The Religious Factor in the Interaction of European Powers with the Community of the Church of the East in the Ottoman Empire

The Religious Factor in the Interaction of European Powers with the Community of the Church of the East in the Ottoman EmpireХристианство на Ближнем ВостокеSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/XR9HV8A5/tei

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2025-05-20-05:00

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Iosif YuryevichZayaThe Religious Factor in the Interaction of European Powers with the Community of the Church of the East in the Ottoman Empirehttp://syriaca.org/cbss/XR9HV8A5https://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/XR9HV8A5https://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/XR9HV8A5Христианство на Ближнем Востоке8:22024115-160The article is devoted to the study of the role of the religious factor in the development of contacts between European powers and one of the ethno-confessional groups of Christians in the Ottoman Empire — the community of the Church of the East. It was formed in the era of early Christianity outside the Roman Empire and remained independent from Rome and Constantinople, using Syriac (a modification of Aramaic) as its liturgical language, which was included among the main ancient Christian languages. Such a long isolation of the flock of the Church of the East from the European core of the Christian world contributed to its stereotypical perception, which entailed the use of unfounded names.To avoid confusion, the article correlates ethnonyms and confessional names of followers of the Church of the East that are often found in various sources and explains why the widely established term “Nestorians” in relation to representatives of this confession is incorrect not only from an ethical, but also from a scientific point of view. The historical excursion offered to the reader helps to better understand how and why the “millets” system adopted in the Ottoman Empire contributed to the fact that contacts of local Christians with Europeans were largely determined by religious and confessional affiliation. Paying special attention to the confessional specifics of each of the parties in contact, the author tried to derive and compare the models of interaction with representatives practiced by the leading European powers (France, which involved the Roman Catholic Church, England, which resorted to the help of the Anglican Church, and Russia, which relied on the Russian Orthodox Church). The study covers the period from the 16th century, when the first contacts between members of the Church of the East community appeared with Catholic emissaries supported by France in the Ottoman Empire, and ending with the first half of the second decade of the 20th century, which coincided with the beginning of the First World War, which changed the conditions and nature of interactions communities of the Church of the East with organizations and representatives of European powers. The article poses the question: did the contacts of the Church of the East community with Europeans, which flowed through religious channels, really have a significant impact on the further dramatic fate of this Christian minority. The emphasis in the work is on the events of the 19th and first decades of the 20th century, since this time saw the most intense contacts between Europeans and representatives of the Church of the East community, which is reflected in documents from the funds of Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Central State Historical Archives of Saint Petersburg and other Russian archives. We are introducing several documents into scientific circulation on this topic for the first time. Zaya, Iosif Yuryevich. “The Religious Factor in the Interaction of European Powers with the Community of the Church of the East in the Ottoman Empire.” Христианство на Ближнем Востоке 8:2 (2024): 115–60. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24412/2587-9316-2024-0090. Iosif Yuryevich Zaya, The Religious Factor in the Interaction of European Powers with the Community of the Church of the East in the Ottoman Empire, Христианство на Ближнем Востоке 8:2 (2024): 115–60, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24412/2587-9316-2024-0090.