Armenian monastery (Haghartsin) finds unlikely saviour in Arab sheikh

[TomServo]

Standing next to a newly refurbished bell tower, priest Aristakes Aivazyan says it needed divine intervention to save Armenia's medieval Haghartsin monastery.

But it also took a lot of money from a very unlikely benefactor -- the Muslim ruler of the resource-rich Arab emirate of Sharjah, Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed al-Qasimi.

"I cannot recall anything similar to this happening in our history that some Arab sheikh, a Muslim, helped to restore and rescue an Armenian Christian church," Aivazyan told AFP.

"Without doubt it was God who brought the sheikh to Haghartsin," the priest, dressed in long black robes, said.

Perched spectacularly amid thickly forested mountains about 100 kilometres northeast of Yerevan, Haghartsin monastery is a masterpiece of medieval Armenian ecclesiastical architecture.

Read the rest: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...ur-arab-sheikh

[Chubs]

Re: Armenian monastery (Haghartsin) finds unlikely saviour in Arab sheikh

Hahaha, I have always been very fond of Muslims. I have never had a problem with Muslims my entire life, in fact a very close friend of mine is Sunni. Most are decent people who have a nice taste in history and art, then there are strange extremists...but all religions have those heathens. I am not surprised at all that the Sheikh did that, I am sure anyone with the money and a good heart would have.