THE BUILDING OF THE CONVENT
FROM the reign of the emperor Justinian (527-563) dates the
fortification of the hermit settlement known as the Bush, which
was thereby transformed into a convent, and as such, braved the
vicissitudes of many centuries. The fortification was apparently part
of a wider scheme by which the emperor used the peninsula of Sinai as a
bulwark against the invasion from the east. Movements among the Eastern
people were threatening the frontier line of the Roman empire at the
time, and its internal organisation was by no means secure.
The care which was bestowed on the convent itself may have been due to
the favour which the monophysite form of belief found for a time with
Justinian, and more especially with his wife, the empress Theodora (†
548). It was owing to her influence that Anthimus I was raised to the
see of Constantinople, but a synod convened in the year 536 deposed
him. At this synod there were present Paulus II, bishop of Aila,[187]
and Theonas, who described himself as “presbyter of Holy Mount Syna,
and legate of the church of Pharan and the hermitage of Raithou.”[188]
Theonas apparently acted as legate owing to the age and infirmity of
Photius, bishop of Pharan. His appointment shows the close connection
that existed at the time between the three chief hermit settlements
in Sinai proper. The presence of Theonas at Constantinople no doubt
furthered, if it did not originate, the idea of fortifying the convents
of Sinai.
The building activity of Justinian began about the year 535. Procopius,
his secretary, wrote an account of his relations with Sinai and
described the life of the monks as “a careful study of death.” They
therefore sought the solitude that was dear to them. The emperor, he
says, built a church for them which was dedicated to the Theotokos, so
that they might spend their life in continual prayer in the service of
God, not on the summit of the mountain, but below it, for on the summit
thunder and other heavenly phenomena were heard at night, which made it
impossible to spend the night there. Here it was that Moses is said to
have received the Laws of God and proclaimed them. At the foot of the
mountain Justinian built a military station, so that the Saracens might
not unawares attack Palestine.[189]
A later age produced a decree of Justinian dated to 551, which declared
the independence of the foundation. The decree is no doubt a forgery,
but the independent standing of the convent was generally accepted. The
terms of the alliance which secured the safety of the settlement were
first set forth by Said ibn Batrick, otherwise Eutychius, patriarch of
Alexandria (933-40), to whom we owe a full account of the building of
the convent.
“The monks of Sinai,” he wrote, “hearing of the piety of Justinian, and
the delight that he took in building churches and monasteries, went to
him and described how the Ishmaelite Arabs harmed them by plundering
their food stores, invading and emptying their cells, and entering
their churches where they devoured the eucharist. When the emperor
enquired into their wishes, they said: We beg for a monastery in which
we shall be safe. For at that time there was no convent building in
which the monks could congregate. They dwelt scattered in the mountains
and along the valleys near the Bush from which the Lord spoke to Moses,
having only a large tower above the Bush which is standing to this day,
and a church dedicated to the Virgin, where they sought protection when
those approached whom they dreaded. The emperor despatched with them
a legate with full authority to the prefect of Egypt, asking that he
should be supplied with building materials, with men and provisions
in Egypt. He was charged to build a monastery at Kelzem (Clysma), and
a monastery at Raya (Raithou), and one on Mount Sinai, this to be so
fortified that no better could be found.” After building the church
of St. Athanasius at Clysma, and the monastery at Raithou, the legate
came into Sinai, where he found the Bush in a narrow valley with the
tower near it, also bubbling springs and the monks scattered along
the valleys. He intended building the monastery on the summit of the
mountain, leaving the Bush and the tower below, but he altered his plan
because of the lack of water on the mountain, and built the monastery
near the Bush enclosing the tower, and a church on the summit of the
mountain where Moses accepted the Law. The name of the superior was
Doulas. But the change of plan so annoyed the emperor that it cost the
legate his life.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.—View of the Convent. (Petrie: _Researches in
Sinai_.)]
In order to safeguard the building, Roman slaves were brought from
the Black Sea (traditionally from Wallachia), a hundred in number,
and transferred to Sinai with their wives and children, together with
a hundred men with their wives and children from Egypt. Dwellings
were erected for them in Mount Sinai so that they might safeguard the
monastery and the monks; they received their supplies from Egypt. Their
settlement was known as the Deir Abid (_i.e._ monastery of slaves),
and their descendants continued there till the spread of the Moslim
faith. Moreover the Benu Saleh were appointed to act as _ghafirs_ or
protectors to the monks, that is, they were responsible for those
moving to and fro across the desert, in return for which they received
largess in the form of food.[190] The same terms were mentioned by
Makrizi († 1441) in his _History of the Copts_,[191] and by the
_Perigraphe_ in its Arabic translation of the year 1710.[192] According
to this the Benu Saleh, the Saidi and the Halig (Aleyat) were attached
to the service of the convent which, in return, supplied them with food.
The importance which the agreement attached to the Benu Saleh, was in
keeping with the ancient establishment of this tribe in the peninsula,
and their association with rites of religious importance in close
vicinity to Gebel Musa and on Gebel Musa itself. The tomb of Nebi Saleh
lies in the Wadi Sheykh at a distance of a few miles from the convent.
It is the scene of an annual tribal festival which concludes with a
pilgrimage half-way up the Gebel Musa, where a sheep is sacrificed over
a natural hole in the rock. This is looked upon as a footprint of the
holy camel, no doubt originally of the Naga, which was the creation of
Nebi Saleh.
Early references and the nature of the festival leave no doubt as to
its antiquity.
Thus, the writer Antoninus Martyr, who, about the year 530, entered
Sinai from Gaza, journeyed by way of Elath (Elusa), “at the beginning
of the desert that goes to Sinai,” and mentioned a festival that was
about to take place. The people who entered the greater desert were in
number twelve thousand (c. 36). On the eighth day after leaving Gaza,
he reached the place where Moses brought forth water from the rock, and
came to Horeb, which, in his estimation, was distinct from Sinai.
“Mount Syna,” he wrote, “is stony, and there is little earth, and in
its neighbourhood are many cells of men who serve God, the same in
Horeb. And in this part of the mountain the Saracens have an idol of
marble white as snow. A priest (_sacerdos_) of theirs dwells there,
who wears a dalmatica and a linen cloak (_pallium_). And when the
time of their festival comes previous to the appearance of the moon
(_præcurrente lunæ_), before it appears on the festive day, the marble
begins to change its colour, and when they begin to adore it, the
marble is black as pitch. The time of the festival being over, it
returns to its former colour. At this I wondered greatly.”[193]
The rites that are accounted holy in this neighbourhood are associated
with different prophets. Prof. E. H. Palmer († 1882) remarked that
the Bedawyn “often fail to discriminate between Nebi Saleh, Moses and
Mohammad. Thus, the footprint of the camel which was venerated at the
conclusion of the festival of Nebi Saleh, has been incorporated in a
tradition regarding Mohammad, who after death was carried aloft by a
camel of so prodigious a size that it stood with one foot in Damascus,
one in Cairo, one in Mecca, and one in Sinai.”[194]
The monk Antoninus Martyr made a short stay at the convent, and wrote
that “the days of the festival of the Ishmaelites were drawing to a
close, and the order went forth that no one should remain in the desert
through which we had come, so some returned to the Holy City (_i.e._
Jerusalem) through Egypt, others through Arabia” (c. 39).
The work of feeding the Arabs who came to the convent was no mean
undertaking. Anastasius, the monk, wrote that the Armenians more
especially came there,—“it was their custom as it was the custom
of every one.” There were six hundred of them on one occasion, and
a man among them who waited on them and then disappeared. In the
estimation of Anastasius this was “Moses himself, who came to receive
his visitors” (no. 7). The number of pilgrims at this time (_c._ 600)
was less, he remarked, than thirty years before, when as many as eight
hundred came and ascended the holy mountain, where they saw a vision of
God and a miracle, the summit of the mountain appearing enveloped in
fire (no. 38). The appearance of fire on the mountain had previously
been mentioned by Ammonius about the year 372. It may have formed part
of a system of signalling adopted by the Bedawyn.
This confusion between the different prophets is reflected in a
statement in the _Perigraphe_ in the Arabic translation of 1710, which
described Saleh as a Christian who had his tomb not far from the
monastery.[195] This tradition should be compared with one current
in the Middle Ages that Mohammad the Prophet was the disciple of a
Christian monk.
The tomb of Saleh in the Wadi Sheykh was noticed by Bishop Pococke in
1726 (i. 141), and Burckhardt, in 1816, mentioned the celebration held
here which took place in the last week in May (p. 489). This festival
was described in detail by Tischendorf who saw it in 1846,[196] and by
Prof. E. H. Palmer, who witnessed it in June of 1870.[197]
The festival took place at the time when the dates ripened, and lasted
three days. Tribes from all parts of the peninsula, including women and
children, assembled in the Wadi Sheykh near the insignificant-looking
tomb which consisted of a domed chamber cemented over, with an empty
coffin standing inside. Pieces of cloth, ostrich eggs, tassels and
other parts of camel equipment were brought as offerings and suspended
from the roof. The first step in the festivity consisted in renovating
and whitewashing the tomb. In a large tent erected outside forty to
fifty men assembled and sat in a circle, while the first of all the
sheykhs barefoot and wearing the white garment (_Imam_) and a white
turban over his red fez, sat near the fire. A procession headed by the
women encircled the tomb. The young men then brought out fifty to sixty
lambs which were cut on the forehead, and blood was drawn before they
were slaughtered, skinned and cut up. While the food was boiling a
camel race took place, four to six camels racing at a time. Four to six
persons then sat around each lambskin which was spread on the ground,
and on it their share of boiled lambs’ flesh was poured out, which
they ate using their fingers. Besides the flesh there were meal-cakes
(_bilaw_), and water to drink. A dance followed in which men and women
took part, and which was timed to singing and clapping of hands.
Besides this, two women danced figures outside the group. Men and women
remained conversing in couples till late at night. The celebration
struck Tischendorf as dignified. At its conclusion some of the Bedawyn
repaired to the summit of the Gebel Musa, where there stood a small and
highly revered mosque (mentioned as early as 1335), which they entered,
wearing the _Imam_ or white garment. Over the natural hole, called the
footprint of the prophet’s she-camel, they sacrificed a sheep.
A further festivity took place in former days near the summit of
the Gebel Musa which we hear of in the sixteenth century only and
not again. Early writers agree that no hermit or monk ever spent a
night on the summit of the mountain. Nilus (_c._ 400) remarked that
the height was generally avoided “since God conferred there with the
people,” while Etheria and Antoninus Martyr simply noted that no hermit
spent the night there. This fact Procopius (_c._ 550) connected with
“heavenly phenomena.” At a later date the hermit Simeon, for a time,
dwelt “on the summit of Mount Sinai, where the Law was given, a place
deserted because of the restless Arabs.”
This avoidance of the mountain-top at night by the Christians finds
its explanation in the account of Gregor, prior of the Carthusian
house of Gaming, who came into Sinai with Martin Baumgarten and
others in the year 1507. The party decided to spend the night on the
Mount of the Law, where the building that was close to the summit was
the scene of a Saracen festivity of so noisy a character, that the
Christian pilgrims hardly slept all night. It included “a bestial
service in the belief that those who were here conceived were endowed
with a holy and prophetic spirit” (proles enim hic concepta, sancto et
prophetico spiritu plena ab eis æstimatur).[198] The spot chosen seems
to have been a cave between the chapel of Moses and the small mosque.
Similar unions led, from the same belief according to Tobler, to the
desecration at one time of the holy cave at Bethlehem.[199] This cave,
according to a statement of Jerome, was connected with the cult of
Adonis in ancient times. Perhaps the hold which the Saracens had on the
Gebel Musa in early days was another reason why the convent builder
chose the lower site.
No further mention is made of the church of St. Athanasius which the
emperor Justinian had constructed at Clysma. The monastery which he
built or fortified at Raithou frequently served as a refuge to the
monks of the convent in times of stress. Its church was dedicated
to St. John the Baptist, and continued till the period of Turkish
domination when it was destroyed.
The convent of the Bush alone continued. It had an independent
standing, perhaps owing to its being originally merged with the
bishopric of Pharan. The head of the house was chosen from its inmates,
and he called himself bishop. Later he assumed the title of archbishop.
Owing, however, to his peculiar standing he was referred to as
archbishop at a time when he called himself bishop only, as we shall
see later.
The convent at first served as the nucleus of the numerous hermitages
in southern Sinai. Later, as these disappeared, it continued in proud
isolation. In addition to the house at Raithou, it acquired property
and built priories in many outlying districts, and rose to a position
of importance that was in every way exceptional.
The convent retains to this day its original appearance. It is enclosed
by walls built of well-dressed blocks of grey granite forming an
irregular quadrangle, 280 feet at its greatest length, and 250 ft. at
its greatest breadth. The walls enclosed the old tower, a church, and
the convent buildings, with the cells for the monks, a guest-house,
bakeries, stables, and a library. Adjoining these buildings was the
garden, which extended on one side, along the valley about 200 feet,
with several springs of good water, and plantations of fruit trees,
including olive, pomegranate, almond and peach, pear and apple trees.
The produce of these remained famous throughout the Middle Ages.
The church was a basilica in the Byzantine style. It was lighted by
five windows on either side, and the entablature of the nave rested on
round arches which were supported by six pairs of granite columns with
leafy capitals. The roof was of cypress wood covered with lead, and
contained three contemporary inscriptions. One of these commemorated
“our holy king, Justinian the Great;” another was devoted to the
memory of Theodora, who died in 548; the third called a blessing on
the builder, Stephanos and his family. “Lord God, who didst appear on
this spot, save and bless thy slave Stephanos, the builder of this
monastery, from Aila, and Nonna (his wife), and give rest to the souls
of their children, George, Sergius, and Theodora.”[200]
The church was dedicated to the Virgin, as we learn from Eutychius,
whose statement was confirmed by Magister Thietmar in 1217, and by
the Papal Bull of 1226. In the Middle Ages it was sometimes spoken
of as the church of St. Katherine, and later still as the church
of the Transfiguration. The latter name was due to a great mosaic
representation on the apse which is shown by its style to belong to the
seventh or eighth century. The mosaic was first drawn and described
by Laborde and Linant.[201] On this mosaic the youthful Christ was
represented soaring towards heaven, with Elijah on one side pointing to
Him, while Moses on the other side stands with hand upraised. John is
seen kneeling, James also is represented kneeling, Peter is prostrate.
Each figure is named. This scene is framed by thirty medallions, which
represent the Twelve Apostles, Paul, the superior of the convent, who
is not named, and sixteen prophets. Above, to the right, Moses is seen
kneeling before the Bush; to the left, he is represented holding the
Tables. Below, are two angels with extended wings and two further
portraits of which the one shows a bearded man with flowing locks, the
other a woman with close-fitting head-dress. They are sometimes pointed
out as Constantine and Helena, sometimes as Justinian and Theodora, but
their identity remains unknown. Below, stand the words in Greek, “In
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the whole of this
work was executed for the salvation of those who contributed towards it
by Longinus, most holy priest and superior (τοῦ ὀσιωτάτου πρεσβυτέρον
καὶ ἡγουμένου).”[202] The floor was covered with a mosaic which was
torn up by the Arab treasure seekers in the fifteenth century, but
restored by Bishop Anastasius (1583-1592).
Two crypts inside the convent walls served to house the bones of the
dead. Their corpses were first laid for two or three years on an iron
grating in a cellar; the skull was then transferred to one crypt and
the bones to the other. The bones were sorted and added to the piles of
corresponding bones, so that the femurs, the tibias, etc., lie piled
together. The archbishops’ corpses were, however preserved intact, and,
wearing their robes,[203] were placed in mummy coffins. The use of the
iron grating and the crypts dates back to the earliest days of the
convent, for among the stories collected by Anastasius, one described
how two corpses were laid side by side on the grating, but the one,
disliking the proximity of the other, repeatedly moved, throwing it out
of place, until it was officially adjured not to do so.
The convent included a hostel for the aged and for pilgrims, built by
a certain Isaurus (_quodam Isauro_). It attracted the attention of
Pope Gregory the Great (592-604), who, hearing of it, forwarded to
John Climacus, who was superior at the time, woollen coverings and
bedding for fifteen beds, together with money wherewith to purchase
feather-beds. At the same time he wrote to Father Palladius, to whom
he forwarded a cowl or tunic. The Pope had previously written to John
Climacus, complimenting him on having reached a harbour of safety while
others were tossing on a sea of religious difficulties.[204] He seems
to have made a permanent grant to the convent. A pilgrim of 1341
mentioned that the day of St. Gregory was kept at the convent, since he
had bestowed on it alms out of the treasury of the Church, by which the
number of convent inmates was raised to four hundred.
The interest which Pope Gregory took in the convent was probably
connected with a pilgrimage made by the Roman patrician lady
Rusticiana. In the year 592 she took her daughter, who was ill, to
Sinai in the hope of effecting a cure. The husband of the daughter was
also of the party. They started from Constantinople and returned sooner
than was expected. This we learn from a letter which Rusticiana wrote
to Pope Gregory.[205]
In Sinai the monk Anastasius recorded the visit of a patrician lady who
came with her daughter and wished to consult Father Orontius, “who was
so filled with divine fire that he could hold his hand in the flame,
and burn incense on the palm of his hand.” On one occasion, however, he
lost a finger by burning. But Orontius refused to see the ladies, he
sent them some grapes instead. When the demon who was in the daughter,
saw the grapes, he cried out: Father Orontius, why do you come here?
And he departed out of her (no. 18). It was doubtless the same hermit,
in this case called Orontos, who once came into church with his cowl
all awry. When his attention was drawn to it, he said that all things
being awry in the church, his cowl was in keeping with them. If they
would set things straight there, he would see to his cowl.
A great feature of the convent of Sinai was its library, where
the monks amassed books and manuscripts, and added to the world’s
literature by copying and writing. The place was a polyglot centre.
Antoninus Martyr found three Fathers there who spoke Latin, Greek,
Syriac, Egyptian (Coptic), and Bessam (Persian), and many interpreters
in each language (c. 37). The hermit Simeon, who came into Europe about
the year 1025, spoke Egyptian, Syriac, Arabic, Greek and Roman (_i.e._
Latin).
The contents of the library, in spite of losses incurred at different
times, are still considerable. Among its most notable treasures was
the _Codex Sinaiticus_, dated to about the year 400, which helped
to revise the text of most of the Greek Old Testament, of the New
Testament, and of some important early Christian works, including
the _Shepherd of Hermas_. Attention was attracted to this _Codex_ by
Tischendorf, who came to the convent in 1844 to inspect the MSS., and
having identified some of its pages, returned in 1853, in 1854, and
in 1859, when he finally acquired it for Petrograd, a facsimile copy
being deposited at the convent. A few leaves are at Leipzig. Another
notable treasure was a Syriac _Codex_ of the Gospels of a very early
date, which was discovered as a palimpsest and photographed by the
sisters, Mrs. Smith-Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, in 1893. Again, there was
the _Evangeliarium Theodosianum_, a collection of passages from the New
Testament written in gold lettering on parchment, which was seen and
described by Burckhardt in 1816, and is dated to about the year 1000.
The Greek MSS. that are in the library were recently examined
and catalogued by Prof. Gardthausen of Oxford. The list contains
1230 entries of MSS. that are all of a religious character. Prof.
Gardthausen noted the names of over two hundred scribes, and other
details which show that some of the MSS. came from Crete, Cairo, and
Cyprus.[206] The Syriac and Palestinian-Syriac MSS. were catalogued
by the ladies Smith-Lewis and Gibson. They are over three hundred
in number. The Christian Arabic MSS. catalogued by the same ladies,
amounted to six hundred and eighty entries.[207]
The importance which was secured to the convent reacted on the standing
of the bishopric of Pharan, the representative of which seems to have
removed to the convent. When Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, (524-544)
summoned his bishops to a synod in 538, Photius, bishop of Pharan, who
was close upon seventy years of age, was “unable to leave Mount Sinai,”
which suggests that he lived there. Stephen of Cappadocia, mentioned
above, Dulcetius and Zosimus were deputed to represent him. We again
hear of Zosimus as one of three monks of Sinai, whom Apollinaris, the
orthodox or Melkite patriarch of Alexandria (550-568), summoned to
Alexandria. Of these he consecrated Theodor bishop of Leontopolis,
an unnamed monk, bishop of Heliopolis, and Zosimus bishop of Babylon
(Cairo). But Zosimus had no taste for the episcopate, and soon
returned to his cell in Sinai.[208]
Likewise do we hear that Gregorius, who had presided over the monks in
Sinai, was chosen to succeed Anastasius, bishop of the see of Antioch
who was evicted in the year 569. According to information provided by
Evagrius (593), he had there been besieged by the Kenite Arabs.[209]
The country generally seems to have been at the mercy of the Arabs,
which resulted in the abandonment of the hermitages, while it added to
the prestige of the convent.
About this time the convent became the home of a young monk who was
always silent. He was the only surviving son of the emperor Maurice,
and was saved by his nurse when all the other sons were put to death by
Phocas (602-608).[210] When he died his body disappeared. “Perhaps it
was carried by God to the realms of the living,” was the verdict of the
monk Anastasius (no. 29).
The last bishop of Pharan we hear of was Theodor, who proposed the
so-called monothelite modification of the monophysite doctrine, hoping
thereby to secure re-union with the Church. In its interest he went to
Constantinople, where he was honourably entertained by the patriarch
Sergius (610-638), who impressed Pope Honorius (625-638) in Theodor’s
favour. Objection was, however, raised to the new doctrine by the monk
Sophronius, who later became patriarch of Jerusalem (634-638), and
disapproval of it was expressed by the Lateran Synod of 649,[211] and
by the Sixth General Council of Constantinople in 681.
In the Wadi Feiran lie the ruins of a convent and a church of some
importance which were described by the _Ordnance Survey_ (i. 210), and
are without doubt the remains of the episcopal seat of Pharan.