ARMENIAN COMMUNITIES IN SYRIA UNDER OTTOMAN DOMINION, THE

By Avedis K. Sanjian

This is a study of the Armenian communities in Syria under four centuries (1516-1918) of Ottoman rule. As such, it contributes both to the history of the Armenian disapora and to the history of national groups subject to the Ottomans. Emphasizing as it does the religious institutions, it also contributes to the history of Eastern Christianity. Beginning with a sketch of the Armenians' historic associations with Syria and Cilicia before the advent of the Ottoman and a general account of the Armenian millet under Ottoman dominion, Sanjian proceeds to a discussion of the evolution and cultural and economic activity of the communities. He then examines the historical development and internal organization of the Armenian patriarchates of Jerusalem, in particular its administration of the Holy Places, and the regional catholicosal hierarchy of Cilicia and its dependent bishopric of Aleppo. The story of the custodianship of the Holy Places - involving inevitable conflict with the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox institutions in Jerusalem - throw an interesting light on the struggle for power among various minorities, political groups in the Ottoman capital, and the European embassies over the dominical sites in the Hold Land. 

Harvard Middle Eastern Studies No. 10

Harvard University Press (1965)