Studies in Coptic Culture

Description

Rich perspectives from leading experts on Coptic culture through the ages
Coptic contributions to the formative theological debates of Christianity have long been recognized. Less well known are other, equally valuable, Coptic contributions to the transmission and preservation of technical and scientific knowledge, and a full understanding of how Egypt's Copts survived and interacted with the country's majority population over the centuries. Studies in Coptic Culture attempts to examine these issues from divergent perspectives.
Through the careful examination of select case studies that range in date from the earliest phases of Coptic culture to the present day, twelve international scholars address issues of cultural transmission, cross-cultural perception, representation, and inter-faith interaction. Their approaches are as varied as their individual disciplines, covering literary criticism, textual studies, and comparative literature as well as art historical, archaeo-botanical, and historical research methods.
The divergent perspectives and methods presented in this volume will provide a fuller picture of what it meant to be Coptic in centuries past and prompt further research and scholarship into these subjects.
List of Figures
List of Tables
Contributors
Foreword
Introduction
Richard Price
2. The role of Coptic translators in the transmission of Patristic Biblical Comment in the First Millennium CE
Carol Downer
3. Talking About Medicine in Early Islamic Egypt:Toward a Socio-Historical Approach to the Corpus of Coptic Medical Texts
Tonio Sebastian Richter
4. Wine Production in Medieval Egypt: The Case of the Coptic Church
Mennat-Allah El Dorry
5. The Encomium on Bishop Pesynthios: An Evaluation of the Biographical Data in the Arabic version
Renate Dekker
6. The Depiction of Muslims in the Miracles of Anba Barsauma al-'Uryan
Asuka Tsuji
7. A fourteenth-century Icon of St. Mark and Miniatures from a Gospel Book: The Assimilation of Byzantine Art by the Coptic Élite in early Mamluk Egypt
Lucy-Anne Hunt
8. Coptic Icons: Expressions of Social Agency and Coptic Identity? (Part 2)
Helene Moussa
9. Rehabilitating a Late Antique Mural Painting at the Red Monastery, Sohag
Michael Jones
10. Transmission of Coptic Music from the Past to the Future
Magdalena Kuhn
11. Representations of Copts in Early Nineteenth Century Italian Travel Accounts
Daniele Salvoldi
12. Copts in Modern Egyptian Literature
Laila Farid

Sujets

• Sociology of Religion
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology

Informations

• Publié par: The American University in Cairo Press
• Date de parution: 02 mai 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781617977657
• Langue: English

Extrait

Studies in Coptic Culture
Studies in Coptic Culture
TRANSMISSION AND INTERACTION
Edited by
Mariam F. Ayad






The American University in Cairo Press Cairo New York
This electronic edition published in 2016 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com

Copyright © 2016 by Mariam Ayad Protected under the Berne Convention

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978 977 416 750 8 eISBN 978 161 797 765 7

Version 1
Contents

Figures and Tables
Contributors

Foreword
The Coptic Orthodox Church: A Historical Perspective in the Modern-day World
H.G. Bishop Angaelos

Introduction
Mariam F. Ayad

Religious Texts
1. The Coptic Acts of Ephesus
Richard Price
2. The Role of Coptic Translators in the Transmission of Patristic Biblical Commentary in the First Millennium ad
Carol Downer


Science and Technology
3. Toward a Sociohistorical Approach to the Corpus of Coptic Medical Texts
Tonio Sebastian Richter
4. Wine Production in Medieval Egypt: The Case of the Coptic Church
Mennat-Allah El Dorry

Fourteenth-century Encounters
5. The Depiction of Muslims in the Miracles of Anba Barsauma al-‘Uryan
Asuka Tsuji
6. The Encomium on Bishop Pesynthios: An Evaluation of the Biographical Data in the Arabic Version
Renate Dekker
7. An Icon and a Gospel Book: The Assimilation of Byzantine Art by Arab Christians in Mamluk Egypt and Syria
Lucy-Anne Hunt

Perception, Representation, and Identity
8. Representations of Copts in Early Nineteenth-century Italian Travel Accounts
Daniele Salvoldi
9. Copts in Modern Egyptian Literature
Laila Farid
10. Coptic Icons: Expressions of Social Agency and Coptic Identity
Helene Moussa

A Living Tradition
11. Rehabilitating a Late Antique Mural Painting at the Red Monastery, Sohag
Michael Jones
12. Transmission of Coptic Music from the Past to the Future
Magdalena Kuhn

Bibliography
Figures and Tables





Figures
2.1 Index of Fathers represented in the Latin preface to de Lagarde’s Coptic Catena .
6.1 Stemma of the MSS including the Encomium on Bishop Pesynthios.
7.1a Icon of St. Mark. al-Mu’allaqa Chuch, Old Cairo.
7.1b Icon of St. Mark, detail of inscriptions. al-Mu’allaqa Chuch, Old Cairo.
7.2 St. Paul. Kariye Camii, Istanbul. Panel south of the entrance to the nave.
7.3 Deisis and title page, MS Ahmet III 3519, fols. 1v–2r. Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi Library, Istanbul.
7.4 St. Mark, MS Ahmed III 3519, fol. 68v.
7.5 St. Mark, detached leaf.
7.6 St. John with Prochoros, MS Ahmet III 3519, fol. 177r.
7.7 Sts. John the Evangelist and Prochoros, Karyes Monastery, Mount Athos.
7.8 Dual frontispiece to St. Matthew’s Gospel, MS Bibl. 90, fols. 23v–24r.
7.9 St. Mark and opening of St. Mark’s Gospel, MS Bibl. 196, fols. 111v–112r.
10.1 Marguerite Nakhla, “Women in the Life of Christ,” St. Mary’s Church, Zamalek: northwest side.
10.2 Marguerite Nakhla, “Women in the Life of Christ,” St. Mary’s Church, Zamalek: southwest side.
11.1 The Red Monastery church, Sohag.
11.2 Semi-dome of the east apse before cleaning and conservation. The Red Monastery church, Sohag.
11.3 Cleaning tests at the Red Monastery church, Sohag.
11.4 Semi-dome of the east apse after cleaning and conservation. The Red Monastery church, Sohag.
11.5 Semi-dome of the east apse showing the result of the reintegration of the painting of Christ Pantokrator he Red Monastery Church, Sohag.
11.6 Computer-generated scheme for the Red Monastery church, showing the proposed integration of Christ Pantokrator. The Red Monastery church, Sohag.
12.1 Edison recorder with wax roll containing the oldest recording of Coptic music.
12.2 Old Egyptian chirognomy: Scene in tomb Htp hr akhty.
12.3 Cantor Ibrahim Ayad shows hand signs used for teaching students.
12.4 Tenen sheet music.
12.5 Coptic music manuscript with lines above the text.
12.6 Personal notations of Coptic hymns.
12.7 Choiak: Western music notation with additional signs.
Tables
6.1 Dates for Pesynthios proposed by earlier scholars.
6.2 Hypothetical chronology for Pesynthios based on manuscripts A and P .
Contributors
H.G. Bishop Angaelos is a general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, whose pastoral work focuses mainly on outreach and youth culture.
Mariam F. Ayad is an associate professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo.
Renate Dekker is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) of Leiden University, the Netherlands, currently working on a collaborative project to publish an edition of the Greek, Coptic, and Arabic inscriptions in the church at Deir Qubbat al-Hawa.
Mennat-Allah El Dorry is a postdoctoral research fellow at Topoi Excellence Cluster, Freie Universität, Berlin.
Carol Downer is a visiting lecturer, King’s College, London, Department of Theology and Religious Studies.
Laila Farid is a medical doctor, and a part-time editor and contributor to Watani International.
Lucy-Anne Hunt is Professor Emerita, MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Michael Jones is the associate director of the Egyptian Antiquities Conservation Project, American Research Center in Egypt. He is especially interested in the role of historic preservation in social and economic development and the sustainability of living heritage.
Magdalena Kuhn is a musician and Coptologist. She earned her doctorate, on the topic of Coptic liturgical melodies, at the University of Leiden.
Helene Moussa is the curator of St. Mark’s Coptic Museum, Scarborough, Ontario.
Richard Price is professor of the history of Christianity, Heythrop College, University of London.
Tonio Sebastian Richter is professor of Coptology at the Free University, Berlin, and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Daniele Salvoldi is a postdoctoral fellow at Dahlem Research School of the Freie Universität, Berlin. He specializes in the history of Egyptology and Egyptological archives. He holds an MA and a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Pisa (2011), where his doctoral work focused on the traveler and early epigraphist Alessandro Ricci (1794–1834).
Asuka Tsuji is a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo. She received her PhD from the University of Tokyo in 2014. Her current research interests focus on the history of the Coptic Church in the Mamluk period.
Forword
The Coptic Orthodox Church: A Historical Perspective in the Modern-day World
H.G. Bishop Angaelos
The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the most ancient churches in the world, founded in the first century in Egypt by St. Mark the Apostle and writer of the first Gospel of the New Testament. A conservative church, it has carefully preserved the Orthodox Christian faith in its earliest form, handing it down through generations, and remaining true to the apostolic doctrines and patterns of worship. Building upon these ancient traditions, the Church is both reactive and responsive to modern society and has contributed, and continues to contribute, greatly to our world today, both ecclesially and socially.
The Coptic Church is known as the ‘Church of Martyrs’ due to the great number of its members who have died for their faith. Starting the late eighth or early ninth century, the Coptic Church decided to commemorate the martyrdom of countless men, women, and children, who lost their lives during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, by labeling its calendar ‘Anno Martyrum’ (‘Year of the Martyrs’) and commencing its numbering in AD 284, the year that marked the start of Diocletian’s brutal reign. By embracing their sacrifice, the Church celebrates the continuing life of martyrdom.
These struggles are not merely historical, but have also continued in the Church’s contemporary history. Against a backdrop of sustained attacks, Christians remain a stabilizing and reconciling force in Egypt, their faithfulness now recognized and their contributions to the history and culture of Egypt, both historic and contemporary, acknowledged.
I am thankful for this volume on Coptic culture, and for the Second International Symposium on Coptic Culture at which the essays included here were presented, and that the symposium, held at the Coptic Centre in the United Kingdom, remains a platform for scholars and specialists to debate and deliberate on matters of Coptic life, practice, and culture. It is also encouraging that this forum has captivated the hearts and minds of so many from different walks of life as they seek to learn more about the Church and its impact on the world to date. By Church, I mean not only the institution, its clergy, and physical structure, but also its people, whose living faith has sustained it through the centuries.
I pray that God continues to bless this avenue of exploration and discovery, and that many more can come to know and experience the riches and depth of tradition and heritage found within the Coptic Orthodox Church and its relevant and dynamic message of peace, hope, and love for all to the present day.
Introduction
Mariam F. Ayad
Cultural identity is perhaps one of the most politically charged issues, not only in the field of Coptic studies, but universally. In Egypt, issues of identity and place have been the subject of public debate. In some circles, it has become quite fashionable to speak of a ‘Muslim Copt’ and a ‘Christian Copt.’ 1 The phrase ‘Muslim Copt’ stems from an understanding of the word ‘Copt’ to mean ‘Egyptian,’ since, the argument goes, all Egyptians are historically Copts. The