• A journey of friendship for 2 Baylor profs, from the Middle East to Texas

    Drs. Abdul Saadi and Abjar Bahkou

    What are the odds that a teacher and student at a Syriac Orthodox seminary in Damascus, Syria, would someday end up as colleagues in Texas at the world’s largest Baptist university? The likelihood was so small, they say, it can only be God’s direction that brought them here.

    Dr. Abdul Saadi and Dr. Abjar Bahkou — now Baylor Arabic professors — grew up as members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, one of the oldest known Christian denominations in the world, and both felt led to serve the church as monks. To pursue that life, Bahkou chose to attend St. Ephrem Theological Seminary as a 14 year-old in 1986, where Saadi was the head teacher.

    At St. Ephrem, Bahkou found an environment that fostered brotherhood and friendship, as students and teachers lived under the same roof and shared most everything as they pursued a disciplined life of Christian service. Eventually, though, both felt called to serve in different ways. When Saadi chose to come to America to attend Lutheran School of Theology at the University of Chicago, it seemed likely he had seen his former pupil for the last time. In fact, eight years would pass before they spoke again.

    In 1999, the church assigned Bahkou to serve as a priest in their growing Los Angeles archdiocese. The first person he called upon arrival in the U.S. was Saadi, who was then teaching at Notre Dame. Over the next decade, the two kept in touch, but limited time and resources kept them from reuniting in person.

    Life eventually led Bahkou to Baylor, where he began teaching Arabic courses in 2009. When an assistant professor position opened two years later, he called Saadi, bringing everything full-circle. A visit from Saadi had opened the door for Bahkou to attend St. Ephrem as a teenager, and now — more than 20 years later — Bahkou was able to repay his mentor’s friendship and guidance.

    Saadi and Bahkou’s dual journeys to Baylor weren’t their only parallel track of transformation. Introduced to a variety of theological viewpoints in the U.S., both were moved by a deeper understanding of grace, a departure from the rules-driven world they once knew.

    In Waco, Saadi now attends a local Baptist church, while Bahkou preaches each Sunday in Hurst at Texas’ only Arabic-speaking Lutheran church. Their unique backgrounds and experiences contribute to Baylor’s academic environment in many ways. For instance, in addition to teaching Arabic, Bahkou is a resident scholar with Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR), and in 2012, Saadi completed the first translation of the New Testament from Aramaic (Jesus’ primary language) into Arabic, a 12-year, 800-page undertaking.

    And after their two-decade, 7,000-mile journey from Syria to Waco, the two now even share the same hallway, meeting with students in their adjacent offices in Old Main.

    Sic ’em, Dr. Saadi and Dr. Bahkou!