Christian Monasticism in Late Antique and Early Islamic East Arabia

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the rise, expansion and decline of monasteries in East Arabia during the sixth to eighth centuries CE . It considers both literary and archaeological evidence and the similarities and differences between the perspectives that they provide. This brief period of monasticism in East Arabia is evaluated in the context of the increasing influence of East Syrian (Nestorian) Christianity in the late Sasanian empire, the imperial ambitions of the Sasanian emperors in Arabia, and the emergence of an Islamic state that conquered and appropriated the Sasanian lands and gradually asserted its authority over East Arabia and the Gulf. It is also discussed whether this latter phenomenon brought about the demise of the monasteries of East Arabia.