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. It was part of a collection of documents discovered at the monastery when a walled-up room was opened up in 1975. Known officially as Sinai Arabic 597, the manuscript dates from the 13th century and has significant water damage.
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.
The “Maronite Chronicle of 713”
The work is now being referred to as the “Maronite Chronicle of 713,” and it is anonymous. Like other universal chronicles, it begins by recounting the story of humankind from Adam and continuing through major political events and theological disputes into the author’s own lifetime.
Pirtea notes that it was “written within a Syriac Christian community that was traditionally tied to Constantinople but gradually distanced itself from the Byzantine church due to theological disputes, the work offers a unique perspective on the transformation of the eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and the early Islamic period.”
According to Pirtea, the chronicle’s most historically important material concerns the seventh century. It covers the Byzantine–Sassanian War of 602–628, the emergence of Islam, the early Arab conquests, and subsequent Arab–Byzantine conflicts, before ending with events dated to 692–693.
For example, the section covering the year October 633 to September 634 offers this account:
And in the year nine-hundred forty-five and the twenty-fourth year of Heraclius’s reign, the Arab robbers arrived and fell upon the land of the qibla [i.e. Palestine/the Holy Land], inflicting great damage to it by sword and by enslavement.
Then, Theodoric, the emperor’s brother, took the Roman army and marched against the Arabs, but the Romans were afflicted/defeated(?) and fled before them.
And a marvellous sign appeared in the heavens, signifying the wrath that would befall the land at their hands
While this entry is relatively short, it seems to be an independent source from others we still have from this period.
One striking feature is the breadth of the author’s knowledge. Pirtea finds that the anonymous author appears informed not only about Syria and the broader Middle East, but also about developments in the Balkans, Sicily, and Rome—regions that do not always feature prominently in sources produced within Syriac-speaking Christian communities.
For scholars studying how news travelled, how communities interpreted fast-moving events, and how Christian writers situated themselves amid new political realities, the chronicle offers a fresh opportunity to compare regional perspectives and to test later historical traditions against an early account.
It's exciting to see this interest in the new Maronite Chronicle! A longer article is currently in press and should appear shortly. In it, I discuss the Maronite/Monothelete context in more detail and reconstruct a heavily damaged passage covering the reign of Constans II. pic.twitter.com/QIIMXutMjy
“The chronicle may be closely connected to another, now-lost eighth-century source that was used by several later historians,” Pirtea adds. “This opens up a crucial key to reconstructing an entire tradition of early medieval Syriac and Arabic historiography.”
Another historian, Alexander Hourani, has also independently found the chronicle, and has already prepared an edition of it. Hourani has also written an article criticising parts of Pirtea’s research.
"A truly sensational find" made by my friend and colleague Adrian C. Pirtea 👀👇
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast
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. It was part of a collection of documents discovered at the monastery when a walled-up room was opened up in 1975. Known officially as Sinai Arabic 597, the manuscript dates from the 13th century and has significant water damage.
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.
The “Maronite Chronicle of 713”
The work is now being referred to as the “Maronite Chronicle of 713,” and it is anonymous. Like other universal chronicles, it begins by recounting the story of humankind from Adam and continuing through major political events and theological disputes into the author’s own lifetime.
Pirtea notes that it was “written within a Syriac Christian community that was traditionally tied to Constantinople but gradually distanced itself from the Byzantine church due to theological disputes, the work offers a unique perspective on the transformation of the eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and the early Islamic period.”
According to Pirtea, the chronicle’s most historically important material concerns the seventh century. It covers the Byzantine–Sassanian War of 602–628, the emergence of Islam, the early Arab conquests, and subsequent Arab–Byzantine conflicts, before ending with events dated to 692–693.
For example, the section covering the year October 633 to September 634 offers this account:
And in the year nine-hundred forty-five and the twenty-fourth year of Heraclius’s reign, the Arab robbers arrived and fell upon the land of the qibla [i.e. Palestine/the Holy Land], inflicting great damage to it by sword and by enslavement.
Then, Theodoric, the emperor’s brother, took the Roman army and marched against the Arabs, but the Romans were afflicted/defeated(?) and fled before them.
And a marvellous sign appeared in the heavens, signifying the wrath that would befall the land at their hands
While this entry is relatively short, it seems to be an independent source from others we still have from this period.
One striking feature is the breadth of the author’s knowledge. Pirtea finds that the anonymous author appears informed not only about Syria and the broader Middle East, but also about developments in the Balkans, Sicily, and Rome—regions that do not always feature prominently in sources produced within Syriac-speaking Christian communities.
For scholars studying how news travelled, how communities interpreted fast-moving events, and how Christian writers situated themselves amid new political realities, the chronicle offers a fresh opportunity to compare regional perspectives and to test later historical traditions against an early account.
“The chronicle may be closely connected to another, now-lost eighth-century source that was used by several later historians,” Pirtea adds. “This opens up a crucial key to reconstructing an entire tradition of early medieval Syriac and Arabic historiography.”
Pirtea is now working on an edition and translation of this chronicle. You can read his article, “A Hitherto Unknown Universal History of the Early Eighth Century: Preliminary Notes on the Maronite Chronicle of 713,” from Medieval Worlds.
Another historian, Alexander Hourani, has also independently found the chronicle, and has already prepared an edition of it. Hourani has also written an article criticising parts of Pirtea’s research.
Top Image: A page of the chronicle describes the decisive battle between the Byzantines and the Arabs at Yarmuk and Emperor Heraclius’s withdrawal from Syria. © Sinai Manuscripts Digital Library, a publication of St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai in collaboration with EMEL and UCLA. sinaimanuscripts.library.ucla.edu. Images reproduced with permission from St. Catherine’s Monastery.
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