Reynolds, D. (2011) Athletes of Virtue in the Age of the Caliphates: Monasticism and

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1 Reynolds, D. (2011) Athletes of Virtue in the Age of the Caliphates: Monasticism and Pilgrimage in the Early Islamic Holy Land c CE Rosetta 9.5:

2 Athletes of Virtue in the Age of the Caliphates: Monasticism and Pilgrimage in the Early Islamic Holy Land c CE Daniel Reynolds PhD candidate, 2 nd year (full-time) University of Birmingham, College of Arts and Law dkr893@bham.ac.uk Context Academic awareness and interest in the apologetic and theological activity of Palestine s monastic milieu in the Early Islamic period has accelerated over the past twenty years and its growing profile on modern academic agendas has facilitated a more detailed understanding of the reaction of monastic writers to Arab political hegemony after the 630s CE 1 and their intellectual response to the consolidation of a rival Islamic theological discourse. A steadily growing corpus of critical editions of surviving texts continues to endorse this trend and the appearance of many translations in modern European languages (increasingly English) has, in addition, facilitated the exposure of this material to a wider academic audience and a greater repertoire of critical and disciplinary approaches. Continuous publications focussing on individual writers are also beginning to open newer research avenues aimed at outlining the broader trends and theological approaches employed by Palestinian monastic communities in the defence of Christian doctrine and devotional identity. 2 Equally vibrant developments have characterised the concurrent academic analysis of Early Islamic polemical discourse directed against Christian 1 For the most complete synthesis of source material, and related bibliography, see Hoyland Griffith 2008, which explores emerging themes in Christian-Islamic discourse and synthesises over 30 years of his own scholarship. 47

3 communities and associated monastic writers between the eighth and tenth centuries: communities which still constituted a significant demographic presence in the Early Islamic Levant and which remained strongly imbued with connections to older established networks of authority. 3 Recent studies have drawn attention to the significant level of interchange and dialogue between writers of both social and religious factions. A resulting feature of this contemporary academic probing is the modern recognition of the sensitivity of Palestinian Christian apologetic to concurrent trends in Islamic theological thinking and methods of religious disputation. 4 Following the adoption of Arabic by Palestinian monastic communities after 750 CE, 5 monastic writers rapidly appropriated the style and linguistic flair of contemporary Islamic discourse (frequently inspired by the Qur an 6 ) in order to safeguard the survival of the wider Christian community. Ongoing interest in this linguistic and theological transition has generated the publication of several eloquent studies and does not require fuller elaboration here. Far less elucidated in modern studies, are the wider social, economic and material transitions which framed these developments within monastic communities after the seventh century. Modern studies have achieved an intricate understanding of the theological and linguistic trends in monastic literary production in the Early Islamic period yet, in contrast, almost nothing is currently available which examines the broader physical and social environment in which such monastic writers operated and to which their theological contributions undoubtedly responded. The underlying aim of my doctoral thesis is to present such a wider social and archaeological context to this existing body of research. 3 See the numerous contributions of David Thomas, 1992; 2008 which explores the works of several key writers. 4 Swanson 1998; The first complete treatise in Christian Arabic that is currently identified is the erroneously named On the Triune Nature of God (Sinai Arabic MS 154) dated by various scholars between CE. 6 Swanson 1998;

4 Palestinian Monasticism CE. Continued refinements in the identification and chronological sequencing of Early Islamic ceramic assemblages have instigated a dramatic reappraisal of the initial impact of the Arab conquest on Palestine s monastic milieu and wider Christian infrastructure. 7 Ongoing discoveries of epigraphic dedications in church and monastic structures, dated to the eighth and early ninth century, have also partly provoked this popular reassessment of established interpretive models. 8 Once maligned as a period which heralded dramatic devastation to Palestine s network of monasteries and pilgrimage sites, more recent scholarly revisions have stressed the uninterrupted occupation of monastic sites throughout the period and the continuity of monastic social roles in the formative phases of the Umayyad Caliphate. 9 This trend has been highly welcome, not least because it has successfully liberated discussions of the Early Islamic period from a litany of anti-arab prejudices but also because it has facilitated a more nuanced assessment of social change in Syria- Palestine between the seventh and tenth centuries. However, the popular emphasis upon monastic continuity in the Early Islamic period has in turn raised several additional issues which warrant further critical appraisal. Chief among these is the continued adherence of many scholars to the idea that the decline of monasticism and Christian pilgrimage in the region can be attributed to a single cataclysmic event which produced an identifiable archaeological sequence. The revisionist approaches to the Arab conquest have rendered its own destructive role as somewhat obsolete, but the underlying theory is still routinely applied to discussions of the earlier Sassanid conquest (c CE). 10 Abandonment phases at monastic sites are habitually attributed to the Sassanid incursion, based on a persistent misdating of Late Byzantine fine ware and the use of the surviving textual accounts as a methodological basis for archaeological strategies in the 7 Magness 1992; 2003, Walmsley 2007 and Wickham Di Segni Fowden 2004 and Schick 1995: Dauphin 1998 and repeated in many archaeological reports; Tsafrir 1984, Tzaferis 1993, Magen 1993 and Schick 1995: 20-48, to name some examples among many. 49

5 region. 11 Recent studies have indicated that this interpretative model is unsustained by archaeological data 12 and a further branch of my own doctoral research has sought to outline the key methodological flaws in current approaches to the key source of the Sassanid occupation of Palestine: Strategios Capture of Jerusalem. 13 In contrast to these more pessimistic interpretations are those which stress the continuity of monastic life in the Early Islamic Levant. Whilst not misguided (a growing corpus of epigraphic dedications, excavations and papyri continue to endorse this image of stability), the indiscriminate use of this term, which is often presented without a practical definition, risks reducing its value to little more than inverted cliché of the older theory of endemic devastation. This issue is made particularly acute by developments at monastic sites such as St Aaron s at Petra, where an earthquake in the mid-eighth century destroyed the existing monastic site. 14 The monastic community survived, but was only rebuilt on a third of its original scale in marked contrast to two previous destructive phases at the site where the complex was reconstructed and refurbished in its entirety. It appears that the main site only temporarily continued in use until its abandonment in the early ninth century. This pattern of monastic continuity, framed by a steady process of contraction, impoverishment and eventual abandonment, is replicated at other sites in the region. Such examples necessitate the need for a more nuanced recognition of the nature of monastic continuity in the Early Islamic world and the wider social processes which permitted or prohibited monastic survival. The rather cumbersome use of the term continuity belies a growing corpus of archaeological and textual material which elucidates the diminishing physical presence of monasticism in the Palestinian landscape, and more generally, the declining socio-political role of Christianity towards the later ninth and tenth century. Explanations for this progressive development are at present, visibly lacking. 11 See Magness 1993, for a revised chronological sequence for many wares artificially dated to Avni cod. Sinaiticus arab. 428,fol.438r-489v. cod. Sinaiticus arab. 529,fol. 199r-265v. 14 See Mikkola et al 2008, for a full discussion of the phasing of the monastic church. 50

6 This situation is primarily a product of existing, as yet widely unchallenged, research methodologies for earlier phases of Palestinian monasticism. Habitual focus on the ethnic constructions presented by Palestinian hagiography has encouraged a widespread assessment of the monastic milieu (and related avenues of patronage) as a primarily artificial movement stimulated by imperial sponsorship and successive waves of elite immigration from the Byzantine heartlands of the Aegean and Anatolia. 15 The Arab conquest, which is considered to have severed these ties, is commonly enlisted to explain the perceived rapid faltering of Palestinian monasticism in the Early Islamic world. The model is widely replicated, but nonetheless overlooks a substantial body of epigraphic and papyrylogical material which emphasises the strong integration of monastic communities in localised networks of authority and the importance of the monastic institution as a venue for localised elite patronage and devotional activity. 16 The stability of these localised systems throughout the Umayyad period and the protracted rate of conversion to Islam among local populations between the seventh and eighth centuries, provide suitable explanation for the visible level of patronal activity and occupation at monastic sites as a result of these stabilities. However, the visibly more modest nature of these patronal interventions highlights a further development which presented significant implications to the trajectory of monastic communities. Steadily isolated from elite contact with the Byzantine world and from the centralised state resource of the Umayyad government, Palestinian monastic communities were required to become economically and culturally self-perpetuating to survive and were increasingly more reliant on the stability of Christianity among localised elite families. 15 See, for example, Binns 1994 which presents an entire history of Palestinian monasticism based around a limited range of hagiographical material. Similar sentiments are also repeated in Hirschfeld 1993: 152 and the earlier study of Judean desert monasticism; Hirschfeld At the monastery of Sergios and Bakkios in Nessana, the family of Sergios play an important roles as hegoumenoi (abbots) of the monastery and also appear as witnesses and conveners of legal proceedings; P.Ness. 58 and P.Ness 75 provide two examples. See Stroumsa 2008, for a discussion of the Nessana papyri. Some examples of Arabic and Aramaic epigraphy are provided in Di Segni and Naveh 1996, Piccrillo 2001 and Shahîd The corpus of Aramaic and Arabic inscriptions in Palestinian churches has yet to be fully collated. 51

7 The rapid abandonment of monastic sites, over the course of the ninth and tenth centuries, can be explained as a response to this accelerated process of elite conversion to Islam and the increasing Islamic scrutiny of Christian doctrine which collectively succeeded in breaking these traditional patronal bonds. As champion defenders of Christian doctrine or figures of highly sexualised ridicule, monks stood at the interchange of these diverging religious expressions. 17 Only a limited number of monasteries survived the impact of this widespread cultural reorientation and by the tenth century, the presence and activity of Palestinian monasteries was to be characterised by its consolidation into several key centres focussed around Jerusalem, the Judean Desert and Sinai. Monastic communities which survived this formative social shift appear to have all shared one key feature: each incorporated a tomb or biblical site whose significance extended beyond localised pious custom and were significant religious loci for Christians throughout the Islamic or Byzantine world and increasingly, from Armenia and the Carolingian or Anglo Saxon kingdoms of the former Roman west. This ability to draw patronage and members from a wider geographical sphere, arguably shielded such monastic institutions from the collapse of localised systems of benefaction. It also may clarify why it is these key centres which produced the most energetic defence against Islam: the arching aim of this communication is to explore some of these explanations. Bibliography Avni, G The Persian Conquest of Jerusalem (614 C.E) An Archaeological Assessment. Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 357, Binns, J Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ, the Monasteries of Palestine Oxford. 17 For the use of the monk as a heroic apologetic figure see Griffith For the portrayal of monks as sexual deviants or objects of homoerotic desire see Sprachman

8 Dauphin, C La Palestine byzantine: Peuplement et populations. Vol. I. British Archaeological Reports International Series 726. Oxford. Di Segni, L Greek inscriptions in transition from the Byzantine to the early Islamic period. In H. M. Cotton, R.G. Hoyland, J.J. Price, D. J. Wasserstein (eds) From Hellenism to Islam. Cultural and Linguistic Change in the Roman Near East, Cambridge. Di Segni, L. Naveh, J A Bi-Lingual Greek-Aramaic Inscription from Horvat Qasra near Haifa. Atiqot 29, Fowden, E Monks, Monasteries and Early Islam. In G. Fowden and E. Fowden (eds) Studies on Hellenism, Christianity and the Umayyads, Athens. Griffith, S The Monk in the Emir's Majlis; Reflections on a Popular Genre of Christian Literary Apologetics in Arabic in the Early Islamic Period. In H. Lazarus Yafeh et al. (eds) The Majlis; Interreligious Encounters in Medieval Islam, Wiesbaden. Griffith, S The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque. Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. Princeton and Oxford. Hirschfeld, Y The Judean Desert Monasteries in the Byzantine Period. New Haven and London. Hirschfeld, Y Monasteries and Churches in the Judean desert in the Byzantine Period. In Y. Tsafrir (ed.) Ancient Churches Revealed, , Jerusalem. Hoyland, R Seeing Islam as Others Saw it. A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. Princeton, NJ. Kraemer, C. J Excavations at Nessana Vol. 3. Non-Literary Papyri. Princeton, NJ. Magen, Y The Monastery of St Martyrius at Ma ale Adummim. In Y.Tsafrir (ed.) Ancient Churches Revealed, Jerusalem. Magness, J Jerusalem Ceramic Chronology circa CE. Sheffield. Magness, J The Archaeology of Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine. Winona Lake, IN. Mikkola, E. Lahelma, A. Fiema, Z.T and R. Holmgren The Church and the Chapel Analysis and Phasing. In Z.T Fiema and J. Frösén (eds) Petra- 53

9 The Mountain of Aaron: The Finnish Archaeological Project in Jordan. Vol. I. The Church and the Chapel, Helsinki. Piccirillo, M The Church of Saint Sergios at Nitl: A Centre of the Christian Arabic in the Steppe at the Gates of Madaba. Liber Annus 51, Schick, R The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule, A Historical and Archaeological Study. Princeton, NJ. Shahîd, I The Sixth-Century Church Complex at Nitl, Jordan: The Ghassanid Dimension. Liber Annus 51, Sprachman, P Le beau garçon san merci: The Homoerotic Tale in Arabic and Persian. In J.W. Wright Jr. and E. K. Rowson (eds) Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature, New York. Stroumsa, R People and Identities in Nessana. PhD Thesis. Duke University. Swanson, M Beyond Prooftexting (2): The Use of the Bible in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies. In D. Thomas (ed.) The Bible in Arab Christianity, Leiden and Boston. Swanson, M Beyond Proof-Texting: Approaches to the Qur ān in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies. The Muslim World 88, Swanson, M Beyond Prooftexting (2): The Use of the Bible in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies. In D. Thomas (ed.) The Bible in Arab Christianity, Leiden and Boston. Thomas, D Anti-Christian Polemic in Early Islam. Cambridge. Thomas, D Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology. Leiden and Boston. Tsafrir, Y The Excavations of Kursi-Gergesa. Atiqot, 16. Tzaferis, V. 1993b. The Early Christian Holy Site at Shepherd s Field. In Y. Tsafrir (ed.) Ancient Churches Revealed, Jerusalem. Walmsley, A Early Islamic Syria, an Archaeological Assessment. London. Wickham, C Framing the Early Middle Ages, Europe and the Mediterranean, Oxford. 54