Arab Orthodox

The Arab Orthodox are Greek Eastern Orthodox Christian communities which have existed in Southern Turkey and Greater Syria since the early years of Christianity: they are generally affiliated along geographic lines either to the Antiochian ("Northern") or Jerusalemite ("Southern") patriarchal jurisdictions.

Members of these communities still call themselves Rûm which literally means "Eastern Roman" or "Asian Greek" in Turkish, Persian and Arabic. In that particular context, the term "Rûm" is used in preference to "Yāvāni" or "Ionani" which means "European-Greek" or Ionian in Biblical Hebrew (borrowed from Old Persian Yavan = Greece) and Classical Arabic.

Members of the community also call themselves "Melkites", which literally means "monarchists" or "supporters of the emperor" in Semitic languages (a reference to their past allegiance to Macedonian and Roman imperial rule), but, in the modern era, the term tends to be more commonly used by followers of the Greek Catholic church.

Some typically Grecian "ancient synagogal" priestly rites and hymns have survived partially to the present, notably in the distinct church services of the Melkite and Greek Orthodox communities of the Holy Land.

During the Palestine Mandate, members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem were prominent in many of the major cities including Jaffa, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Haifa and Jerusalem and also formed the majority of Christians in Arab villages of the Galilee, a region associated with early Christianity.