This March 14, 2022, handout photo from the Department of Archaeology and Tourism of Umm al-Quwain shows an ancient Christian monastery uncovered on Siniyah Island in Umm al-Quwain, United Arab Emirates.
Thu 03 November 2022:
Officials have discovered a historic Christian monastery on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates that may have existed before Islam took over the Arabian Peninsula.
The monastery on Siniyah Island, a part of the sand dune sheikhdom of Umm al-Quwain, offers a unique perspective on the history of early Christianity along the Persian Gulf coast.
It is the second such monastery to be found in the Emirates, and it dates back as far as 1,400 years, long before the vast deserts of the area gave rise to a thriving oil industry, which led to the foundation of a unified nation and the skyscraper-filled cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
According to experts, the two monasteries were lost to history in the sands of time.
Carbon dating of samples found in the monastery’s foundation date between 534 and 656. Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was born around 570 and died in 632 after conquering Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia.
Viewed from above, the monastery on Siniyah Island’s floor plan suggests early Christian worshippers prayed within a single-aisle church at the monastery. Rooms within appear to hold a baptismal font, as well as an oven for baking bread or wafers for communion rites. A nave also likely held an altar and an installation for communion wine.
Next to the monastery sits a second building with four rooms, likely around a courtyard — possibly the home of an abbot or even a bishop in the early church.
In the spring of 1992 with the UAE Air Force providing logistical support. Clear evidence of buildings was detected at the site which would later be confirmed as a monastery, along with decorated plaster and more pottery sherds.
Christians still make up a small percentage in the Middle East today, despite the fact that Pope Francis arrived in Bahrain on Thursday to encourage interreligious dialogue with Muslim leaders.
Siniyah Island, a barrier island defending the Khor al-Beida wetlands in Umm al-Quwain, an emirate 50 kilometers (or miles) northeast of Dubai on the Persian Gulf coast, is where the monastery is situated.
A series of sandbars extend from the island like twisted fingers. Archaeologists discovered the monastery on one of the islands in the northeast.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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