FATHER SAMAAN AND THE CHARISMATIC TREND WITHIN THE COPTIC CHURCH

2018 ◽  
pp. 66-79
Author(s):  
Gaétan du Roy
Keyword(s):  
Coptic Church

JOHN BISHOP OF NIKIOU’S CHRONICON (SEVENTH CENTURY A.D.): AN INDISPENSABLE SOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF THE ARAB CONQUEST OF EGYPT AND ITS AFTERMATH*

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 748-768
Author(s):  
V. Christides
Keyword(s):  
Early Years ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Local People ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Short Account ◽  
Coptic Church

John, Bishop of Nikiou’s Chronicon is the oldest preserved work dealing with the Arab conquest of Egypt (639 A.D./H. 18–645 A.D./H. 25) and its initial aftermath. This little known author, who lived in Egypt in the seventh century, was a high official in the Coptic Church. His accurate depiction of all the relevant historical events, based mainly on his own remarkable observations, proves him to be a simple but well–balanced historian. My article focuses on three aspects of the Chronicon: (a) landholding under the early years of Arab dominion compared to the parallel information of the Greek papyri of Apollonopolis in a special appendix; (b) the attitude of the Arab conquerors of Egypt towards its population, and the reaction of the local people as perceived by John, Bishop of Nikiou; and (c) a short account on the elusive role of the Blues and Greens during the Arab conquest of Egypt as recorded by John of Nikiou.

SINGING HEAVEN ON EARTH: COPTIC COUNTERPUBLICS AND POPULAR SONG AT EGYPTIANMŪLIDFESTIVALS

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-394
Author(s):  
Carolyn M. Ramzy
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Coptic Church ◽  
Popular Festivals ◽  
Religious Songs

AbstractThis article explores the performative politics of devotional soundscapes at Coptic Christianmūlidfestivals. Echoing the state's reformist efforts in the 1990s to transform Muslim saint festivals into utilitarian spaces and their goers into “modern” Egyptian citizens, today the Coptic Church works to refashion these popular festivals from places of debauchery into morally productive spaces. Aided by affluent Cairene-based volunteers, church choirs travel from Cairo's poshest neighborhoods to these festivals to actively sing, disseminate, and teach popular religious songs (taratīl) in an effort to develop poorer Christian pilgrims into modern, pious, and more audible “citizens of heaven.” Through the analysis of one church choir'staratīlministry at themūlid, I illustrate how middle-class spiritual volunteers disrupt and, at times, reinscribe the Coptic Church's disciplinary efforts on the festival's poorer pilgrims, particularly as they look to modernize popular festivity into grounds of Christian ethical transformation.

The Coptic Church in Popular Fiction on the Eve of the Arab Spring:Youssef Ziedan’s Azazeel

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nichole Perera
Keyword(s):  
Popular Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Coptic Church ◽  
Significant Addition ◽  
Theological Controversy ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Voice

The 5th century CE was a period of intense theological controversy concerning the relationship between the human and divine in Christ. This dispute led to the permanent separation of the Egyptian Coptic church from Imperial Orthodoxy. The events of the 5th century, previously confined to academic scholarship, have recently become the subject of popularizing works like Agora (2009), The Jesus Wars (2010), and 428 AD (2009). The Arabic novel Azazeel (2009), written by the Egyptian Islamic scholar Youseff Ziedan, is a significant addition to these other works. Like The Da Vinci Code in its use of “actual” historical evidence, Azazeel purports to be a compilation of newly discovered Syriac scrolls written by the Coptic monk Hypa, which detail his spiritual trials between 411 and 437 CE. The novel sparked great controversy in Egypt among Coptic Christians for creating a misleading picture of important figures and events in their early history. Copts felt that a Muslim scholar was appropriating the voice of a Coptic monk without clearly signalling it was a work of fiction in order to produce a false account of Coptic origins. Though published before the Arab Spring, it soon became further evidence of the oppressive intentions of the Muslim majority against a Coptic minority in Egypt. Azazeel is different from other similar works in English because the events of the 5th century are still part of the living identity of Copts.

Epilogue

2018 ◽  
pp. 237-254
Author(s):  
Angie Heo
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
New Era ◽  
Global War On Terrorism ◽  
Migrant Laborers ◽  
Militant Groups ◽  
Coptic Church ◽  
Global War

The epilogue centers on the Libya Martyrs, the twenty-one migrant laborers who were beheaded in 2015, and the alarming rise of ISIS across North Africa and the Middle East in 2013–14. It shows how the terrorist execution of Copts and its immediate aftermath activated older strands of religious mediation that have been described throughout this book: the communal dynamics of martyr commemoration, Arab nationalism versus Christian Rome as competing referents of political belonging, the outbreak of contests and threats tied to church territory, and the cult making of contemporary martyrs in the Coptic Church. By recounting the Libya Martyrs' various contexts, the epilogue invites reflection on how acts of violence that exceed the Egyptian national frame—through impoverished Coptic migrants and pan-Islamic militant groups—exacerbate old structures of sectarian tension in a new era of post-revolutionary militarization and the global war on terrorism.

Introduction to the Faith and Practices of the Coptic Church

Klio ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
YASSA′ ABD AL-MASIH ◽  
MARTINIANO RONCAGLIA
Keyword(s):  
Coptic Church
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