The Armenian Patriarch in the Levant Abraham-Pierre I Ardzivian 1742– 1749 Peter the First

Absztrakt

This article aims at bridging the gap in the history of the eastern Armenian Catholics during the eighteenth century, by highlighting documents archived in the diocese of Aleppo, Syria, which were correspondences, written in Arabic, between the Pope of Vatican and some dignitaries in the Levant at that time. By translating some of those documents, and analyzing them, this article casts light on the situation of Catholics in the Near East, their relations with the West, and the combination of actions which shaped the demographic status of the present-day Syria.