Orientalische Christen und Europa. Kulturbegegnung zwischen Interferenz, Partizipation und Antizipation. Edited by Martin Tamcke. (Göttinger Orientforschungen Syriaca, ). Pp. xi + . Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, . E (paper). ; JEH () ; doi:./S This volume consists of twenty-six articles, organised into six sections, of which twenty are written in German and six in English. The sections grew out of the theme of a conference, the aim of which was to discuss different aspects of cultural encounters between Oriental Christians and Europe in different time periods. In the section 'Rezeption', three articles deal with earlier periods and the article which I particularly enjoyed reading was 'Is Christianity from Arabia?' (Najeeb G. Awad). In the section 'Mission' two articles testify that missionaries were witness to the genocide of the Christians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War: 'Die Liebesarbeit an den Nestorianern in Kurdistan: Evangelische Wahrnehmungen eines alten Zweiges des orientalischen Christentums zu Anfang des . Jahrhunderts' (K. Pinggéra) and 'Interferenz zwischen Humanität un Genozid: der Disput zwischen Johannes Lepsius und Evenver Pascha, Konstantinopel, . August ' (H. Goltz). In 'Interaction', two more articles deal with the genocide but more from the perspective of German involvement in the war: 'Vor den letzten Spuren eines untergegangenen Volkes: Armin T. Wegners Kriegstagebuch vom . September bis Oktober ' (M. Tamcke and S. Grebenstein), and 'Armin T. Wegner's WWI media testimonies and the Armenian genocide' (T. Sarukhanyan). The three other articles in this section focus on intellectual activities resulting from interactions between Eastern and Western Christians. 'Exploration' deals with new questions and thus new perspectives about ancient religious texts. The articles in 'Koexistenz' describe the kind of life which emerges when different religious or ethnic groups live together. In the article 'Fortsetzung religiöser Koexistenstrukturen auf deutschem Boden? Orientalische Christen inder Literatur, muslimisher Migranten in Deutchland', M. Tamcke looks at Christian-Muslim relations in modern Germany, after Christian and Muslim immigrants settled in the country. The last section, 'Stephanus-Preis', includes the talk by the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, Louis Sako, in recognition of his 'exemplary behavior and his steadfastness as a Christian in distress'. In his talk Sako stresses the importance of peace for coexistence between religions and expresses his determination to work for the creation of a culture of dialogue. M. Tamcke, in the final article of this volume, speaks to the endangered position of Christians in the Middle East.
Among those who opposed the Council of Chalcedon in , the West Syrian (or Syriac Orthodox) Christians were probably least likely to form a national or ethnic community. Yet a group emerged with its own distinctive literature and art, its own network, and historical consciousness. In an intricate process of adoption and rejection, the West Syrians selected elements from the cultures to which they were heirs, and from those with which they came into contact, thus defining a position of their own. In order to study this phenomenon, scholars from various disciplines, and affiliated to two different faculties, were brought together in a programme financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research nwo. This essay introduces their research project and methodology, and presents their results and conclusions.
This article discusses the ways in which eyewitness accounts about the Assyrian Genocide have been transmitted in writing and orally, reconstructed across generations, and how these accounts have been expressed in lamentations, poetry, and songs in the diaspora, after large numbers of Assyrians settled in Western states beginning in the 1960s. The study of poetry and songs is not only important for reasons of literary analysis, but more so because of the relatively few written primary sources about the Assyrian Genocide. The production of poetry and songs has partly been instrumental in avoiding censorship and renewed persecution, but in recent years has additional value as a medium to call for future action in preventing violence and transmiting memories of the past. The article also highlights culturally specific forms of coping with trauma and transmitting memory. It is based on the analysis of Sayfo lamentations and poetry produced in the homeland, 21 Sayfo songs and poems produced in the Western diaspora, and some recent interviews with the writers of these songs.
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