The Syrian Orthodox Church has a rich cultural history. It looks back to its origins in Antioch, the city where believers were first called Christians. It has preserved the Aramaic language spoken by Christ and it treasures its Christian language and tradition of theology which grew in the area around Edessa. The advances of first Persians in the fourth century then Arabs in the seventh century detached Syria from the Greek Byzantine empire. However Syriac culture continued to flourish with authors such as Jacob of Sarug (d. 521), and Philoxenus of Mabbug (d. 523), leading to a Syriac renaissance in the thirteenth century at the time of Gregory bar Hebraeus (d. 1286), bishop, scholar and historian. This heritage is described by Khalid Dinno at the start of this study. His purpose, however, is to show that there is another cultural renaissance much nearer to our own day, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the Ottoman Empire, the Church had a recognised place in society through the millet system, which gave it a legal status and protection, albeit with some financial penalties and social exclusion. This toleration was followed by the disaster of the period called by Syrians Sayfo or the sword. In this period, the slaughter of Armenians has been well documented and the word genocide was first used to describe the attempted extermination of the community in Turkey between 1895 and 1915. Syrians also suffered with about half of the Syrian Christians of Turkey losing their lives. Since then there has been revival and, Dinno argues, a renaissance which can be compared to that of the thirteenth century. There has been a revival of Syriac scholarship, education of the clergy and founding of monasteries and churches. There was firm leadership from Patriarch Aphram Barsoum (1887–1957) and teaching by scholars such as Ni'matullah Denno (1885–1951). It was the strong social roots and cultural identity in its Middle Eastern homeland which allowed this revival to take place and for the Church to grow. It is a story of renewal and revival of an ancient Church after a period of extreme persecution. It is told with sensitivity and rigour by a Syrian Orthodox scholar from Iraq. He uses a wide range of archival material from Damascus, Jerusalem, the monasteries of the Tur Abdin as well as European and American libraries including encyclicals, letters, journals, correspondence and reports. Some of these are reproduced in photographic form in a lengthy appendix. A neglected chapter of Christian history is vividly recounted. Dinno ends his story in the twentieth century and refers only briefly in an epilogue to events in contemporary Iraq and Syria. If the modern renaissance was made possible through the strong roots of the Church in its Middle Eastern homeland, then events in modern Iraq and Syria present yet another serious threat to this ancient and faithful Christian community.