Jacobites - Orientation

The Jacobites, today numbering some half a million, adhere to a branch of Christianity that is most commonly known as the Jacobite church. They are to be found mostly in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. Following the Mongol invasions in 1258, some emigrated to northern Mount Lebanon, where they settled among the Maronites, their spiritual cousins. There are settlements in northern Syria—around Horns (Emessa) and Hama and also in Damascus—organized into some six parishes and subscribing to the Catholic branch. Those around Aleppo date from after World War I. Jacobites in Syria numbered some 100,000 in the mid-1970s, with about a quarter of them being Catholic.