Disciples of the Patriarch of Antioch Joakim IV ibn Ǧuma (1543–1576)

Abstract

A church history of the Christian Orient has been seriously determined by tribal and local ties. The paper analyzes personalities and origin of close con dents of Patriarch of Antioch Joakim IV ibn Ǧuma (1543-1576). According to this data an attempt was made to reconstruct ties between the Patriarch and local Christian elites of various regions of Syria. The main attention was devoted to an activity of Musa from Marmarita, the disciple of the Patriarch and one of the most active intellectuals of the Church of Antioch of the 16th century. Many persons from the suit of the Patriarch originated from regions of Tripoli and Al-Husn, which later became a hearth of cultural revival of the Orthodox Arabs of the late 16th century (the «Melkite Proto-Renaissance»). The circle of the disciples of Joakim IV ibn Ǧuma demonstrates that the rise of Christian elites of Northern Lebanon and al-Husn and their predominance in the Church of Antioch began at least one generation before the «Melkite Proto-Renaissance».