Christian Sinai

The horologion contained in Sin. Ar. 232 is not easy to situate geographically.  Many of the elements, canticles and prayers, are found in today’s rite, although not always at the same place.  Others have not yet been identified in the service books.  The proposed date of the 13th century seems the most likely in the absence of a colophon.  The psalms are distributed as in today’s rite, apart from the exceptions mentioned above in Prime, which follows on directly from Mattins, and the addition of psalm 50 as a fourth psalm in the mesoria.  As I have shown in my earlier articles, the saints commemorated, particularly in Compline and the Midnight Office, show a strong Egyptian influence.  However, these saints are accompanied by typical saints indicating Sinai.  The presence of Saint Sabbas may be linked to the monastery of Saint Sabbas at Alexandria, and Alexandrian origins would explain many of the ritual particularities that can be observed in the offices.

Discussing heritage management, investment frameworks and politics across transitional geographies (growth corridors), and the 150-years gap in mapping and mapmaking in the region discovered by the 18-year field surveys of Sinai Peninsula Research (SPR) and its impact on cultural landscape, archaeological geo-database and knowledge-making patterns ― with reflections on the Himalayan Upper Mustang.

Provide the attributions, history and geography description/notes, for Sinai’s 19th and 20th centuries photographic entries on the Prints & Photographs Catalogue of the Library of the Congress (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)

There is a widespread geopolitical assumption that the Middle East is a well-mapped region. In fact, an unidentified number of key areas has not been surveyed on ground for 150 years, since the early surveys of the British Royal Engineers, despite the abundant maps which were produced for the region during the 19th and 20th centuries CE. Drawing on 17-years of continuous field expeditions by Sinai Peninsula Research (SPR), the newly discovered 150 years gap in mapping and mapmaking uncovers a dramatic loss in cartographic knowledge on maps. It raises crucial open questions about the reliability of the maps in the Middle East ― in understanding the historic and contemporary development of the realities on ground. In other words, had the available historic maps (19th and 20th centuries) for the Middle East reflected the realities on ground at the time of their production by different authorities and map services? The overwhelming international and national interest in geopolitical “Lines” lead to the creation of “No Lines” on maps to inform local and regional development policies, or to find a resolution for current disputes. While a large scale map would typically show more detailed topographic features (contours) as a result of aerial photography and satellite imagery, the level of details of the cartographic features (data) would not necessarily improve by moving from small-medium to large scale maps. In this regard, large scale maps reflect the topographic features of similar scale, without reflecting the expected compatible level of cartographic details.

In an earlier article titled 'What Egypt needs now – Part I, Sinai', I suggested a series of measures that the Egyptian government must take immediately to make sure that civil order and concord will prevail in the area and nationwide. These measures are expected to thwart an existential threat against Egypt's national integrity. The existing threat is very real and the dangers tremendous. In the present article, I will reveal covert insinuations made by a key Israeli minister, proceeding through textual analysis. These hints do not augur well for Egypt's territorial integrity and must therefore be taken very seriously.
First published on 27th October 2014 here:
https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/what-egypt-needs-now-part-ii-an-existential-threat-must-be-thwarted/

Egypt faces a well planned project of decomposition and partly annexation.

In 2014, in two articles, I explained what Egypt needed to do to avert Sinai's secession. The Egyptian government failed to implement any serious measure and the country will soon face worse developments.

First published here:
https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/what-egypt-needs-now-part-i-sinai/

Discussing the maps of Sinai Peninsula between 19th and 21st centuries CE, and the 150-years gap in mapping and mapmaking  in the region discovered  by the 17-year surveys of Sinai Peninsula Research (SPR) ― in the light of Boissonnas's travels in Egypt.

Frederic Boissonnas travelled across Egypt during the interwar period. The photographic expeditions covered the land from the sand dunes and oases of modern Western Desert of Egypt to the Red Sea Mountains and Sinai Peninsula, and as far as Nubia in the south. With the spirit of an experienced traveller who is stepping into explored lands in the late travellers age, Boissonnas succeeded to reintroduce the traversed landscapes and its people through a classical eye in modern time. His travels showed passion to the desert monastic communities. Most of Egypt’s physical geography was well-mapped at the time by the Anglo-Egyptian Survey of Egypt post the Great War. Unlike the early travellers, Boissonnas traversed Egypt through an established railway network, automobile roads, caravan routes and steam boats, all visualised on an unusual classical travel map with modern transport lines. Nevertheless, many of Boissonnas’s photographs documented unconventional landscape perspective, while others reflected conventional pilgrims’ and travellers’ scenes with unprecedented aesthetics. The glass plates are invaluable. They survived the odds of humanity, unlike their counterparts of the “Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai” in 1868-69 CE (lost in Southampton Ordnance Survey headquarters in WWII) and the plates of the “American Colony of Jerusalem” in late 19th-early 20th centuries CE (lost in the Levant in1948 War)―a reminder of the current lost heritage in the region. Frederic Boissonnas’s complete collection had brought to life the state of the landscape in 1920s-30s CE before it was about to change once and for all.

This paper examines the iconographical background of Adam's skull beneath Christ's cross in Byzantine art, its appearance as a motif in Irish texts and its possible occurrence on two Pictish artworks, the Portsoy whetstone and the Dunfallandy cross-slab.

This essay is focused on the analysis of the Catalan artistic patronage in the Eastern Mediterranean during the 14th century. The expansion of the Kingdom of Aragon in Greece –Duchess of Athens and Neopatras- and the developing of its commercial trade in Levant were accompanied by an extraordinary interest of the House of Barcelona in becoming the protectors of the pilgrimage to the Holy Sites and appropriating of prestigious relics (Saint George) and symbolic monuments (Acropolis of Athens). The architecture (Hagios Giorgios Katholikos, Hagios Ioannis Theologos), painting (Hagios Nikolaos Mavrika) and urban plan of the city of Paliochora (Aigina) are an outstanding example of the cultural fusion between Greek and Latin population under the Catalan rule of the family of the count Alfons Frederic. This particular context allows us a better understanding of other Catalan artistic commissions in the Eastern Mediterranean as the celebrated panel of Saint Catherine offered in 1387 by the Catalan consul in Damascus to the St. Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai.

The edited catalogue by Alan Chambon on Gaza’s collection of Jawdat al-Khoudary is an unprecedented effort to present the threatened material culture of the South Levantine strip. It is a unique, representative and yet controversial collection in 21st century CE.

Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims examines the history of Hagia Koryphē (in Greek) or Jabal Mūsā (in Arabic), a mountain peak above the Monastery of St Catherine at South Sinai in Egypt, known for centuries as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, as described in Exodus. The book explores the ways in which the landscape of the summit was experienced and transformed using textual criticism, historical analysis, art history, and, for the first time, archaeological interpretation. Beginning in the third century, when the identification with the biblical ‘Mount Sinai’ was established, the narrative extends through to the early twentieth century. Covering the natural environment, the Bedouin and early Christians, the importance of Mount Sinai in Muslim tradition, the cult of St Catherine, pilgrimage, as well as the scholarly, artistic and tourist phenomenon of the nineteenth century, Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims is a comprehensive and complete history of this remarkable place.
1 May 2016
p: 978-1-910376-50-8

‘Lucid and original; a veritable feast of interesting stories about Mount Sinai’s extraordinary past.’ - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

‘As a traveller and pilgrim to Sinai on numerous occasions and now a Trustee of the St Catherine's Foundation, I greatly enjoyed George Manginis's Mount Sinai and learnt much from it…The book is a learned and delightful companion to God-trodden Sinai.’ - Richard Chartres, Bishop of London

‘This book is an absolute mine of riches, reflection, and information… would strongly encourage anyone to pay a visit to this remarkable place of history, holiness and tradition. I recommend this book highly.’ - Vincent Nichols, Cardinal of Westminster

‘This book gives an invaluable insight into the evolution over two millennia of Mount Sinai as a sacred site and a place of spiritual quest.’ - H.R.H. Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan

‘George Manginis has trawled archives and published accounts to create the biography of the mountain, telling the story of the devout, the scholars and the tourists who have helped shape its history. His book is likely to stand as the last word on one of the world's most enduring places, unless an angel appears to tell the divine side of the story.’ - Anthony Sattin, author of Young Lawrence