The Desert Fathers of ancient Egypt were some of the world's first hermits. Despite the modern ideal of the hermit, these didn't live in total isolation. However, they did live a sparse, hard life in the country's early Christian monasteries. If women chose to enter their sphere, they would do so dressed as men. Who were these scholastic men of the desert, and how did their form of worship influence Christianity for millenia to come?
In the fourth century AD, Egypt was a province of the Roman Empire (in modern terms, an occupied territory) vital to Roman security, since the Nile valley supplied most of the grain for the "bread and circuses" that kept Rome's proletariat quiet. But that didn't get Egypt any preferential treatment. It was rigorously controlled, ruthlessly taxed; many small farmers, too poor to pay, abandoned their land, and Egypt's economy slowly deteriorated.
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A contemporary joke: What are the only two things a hermit flees from? Answer, a woman and a bishop.
World reknowned linguist specialising in Creole languages and the evolution of language
Derek Bickerton was born and raised in England and educated at the University of Cambridge, but moved to the United States nearly 40 years ago. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii, where he taught and did research for 25 years. He has also held visiting professorships at universities in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Brazil, and has travelled in approximately one-third of the world's countries.
He is known worldwide for his work on Creole languages (his books include Dynamics of a Creole System, Roots of Language, Bastard Tongues) and the evolution of language (Language and Species, Language and Human Behavior, Adam's Tongue). He has also published fiction and a biography. He lives with his wife Yvonne on the North Shore of Oahu; one of his sons is the well-known post-modern artist Ashley Bickerton.
Although his career has been in linguistics, Bickerton's first degree was in history, and he has a lifelong fascination with the history of the Roman Empire. In the 1990s, he became interested in the Desert Fathers, and carried out extensive research on their period in preparation for writing historical novels about them; the first of these, The Desert and the City, was recently published.
The Desert Fathers of ancient Egypt were some of the world's first hermits. Despite the 
