the former Al-Sinniyah monastery, a sign ‘of the Christian presence’

They discovered an ancient construction, probably from pre-Islamic times, off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Inside there is a church, a refectory, water cisterns and individual cells that were used by the monks. For scholars, the finding confirms a period of at least 300 years of coexistence with Muslims.

Abu Dhabi () – An ancient Christian monastery, located on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), could date back to the time before the spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. The recent-day find further bolsters claims by historians and church leaders – including the Baghdad Patriarch of the Chaldeans– that the Christian community today is an essential and indigenous component of the Middle East region, and that it was also in the past.

In dialogue with Monsignor Paolo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of South Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen), refers to the “objective value” of this discovery, from the “historical” point of view and with regard to the “reconstruction of the facts” that have characterized the area. “For us – continues the prelate – it is important to know the history of this Christian monastic presence, although currently the faithful of the vicariate are almost all emigrants, since they come from other Churches”. However, he concludes, there is undoubted value “in the finding” that will have to be “deepen” in the future.

A group of archaeologists conducting a series of excavations in the Emirates have unearthed what appear to be the remains (in the photos) from an old Christian monastery on the island of Al-Sinniyah, belonging to the emirate of Umm Al-Quwain. In the area there was a church, a refectory, some cisterns for the supply of water and individual cells used by the religious.

The discovery sheds new light on the history of the origins of Christianity in the Gulf region, thanks in part to the use of dating methods such as radiocarbon or carbon-14 and the analysis of ceramics found at the site. The first results place the ancient monastic community between the end of the 6th century AD and the middle of the 8th century, which fuels conjecture about the presence of a settled community long before the arrival of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.

“It is a very rare event,” says Professor Tim Power, from UAE University, a member of the team that has allowed the remains of the monastery to be discovered. “It is an essential reminder of a chapter in Arab history that has already been lost.” The fact that something similar happened in the area “a thousand years ago” is “truly remarkable” and is a story, which “deserves to be told”, he stressed.

Power rejects claims that Christianity was violently supplanted by the rise of Islam, explaining that there was a period of at least 300 years of coexistence. “The place was slowly abandoned,” he maintains. “There are no signs of devastation, violence or fires. There was a cultural and social change when Christianity faded and Islam became dominant.” The monastery, concludes the archaeologist, is “a monument to tolerance and multi-religious society.”

Last week’s discovery on the island of Al-Sinniyah is not the first in the Gulf. Previously, in the 1990s, a similar complex was found on the island of Sir Bani Yas, in Abu Dhabi, which until now was considered the oldest in the Emirates. According to historians, the first Christian churches and monasteries in the region spread along the Persian Gulf to the coast of present-day Oman and India; other similar places of worship can be found in Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.