The focus of the workshop will be on the results of projects involving Polish researchers: Monks and monastic communities in the Eastern Mediterranean (4th–8th century), headed by Prof. Ewa Wipszycka, and Nubian monasticism. Religious institutions on the peripheries of the Byzantine World headed by Dr. Artur Obłuski, both funded by the National Science Centre, Poland. It will also resolve around excavations in monasteries at Ghazali (Sudan) and Kom H at Nakloni (Egypt), and the publication project of the Qasr el-Wizz monastery (Sudan). The workshop will present for the first time monasticism in the whole Nile valley as part of one Christian cultural community: the monasticism of Roman, and then Arab, Egypt and of Nubian kingdoms will be treated jointly.
The first day of the workshop will be summed up with a public lecture delivered by Artur Obłuski, who will present a broad-brush picture of Nubian monasticism. A talk by Jacques van der Vliet will conclude the entire conference.
Workshop: Monasticism in the Nile Valley
16th–17th October 2017
at the PCMA Research Centre in Cairo 11, Mahalla St., Heliopolis
(contact: cairo.pcma@uw.edu.pl)
Monasticism in the Nile Valley Workshop Program (PDF)
Dr Artur Obłuski
Public lecture: Nubian monasticism. An open issue. A quarter of a century later.
6:30 p.m., on Monday, 16th of October 2017
at the PCMA Research Centre in Cairo 11, Mahalla St., Heliopolis
FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/875923919239050
Lecture abstract: The lecture will present results of the most recent research on Christian monasticism in Nubia. Nubian culture was exposed to Christianity since at least 4th century. Due to the scarcity of written sources especially in comparison to a wealthy Egyptian monastic dossiers, in studying Nubian monasticism we need to rely mostly on what archaeology offers. It still allows to dispute several intriguing issues like: What was the influence of Egypt, the cradle and a center of monasticism on Nubian monasteries? What type of monasticism was prevalent? What was the role of monks in the society and how they provided for subsistence?