The sound of the treacherous gunfire in the Jordanian village of Hamoud Al-Karak has revived discussion about Arab Christians, their place in the Arab and Islamic civilizational fabric, and whether they are a foundational component of that structure, both as people and as builders of institutions, or merely outsiders who arrived from nowhere.
Over the past few days, fellow writers and colleagues at Asharq Al-Awsat have written extensively about the horrific incident, condemning it and examining the hatred that fuels extremism. What drew particular attention, however, were the hateful comments that accompanied the crime across various social media platforms.
While intellectuals and opinion leaders overwhelmingly denounced what happened, it became clear that those who seek to spread hostility and division within our societies remain committed to their message of hatred.
There is no doubt that Arab Christians are an authentic and important part of the social fabric of our Arab countries. Under no circumstances can their citizenship or their deep historical roots, firmly embedded in Arab and Islamic history, be diminished or denied.
Across more than 120 historical references, there are clear accounts of this Arab Christian contribution and of what Christians brought to Arab and Islamic civilization. This is especially true of the Syriac Christians, who translated Greek sciences and philosophy into Arabic, explained and interpreted them, and later produced original scholarly works based upon them.
Significant accounts can be found in works such as Usud Al-Ghabah fi Ma'rifat Al-Sahabah by Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir, Bada'i Al-Zuhur fi Waqa'i Al-Duhur by Muhammad Ibn Iyas, Al-Nujum Al-Zahirah fi Muluk Misr wa Al-Qahirah by Abu Al-Mahasin Ibn Taghribirdi, and Tarikh Mukhtasar Al Duwal by Bar Hebraeus, among many others.
The presence of Arab Christians is therefore authentic and deeply rooted in Arab soil. Evidence of this can be seen in three prominent Christian Arab poets: Quss bin Sa'idah Al-Iyadi, Bishop of Najran and one of the greatest orators and poets of pre-Islamic Arabia; Adi bin Zaid, minister to Al-Nu'man, the last Lakhmid king of Iraq and husband of his daughter Hind; and Uthman bin Al-Huwayrith bin Asad of the Quraysh tribe.
At a later stage, Arab Christians also played a key role in developing Arabic writing and script, whose origins had previously remained largely obscure.
In his landmark work Al-Mufassal fi Tarikh Al-Arab Qabl Al-Islam (Detailed History of the Arabs Before Islam), the distinguished Iraqi historian Professor Jawad Ali explains how Arab Christians played a major role in the development of Arabic script. He even suggested that future archaeological discoveries might uncover Nabataean inscriptions buried beneath the sands of the Arabian Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Dominican scholar Professor Georges Anawati, who spent twenty years researching the life of Ibn Rushd, argued that the Christians of Al-Hirah were the first to use Arabic script and introduced new linguistic constructions and expressions into Arabic.
He notes that Quss bin Sa'idah was the first known figure to use the phrase "أما بعد" ("To proceed"), as well as the legal maxim, "The burden of proof rests upon the claimant, and the oath upon the denier."
He was also the first to write the formula "From so-and-so to so-and-so." Likewise, Umayyah ibn Abi Al-Salt is credited with popularizing the opening phrase "Bismika Allahumma" ("In Your name, O God") in correspondence.
With the emergence of the Arab renaissance and growing aspirations to break free from Ottoman rule, Arab Christians stood among the earliest advocates of intellectual and political liberation. Their extensive contacts with Europe, particularly among Arab Christians of the Levant and especially with France, played a crucial role in spreading ideas of nationalism and freedom.
In this context emerged prominent writers and poets, both in the Arab world and the diaspora, including Gibran Khalil Gibran, Elia Abu Madi, and Mikhail Naimy.
Similarly, the call for Arab nationalism in its civilizational and emancipatory sense, rather than a racial one, was championed by figures such as Adib Ishaq, Salim Sarkis, Shibli Shumayyil, and Naguib Azoury, among others.
Arab Christians also brought the printing press to the region as an instrument of enlightenment. In the early years of the second half of the nineteenth century, the Dominican Fathers established the historic Mosul Press.
This discussion has nothing to do with sectarian power-sharing. It is a historical reading of a glorious and enduring civilization that embraced all its human components without exclusion, discrimination, or claims of superiority, enabling it to rise among the world's most accomplished societies.
Incidents such as the one witnessed in Karak may encourage the emigration of this vital national community. Should that happen, the Arab social fabric could, God forbid, come to resemble other forms of sectarian and ethnic fragmentation that are already visible elsewhere in the region.
Peace to our homelands and our peoples, whether at home or abroad.
