Reviving the Ascetic Ideal in the Eastern Mediterranean: Entangled Memories of Early Egyptian Monasticism in Medieval Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian Christianity (969-1375 CE)

Introduction

RevIdEM combines new insights from Cultural Memory Studies, Mediterranean Intellectual History, and Manuscript Studies, in order to provide the first comprehensive analysis of the monastic revival in the Eastern Mediterranean between 969 and 1375 CE.

Research Focus

Challenging traditional avenues of research, RevIdEM will focus on the metanarratives ('myths') about the origins of Christian monasticism in Egypt (4th century CE), and their later reception in the culturally complex environment of the Medieval Mediterranean.

Reappraisal of Medieval Engagement

The project reappraises this ample medieval engagement with late antique asceticism as an original intellectual endeavor spanning linguistic and political boundaries.

Manuscript Potential

To the same end, RevIdEM will tap the enormous potential of the large number of Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian ascetic manuscripts produced in this time frame as new sources for the religious, cultural, and social history of the region.

Database Development

Essential information on the scribes, readers, users, and circulation of these documents will be collected in an online database.

Cultural Memory Making

By interpreting this hitherto neglected corpus of sources as focal points of ‘cultural memory making’, RevIdEM will explain the lasting success and wide-ranging impact of the Egyptian ascetic ideal in the Medieval Mediterranean. The project will thus pinpoint the role of cultural memory as the main catalyst of the monastic revival.

Case Studies

In order to achieve these objectives, the team will focus on carefully selected case studies from:

1. Northern Syria
2. Egypt
3. Armenian Cilicia

These studies will explore the ways in which the monastic authors, scribes, and compilers of these regions constructed and disseminated their narratives of early desert asceticism.

Significance of Findings

By revaluing the cultural, social, and political significance of monastic life in the medieval Levant and highlighting the role of metanarratives and cultural memory as engines of historical change, the results of RevIdEM will represent a major paradigm shift in the study of Mediterranean History.