is considered to be a valuable contribution to the understanding of Bangladesh War of Liberation. He died in London on August 2, 1987 and was buried in his village, Nagbari of Tangail.
Abu Sayeed Chowdhury see Chowdhury
Chowdhury (Abu Sayeed Chowdhury) (January 31, 1921 - August 2, 1987). President of Bangladesh from January 1972 to December 1973. Before becoming president, Chowdhury served as a justice of the East Pakistan High Court and vice chancellor of Dhaka University. In March 1971, he was attending a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva when the Bangladesh civil war began. Thereupon, he began to serve as an unofficial roving ambassador of the Bangladesh government-in-exile. He served briefly as the foreign minister of Bangladesh in 1975.
Abu Sayeed Choudhury was born on January 31, 1921 in a landed family of Nagbari in Tangail District. His father Abdul Hamid Choudhury was the speaker of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. In 1960, he was appointed advocate general of East Pakistan and was made a judge of the high court in July 1961. He had been a member of the Constitution Commission (1960-61) and chairman of the Bengali Development Board (1963-1968). Justice Choudhury was appointed vice-chancellor of Dhaka University in 1969. In 1971, while in Geneva he resigned from his post as vice-chancellor as a protest against the genocide in East Pakistan by the Pakistan army. From Geneva, he went to the United Kingdom and became the special envoy of the provisional 'Mujibnagar' government. An umbrella organization, 'The Council for the People's Republic of Bangladesh in UK' was formed on April 24, 1971, in Coventry, England, by the expatriate Bengalis, and a five member Steering Committee (central committee) of the Council was elected by them.
After liberation, Justice Choudhury returned to Dhaka and was elected the President of Bangladesh on January 12, 1972. On April 10, 1973, he was again elected the President of Bangladesh, and in the same year (December) he resigned to become special envoy for external relations with the rank of a minister. On August 8, 1975, Choudhury was included in the cabinet of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as minister of Ports and Shipping. After Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was assassinated, he became the minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of President Khondakar Mostaq Ahmad (August 1975), a position which he held until November 7, 1975.
In 1978, Justice Choudhury was elected a member of the United Nations Sub-committee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. In 1985, he was elected chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. He was honored with the insignia of 'Deshikottam' by Visvabharati University. Calcutta University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law. His book Probasey Muktijuddher Dingooli (1990) is considered to be a valuable contribution to the understanding of Bangladesh War of Liberation. He died in London on August 2, 1987 and was buried in his village, Nagbari of Tangail.
Abu Sayeed Chowdhury see Chowdhury
Christians
Christians (in Arabic, nasara; in singular form, nasrani). Early Islam had to deal mainly with the Copts (in Arabic, Qibt) of Egypt, the Maronites of Lebanon, the Melkites of Byzantium (in Arabic, Rum), the Nestorians (in Arabic, Nasturiyyan) or eastern Syriacs who were numerous in what are now Iraq and Iran and owed allegiance to the Catholicos of al-Mada’in (Seleucia-Ctesiphon), and the “Jacobites” or western Syriacs, suspected of Monophysitism and belonging to the patriarchate of Antioch. The Christians (and the Jews) had to pay a poll-tax (in Arabic, jizya) but were protected by the dhimma, a sort of indefinitely renewed contract through which members of other revealed religions were accorded hospitality and protection on condition of their acknowledging the domination of Islam. They therefore were called dhimmis or ahl al-dhimma. They were forbidden to insult Islam and to seek to convert a Muslim. On the other hand, they did take part in government. Although their condition was sometimes unstable, due to measures of individual caliphs or to outbursts of popular anger, it was essentially satisfactory until the Mongol invasions and the coming to power of the Mamelukes.
By 2002, Christians were the second largest religious group in Southwest Asia and North Africa with some 15 million adherents. Christianity started as a Messianic orientation in Judaism. It was not until the year100 of the Christian calendar that the breach between Jesus Jews (Christians) and the Jews who did not accept or believe the stories about Jesus became so grave that a reconciliation was no longer possible.
Christianity is a religion based upon the belief that the Bible contains a divine message and that Jesus represents a change in the relationship between man and God. There are differences on how the different churches of Southwest Asia and North Africa see this message, how they transmit it, and also how they define Jesus. However, in general, the similarities outnumber the differences.
There are three foundational bases for the Southwest Asian and North African Christian churches: (1) The personalites and the stories of Judaism before Jesus (i.e., the Old Testament); (2) Jesus, the disciples and the first apostles (i.e., the New Testament); and (3) over the centuries, the personalites of each separate church and their respective histories. It is in the third basis (the basis which often has been central in forming unique identities for the different churches) that one finds stories about martyrs and saints. Whereas, central to the first two bases is the concept that there is only one god, and that man is offered eternal life in Paradise after death, or punishment.
Under the tenets of Christianity, the Old Testament contains the promise of a Jesus as the Messiah. Since the Christians believe that the Messiah had arrived, they differed, and still do, from the Jews. The actual understanding of Messiah was, however, different for the adherents of Christianity. While the Jews considered the Messiah as the liberator of Israel, for Christians, Jesus came to be considered as the liberator of mankind, and of the world.
In both Judaism and Christianity, the Messiah represented the end of the unjust world. As the Christians saw it, Jesus’ main task was to prepare for the apocalypse and the end of Satan’s influence on the world. One book in the New Testament tells about this, the Book of Revelations. This has many similarities with the apocalyptic books of the Old Testament, but few with the Gospels. This conception of the Messiah threatens the non-believers and the lukewarm while giving hope to the many who believe.
However, as the decades passed, and the promise of the end of the world was not fulfilled, the role of Jesus as Messiah began to be modified. Instead of linking Jesus to the end of the world, Christians began to link him to the establishment of a new world order. With Jesus, a new relationship between man and God was established, and Christians could use this as a foundation for living in the secular world. They were saved and purified through the belief in Jesus alone.
Nevertheless, even today, many Christians continue to expect that the end of the world will be in the not too distant future. When this happens, God will judge every human being, and each person’s destiny in the hereafter will be determined. The unjust will burn in Hell, while the just will experience eternal bliss in Paradise, -- in Heaven.
Central to the message of Jesus is love, forgiveness and openness towards other human beings. While Judaism at the time of Jesus was predominantly a closed religion, the message of Jesus was by many understood to be that every human being could become a Christian – through the force of faith alone.
The Gospels are far less detailed on regulations on morals and life than the Jewish Law. Among other things, the dietary regulations were abolished.
With regards to the development of the individual “personality” of the Southwest Asian Christian churches, it was often in the clash with kings and rulers, as well as other religions (especially Islam) that many Christians faced persecution, and had to stand up for their religion. These stories, true or not, gave the churches both strength and identity, but also cult centers that were built around places central to each personality.
There are also many stories about ascetics, men or women who devoted themselves entirely to Christianty, and sometimes moved to inhospitable places, like into the desert, and who still managed to survive.
In most of the churches in North Africa and Southwest Asia, many rituals are performed by the clergy to the benefit of all members of the congregation. In many cases, it is expected that these attend the churches and cathedrals to witness these rituals, but there are less central everyday rituals that are performed to the benefit of believers who are not present.
The totality of rituals is both too complex, and too time consuming, for each individual to perform. It is necessary to have a clergy who perform all obligations and do it correctly. The adherents participate with money, gifts and sometimes voluntary work. Some rituals are, however, central and cannot work unless the believers participate. These include such acts as baptism, confirmation, marriage and the Eucharist. It is also important to participate at a minimum of services, even if it is not expected that all believers shall participate at all. Important feasts among the Orthodox Christians are: Easter, (celebrated at other times than the Western world, starting in April or May); Christmas (December 25); Theophany (January 19); and Great Lent (a fast starting in February or March).
Confession, fasting, prayer, self-denial, obedience, righteous deeds and visits to holy places are other rituals, and they are often performed on an individual basis. In everyday religious life, these can often be of more importance to the believer than the big feasts.
The organization of the churches in Southwest Asia and North Africa is strictly hierarchical, and the churches have little of congregational democracy. The existing leaders are effectively in charge of appointing new leaders. Most of the independent churches are headed by a patriarch, who has a small group of bishops below him, who then again have a group of priests below them. Connected to some of the churches there are also monasteries which enjoy a certain amount of independence but still come under the authority of the highest leaders.
Even the local Catholic churches have a great deal of independence, and cannot be defined as controlled by the pope from the Vatican. The relationship between the pope and the churches is more symbolic than factual, but the communication channels are open for influence.
There are many holy places for Christianity in Southwest Asia and Egypt. The most important place is Jerusalem, where there has been built a church over the place claimed to be the burial place of Jesus. In Bethlehem, there is a church built over the place where Jesus is believed to have been born. Nazareth has several sites that memorialize the life and career of Jesus. Syria has many cult centers of less well known Christian personalities, but in Damascus there are spots that are visited and revered as sites from the life of the Apostle Paul. Egypt has a rich tradition of its own, but there are also places that memorialize the exile of Jesus and his family in Egypt.
A brief history of Christianity begins in the first century of the Christian calendar with the spreading of the Jesus-orientation in Jewish communities. This Jesus orientation would develop into churches as part of what came to be an independent religion. It is possible that the Essenes were central in this development.
Around 100, the Jesus-Jews broke free from other Jews and began developing their own religion.
During the second century of the Christian calendar, the spread of Christianity continued. During this period of time, the Christian congregations were small and weak but they were in contact with each other. The main centers, at this time, were in Syria and northern Egypt.
During the second and third centuries, there was strong growth in North Africa, but also inside the Roman Empire. Indeed, the most remarkable event occurred in the fourth century of the Christian calendar when the Roman Emperor Constantine was converted to the Christian faith. Following the example of his father and earlier third century emperors, Constantine in his early life was a solar henotheist, believing that the Roman sun god Sol was the visible manifestation of an invisible “Highest God” (summus deus), who was the principle behind the universe. This god was thought to be the companion of the Roman Emperor. Constantine’s adherence to this faith is evident from his claim of having had a vision of the sun god in 310 while in a grove of Apollo in Gaul. In 312, on the eve of a battle against Maxentius (r.306-312), Constantine’s rival in Italy, Constantine is reported to have dreamed that Christ appeared to him and told him to inscribe the first two letters of his name (XP in Greek) on the shields of his troops. The next day he is said to have seen a cross superimposed on the sun and the words “in this sign you will be the victor” (usually given in Latin, in hoc signo vinces). Constantine then defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, near Rome. The Senate hailed the victor as the savior of the Roman people. Thus, Constantine, who had been a pagan solar worshiper, now looked upon the Christian deity as a bringer of victory. Persecution of the Christians was ended, and Constantine’s co-emperor, Licinius (250-325), joined Constantine in issuing the Edict of Milan (313), which granted toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire. As guardian of Constantine’s favored religion, the Christian Church – the Catholic Church – was then given legal rights and large financial donations.
During the fifth century of the Christian calendar, a great schism occurred between the churches over a central issue: Was Jesus of two natures, one human and one divine, or did he just have one nature? At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the western churches came to decide that Jesus had two natures, but that the two natures were combined in the same person. However, many eastern churches did not accept this conclusion. Consequently, in the east, a number of new and independent congregations arose which had no relations with the western church – the church of Rome.
In the seventh century of the Christian calendar, new rulers of Southwest Asia and North Africa under the banner of Islam emerged to challenge Christianity. The emergence of Islam resulted in a centuries long relationship that would shift between mild and strong persecution on one side, and fruitful coexistence on the other side. Many Christians would over the next couple of centuries convert to Islam.
The seventh century of the Christian calendar also saw the formation of the Christian Byzantine Empire, which came to cover most of modern Turkey, Greece and parts of lands further west in Europe. The Byzantine Empire developed into an important center for the development of eastern Orthodox Christianity. The empire would remain large for more than 700 years, until it was defeated by the Ottomans.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Christian Crusades in the lands around Jerusalem would lead to new contacts between eastern churches and the Catholic Church of Rome. In some areas (especially around modern Lebanon), Christian states were established, while in other areas hostility between eastern Christians and the Crusaders was the result.
From the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, a well conducted campaign from the Catholic Church towards eastern churches, made them rejoin the great Catholic Church. However, they were allowed to keep their identity, organization, special rites, liturgy and even perform this in their traditional languages. None of the churches were forced to introduce celibacy for its clergy against its own will.
In the nineteenth century, heavy and brutal actions perpetrated by Muslims against Christians within the Ottoman Empire resulted in a great exodus of Christians from the region. The nineteenth century also saw the beginning of European colonization in Algeria, Tunisia, and Mauritania. European colonization brought large quantities of Christian Europeans into the region. For a period deep into the 20th century, Christianity became the politically dominant (if not largest) religion for this region. There was minimal persecution from the Christian side, and very few conversions from Islam to Christianity.
During the early twentieth century, Morocco and Libya were colonized and saw a large immigration of European Christians. Again, Christianity became the politically dominant religion in these countries.
Around 1960, with the fall of the North African colonies, most Christians with European origin in North Africa returned to their families’ original home countries. Only a few Christians remained.
Although Christianity began in Asia, today Asia is statistically the least Christian continent. In a world where one in every three people professes to be Christian, Asia’s population is only five percent Christian. To understand the reasons for the numerical weakness of Christianity on its home continent one must turn first to history.
The Christian faith spread eastward across Asia as quickly as it moved west into Europe, but with one significant difference: in the West it converted and transformed the culture of a whole continent. However, in non-Roman Asia, not once in Christianity’s first sixteen centuries did it manage to achieve majority influence in any enduring national power center.
A history of Asian Christianity may be characterized in terms of alternating periods of expansion and decline: (1) early advance (50-650); (2) recession: the rise of Islam and the fall of the Tang dynasty in China (650-1000); (3) revival under the Mongols (1000-1370); (4) years of devastation (1370-1500); (5) the Catholic centuries (1500-1700); (6) controversy and decline (1700-1792); (7) Protestant beginnings and the rise of the Asian churches (1792- present).
In its period of earliest expansion, Asian Christianity was impressively successful in geographical extension, but less so in penetration of major cultures. Before the end of the first century, Thomas, “the apostle of Asia,” had reached India, according to an ancient and fairly reliable tradition. About the same time, the new faith broke across the Roman border into eastern Syria and Persian Mesopotamia. By the end of the second century, the border principality of Edessa was largely Christian, and one of its kings, Abgar IX (r. 179-214), may well have been the world’s first ruler of a Christian state. Around the year 300 of the Christian calendar, Armenia officially adopted the Christian faith but ecclesiastically became more Western than Asian.
The church in Persia, however, was strong enough by the early fifth century to organize itself into a national church independent of the Western patriarchs. It called itself the Church of the East but is better known by its later name, the Nestorian church. In the remarkable missionary advance across Asia that followed, Nestorians carried the faith from the Red Sea to the heart of China. Three Arab Christian kingdoms emerged and some of the tribes of Central Asia began to convert to the Christian faith. Persian missionaries reached Chang’an, the Tang capital of China, as early as 635. But it was only in the fringe kingdoms at the edges of imperial power that decisive numbers became Christian. The key cultural and political centers, Persia, China, and India, were often hostile, at best tolerant. The first six centuries were thus years of steady but limited success.
By contrast, the next 350 years brought sharp setbacks. The first blow to the church was the rise of Islam. When the Arabs destroyed Persia and rolled Byzantine Rome back into Europe they quenched the flickering hope that the Nestorians might do for Asia what Catholic and Orthodox Christianity was accomplishing in the West: the conversion of a continent. Islam did not destroy Christianity, however, it simply encapsulated it, adapting from the defeated Persians a form of religious minority control called the millet (or dhimmi) system. As dhimmi, Christians were offered no heroic choice of death or apostasy, only the eroding humiliations of isolation, second-class citizenship, double taxation, and harsh social discrimination. The best that can be said of the ghettos thus created is that they allowed the Nestorians to survive for centuries and to serve as conduits of Greek learning through the Arabs to Europe.
Beyond the limits of Arab conquest, Christian growth was less restricted. The Nestorians were able to maintain intermittent contact with the Thomas Christians of South India, and the Persian mission to China flourished for two more centuries. Then suddenly it disappeared. The fall of the Tang dynasty in 907 was probably the major cause. The church had become too dependent upon imperial favor. But it had already been weakened by a spate of anti-religious persecutions in the mid-ninth century, and more fundamentally by its failure to take root among the Chinese. In fact, Nestorianism in China seems to have remained a religion for Persian priests and tribal groups.
By the year 1000, Christianity appeared to be a receding wave in Asia. It persisted only in isolated pockets in the Arab caliphates, South India, and Central Asia. At this low point, a Christian resurgence appeared in the wild heartlands of Asia among the Mongol and Turkic nomads. A chieftain of the Kereits was converted by Nestorian missionaries and was baptized with many of his people. When the Kereits were later drawn into the emerging Mongol confederation they became the unexpected avenue of Christian penetration into a new Asiatic center of power. Indeed, Genghis Khan married his fourth son, Tolui, to a Nestorian Kereit princess. She became the mother of three sons, all of whom eventually ruled major divisions of the Mongol empire: Mongke, the third Great Khan (1251-1259); Hulegu, the ilkhan of Islamic Persia (1261-1265); and Kublai, most famous of all, who became Grand Khan (1260) and emperor of China (1280-1294). None of the brothers became Christian, but their reigns marked the high point of the Nestorian church in Asia, and for a fleeting moment a Mongol monk, the Nestorian patriarch in Baghdad, Yaballaha III (1281-1317), ruled at least nominally a wider spiritual domain than did the pope in Rome. In 1287, Arghun, ilkhan of Persia, confirmed the prestige of the Nestorians by sending another Mongol monk as his ambassador to seek alliance with the Christian princes of Europe against the Muslims.
Once again, however, the Christian quest for political security in Asia proved illusory. The West, disillusioned with crusades, hesitated to be drawn into another. Arghun’s son, the ilkhan Ghazan (1295-1304), repudiated his compatriot the patriarch and embraced Islam. Worse yet, before the century was out, Timur’s wars of annihilation (1363-1405) displaced the more tolerant Mongols with a Muslim Turkic fanaticism that devastated Central and Inner Asia as far south as Delhi. Few Christians were left alive and Nestorianism never recovered from the breakup of Mongol power.
It was also in the Mongol period that Roman Catholicism first reached Asia. Between 1245 and 1346, ten Catholic missions were sent to the Mongol khans. The most successful was that of the Franciscan Giovanni da Montecorvino, who reached Beijing in 1294, built two churches there, and was made archbishop with the authority of a patriarch. Like the Nestorians, however, China’s first Catholics vanished with the collapse of the Mongols in 1368.
A third period of Christian advance in Asia opened with the dawn of the age of discovery. Da Gama’s Portuguese fleet, anchoring off the coast of India in 1498, brought a host of Catholic missionaries in its train. Goa became the center for ecclesiastical expansion, and the arrival of the first Jesuit, Francis Xavier, touched off ten of the most intensive years of Catholic missionary expansion in Asian history. Between 1542 and his death in 1552, Xavier laid foundations of mass evangelism in India that still endure. Xavier strengthened mission outposts in Melaka (Malacca) and the Moluccas, and, as the first Christian missionary to Japan, so effectively pioneered the “Christian century” there (1549-1650) that Japan may well have had a higher percentage of Christians in 1600 than it has today.
A tragic by-product of the coming of the West to India, however, was its effect on the ancient Thomas Christians. This Indian Syrian community had maintained tenuous connections with the Nestorians in Baghdad for centuries. Now it was first proselytized by the Portuguese and then fractured when large groups of Syrian Christians rebelled against the jurisdiction of Rome and reasserted their indigenous Christian loyalties. In Japan, there was an even greater tragedy. The savage persecutions of the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) ended the Christian century, wiped out the church, and left only a shattered underground.
The Roman Catholics in China (1583-1774), as in Japan, enjoyed remarkable initial success. Matteo Ricci’s strategy of accommodation to local customs and skillful use of Western science won the attention of the Confucian intelligentsia and gradually established a Jesuit presence and influence at the court in Beijing. So strong was this influence that when the Ming emperors fell in 1644 the church in China for the first time was able to survive the fall of a friendly dynasty and make itself indispensable to the new Manchu rulers. However, an ecclesiastical catastrophe, the rites controversy, ended the Catholics’ century long rise to Chinese favor. At issue was the Jesuit policy of accommodation to such Confucian ceremonies as veneration of ancestors. In 1704, the pope ruled against the Jesuits. The result was an angry impasse between a Chinese emperor, Kangxi, resentful of foreign interference with his Jesuit advisers, and an inflexible pope.
The abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773 and the paralysis of France’s great missionary societies by the French Revolution brought Catholic expansion throughout Asia almost to a standstill. Only in the Philippines did Roman Catholicism continue a phenomenal growth, one that by 1800 had made the islands the one land in Asia with a Christian majority.
Meanwhile, a fourth wave of Christian advance was moving into Asia, carrying Protestantism to the continent for the first time. As early as 1598, Dutch merchants began to send chaplains to their trading posts in the East Indies. Instructed to preach also to non-Christians, the chaplains baptized thousands throughout the islands of what is now Indonesia. The movement’s weakness was its mixture of colonial, commercial, and religious motives, and it was only after a Danish mission of German Pietists to Tranquebar in 1706, and William Carey’s still more significant mission to India in 1792, that Protestant missions picked up the momentum and clarity of focus that made them the dominant new factor in Christian advance in Asia in the nineteenth century.
Among the pioneers after Carey were Robert Morrison in China (1807), Henry Martyn in Persia (1811), Adoniram Judson in Burma (1812), James Curtis Hepburn in Japan (1859), Ludwig Nommensen in Sumatra (1862), and Horace N. Allen in Korea (1884). Although Christianity and westernization often came hand in hand, evidence abounds of efforts by the missionaries to separate the advance of the faith from the spread of empire. Independent missionary societies multiplied. Emphasis on self-support, self-government, and self-propagation (the “three selfs”) led toward church independence from foreign control and to interdenominational church unions. Especially noteworthy was Christian influence on Asian churches in the fields of education, medicine, and the position of women.
The collapse of colonialism after World War II accelerated the rise of national Asian churches. Since 1900, despite counter-movements like communism and revitalized Eastern religions, Asia’s churches have multiplied the number of their adherents eight times, from only 19 million at the beginning of the twentieth century to an estimated 150 million by the end of the twentieth century. This growth seems aggressive in comparison to the growth rate of the population of Asia which, during this same time, tripled. Fervent evangelism, social compassion, and concern for justice in human affairs contributed to the growth of Christian influence. Theologians like P. D. Devanandan in India and K. Kitamori in Japan won new respect for the faith among intellectuals. Catholics in Asia outnumber Protestants by about five to three. Seventy percent of all Asia’s Christians are concentrated in four countries: the Philippines, India, Indonesia, and South Korea. It remains the case, however, that only one in about nineteen Asians is Christian.
nasara see Christians
nasrani see Christians
Christians (in Arabic, nasara; in singular form, nasrani). Early Islam had to deal mainly with the Copts (in Arabic, Qibt) of Egypt, the Maronites of Lebanon, the Melkites of Byzantium (in Arabic, Rum), the Nestorians (in Arabic, Nasturiyyan) or eastern Syriacs who were numerous in what are now Iraq and Iran and owed allegiance to the Catholicos of al-Mada’in (Seleucia-Ctesiphon), and the “Jacobites” or western Syriacs, suspected of Monophysitism and belonging to the patriarchate of Antioch. The Christians (and the Jews) had to pay a poll-tax (in Arabic, jizya) but were protected by the dhimma, a sort of indefinitely renewed contract through which members of other revealed religions were accorded hospitality and protection on condition of their acknowledging the domination of Islam. They therefore were called dhimmis or ahl al-dhimma. They were forbidden to insult Islam and to seek to convert a Muslim. On the other hand, they did take part in government. Although their condition was sometimes unstable, due to measures of individual caliphs or to outbursts of popular anger, it was essentially satisfactory until the Mongol invasions and the coming to power of the Mamelukes.
By 2002, Christians were the second largest religious group in Southwest Asia and North Africa with some 15 million adherents. Christianity started as a Messianic orientation in Judaism. It was not until the year100 of the Christian calendar that the breach between Jesus Jews (Christians) and the Jews who did not accept or believe the stories about Jesus became so grave that a reconciliation was no longer possible.
Christianity is a religion based upon the belief that the Bible contains a divine message and that Jesus represents a change in the relationship between man and God. There are differences on how the different churches of Southwest Asia and North Africa see this message, how they transmit it, and also how they define Jesus. However, in general, the similarities outnumber the differences.
There are three foundational bases for the Southwest Asian and North African Christian churches: (1) The personalites and the stories of Judaism before Jesus (i.e., the Old Testament); (2) Jesus, the disciples and the first apostles (i.e., the New Testament); and (3) over the centuries, the personalites of each separate church and their respective histories. It is in the third basis (the basis which often has been central in forming unique identities for the different churches) that one finds stories about martyrs and saints. Whereas, central to the first two bases is the concept that there is only one god, and that man is offered eternal life in Paradise after death, or punishment.
Under the tenets of Christianity, the Old Testament contains the promise of a Jesus as the Messiah. Since the Christians believe that the Messiah had arrived, they differed, and still do, from the Jews. The actual understanding of Messiah was, however, different for the adherents of Christianity. While the Jews considered the Messiah as the liberator of Israel, for Christians, Jesus came to be considered as the liberator of mankind, and of the world.
In both Judaism and Christianity, the Messiah represented the end of the unjust world. As the Christians saw it, Jesus’ main task was to prepare for the apocalypse and the end of Satan’s influence on the world. One book in the New Testament tells about this, the Book of Revelations. This has many similarities with the apocalyptic books of the Old Testament, but few with the Gospels. This conception of the Messiah threatens the non-believers and the lukewarm while giving hope to the many who believe.
However, as the decades passed, and the promise of the end of the world was not fulfilled, the role of Jesus as Messiah began to be modified. Instead of linking Jesus to the end of the world, Christians began to link him to the establishment of a new world order. With Jesus, a new relationship between man and God was established, and Christians could use this as a foundation for living in the secular world. They were saved and purified through the belief in Jesus alone.
Nevertheless, even today, many Christians continue to expect that the end of the world will be in the not too distant future. When this happens, God will judge every human being, and each person’s destiny in the hereafter will be determined. The unjust will burn in Hell, while the just will experience eternal bliss in Paradise, -- in Heaven.
Central to the message of Jesus is love, forgiveness and openness towards other human beings. While Judaism at the time of Jesus was predominantly a closed religion, the message of Jesus was by many understood to be that every human being could become a Christian – through the force of faith alone.
The Gospels are far less detailed on regulations on morals and life than the Jewish Law. Among other things, the dietary regulations were abolished.
With regards to the development of the individual “personality” of the Southwest Asian Christian churches, it was often in the clash with kings and rulers, as well as other religions (especially Islam) that many Christians faced persecution, and had to stand up for their religion. These stories, true or not, gave the churches both strength and identity, but also cult centers that were built around places central to each personality.
There are also many stories about ascetics, men or women who devoted themselves entirely to Christianty, and sometimes moved to inhospitable places, like into the desert, and who still managed to survive.
In most of the churches in North Africa and Southwest Asia, many rituals are performed by the clergy to the benefit of all members of the congregation. In many cases, it is expected that these attend the churches and cathedrals to witness these rituals, but there are less central everyday rituals that are performed to the benefit of believers who are not present.
The totality of rituals is both too complex, and too time consuming, for each individual to perform. It is necessary to have a clergy who perform all obligations and do it correctly. The adherents participate with money, gifts and sometimes voluntary work. Some rituals are, however, central and cannot work unless the believers participate. These include such acts as baptism, confirmation, marriage and the Eucharist. It is also important to participate at a minimum of services, even if it is not expected that all believers shall participate at all. Important feasts among the Orthodox Christians are: Easter, (celebrated at other times than the Western world, starting in April or May); Christmas (December 25); Theophany (January 19); and Great Lent (a fast starting in February or March).
Confession, fasting, prayer, self-denial, obedience, righteous deeds and visits to holy places are other rituals, and they are often performed on an individual basis. In everyday religious life, these can often be of more importance to the believer than the big feasts.
The organization of the churches in Southwest Asia and North Africa is strictly hierarchical, and the churches have little of congregational democracy. The existing leaders are effectively in charge of appointing new leaders. Most of the independent churches are headed by a patriarch, who has a small group of bishops below him, who then again have a group of priests below them. Connected to some of the churches there are also monasteries which enjoy a certain amount of independence but still come under the authority of the highest leaders.
Even the local Catholic churches have a great deal of independence, and cannot be defined as controlled by the pope from the Vatican. The relationship between the pope and the churches is more symbolic than factual, but the communication channels are open for influence.
There are many holy places for Christianity in Southwest Asia and Egypt. The most important place is Jerusalem, where there has been built a church over the place claimed to be the burial place of Jesus. In Bethlehem, there is a church built over the place where Jesus is believed to have been born. Nazareth has several sites that memorialize the life and career of Jesus. Syria has many cult centers of less well known Christian personalities, but in Damascus there are spots that are visited and revered as sites from the life of the Apostle Paul. Egypt has a rich tradition of its own, but there are also places that memorialize the exile of Jesus and his family in Egypt.
A brief history of Christianity begins in the first century of the Christian calendar with the spreading of the Jesus-orientation in Jewish communities. This Jesus orientation would develop into churches as part of what came to be an independent religion. It is possible that the Essenes were central in this development.
Around 100, the Jesus-Jews broke free from other Jews and began developing their own religion.
During the second century of the Christian calendar, the spread of Christianity continued. During this period of time, the Christian congregations were small and weak but they were in contact with each other. The main centers, at this time, were in Syria and northern Egypt.
During the second and third centuries, there was strong growth in North Africa, but also inside the Roman Empire. Indeed, the most remarkable event occurred in the fourth century of the Christian calendar when the Roman Emperor Constantine was converted to the Christian faith. Following the example of his father and earlier third century emperors, Constantine in his early life was a solar henotheist, believing that the Roman sun god Sol was the visible manifestation of an invisible “Highest God” (summus deus), who was the principle behind the universe. This god was thought to be the companion of the Roman Emperor. Constantine’s adherence to this faith is evident from his claim of having had a vision of the sun god in 310 while in a grove of Apollo in Gaul. In 312, on the eve of a battle against Maxentius (r.306-312), Constantine’s rival in Italy, Constantine is reported to have dreamed that Christ appeared to him and told him to inscribe the first two letters of his name (XP in Greek) on the shields of his troops. The next day he is said to have seen a cross superimposed on the sun and the words “in this sign you will be the victor” (usually given in Latin, in hoc signo vinces). Constantine then defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, near Rome. The Senate hailed the victor as the savior of the Roman people. Thus, Constantine, who had been a pagan solar worshiper, now looked upon the Christian deity as a bringer of victory. Persecution of the Christians was ended, and Constantine’s co-emperor, Licinius (250-325), joined Constantine in issuing the Edict of Milan (313), which granted toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire. As guardian of Constantine’s favored religion, the Christian Church – the Catholic Church – was then given legal rights and large financial donations.
During the fifth century of the Christian calendar, a great schism occurred between the churches over a central issue: Was Jesus of two natures, one human and one divine, or did he just have one nature? At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the western churches came to decide that Jesus had two natures, but that the two natures were combined in the same person. However, many eastern churches did not accept this conclusion. Consequently, in the east, a number of new and independent congregations arose which had no relations with the western church – the church of Rome.
In the seventh century of the Christian calendar, new rulers of Southwest Asia and North Africa under the banner of Islam emerged to challenge Christianity. The emergence of Islam resulted in a centuries long relationship that would shift between mild and strong persecution on one side, and fruitful coexistence on the other side. Many Christians would over the next couple of centuries convert to Islam.
The seventh century of the Christian calendar also saw the formation of the Christian Byzantine Empire, which came to cover most of modern Turkey, Greece and parts of lands further west in Europe. The Byzantine Empire developed into an important center for the development of eastern Orthodox Christianity. The empire would remain large for more than 700 years, until it was defeated by the Ottomans.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Christian Crusades in the lands around Jerusalem would lead to new contacts between eastern churches and the Catholic Church of Rome. In some areas (especially around modern Lebanon), Christian states were established, while in other areas hostility between eastern Christians and the Crusaders was the result.
From the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, a well conducted campaign from the Catholic Church towards eastern churches, made them rejoin the great Catholic Church. However, they were allowed to keep their identity, organization, special rites, liturgy and even perform this in their traditional languages. None of the churches were forced to introduce celibacy for its clergy against its own will.
In the nineteenth century, heavy and brutal actions perpetrated by Muslims against Christians within the Ottoman Empire resulted in a great exodus of Christians from the region. The nineteenth century also saw the beginning of European colonization in Algeria, Tunisia, and Mauritania. European colonization brought large quantities of Christian Europeans into the region. For a period deep into the 20th century, Christianity became the politically dominant (if not largest) religion for this region. There was minimal persecution from the Christian side, and very few conversions from Islam to Christianity.
During the early twentieth century, Morocco and Libya were colonized and saw a large immigration of European Christians. Again, Christianity became the politically dominant religion in these countries.
Around 1960, with the fall of the North African colonies, most Christians with European origin in North Africa returned to their families’ original home countries. Only a few Christians remained.
Although Christianity began in Asia, today Asia is statistically the least Christian continent. In a world where one in every three people professes to be Christian, Asia’s population is only five percent Christian. To understand the reasons for the numerical weakness of Christianity on its home continent one must turn first to history.
The Christian faith spread eastward across Asia as quickly as it moved west into Europe, but with one significant difference: in the West it converted and transformed the culture of a whole continent. However, in non-Roman Asia, not once in Christianity’s first sixteen centuries did it manage to achieve majority influence in any enduring national power center.
A history of Asian Christianity may be characterized in terms of alternating periods of expansion and decline: (1) early advance (50-650); (2) recession: the rise of Islam and the fall of the Tang dynasty in China (650-1000); (3) revival under the Mongols (1000-1370); (4) years of devastation (1370-1500); (5) the Catholic centuries (1500-1700); (6) controversy and decline (1700-1792); (7) Protestant beginnings and the rise of the Asian churches (1792- present).
In its period of earliest expansion, Asian Christianity was impressively successful in geographical extension, but less so in penetration of major cultures. Before the end of the first century, Thomas, “the apostle of Asia,” had reached India, according to an ancient and fairly reliable tradition. About the same time, the new faith broke across the Roman border into eastern Syria and Persian Mesopotamia. By the end of the second century, the border principality of Edessa was largely Christian, and one of its kings, Abgar IX (r. 179-214), may well have been the world’s first ruler of a Christian state. Around the year 300 of the Christian calendar, Armenia officially adopted the Christian faith but ecclesiastically became more Western than Asian.
The church in Persia, however, was strong enough by the early fifth century to organize itself into a national church independent of the Western patriarchs. It called itself the Church of the East but is better known by its later name, the Nestorian church. In the remarkable missionary advance across Asia that followed, Nestorians carried the faith from the Red Sea to the heart of China. Three Arab Christian kingdoms emerged and some of the tribes of Central Asia began to convert to the Christian faith. Persian missionaries reached Chang’an, the Tang capital of China, as early as 635. But it was only in the fringe kingdoms at the edges of imperial power that decisive numbers became Christian. The key cultural and political centers, Persia, China, and India, were often hostile, at best tolerant. The first six centuries were thus years of steady but limited success.
By contrast, the next 350 years brought sharp setbacks. The first blow to the church was the rise of Islam. When the Arabs destroyed Persia and rolled Byzantine Rome back into Europe they quenched the flickering hope that the Nestorians might do for Asia what Catholic and Orthodox Christianity was accomplishing in the West: the conversion of a continent. Islam did not destroy Christianity, however, it simply encapsulated it, adapting from the defeated Persians a form of religious minority control called the millet (or dhimmi) system. As dhimmi, Christians were offered no heroic choice of death or apostasy, only the eroding humiliations of isolation, second-class citizenship, double taxation, and harsh social discrimination. The best that can be said of the ghettos thus created is that they allowed the Nestorians to survive for centuries and to serve as conduits of Greek learning through the Arabs to Europe.
Beyond the limits of Arab conquest, Christian growth was less restricted. The Nestorians were able to maintain intermittent contact with the Thomas Christians of South India, and the Persian mission to China flourished for two more centuries. Then suddenly it disappeared. The fall of the Tang dynasty in 907 was probably the major cause. The church had become too dependent upon imperial favor. But it had already been weakened by a spate of anti-religious persecutions in the mid-ninth century, and more fundamentally by its failure to take root among the Chinese. In fact, Nestorianism in China seems to have remained a religion for Persian priests and tribal groups.
By the year 1000, Christianity appeared to be a receding wave in Asia. It persisted only in isolated pockets in the Arab caliphates, South India, and Central Asia. At this low point, a Christian resurgence appeared in the wild heartlands of Asia among the Mongol and Turkic nomads. A chieftain of the Kereits was converted by Nestorian missionaries and was baptized with many of his people. When the Kereits were later drawn into the emerging Mongol confederation they became the unexpected avenue of Christian penetration into a new Asiatic center of power. Indeed, Genghis Khan married his fourth son, Tolui, to a Nestorian Kereit princess. She became the mother of three sons, all of whom eventually ruled major divisions of the Mongol empire: Mongke, the third Great Khan (1251-1259); Hulegu, the ilkhan of Islamic Persia (1261-1265); and Kublai, most famous of all, who became Grand Khan (1260) and emperor of China (1280-1294). None of the brothers became Christian, but their reigns marked the high point of the Nestorian church in Asia, and for a fleeting moment a Mongol monk, the Nestorian patriarch in Baghdad, Yaballaha III (1281-1317), ruled at least nominally a wider spiritual domain than did the pope in Rome. In 1287, Arghun, ilkhan of Persia, confirmed the prestige of the Nestorians by sending another Mongol monk as his ambassador to seek alliance with the Christian princes of Europe against the Muslims.
Once again, however, the Christian quest for political security in Asia proved illusory. The West, disillusioned with crusades, hesitated to be drawn into another. Arghun’s son, the ilkhan Ghazan (1295-1304), repudiated his compatriot the patriarch and embraced Islam. Worse yet, before the century was out, Timur’s wars of annihilation (1363-1405) displaced the more tolerant Mongols with a Muslim Turkic fanaticism that devastated Central and Inner Asia as far south as Delhi. Few Christians were left alive and Nestorianism never recovered from the breakup of Mongol power.
It was also in the Mongol period that Roman Catholicism first reached Asia. Between 1245 and 1346, ten Catholic missions were sent to the Mongol khans. The most successful was that of the Franciscan Giovanni da Montecorvino, who reached Beijing in 1294, built two churches there, and was made archbishop with the authority of a patriarch. Like the Nestorians, however, China’s first Catholics vanished with the collapse of the Mongols in 1368.
A third period of Christian advance in Asia opened with the dawn of the age of discovery. Da Gama’s Portuguese fleet, anchoring off the coast of India in 1498, brought a host of Catholic missionaries in its train. Goa became the center for ecclesiastical expansion, and the arrival of the first Jesuit, Francis Xavier, touched off ten of the most intensive years of Catholic missionary expansion in Asian history. Between 1542 and his death in 1552, Xavier laid foundations of mass evangelism in India that still endure. Xavier strengthened mission outposts in Melaka (Malacca) and the Moluccas, and, as the first Christian missionary to Japan, so effectively pioneered the “Christian century” there (1549-1650) that Japan may well have had a higher percentage of Christians in 1600 than it has today.
A tragic by-product of the coming of the West to India, however, was its effect on the ancient Thomas Christians. This Indian Syrian community had maintained tenuous connections with the Nestorians in Baghdad for centuries. Now it was first proselytized by the Portuguese and then fractured when large groups of Syrian Christians rebelled against the jurisdiction of Rome and reasserted their indigenous Christian loyalties. In Japan, there was an even greater tragedy. The savage persecutions of the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) ended the Christian century, wiped out the church, and left only a shattered underground.
The Roman Catholics in China (1583-1774), as in Japan, enjoyed remarkable initial success. Matteo Ricci’s strategy of accommodation to local customs and skillful use of Western science won the attention of the Confucian intelligentsia and gradually established a Jesuit presence and influence at the court in Beijing. So strong was this influence that when the Ming emperors fell in 1644 the church in China for the first time was able to survive the fall of a friendly dynasty and make itself indispensable to the new Manchu rulers. However, an ecclesiastical catastrophe, the rites controversy, ended the Catholics’ century long rise to Chinese favor. At issue was the Jesuit policy of accommodation to such Confucian ceremonies as veneration of ancestors. In 1704, the pope ruled against the Jesuits. The result was an angry impasse between a Chinese emperor, Kangxi, resentful of foreign interference with his Jesuit advisers, and an inflexible pope.
The abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773 and the paralysis of France’s great missionary societies by the French Revolution brought Catholic expansion throughout Asia almost to a standstill. Only in the Philippines did Roman Catholicism continue a phenomenal growth, one that by 1800 had made the islands the one land in Asia with a Christian majority.
Meanwhile, a fourth wave of Christian advance was moving into Asia, carrying Protestantism to the continent for the first time. As early as 1598, Dutch merchants began to send chaplains to their trading posts in the East Indies. Instructed to preach also to non-Christians, the chaplains baptized thousands throughout the islands of what is now Indonesia. The movement’s weakness was its mixture of colonial, commercial, and religious motives, and it was only after a Danish mission of German Pietists to Tranquebar in 1706, and William Carey’s still more significant mission to India in 1792, that Protestant missions picked up the momentum and clarity of focus that made them the dominant new factor in Christian advance in Asia in the nineteenth century.
Among the pioneers after Carey were Robert Morrison in China (1807), Henry Martyn in Persia (1811), Adoniram Judson in Burma (1812), James Curtis Hepburn in Japan (1859), Ludwig Nommensen in Sumatra (1862), and Horace N. Allen in Korea (1884). Although Christianity and westernization often came hand in hand, evidence abounds of efforts by the missionaries to separate the advance of the faith from the spread of empire. Independent missionary societies multiplied. Emphasis on self-support, self-government, and self-propagation (the “three selfs”) led toward church independence from foreign control and to interdenominational church unions. Especially noteworthy was Christian influence on Asian churches in the fields of education, medicine, and the position of women.
The collapse of colonialism after World War II accelerated the rise of national Asian churches. Since 1900, despite counter-movements like communism and revitalized Eastern religions, Asia’s churches have multiplied the number of their adherents eight times, from only 19 million at the beginning of the twentieth century to an estimated 150 million by the end of the twentieth century. This growth seems aggressive in comparison to the growth rate of the population of Asia which, during this same time, tripled. Fervent evangelism, social compassion, and concern for justice in human affairs contributed to the growth of Christian influence. Theologians like P. D. Devanandan in India and K. Kitamori in Japan won new respect for the faith among intellectuals. Catholics in Asia outnumber Protestants by about five to three. Seventy percent of all Asia’s Christians are concentrated in four countries: the Philippines, India, Indonesia, and South Korea. It remains the case, however, that only one in about nineteen Asians is Christian.
nasara see Christians
nasrani see Christians
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