The pottery discovered at al-Qusur (Failaka Island, Kuwait) is of first importance to clarify the dating of the Christian settlements of the Arab-Persian Gulf. Firstly attributed to the Sasanian period by their excavators on the base of pottery and stucco studies, theses sites were then attributed to the Early Islamic period by other scholars according to the artefacts published. Complete catalogues of the materiel unearthed on these sites are still lacking. This article offers a first overview of the pottery discovered at al-Qu??r by the French Mission in Kuwait in 1988–1989 and in 2007–2009 in two buildings identified as two churches (A1 and A2), two courtyard houses (B1 and B8), and seven isolated buildings (B2–B7 and B9). The corpus was incomplete due to the loss of sherds from 1988 and 1989 campaigns during the Gulf war and to the treatment of part of the pottery discovered from 2007 to 2009. If quantification was meaningless and petrography impossible, this corpus reflects the cultural proximity of the site with Mesopotamia and Persia and diagnostic sherds such as pitchers with gouged lines or pointed circles with incised lines and gouged motifs, stamped sherds, carinated turquoise-glazed cups, attest that the main occupation of the site is related to an Early Islamic period. This dating is consistent with other Christian sites in the region, contradicting both Arabic and Syriac sources that propounded the disappearance of Christianity as soon as the beginnings of Islam.

All three of the Christian monasteries excavated in the Arab-Persian Gulf, probably founded at the end of the Sasanian era (ca 6th-7th centuries?) and occupied until the 9th century, are located on islands. The insularity of the Kharg, al‑Qusur and Sir Bani Yas monasteries raises questions, and this paper will analyze the many factors that could explain this location. From a practical point of view, the islands offered many natural resources that were efficiently exploited by the monks. In the perspective of its missionary policy, the Church of the East would have benefited from the network of monasteries on the route to China. Symbolic arguments, if not decisive, may have influenced the choice to settle on islands, seen as enabling the isolation of the monks from the outside world and protecting the monasteries from a hostile power, the Sasanian persecution still being in the monks’ memories.

« Le croyant qui récite le Coran est comme l’orange dont le goût est agréable et dont le parfum l’est aussi. Le croyant qui ne récite pas le Coran est comme la datte dont le goût est agréable et qui n’a pas de parfum. Le libertin qui récite le Coran est comme le myrte dont le parfum est agréable et la saveur amère. Le libertin qui ne récite pas le Coran est comme la coloquinte dont la saveur est amère et qui n’a pas de parfum. » al‑Buḫārī, Kitāb al‑ǧāmiʽ al‑ṣaḥīḥ Quoique l’Orient soit tradit...

L’exécution de la prière musulmane ne dépend pas d’un emplacement ou d’un édifice particulier, mais d’un état — la pureté rituelle — et d’une direction — celle de Jérusalem puis de la Kaaba. Rien ne définit donc, à l’origine, la forme d’un lieu de culte, ni celle d’une liturgie. Bien que la prière puisse être exécutée dans n’importe quel environnement, sa réalisation dans une mosquée est plus méritoire. La mosquée néanmoins, avant d’être un édifice, est un lieu de culte et de réunion de la communauté musulmane. Cet emplacement n’est pas nécessairement construit. L’espace doit simplement être orienté afin d’indiquer la direction de la prière. Dans certains contextes, la mosquée prend donc la forme d’un espace à ciel ouvert, un muṣallā, simplement indiqué par un mur dirigé vers la Kaaba