This book presents a comprehensive and encyclopedic overview of the early modern history of Christians in the Arabic Levant, namely in the Orthodox patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem. Endorsed by a preface by the current patriarch of Antioch, it is a translation from the Russian and was originally published in 2012. The author is a renowned expert on the history of Middle Eastern Christianity. Unlike other recent scholarship on the topic, his book relies less on Ottoman and more on Christian Arab and Russian sources. Focusing on the three centuries between Sultan Selim i’s conquest of Syria and Palestine from the Mamluk rulers (1516) until its occupation by the Egyptian pasha Muhammad Ali (1831), the book draws a vivid picture of the culture of the two Orthodox patriarchates, their social and demographic composition as well as their economic and political relations to the Ottoman Porte, the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Orthodox world, namely Serbia, Georgia and the Danubian Principalities. Russia in particular evolved as an important protector of Orthodox believers, but also as a danger when it became the major opponent of the Ottomans in the eighteenth century. Since the Ottoman Empire united the biggest part of Orthodox Christians under its rule, it ended the previous isolation of Arab Orthodoxy and strengthened its distinct and increasingly urbanised culture. After the incorporation of the Arab East into the Ottoman Empire, Greek influence in the Middle East rose, leading to an often tense relationship between the Greek (Fanariot) patriarchate of Constantinople and Antioch. In Palestine, however, an impressive Greek literary culture evolved. Orthodox contacts to the outside world were based upon larger geo-political contexts but also on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, on personal networks as well as financial support and fundraising journeys. Money, in particular in the patriarchate of Jerusalem, largely came from outside funds. Unlike the image preserved by many European pilgrimage accounts, only a few visitors to the Holy Land came from the lands of the ‘Franks’, i.e. the West. Despite a growing Roman Catholic influence, early modern Arab Orthodox culture emerges as autonomous, multifaceted and highly dynamic, taking into account the many ethnic and religious fractions in the region such as the schism between Melkite Uniate Catholics and the Orthodoxy of Antioch of 1724.

The author tells his story against the backdrop of a perhaps slightly schematic view of Ottoman decline vis-à-vis a ‘Rise of the West’, especially in the eighteenth century. Orthodox interactions with Muslims play only a marginal role in the book. At the same time, this overview amply illustrates that the early modern Middle East was much more than just a remote outpost of the Christian world. Albeit no easy read, the book, thankfully, now provides substantial valuable and detailed information in English.