In seventeenth-century Europe the Copts, or the Egyptian members of the Church of Alexandria, were widely believed to hold the key to an ancient wisdom and an ancient theology. Their language was thought to lead to the deciphering of the hieroglyphs and their Church to retain traces of early Christian practices as well as early Egyptian customs. Now available in paperback for the first time, this first, full-length study of the subject, discusses the attempts of Catholic missionaries to force the Church of Alexandria into union with the Church of Rome and the slow accumulation of knowledge of Coptic beliefs, undertaken by Catholics and Protestants. It ends with a survey of the study of the Coptic language in the West and of the uses to which it was put by Biblical scholars, antiquarians, theologians, and Egyptologists.
Egypt, land of the Bible, has been home since the time of Christ to an ancient sect of Christians called the Copts. According to legend, Mark the Evangelist founded their church in Alexandria in the 1st century AD, when Egypt was under Roman rule and practiced polytheistic religions. Though Egypt long ago became a Muslim nation, the Copts maintained their traditions and rites at monasteries and villages throughout the Nile Valley, the river delta, and the Mediterranean coast, and still do so today.
The Coptic Christians of Egypt have traditionally been portrayed as a 'beleaguered minority', persecuted in a Muslim majority state and by the threat of political Islam. Vivian Ibrahim offers a vivid portrayal of the community and an alternative interpretation of Coptic agency in the twentieth century, through newly dicovered sources. Dismissing the monolithic portrayal of this community, she analyses how Copts negotiated a role for themselves during the colonial and Nasserist periods, and their multifaceted response to the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood. She examines reform within the Church itself, and how it led to power struggles that redefined the role of the Pope and Church in Nasser's Egypt. The findings of this book hold great relevance for understanding identity politics and the place of the Coptic community in the fast-changing political landscape of today's Egypt.
Professor Alexander Badawy has written and profusely illustrated this rich study of the works of Coptic Egyptians starting in the early Christian period following the Antique and ending with the assimilation of Coptic art into that of Islam. Coptic Art and Archaeologyis based on extensive archaeological excavations and on researchers' accounts. In developing his thesis on the nature of the Coptic spirit in the arts, Professor Badawy—an archaeologist and art historian—has drawn upon his own firsthand observations plus a wealth of materials from museums all over the world. The result is a comprehensive examination of the Coptic arts. The text is illustrated with photographs (including the author's own), with plans of excavated sites, and with the author's restored perspectives. It is a journey through the sites and discoveries that have provided present knowledge of the Coptic civilization: a journey that included the architecture of houses and towns, fortified and unfortified monasteries, murals, paintings, and sculpture in several media, textiles, ceramics, and illuminated manuscripts. All are described in painstaking detail and historical context by the author. Illustrations are keyed to the text, which in turn demonstrates that Coptic art was in many ways a "people's art"—an art of the middle and lower classes—and not invariably a religious art. Developments in style reflected the changing fortunes of the Egyptian Christians, and this, too, is carefully traced and the examples are noted in the text and in illustrations. Professor Badawy concludes the book with a study of the effects of Coptic art on European artistic traditions. The remarkable comprehensiveness of this book will make it a basic tool of professional art historians and archaeologists, and it seems inevitable that the extensive and detailed descriptions of the extant works of Coptic artists will stimulate additional research into this area of art history. The professional and the student will find especially helpful the extensive footnotes, bibliography of international sources listed by subject area (e.g. Sculpture, Architecture, Painting), and the literally hundreds of illustrations that provide an unparalleled single-book source of examples of Coptic art. For those who cannot make the pilgrimage to the actual sites or visit the museum collections all over the world, Professor Badawy has provided the next best thing: a painstakingly detailed representative description of the treasures that are known. This is also a book for the layman who can enjoy the evidences of the Coptic genius in ornamentation and gain an appreciation of the influences of history and politics on the art and culture of a people.
Volume 1: "Christianity and monasticism have flourished along the Nile Valley in the Sohag region of Upper Egypt from as early as the fourth century until the present day. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Sohag over the past seventeen hundred years. Many of the studies center on the person and legacy of the great Coptic saint, Shenoute the Archimandrite (348–466 ce), looking at his preserved writings, his life, his place in Pachomian monasticism, his relations with the patriarchs in Alexandria, and the life in his monastic system. Other studies deal with the art, architecture, and archaeology of the two great monasteries that he founded and the archaeological and artistic heritage of the region."--Publisher's website.
This meticulously edited collection of history, literature and archaeological discoveries, is enriched with the key documents, images and historical sources of Ancient Egypt as well as with some of the most famous works of Ancient Egyptian literature. "Ancient Egypt" represents the civilization of North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in the place that is now as the country of Egypt. The history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: The Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. Contents: Contents: History of Ancient Egypt Archaeology of Ancient Egypt Literature of Ancient Egypt Primary Sources of the Ancient Egyptian History: The Book of the Dead Papyrus of Ani The Rosetta Stone Hymn to the Nile The Laments of Isis and Nephthys Great Hymn to Aten Hymn to Osiris-Sokar The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep The Victory of Ramses II Over the Khita An Account of the Battle of Megiddo Charm for the Protection of a Child Stories and Poems of Ancient Egypt Tale of the Doomed Prince The Magic Book The Dialogue of a Misanthrope with His Own Soul Ancient Egyptian Love Poems The Egyptian Book of Herodotus
