Book contents
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- One Worlds of Byzantium
- I Patterns, Paradigms, Scholarship
- II Images, Objects, Archaeology
- III Languages, Confessions, Empire
- Thirteen Byzantine Syriac
- Fourteen Greek Identity in the Sinai
- Fifteen Patriarchs, Caliphs, Monks, Scribes, and the Byzantinization of Jerusalem’s Liturgy
- Sixteen Byzantine Judaism in Early Islamic Palestine
- Seventeen Ethiopia
- Eighteen Armenia and Byzantium
- Nineteen Byzantine Georgia/Georgian Byzantium
- Twenty Conclusion
- Index
- References
Fourteen - Greek Identity in the Sinai
from III - Languages, Confessions, Empire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2024
Book contents
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- One Worlds of Byzantium
- I Patterns, Paradigms, Scholarship
- II Images, Objects, Archaeology
- III Languages, Confessions, Empire
- Thirteen Byzantine Syriac
- Fourteen Greek Identity in the Sinai
- Fifteen Patriarchs, Caliphs, Monks, Scribes, and the Byzantinization of Jerusalem’s Liturgy
- Sixteen Byzantine Judaism in Early Islamic Palestine
- Seventeen Ethiopia
- Eighteen Armenia and Byzantium
- Nineteen Byzantine Georgia/Georgian Byzantium
- Twenty Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
Pilgrims to Sinai in the fourth century witnessed a flourishing monastic presence at the traditional sites of God’s revelations to the Prophets Moses and Elias. Sinai was an extension of the Holy Land. As such, it was also a part of the Greek speaking world. This is borne out by inscriptions dating from the sixth century, when the Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of a basilica and surrounding fortress walls. And yet, if Greek was the language of the Sinai monks at that time, it was not exclusively so, for Sinai was the destination of monks and pilgrims from the whole of Christendom. The history of the centuries immediately following must be reconstructed from the surviving documentary evidence. Manuscripts, icons, and the writings of Saints Hesychius and Philotheus testify to continuity at Sinai. It is especially in the basilica of Sinai that we can sense this continuity even today.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Worlds of ByzantiumReligion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East, pp. 438 - 467Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
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