Abstract
During its pre-Russian revolution period (1882-1917), The Russian Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (RIOPS) opened its schools in the Levant and a Teacher's College at Nazareth (TCN), and used to send its best students to the theological seminaries and academies at The Russian Empire.
We focus on the works, careers and fates of some of these envoys who received their education at Ukraine, which was a part of The Russian Empire till 1917.
Mikhail Naimy, one of the pillars of modern Arabic literature, described his life in Poltava in his journal and has devoted his poem to its local river. In 1964, inspired by his recent visit to Ukraine and the celebration of 125 anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko, the famous Ukrainian writer and poet, Naimy translated his poem into Arabic and has written a chapter about him in the collection of articles "In The New Sieve" (1972).
Konstantin Kenazi, upon graduation from Kyiv Theological Seminary, devoted himself to teaching at TCN, contributing to RIOPS schools through his tireless pedagogical activities.
Some of the RIOPS remained in Ukraine till their last days. Tawfiq Kezma (Kyiv Theological Seminary and Kyiv Theological Academy (KTA)) became an Arabic, Turkish, and Persian studies professor at Kyiv University has written comprehensive Arabic grammar book, numerous articles about Russian and Soviet orientalists, and has translated Arabic literary and historical works into the Ukrainian language.
There were also RIOPS graduates of the KTA who have chosen another career. Raphael Hawaweeny became a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, vicar of the Northern-American diocese, and the Antiochian Levantine Christian head mission. He is numbered among the saints by the Orthodox Church in America. Alexander Takhan used to serve as a Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch (1928-1958.
Several KTA graduates (Habib, Hallaby, Yared, Kleli) have developed critical theological theories and topics in their theses defended at Kyiv.
Through their literary, academic, and translation works and church activities, the Levant graduates from the Ukrainian religious schools have contributed to the closeness of these areas' people, strengthening their political, social, and cultural relations and reinforcing the Orthodoxy in the Arab world and outside of it. They have also contributed to the world's Middle Eastern and religious studies (Makhamid 2002, Kochubei 1978, Suhkhova, n.d., Khomitska, 2015, Petrova, 2015, Tarasova, 2002).
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