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Approaches to Coptic History after 641

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2010

Febe Armanios
Febe Armanios*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt.; e-mail: [email protected]
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Extract

The study of Coptic history usually brings to mind gnostic texts, remote monastic enclaves, archeological ruins, conflicts with Byzantium, or a long-forgotten language. Until recently, a disproportionate focus on early Christianity has bound Copts to an ancient and seemingly timeless heritage, which explains the dearth of critical examinations on Coptic life from the Islamic conquests to the early modern period. In general, Coptic experiences after 641 have been overshadowed by other themes in Egyptian history writing, in particular political and military changes. Although the latter are as relevant for a better understanding of the Coptic past, they have been predominately examined from the perspective of the Muslim majority, exclusive of Coptic concerns, perspectives, and beliefs. Only in recent years has scholarship on Copts begun to expand. Scholars have drawn from fields such as papyrology, gender studies, art history, and law in pursuit of a more comprehensive historical narrative. We are increasingly encouraged to evaluate the Coptic experience not only as a missing cog in Egyptian historiography but also as one that complicates canonical studies of postconquest Egypt and enriches our understanding of Middle Eastern history in general.

Type
Roundtable
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 483 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

NOTES

1 Maged S. A. Mikhail, “Egypt from Late Antiquity to Early Islam: Copts, Melkites, and Muslims Shaping a New Society” (PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2004).

2 Tamer el-Leithy, “Coptic Culture and Conversion in Medieval Cairo, 1293–1524 A.D.” (PhD diss., Princeton University, 2005).

3 See Davis, Stephen J., Coptic Christology in Practice: Incarnation and Divine Participation in Late Antique and Medieval Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zaborowski, Jason R., The Coptic Martyrdom of John of Phanijoit: Assimilation and Conversion to Islam in Thirteenth-Century Egypt (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004)Google Scholar; and Swanson, Mark N., “‘Our Father Abba Mark’: Marqus al-Antuni and the Construction of Sainthood in Fourteenth-Century Egypt,” in Eastern Crossroads: Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy, ed. Monferrer-Sala, Juan Pedro (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

4 See Marlis J. Saleh, “Government Relations with the Coptic Community in Egypt during the Fatimid Period (358–567 A.H./969–1171 C.E.)” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1995); Shenoda, Maryann M., “Displacing Dhimmi, Maintaining Hope: Unthinkable Coptic Representations of Fatimid Egypt,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 39 (2007): 587–606CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Werthmuller, Kurt J., Coptic Identity and Ayyubid Politics in Egypt, 1218–1250 (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

5 ʿAfifi, Muhammad, al-Aqbat fi Misr fi al-ʿAsr al-ʿUthmani (Cairo: al-Haʾya al-Misriyya al-ʿAmma li-l-Kitab, 1992)Google Scholar.

6 Guirguis, Magdi, An Armenian Artist in Ottoman Cairo: Yuhanna al-Armani and His Coptic Icons (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Febe Armanios, Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

8 Hamilton, Alastair, The Copts and the West, 1439–1822: The European Discovery of the Egyptian Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

9 Lyster, William, ed., The Cave Church of Paul the Hermit: At the Monastery of St. Paul in Egypt (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008)Google Scholar.

10 For more on the infusion of modern sectarian discourses into the study of the Coptic past, see Sedra, Paul, “Writing the History of the Modern Copts: From Victims and Symbols to Actors,” History Compass 7 (2009): 1049–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.