A Document Bolstering Evidence of the Beroutis’ Armenian Roots
In an earlier post, I shared how I discovered that the Berouti family of Jaffa belonged to the Armenian Catholic Church while they were living in Beirut. I also wondered whether membership in the Armenian Catholic Church indicated Armenian origin. I strongly suspected that it did, though I lacked solid evidence to confirm it. Thanks to the Geday family of Jaffa, we now have additional archival evidence suggesting that the Beroutis had Armenian roots before settling in Palestine.
Below is a land purchase document in Arabic from the Sharia court records of Jaffa, file number 44, page 55, dated 1 Jumada al-Awwal 1292 Hijri (12 June 1875 CE). Nicolas Yacoub Berouti is mentioned in the document and is described as “the Armenian.”
A page from the Sharia court records of Jaffa, dated 12 June 1875. Nicolas Yacoub Berouti is identified as “the Armenian” (highlighted in red).
The document is very difficult to decipher, so I am especially grateful to Fakhri Geday for transcribing it for me. His transcription is included below.
Transcription of the 1875 archival document. The reference to Nicolas Yacoub Berouti as “the Armenian” is highlighted in red. I am grateful to Fakhri Geday for locating and transcribing the original record.
The document itself is a very detailed land purchase agreement, describing the individuals involved as well as the land in question in minute detail. It identifies Nicolas Yacoub Berouti as the legal representative of the buyer, Mariana Khayyat (who is referred to in the document as Maria al-Khayyat). Interestingly, many years after this transaction took place, two of Nicolas’ sons, Michel and Negib Berouti, married Mariana’s daughters, Julia and Victoria Araktingi. Michel and Julia were married in 1888, while Negib and Victoria married a decade later, in 1898.
The paragraph referring to Nicolas Yacoub Berouti, translated into English by Loghat Arabic Translation, reads as follows:
“Before the Honorable Sharia Council and the Most Noble Judicial Assembly in the city of Jaffa, there appeared Mr. Anton, son of Faris, son of Anton Araktingi, a Catholic, who acknowledged and confessed, while possessing full legal capacity, voluntarily and of his own free will before the Hanafi Sharia Judge, whose signature and seal appear above, in the presence of Nicolas, son of Jirjis, son of Yacoub the Beiruti, the Armenian, acting as the legal representative of Maria, daughter of Mr. Asaad, son of Yaqub al-Khayyat [...]”
The significance of this document lies in the fact that Nicolas Yacoub Berouti is explicitly identified as “the Armenian” in an official legal record from 1875. Together with previously discovered parish records of the family’s association with the Armenian Catholic Church while in Beirut, it strengthens the evidence that the Beroutis had Armenian roots prior to their arrival in Palestine in the 1840s.