Monastic Estates in transition from Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Evidence from Aphrodito

Various types of monasteries appear in the papyrological documentation, from small local shrines only mentioned once to widely influent institutions still active today. Based on the unrivaled evidence from Aphrodito, the best documented village of Late Antiquity, this paper defines in details the role that monasteries played as landowners in the rural economy. It also traces the evolution of their situations over the two centuries around the Islamic conquest, highlighting a multiplicity of scenarios that invites to nuance our views on their economic power.