The pseudo-Arabic motifs found in middle Byzantine religious structures in Greece, especially at the tenth- to eleventh-century monastery complex of Hosios Loukas, document an awareness of Arab-Christian communities in the “Near East,” especially religious foundations of the Holy Land that were among the most revered centers of early monasticism. A variety of Christian portable objects inscribed with Arabic and pseudo-Arabic – including manuscripts, icons, and liturgical vessels and furnishings – offer possible vehicles for the dissemination of Arabic as a Christian language and for Arabic and pseudo-Arabic inscriptions as signs of ancient monastic authority. Networks of communication between the Byzantine Empire and regions of the south-eastern Mediterranean (that were under Islamic political hegemony) facilitated the movement of people, things, and ideas. Tracing the dissemination of the visual culture of Arab-Christianity generates a revised map of middle Byzantine artistic and cultural connections, challenging Constantinople’s status as the dominant model for middle Byzantine art and central source of Orthodox Christian authority and identity.