Circumstances of a Special Relationship: Christian Arabs and Romanians During the 16th- 18th Centuries

Abstract

During the 16th-17th centuries, the Christian Arabs' opening towards Europe, an area more attractive and more accessible to them than to Muslims, was helped by the Ottoman authorities' gradual loosening of their grip over non-Muslim subjects. Therefore, Arab patriarchs looked for assistance in remote Christian lands, eager to revive the intellectual life in monastic communities of the Near-East, where spiritual life was limited, towards the end of the 16th century, to transcribing old liturgical and ascetic works. As far as the Greek-Orthodox were concerned, turning to the Roman See would have placed them in a vulnerable position, bearing in mind the sustained efforts of the Latin missionaries (Franciscans, Capuchins, Jesuits, etc.) towards unifying the Eastern Christian communities with the Catholic Church' . Thus, establishing connections with the Greek-Orthodox in Europe seemed to be the natural choice, and a safer one, as far as the preservation of dogmatic traditions was concerned.