Syro-Lebanese in Egypt Omar Sharif (born Michel Chalhoub) and Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine. The relations between Egypt and the Levant go back to ancient times. However, the earliest instance of modern Levantine migration to Egypt happened after 1724, when a schism in the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch resulted in a separate branch of Levantine Christians attached to Rome known as the Melkite Greek Catholics. Once the Syrian and Lebanese Greek Orthodox community was split, a migratory flow resulted in which Melkite Greek Catholics began leaving cities such as Damascus, Aleppo, Zahle, and Sidon to move to Egypt. Regarding an early Maronite
Claude Chalhoub Claude Chalhoub Claude Chalhoub () born in Qaa, Lebanon in 1974, from a Christian musical family of 11 children, attended the Lebanese Conservatoire before entering the Royal College of Music in London as winner of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Scholarship award. He is fluent in Classical Western music and Arabic improvisation, and was concertmaster for Daniel Barenboim’s ‘West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’ (1999- 2002). Furthermore, he was invited by Yo-Yo Ma to Tanglewood/USA to support him in his Silk Road Project. His debut release on Teldec Classics International called Claude Chalhoub is the result of an exclusive recording contract with Canadian producer