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Ten - The Church of the Virgin in Dayr al-Suryān (Wadi al-Natrun)

Architecture, Art, and History between Coptic and Syriac Christianity

from II - Images, Objects, Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2024

By
Karel C. Innemée ,
Lucas Van Rompay  and
Dobrochna Zielińska
Edited by
Elizabeth S. Bolman ,
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson  and
Jack Tannous
Elizabeth S. Bolman
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
Jack Tannous
Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
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Summary

The Monastery of the Holy Virgin of Anba Bishoi in Sketis (nowadays known as Wadi al-Natrun, Egypt) was founded in the early sixth century. In the seventh century, a church was built that was decorated with artistically and iconographically important wall paintings. Probably at the end of the eighth century a group of Syriac monks from the region of Tikrit joined this Coptic community. It meant the beginning of a process of cultural interaction between Syriac Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox Christianity that would continue over the following five centuries and lead to the introduction of the unofficial name of the monastery as Dayr al-Suryan, under which it became renowned for its library. Not only this library became a testimony of the important position of the monastery as a centre of learning and culture, the church, dedicated to the Holy Virgin, also illustrates this in the mural paintings, stucco decoration, and woodwork that were produced during the period of Egyptian/Syriac cohabitation. The early tenth-century abbot Moses of Nisibis played a crucial role in the development of the monastery. The chapter gives an overview of this rich heritage and the gradual rediscovery of the paintings and text in the church of the Holy Virgin over the last twenty-five years.

Keywords

Dayr al-SuryanChristianity in EgyptEgyptian monasticismEncaustic painting
Type
Chapter
Information
Worlds of Byzantium
Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East
 , pp. 280 - 323
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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