TEHRAN - An ancient Christian monastery, similar to ones existing in Iran, has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, officials announced.

The newly-unearthed monastery possibly dates back to the years before Islam spread to the Arabian Peninsula, Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Archaeologists have found similar churches and monasteries in Iran and some other countries across the Persian Gulf. Historians believe early churches and monasteries spread along the Persian Gulf to the coasts of present-day Oman and all the way to India.

The monastery on Siniyah Island, part of the sand-dune sheikhdom of Umm al-Quwain, sheds new light on the history of early Christianity along the shores of the Persian Gulf.

The monastery sits on Siniyah Island, which shields the Khor al-Beida marshlands in Umm al-Quwain, an emirate some 30 miles northeast of Dubai along the coast of the Persian Gulf. Carbon dating of samples found in the monastery’s foundation dates between 534 and 656.

Iran is home to several ancient monasteries. UNESCO has it that the Armenian monasteries of Iran have borne continuous testimony, since the origins of Christianity and certainly since the 7th century, to Armenian culture in its relations and contact with the Persian and later the Iranian civilizations.

They bear testimony to a very large and refined panorama of architectural and decorative content associated with Armenian culture, in interaction with other regional cultures: Byzantine, Orthodox, Assyrian, Persian, and Muslim.

Those monasteries in Iran have survived some 2,000 years of destruction, both of human origin and as a result of natural disasters. They have been rebuilt several times in a spirit in keeping with Armenian cultural traditions.

AM