From Intibāh to #baytokh_ʿīdto: Literary Production in the American Syriac Orthodox Diaspora

This paper explores the literary production within the Syriac Orthodox North American diaspora, tracing its development from the late nineteenth century to the present day. It begins by detailing the early community formation and the intellectual contributions of prominent figures such as Naum Faiq and Gabriel Boyajy. The paper examines the emergence of periodicals and other forms of literary output, emphasizing the transition from grassroots, community-driven publications in Ottoman Turkish and Syriac to more formalized, top-down liturgical publications in Syriac and English, as the community evolved and the influence of the church hierarchy grew. In the twenty-first century, the rise of social media has ushered in a new era of literary production, characterized by peer-to-peer interactions and a return to more democratized forms of expression. This study contrasts the early, bottom-up literary efforts with the more hierarchical approaches of the mid-twentieth century, ultimately illustrating how the digital age has reinvigorated the agency of individual creators within the diaspora.