Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

22-65

Authors: Vadim A. Podolskiy

XII–XIII centuries, the age of the Crusades — is the period of the most active development of the social support practices in the Medieval Europe, which afterwards became a foundation for the emergence of the social policy in the XIX–XX centuries. In this time the scholastic philosophy blossoms, which gained access to Ancient Greek texts in Arabic translation. Acquaintance with Byzantine practices of charity and Byzantine law also contributed significantly to the development of the political and legal ideas in Europe. The aim of the present article is to compare political philosophy of the Latin West, Byzantine, Arab and Jewish thinkers and point out the main ideas, related to the problems of charity, which afterwards expressed themselves in administrative solutions for organisation of the social support. The article relies on the comparative and historical approach, analysis of institutions and legal documents and presents the reasoning in the social philosophy of several key thinkers of the time when the Kingdom of Jerusalem existed. Thanks to the Arab thinkers Europe could use the heritage of Aristotle, and reception of the Byzantine legal and institutional norms allowed to give a new impulse to the development of the social support in Europe. The presented information on development of the political philosophy in the age of the Kingdom of Jerusalem is valuable for studies on charity, self-organisation, social policy, history of political philosophy.

123-144

Authors: Alexandr G. Grouchevoy

All education activities of Russian Society for Palestine Studies in the Near East were closely linked the Orthodoxy. But the ideal and theoretic points of view how to organize the education of Arab-Christians and the preferences of local Christian population about this topic did not coincide. Russian inspectors planned to make the education mostly clerical, but the local Christian Arab population expected from Russian representatives the introduction of secular education useful in everyday life. At the end Russian inspectors agree to make a compromise resolution of the problem. In the plans of a new school program there was an extension of school hours for the teaching of catechism as a base of knowledge of the Orthodox Faith. In the same time there was no change in the teaching of secular teaching.

155-170

Authors: Besik V. Khurtsilava

The article examines one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the Georgian Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem — the struggle of Georgians to liberate the monastery, which was in Muslim «captivity», in the early 14th century. The Monastery of the Holy Cross was taken away from the Georgians and turned into a mosque in 1272/73. The Georgian kings had spared no effort to liberate it for 40 years, and finally, at the turn of 1310–1311 they succeeded in this task. Decisive in this case were the intensive diplomatic relations of the Georgian side with the Mamluk sultans of Egypt, which, according to written sources, were carried out in the period 1305–1310. This process involved not only the Georgian kings (David VIII, Vakhtang III, Constantine I), but also the local abbots of the Monastery of the Holy Cross. One of them was Sadun al-Kurji, whose identity has not yet been submitted to identification. As a result of an analysis of a wide range of issues, it turned out that this person is none other than Simeon Elmelikis-dze. He is also the ancestor of the Sikseks of Jerusalem. Based on the correction of one postscript from the Largvisi Gospel, as well as the text of the decree of Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad of January 29, 1311, the author of the article came to the conclusion that the secular name of this person was not «Sadun», but «Dadun». This man, at the end of the 13 th century, was sent by the king of Georgia to Jerusalem as an ambassador with a special assignment — to facilitate in the liberation of the Georgian Monastery of the Holy Cross from Muslim «captivity». Due to the circumstances, he and his family had to stay forever in Jerusalem. At the end of the first decade of the 14th century, he himself became the abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Cross and was an eyewitness and an active participant in the monastery’s eventual return to its original owners. The article also discusses the origins of Fr. Simeon Elmelikis-dze, the abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, etc.