Lecture by Fr. Dr. Sharbel Iskandar Bcheiry, Metadata Editor at Atla

Throughout history, Syriacs kept their own baptismal, marriage, funeral, and other records, but not all these have survived. Many Syriac archives, registers and records can be found in various libraries, churches, and monasteries in the West and East, with a large concentration in Mardin, which was once the spiritual headquarters of the Syriac Orthodox Church and their patriarchate. These records relate to ecclesiastic aspects which include vital records such as: birth, baptism, marriage, and death records. In addition to such records, there are biographies of clergies, saints, notables, writers, and copyists. Furthermore, the lists of ecclesiastic ordinations such as deacons, monks, nuns, priests, bishops, and patriarchs are included. The last major category in these archives is documents relating to endowments and donations also a large collection of correspondences between the ecclesiastic leadership and lay people. In my presentation, I would like to shed some lights on these records and archives and their importance for the social, religious, and cultural studies in relation to the history of Syriac Christianity.

Fr. Dr. Sharbel Iskandar Bcheiry, Metadata Editor at Atla, holds a Ph.D. in Church History from the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome, and another Ph.D. in World Christianity and Global Missions-Christian-Muslim Studies from the Lutheran School of Theology-Chicago. Fr. Dr. Bcheiry has published a collection of books such as: An Early Christian reaction to Islam: Išū‘yhab III and the Muslim Arabs (Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press, 2019); Hagiography, History, and Manuscript Culture: Studies in Syriac Christianity (Kaslik: Lebanon, 2018); Collection of Historical Documents in Relation with the Syriac Orthodox Community, in the Late Period of the Ottoman Empire (Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press, 2010). Also, Fr. Dr. Bcheiry published articles on the history of Syriac Christianity and cataloged several Syriac and Arabic manuscripts. He is also a Priest for the Syriac Orthodox Church and serves as a pastor of his community in Chicago since 2006.