under the persecutions of calip al-Hakim in 1009 as well as Turkmen raids in the 11th century but experienced occasional phases of peace as can be seen by the scribal and artistic activities. Mar Saba was the home of the famous Georgian monk and scribe Ioane-Zosime, who moved before 973 to Saint Catherine's Monastery taking several parchment manuscripts with him. Crusader period The monastery kept its importance during the existence of the Catholic Kingdom of Jerusalem established by Crusaders in 1099. Mamluk and Ottoman periods In 1504, the Serbian monastic community of Palestine, based out of the fourteenth century monastery of St. Michael the Archangel, purchased Mar Saba, which at the time was abandoned due to Bedouin raids. The Serbs controlled the monastery until the late 1630s, and the significant financial support the monastery received from the Tsar of Russia allowed them to run the monastery semi-independently from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the monastery's nominal overseer (much to the vexation of the patriarchate). The Serbs' control of Mar Saba allowed them to play an important role in the politics of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, often siding with the Arabic laity and priests against the Greeks who dominated the episcopate. Serbian control of the monastery eventually ended in the 1600s when the monastery got into massive debt due to the simultaneous combination of a massive building program at the monastery and a cutting off of financial support from Russia due to the outbreak of the Time of Troubles. The Serbs were forced to sell the monastery to the Patriarch of Jerusalem in order to pay off their debts. Modern period Today, the complex houses 9 monks. Significance The monastery, considered among the oldest continuously inhabited in the Christian world, has been a place of learning and has exerted an important influence in doctrinal developments in the Byzantine Church. Important personalities in this regard included Saint Sabbas himself, John of Damascus (676–749), and the brothers Theodorus and Theophanes (770s–840s). The monastery is important in the historical development of the liturgy of the Orthodox Church in that the monastic Typicon (manner of celebrating worship services) of Saint Sabbas became the standard throughout the Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches under the Pope which follow the Byzantine Rite. The Typicon took the standard form of services which were celebrated in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and added some specifically monastic usages which were