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ARAB CHRISTIANITY in BYZANTINE PALESTINE in Byzantine Times

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ARAB CHRISTIANITY in BYZANTINE PALESTINE in Byzantine Times ARAM, 15 (2003), 227-237 227 ARAB CHRISTIANITY IN BYZANTINE PALESTINE IRFAN SHAHÎD In Byzantine times, Palestine extended geographically from Mount Hermon in the north to the Gulf of Clysma in the south and was divided administra- tively into three smaller units: Prima, Secunda and Tertia. Chronologically, the Byzantine period spanned three centuries from the reign of Constantine in the fourth to that of Heraclius in the seventh. The Arab Christian presence in Byzantine Palestine will thus be traced diachronously in the three Palestines in the course of these three centuries, based almost entirely on contemporary Greek and Syriac sources.1 This presence- it should be pointed out at the outset- was not uniform; it was bi-morphic in many ways: (1) In legal status; some Arabs were Rhomaioi, citizens to whom civitas was extended after the edict of Caracalla in A.D. 211; such were the Nabataean Arabs of Palaestina Tertia in Sinai and the Negev. Others were not citizens but were foederati, that is, allies with a treaty rela- tionship, a foedus, to Byzantium, which enabled them to settle on Byzantine territory in return for military service; such were the Christian foederati settled in the Desert of Juda in Palaestina Prima in the fifth century. (2) The Arab presence was bi-morphic in another sense; some of them were pastoralists, such as those who roamed the wastes and the desert spaces of Sinai and the Negev, while others were sedentary. (3) These, too, were bi-morphic in a third sense: some were urban, as the Arab Rhomaioi were, the former Nabataeans of towns in the Negev such as: Elusa, Sbaita, Oboda Nessana, Mampsis, and Rouhaiba, which might be termed the Hexapolis of the Negev; while others were rural as the foederati mostly were, an important distinction, which our colleagues at the symposium have reminded us to keep in mind. 1 I should like to thank Dr. Shafiq AbouZayd for organizing the ARAM Sixteenth Interna- tional Conference on the topic of Palestinian Christianity, which took place 16-18 July in Oxford. In five of my volumes in the series, Byzantium and the Arabs, the theme of Arab Christianity before the rise of Islam has been treated in each of these volumes, in the three centuries of the Byzantine presence in Palestine. The ARAM Conference provided me with an opportunity to put together for the first time my researches on the theme of the Conference in the form of a short synthesis presented in this article. As this synthesis has drawn on researches distributed among five volumes, there is continual reference to these volumes as an aid to the reader, who may care to go into the multitude of relevant details and to be acquainted with the critique of the sources involved. The published text is substantially that of the paper orally delivered at the Conference within the constraints of time allotted to each participant. Hence, its retention of some features peculiar to oral delivery. 228 ARAB CHRISTIANITY IN BYZANTINE PALESTINE (4) Finally, they were bi-morphic confessionally: Some were Chalcedonians and others Monophysites: such were the Arabs of Palaestina Prima in the Judaean Desert and Palaestina Secunda in the Golan, respectively. THE FOURTH CENTURY The great turning point in the history of Christianity in Palestine as a Holy Land was the reign of Constantine and, so, this presentation of Arab Chris- tianity in Pre-Islamic Byzantine times begins in the fourth century, dominated by a large Arab religious figure, a Holy Man by the name of Moses. Accord- ing to the fifth century ecclesiastical author, Theodoret, he lived between Egypt and Palestine and so must have belonged to Sinai in Palaestina Tertia.2 And if he can be identified with the Monk of Rhaithou in the oasis of Pharan, the one mentioned in the Ammonii Monachi Relatio, his Sinaitic provenance can be clinched.3 He stood for the Nicene Creed during the reign of the Arian Emperor, Valens. The mailed fist behind his stance was the Arab Queen, Mavia, who also stood for the same Creed and warred the Arian Emperor down, as recounted fully in the ecclesiastical sources, Socrates and Sozomen. By the terms of the treaty with Valens, Moses became the bishop of the Arab foederati of Queen Mavia.4 He must have performed both as a Holy Man and as a Christian hierarch some significant services to the Faith, the record of which has not survived in the extant sources. Otherwise, it is difficult to under- stand why he was canonized, becoming a saint of the Universal Church whose feast falls on February 7th. His fame apparently spread to the Roman Occident. In the eighth century, four centuries after his floruit, Pope Gregory III, had an encounter with St. Willibald, the nephew of St. Boniface, the Apostle of Ger- many. The latter was unwilling to join his uncle in his German mission and the Pope tried to persuade him to join his uncle, and presented the Arab Saint Moses as a model for St. Willibald in his prospective evangelizing activity.5 In addition to this Bishop Saint of the Arab foederati of Palaestina Tertia, the sources speak of two other bishops, in this century, who were Arab Rhomaioi of the same Tertia, bishops of the urban centers of Elusa in the Negev and of Pharan, the oasis in the south of the Sinai Peninsula. The bishop of Pharan is attested around A.D. 400 with the name Nathyr, probably Arabic Na∂ir, of Na∂ir.6 The history of Christianity in Byzantine Palaestina Tertia, 2 For all that pertains to the holy man, Moses, see the present writer in Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D, C., 1984), pp. 152-158, 184- 187; henceforth referred to as BAFOC. 3 Ibid., pp. 296-319, 327-328. 4 For Mavia, see ibid., pp. 138-202. 5 For Pope Gregory III and St. Willibald, see ibid., pp. 186-187. 6 Ibid., p. 303 and n. 73. I. SHAHÎD 229 which comprised the Sinai and the Negev, was the history of Arab Christian- ity since these regions have been Nabataean territories with a strong Arab eth- nic complexion. I leave its detailed history to other scholars, especially in Israel, who have been excavating Sinai and the Hexapolis of the Negev such as Professor Pau Figueras. THE FIFTH CENTURY The Orthodox tradition of Arab Federate Christianity started by Queen Mavia and Moses continued in the fifth century in both Palaestina Prima and Secunda. In the latter, the new group of Arab foederati, the Salihids, had their headquarters in Gaulanitis in Secunda. The sources have preserved their strong attachment to the monastic way of life which began with their very conversion at the hands of a monk/holy man and ended with the renunciation of the world by their last king, who became a monk and founded a monastery, Dayr Dawud, in the vicinity of that famous pilgrimage center near the Euphrates, Sergiopolis, and which remained an important locality well into Islamic times. What monasteries he built in Gaulanitis is not known since the sources for this period are scant and whatever sources there were on SaliÌid monastic founda- tions in Gaulanitis have not survived.7 More important is the Christian Arab presence in Palaestina Prima in the Desert of Juda. The region witnessed the rise of a diminutive Arab church of foederati. These had left the service of Sasanid Persia and became the allies, foederati of Byzantium, where they were settled in the Jordan Valley and were later converted by St. Euthymius.8 Their chiefs, the phylarchs, became zealous Christians, and one of them, the first, was the most distinguished member of this Federate Arab group, who brought from Persia his name, which was Persian, (Pahlevi), his military title Aspebetos, Sepahbad. On conversion he assumed the name Peter. He built for the monastery of St. Euthymius two cisterns, a bakery (a mancipium), and three cells. He was thought fit by Euthymius to be consecrated bishop.9 Aspebetos/Peter walked into ecclesiastical history when he not only partici- pated in the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431 but also was selected as one of the three delegates whom the Council sent to negotiate with Nestorius and John of Antioch in order to return them to Orthodoxy. His successors in the 7 For all that pertains to the Salihids, see the present writer in Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D. C., 1989), pp. 233-271 and 297-300; hence- forth referred to as BAFIC. 8 The Arab foederati of the desert of Juda are often referred to as those of the Parembole, the Greek equivalent of the Arabic military term, hira. For their history, secular and religious, see ibid., pp. 181-207. 9 On Aspebetos, see ibid., pp. 40-49, 181-184. 230 ARAB CHRISTIANITY IN BYZANTINE PALESTINE episcopate took part in the Second Council of Ephesus in 449, and in the Council of Chalcedon in 451.10 In addition to their contribution to the fortunes of orthodoxy at home and at the Ecumenical Councils, these Federate Arabs of the Desert of Juda con- tributed to the Christian monastic life. Two of them became hegoumenoi, abbots of the monasteries in the Jordan Valley. Such were Maris, the brother- in-law of Aspebetos/Peter, who became the hegoumenos of the monastery of Theoctistus. Stephanus, another Arab, not federate but a Rhomaic became the hegoumenos of the monastery of Euthymius. In addition to these two monas- teries in the Jordan Valley, there was another Arab monastery in Prima by the name of Dayr ¨Amr, which may have been built by the SaliÌid foederati but it could equally well have been a Ghassanid foundation; the name recurs in the genealogies of both federate groups.
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