From the Tigris to the Ebro : Church and Monastery Building under Early Islam

Abstract

This book is dedicated to the study of church and monastery constructions during the early centuries of Islam, spanning from post-Sasanian Iraq to Umayyad al-Andalus. It seeks to move beyond the paradigm of an Arab incursion that would immediately freeze the vitality of the Late Antique church, and stop its specific expression: the building of places of worship and convents. While Transjordan experienced a decline that affected most of the population, regardless of their confession, Northern Mesopotamia witnessed an opposite trend of human development, paralleled by the growth of Christian institutions. Textual attestations confirm various archaeological indicators of dynamism inclusive of non-Muslim institutions, especially in Northern Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. While the Middle East began to experience a policy of restrictions and limitations against “new” Christian buildings during the second half of the Second/Eighth century, the recently conquered church of Hispania continued to develop visibly and organise autonomously. Finally, the borderlands of Sicily and Armenia witnessed later and ambivalent developments of Christian institutions that maintained a connection between the <i>Dār al-Islām</i> and Byzantine Christendom.