Archaeologists have discovered an ancient Christian monastery on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
The site, on the island of Siniyah, which is owned by the sand dune sheikh of um Al Quwain, sheds new light on the history of early Christianity along the shores of the Persian Gulf.
The idea dates back years before Islam spread to the Arabian Peninsula.
Carbon dating of the samples discovered at the base of the monastery dates from the early to mid-seventh century AD.
Although its roots go back further, scholars date the rise of Islam to the seventh century.
In announcing the discovery Thursday, he said the site plan suggests early Christian worshippers prayed in a single-aisle church.
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.
It is the moment when such a monastery is 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 nation, home to the towers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
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 goes back to the same as the new discovery at um Al Quwain.
Timothy Power, an associate professor of archaeology at the University of the United Arab Emirates who helped investigate the latest find, described it as a “truly desirable find. “
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.