206 • 13 THE ROOTS OF ARAB BITTERNESSloyalty to the empire. But we must pin down the time, the place, and the sect
before we can discuss the politics of the Arabic-speaking Christians. The
ones whose role mattered most in the birth of Arab nationalism lived in
Syria, which then included most of what we now call Israel, Jordan, Lebanon,
the Republic of Syria, and even parts of southern Turkey. Until they came
under the rule of Ibrahim in 1831, or under the Tanzimat reformers, Arabic-
speaking Christians cared little about who governed them. The millet system
gave virtual autonomy to both Orthodox and Monophysite Christians. As
for the others, they were usually so well protected by deserts, mountains, or
river gorges that they hardly felt the Ottoman yoke. The Maronites (and
other Catholics) enjoyed French protection by the nineteenth century. Russia
took a growing interest in the welfare of the Greek Orthodox Syrians. From
the 1820s on, American and French missionaries founded schools in Syria,
as did the British, Russians, and other Westerners, though to a lesser extent.
Inasmuch as Syrian Christians naturally sent their children to mission
schools closest to their own religious affiliation, Maronites and Uniate
Catholics tended to go to French Catholic schools and to identify with
France. How could the Orthodox Christians compete? Distressed by the low
educational level of their own clergy, some were converting to Catholicism or
Protestantism and sending their children to the relevant mission schools.
Those who stayed in their ancestral faith rarely chose either to enter the
priesthood, because all higher clerical positions were held by Greeks, or to at¬
tend Russian mission schools, when few aspired to go to Russian universities.
The Americans helped solve their problem, but quite by accident they
aided the rise of Arab nationalism. US mission schools, especially their
crowning institution, the Syrian Protestant College (now the American Uni¬
versity of Beirut), tried to serve students of every religion. But most of them
hoped also to convert young people to Protestant Christianity. Because
Protestantism has traditionally stressed the reading and understanding of its
sacred scriptures, the Bible was soon translated into Arabic for local con¬
verts. Many of the early American missionaries learned the language well
enough to teach in it and even to translate English-language textbooks into
Arabic. Until they realized that they could not recruit enough teachers and
translate enough books under this system, the US mission schools and col¬
leges used Arabic as their language of instruction. Reluctantly they switched
to English in the late nineteenth century. Given this relative acceptance of
their culture, many Arabs sent their children to American schools despite
their Protestant orientation. The Orthodox Christians were especially apt to
do so. This led to a higher standard of Arabic reading and writing among
Syrian Orthodox youth, many of whom went into journalism, law, or teach-