A HISTORY OF SINAI
BY
LINA ECKENSTEIN
AUTHOR OF “WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM”
_WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS_
LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
1921
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON AND BECCLES.
FOREWORD
IN the winter of 1905-6 Professor Flinders Petrie undertook the
examination of the Egyptian remains in Sinai. After working at Wadi
Maghara he removed into the Wadi Umm Agraf to copy the inscriptions
and excavate the temple ruins at Serabit. His work is described in
“Researches in Sinai, 1906,” and the inscriptions are in course of
publication by the Egypt Exploration Fund. Among the workers at Serabit
was myself. I had long been interested in the hermit life of the
peninsula and in the growing belief that the Gebel Musa was not the
Mountain of the Law. The excavations at Serabit and the non-Egyptian
character of the ancient hill sanctuary supplied new material for
reflection. In the hours spent in sorting fragments of temple offerings
and copying temple inscriptions it occurred to me that we might be on
the site which meant so much in the history of religion. Studies made
after our return suggested further points of interest. The outcome is
this little history which will, I trust, appeal to those who take an
interest in the reconstruction of the past and in the successive stages
of religious development.
LINA ECKENSTEIN
_Easter, 1920._
APPROXIMATE DATING OF EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES
DYNASTY
I. B.C. 5500. Monument of Semerkhet in Sinai
IV. ” 4800. ” Khufu ”
VI. ” 4300. ” the Pepys ”
XII. ” 3600. Amen-em-hats and Sen-userts
XV. ” 2500. Hyksos Conquest
” ” Time of Abraham and Joseph
XVIII. ” 1580. Amen hotep and Tahutmes
” 1380. Akhen-aten (Amen-hotep IV),(?) time of Moses
XIX. ” 1328—1202. Ramessides
” 1300—1234. Ramessu II.
RULERS OF PHARAN AND THE CONVENT OF SINAI
LIST TENTATIVELY ENLARGED FROM CHEIKHO
BISHOPS OF PHARAN—
Moses.
Natyr.
Macarius.
Photius.
Theodor.
BISHOPS OF SINAI—
Constantine, 869.
Marcus I, 869.
Jorius, 1033.
John I, 1069.
Zacharias, 1103 or 1114.
George, 1133 or 1143.
Gabriel I, 1146.
John II, 1164.
Simeon (Archbishop), 1203-53.
Euthymius, 1223.
Macarius I, 1224.
Germanus I, 1228.
Theodosius, 1239.
Macarius II, 1248.
Simeon (? II), 1258.
John III, 1265.
Arsinius, 1290.
Simeon, 1306.
Dorotheus, 1324-33.
Germanus II, 1333.
Marcus II, 1358.
Job.
Athanasius.
Sabbas.
Abraham.
Gabriel II.
Michael.
Silvanus.
Cyrillus.
Solomon.
Macarius of Cyprus, 1547.
Eugenius, 1565-83.
Anastasius, 1583-92.
Laurentius, 1572-1617.
Joasaph, 1617-58.
(Nectarius)
Ananias (1667-77), 1658-68.
Joannicus I. (1677-1703), 1668-1703.
Cosmas, 1705.
Athanasius of Bari, 1706-18.
Joannicus II of Mytilene, 1718-29.
Nicephorus Mortales, 1729-49.
Constantius I, 1749-59.
Cyrillus II, 1759-90.
Dorotheus of Byzantium, 1794-96.
Constantius II, 1804-59.
Cyrillus III, 1859-67.
Callistratus, 1877-85.
Porphyrius, 1885.
CHIEF AUTHORITIES
_For other works and writers see Alphabetical Index and page referred
to._
BREASTED, J. H., “Ancient Records of Egypt, 1906.”
“Perigraphe of Holy Mount Sinai, 1817.” (In Greek.)
PETRIE, W. M. FLINDERS, “Researches in Sinai, 1906.”
WEILL, RAYMOND, “La Presqu’île de Sinai, 1908.”
WILSON & PALMER, “Ordnance Survey, 1870-71.”
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
FOREWORD iii
APPROXIMATE DATING OF EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES v
RULERS OF PHARAN AND THE CONVENT OF SINAI vii
CHIEF AUTHORITIES ix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. SINAI A CENTRE OF MOON-CULT 8
III. THE SANCTUARY AT SERABIT 17
IV. THE EGYPTIANS IN SINAI. I. 30
V. EARLY PEOPLES AND PLACE NAMES 41
VI. THE EGYPTIANS IN SINAI. II. 52
VII. THE ISRAELITES IN SINAI. I. 64
VIII. THE ISRAELITES IN SINAI. II. 74
IX. THE NABATEANS 83
X. THE HERMITS IN SINAI 94
XI. THE WRITINGS OF THE HERMITS 106
XII. THE BUILDING OF THE CONVENT 121
XIII. MOHAMMAD AND ST. KATHERINE 134
XIV. SINAI DURING THE CRUSADES 143
XV. THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. I. 155
XVI. THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. II. 165
XVII. THE CONVENT BETWEEN 1500 AND 1800 173
XVIII. SINAI IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 183
ALPHABETICAL INDEX 195
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. SITUATION OF SANCTUARIES 9
2. FIGURES OF BABOONS 11
3. SNEFERU RAVAGING THE LAND 13
4. KHUFU SMITING THE ANU BEFORE THOTH 14
5. AMEN-EM-HAT III, THOTH AND HATHOR 15
6. SANCTUARY SURROUNDINGS AT SERABIT 19
7. FIGURE WITH SEMITIC SCRIPT 23
8. PLAN OF CAVES AT SERABIT 27
9. UPPER HALF OF STELE OF AMEN-EM-HAT III 37
10. TEMPLE RUINS AT SERABIT 53
11. PLAN OF TEMPLE 55
12. AMEN-HOTEP III OFFERING TO SOPD 59
13. QUEEN THYI 61
14. MEN IN BURNING BUSH 69
15. AYUN MUSA 71
16. VIEW OF THE CONVENT 123
17. CHAPEL ON GEBEL MUSA 141
18. EL ARISH 145
19. ZIGIRET EL FARAUN 149
20. SKETCH OF CONVENT SURROUNDINGS ABOUT 1335 159
21. RITTER VON HARFF AND ST. KATHERINE 169
22. SULYMAN ABU SĪLM, A BEDAWY 187
23. MAP OF THE PENINSULA 193
A HISTORY OF SINAI
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY[1]
SINAI is the peninsula, triangular in form, which projects into the
Red Sea between Egypt and Arabia. The name used to be applied to the
mountainous region of the south, now it is made to comprise the land as
far north as the Mediterranean.
Sinai is famous for the part which it has played in the religious
history of mankind. It was at one time a centre of moon-cult, before
it became the seat of the promulgation of the Law to the Jews at the
time of Moses. In Christian times it was one of the chief homes of
the hermits, and the possession of the relics of St. Katherine in the
great convent of the south, caused Sinai to be included in the Long
Pilgrimage throughout the Middle Ages.
A history of Sinai deals with the people who visited the peninsula at
different times, rather than with its permanent inhabitants, who, in
the course of centuries, seem to have undergone little change. They
still live the life of the huntsman and the herdsman as in the days of
Ishmael, sleeping in the open, and adding to their meagre resources by
carrying dates and charcoal to the nearest centres of intercourse, in
return for which they receive corn.
The country geographically belongs to Egypt, ethnologically to Arabia.
It falls into three regions.
In the north, following the coast line of the Mediterranean, lies a
zone of drift sand, narrowest near Rafa on the borders of Palestine,
widening as it is prolonged in a westerly direction towards Egypt,
where it is conterminous with the present Suez Canal. This desert was
known in Biblical days as Shur (the wall) of Egypt. “And Saul smote
the Amalekites from Havilah (north Arabia), until thou comest to Shur
that is over against Egypt” (1 Sam. xv. 7). The military highway from
Egypt to Syria from ancient times followed the coast line of the
Mediterranean, the settlements along which were modified on one side by
the encroachment of the sea, on the other by the invasion of sand.
Adjoining this zone of drift sand, the land extends south with
increased elevation to the centre of the peninsula, where it reaches
a height of about 4000 ft., and abruptly breaks off in a series of
lofty and inaccessible cliffs, the upper white limestone of which
contrasts brilliantly in some places with the lower red sandstone.
This region is, for the most part, waterless and bare. It is known in
modern parlance as the Badiet Tîh (the plain of wandering). Its notable
heights include the Gebel el Ejneh and the Gebel Emreikah. This plain
is drained in the direction of the Mediterranean by the great Wadi el
Arish and its numerous feeders, which, like most rivers of Sinai, are
mountain torrents, dry during the greater part of the year, and on
occasion like the _fiumare_ of Italy, flowing in a spate. The Wadi el
Arish is the River of Egypt of the Bible (Gen. xv. 18; Num. xxxiv. 5),
the _Nahal Muzur_ of the annals of King Esarhaddon.
The Badiet Tîh is crossed from east to west by the road from Akaba to
Suez, along which the Holy Carpet, which is made at Cairo, was annually
conveyed to Mecca. Halfway between Suez and Akaba, at Kalaat el Nakhl,
the road is crossed by one coming from Gaza, which is prolonged south
in several directions down precipitous passes. Kalaat en Nakhl is an
important watering place, and was for a time a military station. It was
known in the Middle Ages as a _puteus Soldani_ (well of the Sultan).
The roads coming from Nakhl lead down the escarpment of Tîh to a belt
of sand and gravel, varying in width, which, with the arid stretches
adjoining it, covers an area of some thirty square miles. This is the
Gebbeter Ramleh (belt of sand). Its western parts including the Wadi
Jarf is the wilderness of Sin of the Bible (Exod. xvi. 1).
South of this great belt of sand, red sandstone reappears in shelving
masses leading up to the great mountainous district which forms
Sinai proper, the third region of the peninsula. These mountains are
traversed by many river-beds or wadies. Some of them, according to the
ways of the country, do not bear the same name throughout their course,
but the main stream frequently takes another name when it is joined by
a tributary. Thus the Wadi Nasb after its junction with the Wadi Beda
becomes the Wadi Baba, and so forth.
This sandstone district is cut into by deep gorges and canyons, that
have sheer falls of several hundred feet in places. It comprises the
mountains which yielded turquoise and copper, products that brought the
neighbouring people into Sinai. Beads of turquoise were found in the
pre-dynastic tombs of Egypt which probably came from Sinai, while there
was an increasing demand for copper in the surrounding countries from
the close of the Neolithic Age. If the name Milukhkha of the Babylonian
records refers to Sinai, these people also came there several thousand
years before our era.
Turquoise appears in a ferruginous layer in the sandstone at the height
of about 2650 ft. at Serabit, and at the height of about 1170 ft. at
Maghara above sea-level. The copper ore occurs in the Wadi Nasb, and in
the Wadi Khalig, somewhat extensively in the latter, together with iron
and manganese. Enormous slag heaps lie at the head of the Wadi Nasb
and near the outlet of the Wadi Baba, which bear evidence to former
smelting activity. Again, in the Wadi Sened, a dyke rich in copper
traverses syenite for a distance of nearly two miles.
The district which was worked by the ancient Egyptians was comprised
between the valley system of the Wadi Baba on the north, and that of
the Wadi Sidreh on the south, both of which have their outlet in the
direction of the coastal plain of El Markha. It was from this side
that the ancient Egyptians approached Sinai. The chief height of the
district is the Tartir ed Dhami (black cap), so called from the dark
basalt that forms its summit, which rises to a height of 3531 ft. There
is also the double-peaked Umm Riglên (mother of two feet) which rises
to the south of the Wadi Umm Agraf and dominates the height of Serabit.
To the south of the ancient mining district the sandstone is connected
in a manner highly interesting to the geologist with the plutonic rock
which gives its imposing character to the mountains of the south. Here
lies the Wadi Feiran, one of the best watered and fruitful valleys
of the peninsula, to the south of which Mount Serbal rises abruptly
from a comparatively low elevation to the height of 6734 ft. This
mountain has been described as one great lump of diorite, and its
majestic appearance led some recent travellers, including Lepsius[2]
and Bartlett,[3] to identify it as the Mountain of the Law. Further
south lies the great group of mountains which include the Gebel Musa,
7359 ft. high, and the Gebel Katrîn with its three peaks, the highest
of which rises to 8527 ft. The Gebel Musa from early Christian times
was generally looked upon as the Mountain of the Law. At its foot lies
the great convent of Sinai, at one time known as the Bush, which has
carried on to the present day the traditions of the early Christian
hermits, who settled in the peninsula. The Gebel Katrîn lying further
south, was looked upon during the later Middle Ages, as the height on
which the angels deposited the body of St. Katherine. Another imposing
height of the group is the Ras Safsaf, 6540 ft. high, which has been
put forward in recent times as a possible Mountain of the Law.
These mountains of the south contain many natural springs and fruitful
valleys, which were formerly the home of Christian ascetics. They are
divided from the Gulf of Suez on the west by the desert of El Kaa,
which drains a large amphitheatre of hills, and becomes a coastal plain
that extends as far as Ras Mohammad, the southernmost point of the
peninsula. The desert of El Kaa has a harder subsoil which is so tilled
that the accumulated moisture is thrown up at the coast near Tur, the
chief harbour of the peninsula, and possibly an ancient Phœnician
colony. Near it lay Raithou, a place of many oases and large date-palm
plantations which were carefully tended by the monks during the Middle
Ages.
The south-eastern parts of the peninsula are rarely visited by
Europeans. There are some high mountains, including the Gebel Thebt
(7883 ft.), the Gebel Umm Shomer (8449 ft.), and the Gebel Umm Iswed
(8236 ft.), in districts that were recently explored by Dr. Hume.[4]
The eastern coast-line of the peninsula is relatively inaccessible.
There are some creek ports at Sherm, some ten miles north of Ras
Mohammad, and some palm trees with a good supply of water at Nakhb.
From here it is less than eight miles across the sea to Ras Fartak,
the nearest point of Arabia. Further north, opposite the coastland of
what is now reckoned the land of Midian, lies Dahab and, beyond it, Ain
en Nuêbeh, where the road that leads from the convent to Akaba at the
head of the Gulf of Akaba, reaches the coast. From Akaba the mountains
are prolonged in the direction of Palestine on both sides of the Wadi
el Arabah, the great depression that extends northwards to the Dead
Sea. This is “the land of Seir, the country of Edom” of the Bible (Gen.
xxxii. 3). Edom signifies red in Hebrew, and the land may have been so
called owing to the red sandstone of the district.
Sinai, generally speaking, is a country of stern desolation. Its
mountains are bare, its plains are swept by the wind, its river beds
are to all appearance waterless. But clusters of bushes that follow the
valley floors or rise from the plains, show that moisture percolates
the soil beneath the surface, and is procurable by digging down to the
harder subsoil, (_i.e._ “striking the rock”) as was done at the time of
the passage of the Israelites. Such digging is done by the Bedawyn at
the present day, the holes for water being called _hufrah_ in Arabic.
In some places, however, the water along the valleys is thrown up and
forms natural oases as in the Wadi Gharandel, the Wadi Feiran, and at
Tur. In others, it is raised by means of the mechanical device of a
water-wheel and by a _shaduf_.
Rain falls in the peninsula in sudden downpours, often in connection
with a thunderstorm. When we camped in the Wadi Umm Agraf in January
of 1906, it rained without ceasing for two days and a night, creating
rivulets and a waterfall down the mountain slope. A week later the
valley floor was carpeted with verdure and flowers, and the thorny
bushes were masses of bloom. Rainstorms may result in a spate, the
dreaded _seil_ of the Bedawyn, which often appears several miles below
where the rain has actually fallen. In the winter of 1914-15 the Wadi
el Arish was twice in spate, and left extensive pools of water behind.
The effect of a spate, seen on Dec. 3, 1867, in the Wadi Feiran by the
Rev. F. W. Holland, was described by him. In little more than an hour,
the Wadi Feiran, at this point about 300 yards wide, was filled with
a raging torrent from eight to ten feet deep. Men, animals, and trees
were swept past upon the flood, and huge boulders ground along the wady
bed with a noise of a hundred mills at work. In this spate perished
thirty persons, scores of sheep and goats, camels, and donkeys, and it
swept away an entire encampment that had been pitched at the mouth of a
small valley on the north side of Mount Serbal.[5]
Disasters of this kind are in part attributable to the reckless
deforestation of the country which has gone on unchecked for
thousands of years, and continues at the present day. To this is
attributable also the calamitous invasion of sand along the shores of
the Mediterranean recorded by Arabic writers. In ancient times wood
was extensively used for smelting purposes in different parts of the
peninsula, as is shown by enormous slag-heaps in the Wadi Baba and in
the Wadi Nasb. A great bed of wood ashes beneath the temple-floor at
Serabit showed that wood was freely used in offering the holocaust in
a district that is now entirely denuded of trees. According to the
Mosaic Law, charcoal was used in early times at the Temple service as
we gather from “a censer full of burning coals” (Lev. xv. 12).[6] For
domestic use it was exported during the Middle Ages, and was regularly
delivered by the Bedawyn as tribute to the Pasha in the nineteenth
century. Its export continues to this day.
The heathen past tried to stem the ravages of deforestation by marking
off certain valley floors, the use of which was reserved to the
sanctuaries. Inside this holy ground, the _hima_, no animal might be
hunted and no tree might be cut down. Many valleys of Sinai to this
day contain one tree of great age and often of prodigious size, which
is accounted holy and is therefore left untouched.[7] But the mass of
the trees and with them the hope of a copious undergrowth, has gone.
At the time of the passage of the Israelites, there must have been
extensive tamarisk groves, since it is the tamarisk which yields manna,
a product well-known in ancient Egypt. Its abundance must have made an
appreciable difference in their food-supply. Only a few tamarisk groves
remain in the more southern mountains at the present day, chief among
them the groves of Tarfat el Gidaran. Again neglect has destroyed the
palm groves of which enormous plantations existed in the Middle Ages.
We read of a plantation of over 10,000 date-palms at Tur, and the date
since the earliest times was a staple article of diet. According to
Arab tradition the land along the shores of the Mediterranean was of
great fruitfulness before it was invaded by sand drifts. It was the
same with the numerous fruit and vegetable gardens which were once
cultivated by the monks and the hermits. With the exception of the
garden belonging to the convent, they have passed away. Journeying
across the wide stretches of the country which were formerly a
wilderness and are now a desert, one wonders if a wise government
could not impose restrictions which would stop the destruction of
the undergrowth and regulate the water-supply. This would extend the
cultivation of the date-palm, the tamarisk and of other food products,
for the Bedawyn, the present inhabitants of the peninsula, live in
a state of semi-starvation. Their various means of subsistence have
steadily grown less with the centuries. Deforestation has influenced
the fauna to the detriment of the huntsmen. The herds of gazelles which
were numerous as late as the Middle Ages, are few and far between.
Pasture lands which formerly fed sheep and goats were encroached
upon by the introduction of the camel. The transport of goods and of
pilgrims which gave occupation to the owners of camels during the
Middle Ages has practically ceased. The convent formerly helped to tide
over difficult times by means of its resources, but the advent in the
east of the Turk reduced these resources to a minimum, and the convent
is nowadays hardly able to satisfy its own needs. In the face of this
state of things, it seems worth recalling the different periods in the
past when Sinai held the attention of the outside world and helped in
the making of history. For the recognition of her solitary ruins, and
of her literary wealth still enshrined in the convent, taken with the
needs of her people, may stimulate effort to inaugurate a new era to
the profit of Christian and of Moslim alike.