On an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) a Christian monastery has been discovered that dates perhaps from the years before the expansion of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
The monastery on the island of Siniyah, of the sand dune sheikh of um al-Quwain, sheds new light on the history of early Christianity along the shores of the Persian Gulf.
It is the time when such a monastery was discovered in the Emirates, dating back 1,400 years, long before its desert expanses gave rise to a thriving oil industry that led to a unified farmhouse to the towers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Both monasteries have been lost to history over time, as Christian scholars slowly switched to Islam as this religion has become more prevalent in the region.
Today, Christians remain a minority in the Middle East, though Pope Francis arrives in Bahrain on Thursday to promote interfaith discussion with Muslim leaders.
Timothy Power, an associate professor of archaeology at the University of the United Arab Emirates who was involved in the investigation of the newly discovered monastery, said the UAE is now a “melting pot of nations. “
“The fact that something similar happened here 1,000 years ago is indeed remarkable and is a story worth telling,” he said.
Siniyah Island protects the Khor al-Beida swamps in um al-Quwain, an emirate about 30 miles northeast of Dubai on the Persian Gulf coast.
The island has a series of sandbars that protrude like crooked fingers. In one, in the northeast of the island, archaeologists discovered the monastery.
Carbon dating of the samples at the time of the monastery dates from between 534 and 656.
The prophet of Islam Muhammad was born around 570 and died in 632 after conquering Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia.
Seen from above, the plan of the monastery on the island of Siniyah suggests that early Christian worshippers prayed in a single-nave church on the monastery.
The internal rooms seem to involve a baptismal font, as well as an oven for baking bread or hosts for communion rites. A nave also housed an altar and an installation for communion wine.
Next to the monastery there is a momentary construction with 4 rooms, probably around a courtyard, the space of an abbot or even a bishop in the early church.
Historians say that the first churches and monasteries spread along the Persian Gulf to the shores of present-day Oman and as far as India. Archaeologists have discovered other churches and monasteries in Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
In the early 1990s, archaeologists discovered the UAE’s first Christian monastery, on Sir Bani Yas Island, now a nature reserve and luxury hotel off Abu Dhabi, near the Saudi Arabian border. It also dates back to the same time as the new discovery at Umm al-Quwain.
However, evidence of early life along the Khor al-Beida swamps at Umm al-Quwain dates back to the Neolithic era, suggesting that human profession continued for at least 10,000 years, M. Power.
Today, the domain near the swamp is known for the cheap liquor shop at the emirate’s Barracuda Beach Resort. a bridge to the island of Siniyah for a £595 million development.
Power said the progression stimulated the archaeological paintings that uncovered the monastery. This site and others will be fenced off and protected, he said.
“It’s a desirable discovery because, in some ways, it’s a hidden story, it’s nothing widely known,” he added.