chapter 2 Editor’s Note*

1 The Version: Source and Conception

1.1 Athanasius Dabbās – The Hierarch, the Scholar Soon after the Divan was printed in 1698 Athanasius Dabbās, a hierarch and two-times Patriarch of the Church of Antioch and All the East, translated Cantemir’s book into Arabic, a fact that the author himself seemingly never learned about. The presence of Dabbās in Bucharest at the onset of the 18th century requires a brief explanation. The special status that the Romanian Principalities enjoyed since the late 14th century as dār al-ʿahd, “territories under treaty”,not a sanǧak, allowed their rulers to provide support to other Christian communities: they paid the debts of the Oriental Patriarchates towards the Ottoman authorities, financed the establishment and maintenance of churches and religious schools, and offered valuable books and liturgical vessels (Cândea 1981; Maxim 1999; Maxim 2001: 11–22). Romanian princes were famous for their generosity and willingness to help the Christians living in post-Byzantine lands (Cândea 1982: 283–288; Cândea 2002: 182–189). Nicolae Iorga commented on the role of the Romanians as patrons of Greek-Orthodox , a task they took over from the Byzantine rulers, which allowed them to extend their influence and authority “all the way to Tiflis, to Antioch, to Cairo” (Iorga 2000: 28–29). As far as documents attest, Arab Christian clergy started visiting the Roma- nian Principalities around 1580, at a time when the See of the Patriarchate of Antioch was in a terrible condition, mostly accountable to the Ottoman gov- ernment. Another factor that drove the Greek-Orthodox , or ‘Melkites’,1 to Eastern Europe was the increasing pressure from missionaries of other

* By Ioana Feodorov. 1 The term malikiyy (‘follower of the Emperor’, Syr. > Ar.) was first applied, possibly by the disciples of Jacob Baradeh, to those Christians who decided to embrace the decisions of the council of Chalcedon (451) concerning the nature of Jesus Christ. These were the Greek- Orthodox, whose liturgical languages were Greek and Syriac, and, later on, Arabic. Since the beginning of the 18th century the term Melkite has been used only for Greek-Catholic communities of the Near East. See Salaville 1932: 29; Samir 2003: 135–146; Alexander Treiger, Unpublished texts from the Arab Orthodox tradition (1): On the origin of the term “Melkite” and on the destruction of the Maryamiyya Cathedral in Damascus,“Chronos, Revue d’Histoire de l’Université de Balamand”, 29, 2014, pp. 7–37.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi: 10.1163/9789004311022_003 editor’s note 55 and confessions (Jesuits,2 Franciscans, Carmelites, Dominicans), who made renewed efforts to establish their supremacy in the Middle East.3 The first Near- Eastern visitors to leave a trace of their journey in these remote lands were: Patriarch Yūwākīm v Ibn Ḍawʾū (Graf 1949: 88–89), Patriarch Makarius iii Ibn al-Zaʿīm and his son, Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo.4 Alongside other documents, Paul’s travel notes bear witness to the fact that Romanian princes and hierar- chs dedicated estates and lands situated on their territory to Greek-Orthodox churches and all over the Ottoman-ruled lands. The church of Spyridon in Bucharest was rebuilt in 1746 within an old to pro- vide a steady income for the Patriarchate of Antioch. It was consecrated in 1747 by Patriarch Sylvester, the successor of Athanasius iii Dabbās (see ill. 13), who endowed it, as customary, with an of Saint Spyridon, painted by himself and adorned with an Arabic inscription.5 In March 1700, some forty years after Patriarch Makarius iii and Paul of Aleppo, Athanasius Dabbās came to Bucharest as a guest of the Wallachian Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu (1688–1714), aiming to establish connections helpful to the Antiochian communities. Patriarch Athanasius (Būlos Dabbās, b. 1647, Damascus) came from a very old family of Ḥawrān,6 the Christian heart of Syria, which had already given two patriarchs: Athanasius ii (1611–1618)

2 They were active in Syria especially after 1625. 3 See the brief but enlightening discussions of the situation in Haddad 1970: 49–58 and Hajjar 1971: 25–34. 4 One of the best-documented connections between Romanians and Arab Christians is the Riḥlat al-baṭriyārk Makāriyūs Ibn al-Zaʿīm al-Ḥalabī, “The Journey of Patriarch Makarius Ibn al-Zaʿīm of Aleppo”,written by his son, Archdeacon Paul, who accompanied him in his travels to the Romanian Principalities, Ukraine, and Russia in 1652–1658, in search of financial, polit- ical, and spiritual help. See Feodorov 1996; Hilary Kilpatrick, Journeying Towards Modernity. The Safrat al-Baṭrak Makāryiūs of Būlus Ibn al-Zaʿīm al-Ḥalabī, “Die Welt des Islams”, Leiden, 1997, 37/2, pp. 156–177; Feodorov 2004; H. Kilpatrick, Makāriyūs Ibn al-Zaʿīm (c. 1600–1672) and Būlus Ibn al-Zaʿīm (1627–1669), in Essays in Arabic Literary Biography, 1350–1850, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2009, pp. 265–266, 269–272; Feodorov 2014-a. 5 Demolished in 1987 by the communist regime, the Church of Saint Spyridon was rebuilt in 1994–1995 and the Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius iv Hazīm (d. 5 December 2012) participated in its consecration. The icon of St Spyridon disappeared in the 20th c. Information about it is available in Vasile Radu, Mănăstirea Sfântul Spiridon și Patriarhul Silvestru al Antiohiei, “Revista Istorică Română”, Bucharest, 1933, t. iii, fasc. 1. For a more detailed presentation of connections between Romanians and Christian Arabs in the 16th–18th c. see Feodorov 2006 and Feodorov 2007. 6 In the excellent genealogical tree (Šaǧarat nisab ʿāʾilat Banū Dabbās) included in Dabbās – Raššū 2008 the first member of the family is a certain ʿAbd al-Masīḥ (?-1386).