The oldest record of monastic life at Mount Sinai comes from the
Itinerarium Egeriae, a
travel journal written in
Latin by a female Christian pilgrim from the
Atlantic coast of
Galicia or
Roman Gaul named
Egeria about 381/2–386. The monastery was built by order of the
Byzantine emperor Justinian I (reigned 527–565), enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush (also known as "Saint Helen's Chapel") ordered to be built by
Empress Consort Helena, mother of Constantine I, at the site where
Moses is supposed to have seen the
burning bush. The bush on the grounds is said to be the one seen by Moses. Structurally, the monastery's
king post truss is the oldest known surviving roof
truss in the world. From the time of the
First Crusade, the presence of Crusaders in the Sinai until 1270 spurred the interest of European Christians. It increased the number of intrepid pilgrims who visited the monastery. Its dependencies in Egypt,
Palestine,
Syria,
Crete, Cyprus and
Constantinople supported the monastery. Throughout the Middle Ages, the monastery had a multiethnic profile, with monks of Arab, Greek, Syrian,
Slavonic and Georgian origin. However, in the Ottoman period, the monastic community became almost exclusively Greek Orthodox, possibly due to the decline and depopulation of
Transjordanian Christian towns. From the 1480s onwards,
Wallachian princes began sending alms to the monastery. A
mosque was created by converting an existing chapel during the
Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), which was in regular use until the era of the
Mamluk Sultanate in the 13th century and is still in use today on special occasions. During the
Ottoman Empire, the mosque was in desolate condition; it was restored in the early 20th century. of the mosque, built in 1106 The exact administrative status of the church within the
Eastern Orthodox Church is ambiguous: by some, including the church itself, it is considered
autocephalous, by others an
autonomous church under the jurisdiction of the
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The archbishop is traditionally
consecrated by the
Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem; in recent centuries, he has usually resided in
Cairo. During the period of the
Crusades, which was marked by bitterness between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, the monastery was patronized by both the
Byzantine emperors and the rulers of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem, and their respective courts. Dominican theologian
Felix Fabri visited the monastery in the 15th century and provided a detailed account. He also described the monastery's gardens, noting the presence of "tall fruit trees, salad herbs, grass, and grain," and "more than three thousand
olive trees, many
fig-trees and
pomegranates, and a store of
almonds and other fruits." The olives were used to produce oil for lighting lamps and as a relish in the kitchen. The monastery prospered for most of the Mamluk Sultanate, but as the Sultanate declined, it went through a crisis. While there had been several hundred monks in the mid-14th century, a hundred years later, there were only several dozen.
Bedouins began harassing the community, robbing their property in the Christian coastal village of
el-Tor. In 1505, the monastery was captured and sacked. Although the
Mamluk Sultanate demanded that the property be returned to the monks, they were unable to subdue the
Bedouins and maintain order. The German explorer
Martin von Baumgarten visited the monastery in 1507 and noticed its decline. ==Manuscripts and icons==