“Dark age” of palestinian monasticism: decline and revival of near eastern monasteries at the turn of mamluk and ottoman epochs

This article analyses the fates of Near Eastern monasteries, primarily Sinai monastery of St. Catherine and Palestinian monastery Mar Saba in the “darkest” period of their history, namely the second half of the 15th — fi rst half of the 16th centuries. The main sources are little studied statutes of Mamluk sultans given to Sinai monastery and records in Arabic Christian and other manuscripts from Sinai and Jerusalem book collections. Late Middle Ages were the time of dramatic decline in Near Eastern monasticism, which was losing support of Christian states and was being aff ected by the increasing pressure from the surrounding nomadic world. Fewer and fewer Syrian and Palestinian Melkites remained in monasteries in the desert, as they were not ready to suffer the burdens of ascetic life and threats from Bedouin tribes. The majority of monks were natives of the Balkans and Caucasus, torn off from the local Christian milieu. By the end of the 15th century, the monasteries of the Judaean Desert had been abandoned due to the pressure of external and internal reasons. Desite all hardships, Sinai monastic community managed to survive and came to be the base for the revival of Palestinian monasticism after the Ottoman conquest of Levant in the early 16th century. The article revises the dates of the fi rst contacts of the Russian state with the Orthodox East, analyses shifts in the ethnic structure of Sinai brethren that took place in the 16th century, discusses contradicting data on the time and circumstances of the new populating by monks of Mar Saba monastery. The key role in the reestablishing of this monastery was played by the former Sinai hegumen Ioachim the Wallachian, who managed to attract to the revival of the monastery fi nacial resources of Moldavian and Wallacian princes, who claimed to be heirs of Byzantine and patrons of the Christian East