Frequently Asked Questions
What does ‘Rum’ mean?
The term ‘Rum’ is a pre-Islamic endonym of the native inhabitants of Anatolia, the Middle East, and the Balkans. Its etymology is ultimately derived from the Greek “Ῥωμαῖοι” or “Ρωμιοί”, which was the ethnonym of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman Empire.
Sources:
[1] “Rum.” Wiktionary. 7 Dec 2024
[2] “روم.” Wiktionary. 6 Jun 2024
Aren’t Levantine Rum the direct descendants of the Ghassanids?
… No.
The Ghassanids were non-Chalcedonian Christians whose Royal Family were great patrons of the Syriac Orthodox Church [1][2]. Following the region’s Islamic conquest, many gradually embraced Islam or remained Syriac Christians.
Sources:
[1] Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
[2] Shahîd, Irfan (1995). Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 1. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks
Why are we called ‘Rum’ in the Near East?
…Because we are Greek Rite Chalcedonian Christians, who descend from the region’s former Greek-speaking inhabitants, and were formerly members of the Ottoman Rum millet.
The native Christians of the Near East, who believe in the Chalcedonian Christianity are historically called ‘Rum’, in Arabic and Turkish, Romaioi in Romaic, or modern Greek. Levantine Rum Christians are members of the Patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem, and are divided, at present, into two denominations: the Rum (Greek) Orthodox and the Rum (Greek) Melkite Catholics.
The Council of Chalcedon and the Chalcedonian Schism
In the 5th century AD, Christian theologians began to intensely debate the nature of Christ, and how divinity and humanity existed within Jesus [1]. As this theological dispute worsen, it began to take on cultural and linguistic dimensions. In 451 A.D., the Fourth Ecumenical Council was held in the city of Chalcedon in Bithynia, with the purpose of resolving the dispute. Besides the theological resolutions on the nature of Christ, the Council also dealt with the official status of the Sees of Constantinople and Jerusalem.
At the Council, the Metropolitan of Jerusalem was given Independence from the See of Antioch, and elevated to a Patriarchate. Later, becoming one of the five Patriarchates of the Roman Pentarchy organized by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who created the title of patriarch in 531 A.D. [2]. The Council of Chalcedon also elevated the See of Constantinople to “second in eminence and power to the Bishop of Rome” [3] [4].
The common Egyptian (Coptic) and Aramaic (Syriac) speaking Christians of the Sees of Alexandria and Antioch rejected the Council’s decision. These Semitic speaking non-Chalcedonian Christians split from the Christian Church to create their own national Churches, today called the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. While, the Greek-speaking Christians of Constantinople, Southern Italy, Anatolia, and the coastal areas of the Levant and Holy Land accepted the Council’s decisions. Therefore, in the case of Antioch, the Chalcedonian Church came to be known as the Byzantines’ (Romaic) Church of Antioch.
Greek Christianity and the Great Schism
Following the Islamic Conquest of the Levant, the native Romaic Christians continued to identify with Byzantine Civilization and were still loyal to the Empire, as witnessed by their resistance to the Islamic occupation during the Arab-Byzantine wars. Despite, our Arabization and linguistic shift from Greek to Arabic, the Romaic endonym endured as ‘Rum’ in Arabic, due to our strong affiliation to our ancestral civilization and identity.
In 1054[5], when the Great Schism occurred, leading to the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. Levantine Rum chose to remain in communion with the Four Patriarchates that went on to become the Greek Orthodox Church. By the time of the Crusades, like other Chalcedonian Orthodox that retained the use of the Greek language as their ecclesiastical language, Levantine Rum also officially adopted the Rite of Constantinople [6], also known as the Greek or Byzantine Rite. Doubling down on our Rum identity and loyalty to Byzantine Greek Civilization.
The Rum Millet
During the Ottoman occupation, Arabophone Chalcedonian Orthodox Christians of the Near East were incorporated into the Rum millet, or “Roman nation” – an ethno-religious community within Ottoman society led by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who served as its ethnarch. At the time, it served as the basic source of identity for all members of the confessional community. Until the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Levantine Rum Orthodox Christians were always members of the Rum millet.
It was during this time period that schism within the Rum Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, resulted in the creation of the Rum Catholic Church. Still Greek Rite Chalcedonian Christians, Rum Catholics simply came to accepted communion with Rome for financial reasons. Rum Catholics remained part of the Rum millet until 1848. When Rum Catholics, who refused to be incorporated into the Western Roman Rite Catholic millet, and instead convinced the Ottoman Sultan to grant them their own specifically Rum Catholic millet.
In the early 19th century, Romaic-speaking Rum Orthodox intellectuals began to reconceptualize the Rum millet. They began to argue for an ethnic “Romaic” national identity and a new Byzantine state. It is from this movement, which included Romaic, Aromanian, Slavic, Arvanite, and Arabic speaking Rum, that the modern Greek national identity and nation-state was born.
Sources:
[1] Ted Campbell (1996). Christian Confessions: A Historical Introduction. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 43.
[2] “L’idea di pentarchia nella cristianità”. Homo laicus.
[3] Bokenkotter, Thomas (2004). A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Doubleday. p. 84
[4] Noble, Thomas; Strauss, Barry (2005). Western Civilization. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 214.
[5] Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). “Great Schism”. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford: University Press.
[6] Fortescue, Adrian (1969). The Orthodox Eastern Church. p. 116.
Are Levantine-Rum ethnic Arabs?
…No.
Levantine Rum are not ‘ethnic Arabs’, but merely the linguistically Arabized descendants of the region’s Indigenous, formerly Greek-speaking, Chalcedonian Christian inhabitants. Despite, the claims of Arab nationalists, genetic studies have proven that the pre-Islamic Levant was not a homogenous ethnic Arab homeland, nor was there a mass migration from Arabia following its Arab-Islamic conquest.
On the eve of the Rashidun Caliphate conquest of the Levant, 634 A.D., the region’s native population mainly spoke Aramaic and Greek. Following the Arab-Islamic conquest, the native Christians underwent a gradual process of Arabization, in which they abandoned Aramaic and Greek in favor of Arabic [1][2]. The region’s Arabization took centuries under an Arab-Islamic Colonial system, which suppressed the indigenous identities and cultures of the Levant.
According to peer-reviewed studies, Levantines in general, display substantial genetic continuity with the region’s pre-Arab Bronze and Iron Age inhabitants [3][4][5][6], such as the Canaanites and Amorites. In a 2020 study, it was discovered that only three significant admixture events have interrupted the genetic continuity of the Levant since the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BC). Those are during the Iron Age, Hellenistic Age, and Ottoman period each contributing roughly 3% to 11% of non-local ancestry[3].
Sources:
[1] Masalha, Nur (2016). “The Concept of Palestine: The Conception Of Palestine from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Period”. Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies. 15 (2): 143–202.
[2] Thomas, D. R. (2001). Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years. Leiden: Brill. pp. 16–18.
[3] Haber, Marc; Nassar, Joyce; Almarri, Mohamed A.; Saupe, Tina; Saag, Lehti; Griffith, Samuel J.; Doumet-Serhal, Claude; Chanteau, Julien; Saghieh-Beydoun, Muntaha; Xue, Yali; Scheib, Christiana L.; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2020). “A Genetic History of the Near East from an aDNA Time Course Sampling Eight Points in the Past 4,000 Years”. American Journal of Human Genetics. 107 (1): 149–157.
[4] Haber, M; Doumet-Serhal, C; Scheib, C; Xue, Y; Danecek, P; Mezzavilla, M; Youhanna, S; Martiniano, R; Prado-Martinez, J; Szpak, M; Matisoo-Smith, E; Schutkowski, H; Mikulski, R; Zalloua, P; Kivisild, T; Tyler-Smith, C (3 August 2017). “Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences”. American Journal of Human Genetics. 101 (2): 274–282.
[5] Agranat-Tamir L, Waldman S, Martin MS, Gokhman D, Mishol N, Eshel T, Cheronet O, Rohland N, Mallick S, Adamski N, Lawson AM, Mah M, Michel MM, Oppenheimer J, Stewardson K, Candilio F, Keating D, Gamarra B, Tzur S, Novak M, Kalisher R, Bechar S, Eshed V, Kennett DJ, Faerman M, Yahalom-Mack N, Monge JM, Govrin Y, Erel Y, Yakir B, Pinhasi R, Carmi S, Finkelstein I, Reich D (May 2020). “The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant”. Cell. 181 (5): 1153–1154.
[6] Nebel, Almut; Filon, Dvora; Weiss, Deborah A.; Weale, Michael; Faerman, Marina; Oppenheim, Ariella; Thomas, Mark G. (December 2000). “High-resolution Y chromosome haplotypes of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs reveal geographic substructure and substantial overlap with haplotypes of Jews”. Human Genetics. 107 (6): 630–641.
Are Levantine-Rum ethnic Phoenicians (Canaanites, or Amorites)?
… No.
The Canaanites, Phoenicians, and Amorites are all extinct civilizations whose cultures, languages, and ethnic identities have long disappeared from history.
Ethnic groups can go extinct through a combination of factors, including large-scale population decline, war, genocide, assimilation, acculturation, language shift, and religious conversion, all leading to a gradual erosion of their unique identity and traditions over time.
It’s important to note that while the majority of Levantines’ ancestry may come from the ancient Canaanites, Phoenicians, and Amorites[1][2][3][4], this does not automatically make Levantines, or specifically Levantine Rum, ethnic Canaanites, Phoenicians, or Amorites. Rather, it means that the biological lineage of these lost civilizations continues in modern non-Arab Levantines.
Sources:
[1] Haber, Marc; Nassar, Joyce; Almarri, Mohamed A.; Saupe, Tina; Saag, Lehti; Griffith, Samuel J.; Doumet-Serhal, Claude; Chanteau, Julien; Saghieh-Beydoun, Muntaha; Xue, Yali; Scheib, Christiana L.; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2020). “A Genetic History of the Near East from an aDNA Time Course Sampling Eight Points in the Past 4,000 Years”. American Journal of Human Genetics. 107 (1): 149–157.
[2] Haber, M; Doumet-Serhal, C; Scheib, C; Xue, Y; Danecek, P; Mezzavilla, M; Youhanna, S; Martiniano, R; Prado-Martinez, J; Szpak, M; Matisoo-Smith, E; Schutkowski, H; Mikulski, R; Zalloua, P; Kivisild, T; Tyler-Smith, C (3 August 2017). “Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences”. American Journal of Human Genetics. 101 (2): 274–282.
[3] Agranat-Tamir L, Waldman S, Martin MS, Gokhman D, Mishol N, Eshel T, Cheronet O, Rohland N, Mallick S, Adamski N, Lawson AM, Mah M, Michel MM, Oppenheimer J, Stewardson K, Candilio F, Keating D, Gamarra B, Tzur S, Novak M, Kalisher R, Bechar S, Eshed V, Kennett DJ, Faerman M, Yahalom-Mack N, Monge JM, Govrin Y, Erel Y, Yakir B, Pinhasi R, Carmi S, Finkelstein I, Reich D (May 2020). “The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant”. Cell. 181 (5): 1153–1154.
[4] Nebel, Almut; Filon, Dvora; Weiss, Deborah A.; Weale, Michael; Faerman, Marina; Oppenheim, Ariella; Thomas, Mark G. (December 2000). “High-resolution Y chromosome haplotypes of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs reveal geographic substructure and substantial overlap with haplotypes of Jews”. Human Genetics. 107 (6): 630–641.
Why are Levantine Rum an ethnicity?
… because we meet the criteria to be described as an ethnicity.
An ethnicity is a group of people with perceived attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes typically include a common language, culture, ancestry, traditions, religion, history, and social treatment [1][2]. Depending on group identification, ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, with some groups having mixed genetic ancestry [3][4][5].
Levantine Rum have all these attributes that make us a unique ethnic identity. We have a common daily language and sacred language in the form of Levantine Arabic and Greek. We have a shared Levantine and Greek ancestry from the region’s formerly Greek-speaking Chacledonian Christians. We have common Byzantine Rite Christian traditions and a common Rum Christian culture, history, and social experience.
Sources:
[1] Chandra, Kanchan (2012). Constructivist theories of ethnic politics. Oxford University Press. pp. 69–70.
[2] People, James; Bailey, Garrick (2010). Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (9th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage learning. p. 389.
[3] “Insight into Ethnic Differences”. National Institutes of Health (NIH). 2015-05-25.
[4] Banda, Yambazi; Kvale, Mark N.; Hoffmann, Thomas J.; Hesselson, Stephanie E.; Ranatunga, Dilrini; Tang, Hua; Sabatti, Chiara; Croen, Lisa A.; Dispensa, Brad P.; Henderson, Mary; Iribarren, Carlos (2015-08-01). “Characterizing Race/Ethnicity and Genetic Ancestry for 100,000 Subjects in the Genetic Epidemiology Research on Adult Health and Aging (GERA) Cohort”. Genetics. 200 (4): 1285–1295.
[5] Salter, Frank; Harpending, Henry (2013-07-01). “J.P. Rushton’s theory of ethnic nepotism”. Personality and Individual Differences. 55 (3): 256–260.
What is Levantine Romiosini?
Levantine Romiosini is a unique regional version of Christian Hellenism that developed within the lands of the former Byzantine Diocese of the East. A natural geographic region that roughly corresponds to the bioregion of the Levantine Mediterranean Basin. It is the ethnoreligious character, spirit, and identity as Levantine Byzantine-Rite Christians. Our culture, civilization, ideals, and customs.
The Levantine Greek Association 