these little-known Christians contemporary with the birth of Islam

On the scale of archaeological research and the immense periods on which it works, it is a small revolution. In recent years, there have been countless discoveries revealing traces of the Christian presence in the Persian Gulf at the beginning of the Islamic era (around 622). On the island of Faïlaka, in Kuwait, the site of Al-Qusûr, excavated since 2011, gradually reveals the existence of a monastery and two churches. Likewise on the island of Al-Siniyah in the United Arab Emirates, remains of another Christian monastery have been unearthed since 2021. On the island of Muharraq in Bahrain, glazed pottery bearing the mark of a small crosses were discovered in 2021 under the ruins of an old mosque, even though the toponymy has long testified to the existence of Christian communities.

New discoveries

For a long time, it was thought that these buildings predated the 7th century – sites from the 5th century which would have reached their peak in the 6th century before disappearing with the expansion of Islam in the region, we judge. ‘era. In fact, during the first phase of church discoveries in the Persian Gulf in the 1980s, “researchers dated these churches based on Arabic and Syriac texts, which suggested an almost immediate conversion of these Christian communities to Islam at the time of the Muslim conquest”, says Julie Bonnéric, scientific manager of the French part of the Franco-Kuwaiti archaeological mission of Faïlaka.

The 2000s mark a turning point: “We were then able to freely study the remains in Saudi Arabia, which called on foreign missions”says the French specialist on the subject, Christian Robin. At the end of the 2000s, archaeologists questioned the first dating, and pushed it back after the Muslim conquest.

Several important sites associated with Christian occupation had already been discovered in the 20th century: a monastery excavated in the late 1950s on the island of Kharg, in Iran, another unearthed in 1992 at Sir Bani Yas, in off the coast of Abu Dhabi… However, they have not benefited from modern dating methods (stratigraphy, study of ceramics, carbon 14, etc.) and therefore do not have the same archaeological value as the latest discoveries. “The results are now more precise in Qusûr and Siniyahsummarizes the researcher. They allow us to conclude that there were Christian communities with structures prior to the end of the 7th century, but still flourishing until the beginning of the 8th century. »

And if we still know very little about the monastery of Al-Siniyah, that of Al-Qusûr in Kuwait has already made it possible to establish solid conclusions. “A mixed form of monasticism was practiced there, explains Julie Bonneric, between anchorism and cenobitism, with no less than 170 cells installed around the monastery. » Above all, one of the two churches built of mud bricks was decorated with crosses and stucco decorations, which we managed to date from the 8th century.

A challenge to the traditional narrative of the beginnings of Islam

For a long time, researchers only relied on textual sources, silent beyond the 7th century. The excavations then brought new information, but initially seemed to contradict the texts, due to the absence of Christian traces in the 5th century. Researchers today believe that the first settlements were modest – not yet churches – and that they mainly flourished until the end of the 8th century, as Christian communities became richer.

This hypothesis runs counter to the traditional narrative of early Islam, which asserts that all of Arabia was Islamized upon the death of Mohammed. “Conversions are very long processes, and it has too often been assumed that political submission implies religious conversion”shade Christian Robin.

Current issues for the Gulf countries

Christianity would therefore have developed in the Arab-Persian Gulf concomitantly with the expansion of Islam. An observation which is not without consequences on the perception of Islam in its beginnings. The traditional story, according to which the second caliph of Islam expelled Christians and Jews, seems contradicted today, notably by the testimony of archeology. This story refers to a legal fiction which dates from the time of the Abbasids (from 750), according to the historian Simon Pierre (1), while Muslim law which prohibits the construction of churches was established only two centuries later. the Hegira. “In its beginnings, the Islamic State therefore did not prevent the development of other religions”concludes the historian.

This question refers more broadly to a historiographical debate between the “revisionists”, who assume that the Muslim religion was not constructed until very late, in the 8th century, and the “positivists”, who, following holy history, affirm that Islam is fixed in its dominant form from the start.

In the Gulf countries, the latest discoveries which fuel this debate do not leave us indifferent. In Kuwait, Qatar or Saudi Arabia, while it was fashionable for churches and monasteries to predate Islam since everyone was supposed to have converted in the 7th century, we now judge positively the fact that Christians cohabited for a certain time with Muslims. For what ? “We make it a proof of acceptance of otherness”testifies Julie Bonneric. “This rediscovery of origins is in line with the desire to get closer to the Western world and secularized modernity, evident in Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia »adds Simon Pierre. According to him, there is a trend in Arabia for amateur epigraphists who read Syriac, a Christian script. Christian Robin also assures that several discoveries of Arabic Christian inscriptions have been posted on the social network X for two or three years. “All history is contemporary”said Benedetto Croce, and undoubtedly even more so that of the origins.

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► Who are these little-known Christians of the Arab-Persian Gulf?

They belong to the Church of the Persian Empire, answers Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet (2). This autocephalous Church developed outside the Roman Empire, especially during the Sassanid era, a dynasty that came to power in the middle of the 3rd century. Trade brought wealth to these Christian communities, which, integrated into local society, prospered along maritime routes, while the Persian Gulf was the main route of communication to the Orient. The missions were naturally added to this dynamism.