Die in den letzten Jahren intensivierte Erforschung der mittelalterlichen Malerei im Christlichen Orient wird durch den angekündigten Band um eine beachtliche Reihe von Wandbildern bereichert, die erst jüngst im Rahmen von Restaurierungsarbeiten und Ausgrabungen zu Tage kamen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt mit dem Jakobskloster bei Qara und der Eliasgrotte von Macarrat Saydanaya auf dem Qalamungebirge nördlich von Damaskus, der Horizont ist mit dem Kastron von Androna aber bis in das syrische Steppengebiet östlich von Hama gesteckt. Neben einer ausführlichen Dokumentation behandeln die kunsthistorischen Beiträge auch den künstlerischen Austausch Syriens mit Zypern und die Ausbildung eines syrischen Regionalstils um das Jahr 1200. Vorangestellt ist ein historischer Abriß der Ortschaft Qara, die bis 1266 rein melkitisch war. Weitere Beiträge sind der Restaurierung und der chemischen Probenanlayse der Wandmalereien sowie der syrischen und griechischen Epigraphik gewidmet.

Andrea Schmidt hat in Tübingen, Wien, Jerusalem, Venedig, Rom und Tbilisi evangelische Theologie und Orientalistik mit Schwerpunkt Christlicher Orient studiert. Nach ihrer Promotion (1990) bekleidete sie eine wissenschaftliche Forschungsstelle an der Theol.-Phil. Hochschule St. Georgen der Jesuiten in Frankfurt/Main bei Alois Kardinal Grillmeier. Von dort wurde sie 1994 auf eine Professur am Orientalischen Institut der Université Catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgien) berufen. Hier lehrt sie die Geschichte und Philologie des Christlichen Orients. Ihre Forschungstätigkeit behandelt schwerpunktmäßig die syrische, armenische und georgische Kultur. Sie ist Herausgeberin der Zeitschrift „Le Muséon“ und mehrerer Buchreihen. Stephan Westphalen studierte Kunstgeschichte, Geschichte, Christliche Archäologie und Byzantinische Kunstgeschichte in Göttingen, Kiel und Freiburg. Nach Magister (1990) und Promotion (1995) war er bis 2001 in Damaskus als wissenschaftlicher Referent am Deutschen Archäologischen Institut, zuletzt als Forschungsstipendiat am Deutschen Archäologischen Institut in Istanbul. Sein Forschungsschwerpunkt liegt auf der byzantinischen Architektur und Wandmalerei im östlichen Mittelmeerbereich. Mitarbeiter auf Ausgrabungen und Surveys in Griechenland, Türkei und Syrien.

„Technically, Ludwig Reichert Verlag maintains its usual high standard for this series: the illustrations, both color and black-and-white, are brilliant, and there are plenty of them. The indexes are excellent. I cannot vouch for the German text, but the English is impeccable. „These studies trace relationships between the paintings of Qara and contemporary work in Cyprus, Sicily, Cappadocia, and Europe. At this time the Holy Land was at the epicenter of historical and cultural events. The paintings in Syria, along with others in Palestine and Lebanon that have come to light in the last few years, may correct our Eurocentric view of the Western medieval world and the Renaissance.“ Von Erica Cruikshank Dodd In: Speculum. (July 2009). S. 769-771. ----------------------------- „The book opens with a well-documented survey of the Christian history of Qara by A. Schmidt. First mentioned in the middle of the fifth century, Qara seems to have been on the Chalcedonian side from the very beginning of the Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries. The sources are almost completely silent for the first five centuries of the Islamic period, but when Qara reemerges in history, around 1100 CE, it still is a center of Byzantine Orthodoxy. The period between ca. 1100 and 1266 constitutes the heyday of culture in Qara, which came to an abrupt end in 1266, when Sultan Baibars, in his offensive against Crusaders and Mongols, expelled or killed the Christians of Qara. Qara became a Muslim town. It was quickly able, however, to regain some of its Christian population and to become an important Christian center again, with prominent bishops and a rich scribal tradition that was passed on by influential families. Only in the seventeenth century did Qara lose its status as an independent bishopric, followed by the demise of the Mar Jacob Monastry, which was left in ruins by an earthquake in 1759. When Qara moved into the Melkite-Catholic (or Greek-Catholic, or Rum-Catholic) ecclesiastical sphere in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were occasional attempts at rebuilding the monastery, all of which failed. It was only in the 1990s, under the dynamic leadership of the Lebanese Carmelite Soeur Agnès-Maria de la Croix, that the monastery and its church were rebuilt and became the home of a community of female ascetics, belonging to the jurisdiction of the Melkite-Catholic bishop of Homs, Hama, Yabrud, and Qara. Several pieces of wall paintings, removed and brought to museums in Damascus and Deir Atiya in the 1970s, were returned to the monastery and were joined to the newly uncovered paintings, thus allowing for a comprehensive study of the artistic legacy of the monastery. S. Westphalen gives a full description of the church of the monastery, focusing in its wall paintings, which, however, are in a very fragmentary state. The author does an excellent job in bringing all the data together. Where it is possible, he gives the reader an intimation of the entire artistic program, not just of the individual fragments. The church, which in its present form may go back to the eleventh century, has a horizontal division into two parts, creating room for two more or less parallel iconographic programs. Moreover, the author argues that there are two layers of wall paintings, the first one datable to the first half of the eleventh century, the second to the first half of the thirteenth century. (...) The different sections of the book, taken together, constitute an important addition to our knowledge of Syrian Christian painting of the late ancient and medieval periods. The contributions of Westphalen and Immerzeel, in particular, address some of the broader issues, such as the cultural and arthistorical contextualization of Syrian Christian art, its interaction with the art of other geographical and cultural areas, and the possible connection between religious art and Syrian Christian identity. Both authors reflect on the concept of „Syrian style“, borrowed from E. Cruikshank Dodd’s study of the Mar Musa wall paintings, even though they seem to use the concept in a narrower sense than Cruikshank Dodd. Westphalen describes the „Syrian style“ in purely stylistic terms, and limits it to the period between ca. 1100 and 1250. The artist of the second layer of painting in Qara is seen as a representative of this style; other examples are certain paintings in the Monastery of Mar Musa, in the Church of Mar Elian at Homs, and in the Church of Mar Tadros at Bahdeidat (Lebanon). Along with the „Syrian style“, there existed a different style, or different styles (?), defined as essentially Byzantine. This is the case for the first layer of paintings in Qara, which are datable to the first half of the eleventh century - i.e., prior to the heyday of the „Syrian style“ - as well as for the paintings of the second artist working at Ma’arrat Saydnaya, in the first half of the thirteenth century, i.e., contemporaneous with the „Syrian style“. The categories of „Syrian“ and „non-Syrian“ styles may need some further refinement and should not be allowed to create rigid distinctions that may not do full justice to the cultural complexities of the Syrian region in the Medieval period. A final word should be said about the presentation of the book. The text and the illustrations are well presented, and most of the photographs and drawings are of good quality. For Qara and Ma’arrat Sydnaya, I personally would have appreciated a few more overview pictures or drawings, which would make it easier to locate the individual paintings. More serious is the fact that for some inscriptions no photograph or drawing is provided. For one Syriac inscription, which is based upon Ps. 148, both the drawing and the photograph are of poor quality. These few critical remarks, however, by no means detract from the reader’s overall feelings of appreciation, admiration, and gratitude for the fine product of this important collaborative project.“ In: ECA 4 (2007). p. 189-190. ----------------------------- „We should thank the editors of „Sprachen und Kuluren des Christlichen Orients“ and the authors for this interesting and important publication.“ In: Bonner Jahrbücher. 206 (2006). S.441-444. ----------------------------- „Drei sehr hilfreiche Register der verwendeten Handschriften, für Namen und Personen und ikonographische Begriffe sowie zwei schöne Tafelanhänge beschließen ein grundsolides und auch in seiner Aufmachung sehr ansprechendes Buch, das unser Wissen um die Glaubens- und Lebenswelten der orientalischen Christen erweitert und (...) neue Wege bei der Erschließung dieser Materie weist.“ In: Journal of Eastern Christern Studies. 58 (2006) 3-4. S. 307-308.