Paul of Aleppo : biography

Paul Zaim, known sometime also as Paul of Aleppo (Paul, Archdeacon of Aleppo) (1627 – 1669) was a Syrian Melkite clergyman and chronicler. Son of Patriarch Macarios III Zaim, Paul accompanied his father in his travels throughout Constantinople, Wallachia, Moldavia, Ukraine and Muscovy, as an attempt to raise funds and support for their Church (from 1652 to 1659, and from 1666 to 1669).

Notes

Life and works

He was born in 1627 in Aleppo, the same year his mother died. He was appointed a reader on May 8, 1642. On February 17, 1644 he married and on November 21, 1647 he was ordained Archdeacon. He died in Tiflis, Georgia on January 30, 1669. See (in Russian): Фонкич Б.Л. "О дате кончины Павла Алеппского": in: Очерки феодальной России. 13. М.-СПб.: Альянс-Архео, 2009, pp.289-292

Paul wrote down an account of his visits, The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch (edited in Arabic).English translation from Arabic in: It is important as a source on Wallachia, documenting the main events of Constantin Şerban’s rule and the Ottoman expedition of 1657. He wrote also a History of the Patriarchs of Antioch.