MOHAMMAD AND ST. KATHERINE

THE collapse of the Roman power in the East prepared the way for the Moslim conquest of Sinai and Egypt. During the lifetime of Mohammad changes were effected along peaceful lines. The efforts of the Prophet were directed, in the first place, against standing abuses and obsolete customs in Arabia itself. But the strong desire for expansion westwards among the Arabs drew his attention outside the limits of Arabia proper, and we hear of his entering into relation with neighbouring centres. Thus it is said that Tahhieh Ibn Robah of the port of Aila, waited on the Prophet when he was staying at Tarbuk, and that he received from him a woollen garment in return for paying a poll-tax. Ibn Ishak cited by Makrizi († 1441) stated that thus firmÂn was dated to the ninth year of the Hegira, i.e. 530-531, and assured protection to Tahhieh, the people of Aila, the bishop and all on land and water. “And the city did not cease to prosper.”[212]

The garment which Makrizi called a cloak of the Prophet, was subsequently purchased by the Caliph of the Benu el Abbas. Aila continued to flourish, and Mukaddisi (c. 985) described “Wailah” as “a populous and beautiful city among many palm trees with fish in plenty, and the great port of Palestine and emporium of the Hedjaz,” but the true Aila lies near by it and is now in ruins.[213]

A later age claimed that the convent of Sinai also secured a firmÂn under the hand of the Prophet. It was alleged that Mohammad, on one of his journeys with Ali, alighted under the wall of the convent, and that Ali penned the firmÂn, to which Mohammad, who could not write, set the mark of his blackened hand. The monks told Burckhardt that the Ottoman Sultan Selim, after the conquest of Egypt (a.d. 1517), appropriated it and carried it off to Constantinople, but that a copy of it remained with the monks. This he was shown, but declared it to be a forgery.[214] Bishop Pococke also saw another copy of it in Cairo, which he copied, and of which he published a translation in the appendix to his book. It claims to have been written in the second year of the Hegira, and granted protection to the Nazarenes, declaring that the places where the monks dwelt should be protected; also that they were exempt from paying the poll-tax, and should receive tithes, and that the Christians generally should not be called upon to pay a poll-tax exceeding ten drachmÆ.[215]

The followers of the Prophet, after overrunning Syria, attacked Egypt. They seized Damietta which was governed by Abu Thour, a Christian Arab, and were opposed by an army of 20,000 men. But Abu Thour was seized, and the invaders spread into Egypt. The descendants of Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, now reigned over large possessions, of which Egypt was part, from the year 750 to 868. After a break the old line of rulers returned from 905 to 969.

Under the Moslim system of administration the whole of Sinai was included in the province Hedjaz, which comprised Tur, Faran, Raya (i.e. Raithou), Kolzoum (i.e. Clysma), Aila, Midian, and its territory, El Oweid, El Hamr (or El Hour), Beda and Shaghb.[216] The Christians were declared a tolerated sect, but they were sorely oppressed under Abd-el-Melek ibn Merwan (705-708), and by Qurrah Sherig (709-714).

During the reign of Abd-el-Melek (705-708) an attack was directed against the convent of Sinai, where many of the slave population, who had been settled there by Justinian, were slain, others fled, others became Moslim,—“whose descendants to this day remain in the monastery and are called Benu Saleh, being reckoned their descendants,—from them sprang the Lachmienses.” The monks themselves destroyed the houses of the slaves, lest anyone should dwell there and they are in ruins at the present day (c. 930).[217]

It is related in an appendix to the stories of Anastasius how the Christian Saracens, who dwelt near the tower of Pharan and the Holy Bush, sought refuge in the holy mountain, but could not resist the numerous invaders, and therefore decided to accept the faith of the Prophet. One man was about to fly, when his wife begged him to kill her and the children rather than leave them at the mercy of the barbarians. He did so, and then fled to Horeb, where, like Elijah, he dwelt with wild beasts till he felt the approach of death. Then he repaired to the Holy Bush, where he lay in the guest-house, and where “some of the monks, still among the living,” saw him and heard him describe the shining figures which he saw approaching as he lay on the point of death. “They were, I believe, the angelic bands of the martyrs who came forth to greet him” (no. 45).

In Egypt itself, the Christians continued to be oppressed. A government survey, undertaken by the minister of finance, Obeidallah Ben Hab-Hab, resulted in a poll-tax being levied on them in addition to the usual land-tax. Again, Osanna ben Said el Tanuchi confiscated the property of the Christians, branded each monk with a sign on the hand, and he who had no sign forfeited his hand. Hence the Copts of Egypt to this day are marked with a cross on the hand. Moreover, every Christian who had no legitimation papers was mulcted ten dinars. In 737, in 750, and again in 831 or 852 the Copts of Egypt were in revolt.[218]

In spite of the Arab conquest, Sinai, like Jerusalem and Rome, continued to stand out as a goal of Christian pilgrimage. According to the account of a monk of Redon in Brittany, a certain Fromont and his brother, men of high standing, went there. They had murdered their uncle, an ecclesiastic, and repented, and went before King Lothair (855-859). His bishops decreed that the brothers should be chained and bound together and should do penance by going to Rome, Jerusalem and Sinai. In Rome they were received by Pope Benedict III (858-888), who gave them his blessing, and they took boat for Jerusalem, where they spent several years. From there they went into the Thebaid, where they fasted with the monks, and they finally reached Sinai, where they spent three years. Still wearing the chains that bound them together, they returned by way of Rome to Rennes, where the one brother died. Fromont then went to Redon, and once more started for Rome. But he returned to Redon where, his penance being at an end, his chain was taken from him, and where he died.[219] Bishop Pococke was shown a cell some way up the Gebel Musa where two brothers dwelt who were chained together.[220] The brothers from Rennes are probably meant.

Another account which seems to date from the first half of the ninth century described the Houses of God, and thus described Sinai. “In holy Mount Sina there are four churches, one where the Lord spoke to Moses on the summit of the mountain; one dedicated to St. Elijah; another dedicated to St. ElisÆus; and a fourth in the monastery of St. Mary. The abbot is Elias, who has under him thirty monks. The steps that lead up and down the mountain are 7700 in number.”[221]

A list of the “archbishops” of Sinai was compiled at the convent in the seventeenth century, which begins with Marcus, whose date is given as 869.[222] But the official report of the Fourth Synod held at Constantinople, in 869-870, contains the signature of Constantine, bishop of Syna.[223] Another bishop was Jorius, who died and was enshrined in Bethune in Belgium in the year 1033. A hymn there written in his honour described him as “bishop of Sinai.”[224] He was probably travelling for the purpose of collecting alms for his convent.

From the historian Rodolfus Glaber (c. 900-1044) we hear that the dukes of Normandy, more especially Duke William (927-942) and his successors, were liberal in their gifts to churches and convents, and that monks from Mount Sinai came every year to Rouen, from where they departed loaded with gifts (exenia) in gold and silver.[225] It was in connection with these grants that the fame of St. Katherine of Alexandria spread to Europe in the course of the eleventh century.

The cult of St. Katherine, virgin saint and martyr, is among the curious developments of legendary history, for her name appears for the first time about three hundred years after her reputed existence. She is first named in the Life of Paulus Junior († 956), who was called a Latro from Mons Latrus, where he dwelt. The account of his life was written by a contemporary.[226] It describes how three hundred monks from Sinai and Raithou sought refuge in Mount Latrus in Karia from the persecutions of the Saracens (c. 8).

The monks continued in close connection with Sinai. Gabriel sang the Psalms of David as he had done at the Bush, and when a pilgrimage was undertaken to pray for rain, Gabriel obtained the desired result (c. 18). The fame of the monks of Sinai as rain-makers was noted by Robinson and by Prof. Palmer.[227] Paulus himself was devoted to various saints, among whom was the martyr Aekatherina; the thought of her filled him with joy, and gave him a special power. One day the monks were sitting down to a meal in the open air when a rain cloud came up. Paulus bade them remain seated, and not a drop of rain fell until they had finished their meal, when it poured.

Direct information on St. Katherine, in this case called Aekatherina, stands in the Menology of Basileus which is dated between 957-1027. It stated that the saint dwelt at Alexandria, and was the daughter of a wealthy king. She was dignified in appearance and learned in Greek letters, philosophy, and language. After witnessing a festival of the Greeks, she approached the emperor Maximianus (a.d. 307) and blamed him for ignoring the living God and adoring lifeless idols. The emperor summoned fifty learned men to meet her in argument, threatening them with death if they failed to confound her. But the learned men were convinced by the lady and accepted baptism, whereupon they were put to death. Aekatherina was beheaded.[228]

A detailed account of the martyrdom was written by Simeon Metaphrastes († c. 956), with discussions between the learned men and the lady, and with further incidents including the conversion of the general, Porphyrios; the interest which the Augusta took in Katherine; the fashioning of spiked wheels for torturing the saint, which broke of their own accord; the flow of milk instead of blood when she was beheaded, a proof of her virginity; and the taking up of the body of the saint after death by angels who carried her to Mount Sinai.[229]

On turning to the writers who lived about the time alleged, we find that Emperor Maximianus, as recorded by Eusebius (c. 320), actually visited Alexandria, where he seized high-born women for adulterous purposes. Among them was a most distinguished and illustrious lady who overcame his intemperate and passionate soul. “Honourable on account of wealth and parentage, she esteemed all things inferior to chastity, and the emperor, who could not bring himself to put her to death, punished her with exile and confiscated her property.”[230] Eusebius did not mention the lady’s name, but the details of his story fit the legend and may underlie it.

The name Aekatherina (i.e. the pure one) was rendered in Latin as Katherina or Catherina. Her association with Sinai added the cult of a Christian saint to that of Saleh, Moses and Mohammad. It was chiefly the veneration of St. Katherine which brought pilgrims to Sinai during the Middle Ages. According to Giustiniani certain knights, as early as 1063, banded together in a semi-religious order to guarantee safe conduct to these pilgrims in Sinai, in the same way as the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre protected the pilgrims to Jerusalem.[231] The date mentioned seems rather early and may need revision.

A great impetus was given to the cult of St. Katherine in Europe by the visit to Rouen of the hermit Simeon about the year 1026. His journey was described in an account by Eberwein, abbot of St. Martin’s at TrÈves, who knew him,[232] and in the Translation of the Relics of St. Katherine to Rouen, which was written soon after the event.[233]

From these accounts we learn that Simeon was from Constantinople, and went to Bethlehem and then to Sinai, where he served for several years in the convent before he became a hermit near the Red Sea. But here he was so much disturbed by the sailors and others who came for the oil (? petroleum), that flowed from the rock near his cell, that he removed first to the summit of Mount Sinai, where the Law was given, a place deserted because of the restless Arabs, and then to the convent itself. It was the time of the great famine in Egypt, (probably that of 1017), but in the convent there was plenty of food for the brethren and for the Arabs who crowded there with their wives and children.

From the Chronicle of Hugo of Flavigny (c. 1096) we learn that it was customary for the monks at the convent to take turns in ascending the mountain on the sabbath, in order to celebrate mass at the shrine of St. Katherine and collect the oil that flowed from the bones.[234] This shows that the body of the saint at this time lay enshrined on a mountain which was probably the Gebel Musa itself. For an ancient prayer contains the words “Lord, who didst give the Law to Moses on the summit of Mount Sinai, and who, on the same spot, didst deposit, through thy holy angels, the body of the blessed Katherine, virgin and martyr.”[235] At a later date we hear of bodies of saints lying enshrined in the small church that stood on the summit of the Gebel Musa. The fact that oil flowed from the bones is told of many saints. Contrary to the usually accepted belief, the scientific explanation is probably as follows. The body lay in a coffin of cedar wood or other wood that is naturally charged with oil. If the heat generated in the coffin is great, it would cause the oil to ooze and collect on the bones or any other cold substance, forming into drops.

The monk Simeon was serving his turn at the shrine, and drawing off the oil that had collected into a glass phial, when three small (finger) bones of the saint came loose and were carried down with it. Simeon took charge of them as a priceless treasure. As an envoy was needed to go to Normandy to collect the usual alms, he started, carrying the relics with him. He travelled by way of Egypt, but the Italian galley in which he sailed was seized by pirates. He escaped by jumping overboard and eventually reached Antioch, where he fell in with a band of pilgrims, with whom he journeyed to Normandy by way of Belgrad and Rome. In the meantime, Duke Richard III, duke of Normandy (993-1026), had died, but an abbey was in course of construction near Rouen, and Simeon deposited the relics with the abbot Isambert before he left for Verdun and for TrÈves. The relics worked wonders. Isambert suffered from toothache and was divinely directed to the oil which brought him relief. Other miraculous cures followed. And the Abbey of the Trinity near Rouen gained such renown that it came to be known as the Abbey of St. Katherine.[236]

A wave of enthusiasm for St. Katherine now swept across Europe. Her name was inscribed on the local Norman Kalendar,[237] her story was written and re-written in Latin and in the vernacular, in prose and in verse. A Latin version was the work of Amandus, a pupil of Isambert of TrÈves, and a semi-Saxon version was written during the reign of Henry II. An early French version of about 1200 was perhaps the work of a nun. There were a host of others, many of which are in MS. and await tabulation.[238] All accounts conclude with the translation of the body to Sinai; the earlier ones dwell on the oil, a cure for all ills. And the story was not only read. In 1119 Geoffroy of Gorham came from Paris to Dunstable and wrote a Ludus de Katerina, which was performed by his scholars, on which occasion the clothes that had been borrowed, took fire and were burnt.

Churches and chapels were now built and placed under the protection of the saint. In 1148 Queen Matilda founded the hospital and church of St. Katherine near the Tower which continued till 1825, when it was destroyed to make room for the docks. In 1229 King Louis of France built a church of St. Katherine in Paris, which had been vowed by his knights at the Battle of Bouvines. First the University of Paris, and then the University of Padua, accepted St. Katherine as its patron saint, and in the year 1307 the Doge Pietro Gradenigo founded the Festa dei Dotti in Venice, in honour of her. The numerous incidents in her story supplied pictorial art with a new cycle of subjects. The scene of the martyrdom and translation to Sinai were first represented on small pictures of a great panel painted by Margaritone d’Arezzo (1216-93), which is now in the National Gallery.

In Sinai itself the importance of St. Katherine was more tardily recognised. We look in vain for mention of her in the account of the Anonymous Pilgrim of the eleventh century, and in the booklet On the Holy Places, which Fretellus, archdeacon of Antioch, wrote for the Count of Toulouse about the year 1130. It is not till the year 1216, when Magister Thietmar visited Sinai that we hear of the exhibition to a pilgrim of the relics which had now been translated from the height of the mountain to the convent church.