ASSYRIAN MONASTERY

Launched in 1993 under the direction of Peter Hellyer, thanks to the private funding of Sheikh Zayed, the excavations have made it possible to outline a visually unspectacular but historically valuable monastic complex. Resumed in 2008, the archaeological research has provided information about the establishment of Christian missions in the Gulf before Islam, but also during. The analyses of the ceramic material published by R. Carter, attest to a monarchist presence for at least 200 years, until 780, that is to say a century more than initially estimated (Arab. arch. epig. 2008: 19: 71-108). This archaeologist agrees with the thesis of a "burst of Christianity" in post-Islamic Arabia advanced in 1983 by the Frenchmen J. Beaucamp and C. Robin. The community of Sir Bani Yas was attached either to Beth Mazunaye or to Beth Qatraye, two dioceses placed under the authority of the metropolitan of Rev Ardashir (Shiraz, Iran), himself subject to the patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (Al-Mada'in, Iraq). Funded by Sheikh Mohammed, the new president of the United Arab Emirates, these latest works testify, according to Dr. Hellyer, "to the presence of monotheism in pre-Islamic Arabia, and to the constant concern of the Emirati rulers to facilitate dialogue between religions and civilizations." Little information is available on the site, however, in the book by Reverend Father Andrew Thompson "Christianity in the united arab Emirates" the history of the monastery is covered in chapter 3.