Monastic Economies in Late Antique Egypt and Palestine

Produces a new picture of monastic economies in Egypt and Palestine using current research and crossing traditional disciplinary divides.

Reveals that Late Antique monasteries in Egypt and Palestine were actively engaged in regional societies, contradictory to the traditional understanding of monastic life as 'isolated'. Draws on the rich corpus of textual sources and archaeological remains and brings together scholars from across traditional disciplinary divides.This book situates discussions of Christian monasticism in Egypt and Palestine within the socio-economic world of the long Late Antiquity, from the golden age of monasticism into and well beyond the Arab conquest (fifth to tenth century). Its thirteen chapters present new research into the rich corpus of textual sources and archaeological remains and move beyond traditional studies that have treated monastic communities as religious entities in physical seclusion from society. The volume brings together scholars working across traditional boundaries of subject and geography and explores a diverse range of topics from the production of food and wine to networks of scribes, patronage, and monastic visitation. As such, it paints a vivid picture of busy monastic lives dependent on and led in tandem with the non-monastic world.