Previously Unknown Medieval Chronicle Discovered - Medievalists.net

"A newly discovered chronicle from the early eighth century is giving medieval historians a rare new window onto the political shocks and religious debates that reshaped the eastern Mediterranean in the decades before and after the rise of Islam. Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) have discovered and analysed the text in a manuscript held at St Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt."

"The chronicle within it dates from the year 712-13 CE, and covers the history of the world up to the year 693, making it one of the earliest surviving Christian sources to discuss the expansion of the Arab-Islamic empire. It narrates sweeping change across Late Antiquity and the early Islamic period, including the Arab-Byzantine wars and the shifting theological landscape of eastern Christianity."

"The discovery was made by Adrian Pirtea, a historian at the Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who was examining digitised manuscript images from St Catherine's Monastery in January 2025. His initial findings have been published in the academic journal Medieval Worlds. "Since my identification and initial analysis of the text, it has become increasingly clear that this is a previously unknown Christian universal chronicle," Pirtea explains."

Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences discovered and analysed a chronicle preserved in a manuscript held at St Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. The manuscript, catalogued as Sinai Arabic 597, dates from the 13th century and shows significant water damage. The chronicle dates from 712–13 CE and records world history up to 693, making it one of the earliest surviving Christian accounts of Arab-Islamic expansion. The narrative describes sweeping change across Late Antiquity and the early Islamic period, including the Arab-Byzantine wars and shifting theological debates within eastern Christianity. The anonymous work is now called the Maronite Chronicle of 713 and appears to originate in a Syriac Christian community traditionally linked to Constantinople.

Read at Medievalists.net