This panel features four papers that explore some of the new and emerging scholarly trends in the field of Coptic Studies in the medieval and modern periods. The first paper examines the poetry of scribes, owners, and readers in Copto-Arabic manuscripts, shedding light on the social and cultural contexts in which these manuscripts were produced and consumed. The second paper investigates the ethical doctrines of three 14th century Coptic miscellaneous manuscripts, revealing the complex interplay between religious teachings, ethical principles, and social norms in Coptic society. The third paper reflects on the challenges of translating Coptic Orthodox praxis into ethical terms that resonate with contemporary sensibilities, and proposes a framework for an ethical transliteration of Coptic Orthodox practice. Finally, the fourth paper explores the politics of religious freedom in Egypt and the contested identity of the Coptic community in global publics, highlighting the tensions between religious tradition and political activism in contemporary Coptic discourse.
Nearly 90 years ago, Max Weisweiler published a collection of some 45 Arabic “scribal verses,” many with themes of human transience, the contrast between hand and script, and the Judgment to come: “Arabische Schreiberverse,” in Orientalistische Studien, ed. Rudi Paret (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1935), 101-120. Weisweiler had surveyed about 8,000 Islamic manuscripts, and found scribal verses in about a hundred, the earliest dating to 1210 CE.
The present communication calls attention to the existence of such scribal verses – as well as other pious verses added by scribes, owners, or readers – in Copto-Arabic manuscripts of the 13th-14th centuries CE. It will present examples and comment on the significance of this material for describing the piety, formation, and outlook of Copts who wrote and used books, especially members of the bureaucratic class during the so-called “golden age” of Copto-Arabic literature.
In the early 1200s, the Persian philosopher Afẓal al-dīn Kāshānī (d.1214) produced the earliest surviving attestation of the Rebuke of the Soul, an aphoristic exhortation to the soul to turn towards divine things. With remarkable haste, the text enjoyed a widespread dissemination in both Christian and Islamic manuscript traditions. This presentation assesses the Christian reception of the ethical treatise in three 14th and 15th century Coptic miscellaneous manuscripts. The paper will test the value of reading miscellaneous manuscripts as whole books, taking into consideration the complementarity between the collection of texts with the miscellanies. Studying the medieval Coptic manuscript reception of The Rebukesheds light on how an Islamic treatise was repurposed to serve the theological aims of the medieval Coptic Church. It also investigates how book practices, such as the compilation of miscellaneous manuscripts, exposes the scope and concerns of Coptic ethical literature in this period.
Western ethical systems have developed into complex tapestries, impacting the religious, cultural, political, and socioeconomic landscapes in which they flourish. While ethical language has had an impact in the West that cannot be understated, Eastern religions have seemed to speak an entirely different language regarding morality. As a case study, this paper will investigate the largest Christian denomination in the Middle East—the Coptic Orthodox Christians of Egypt—to understand why the language of ethics has been entirely absent among ancient and contemporary Copts alike. A shift away from deontological and consequentialist ethics and towards virtue ethics is one step in the direction towards developing a Coptic Christian ethic, but not without its mitigations. The acquisition of virtue for Coptic Christians is a result of a primary ethic of the pursuit of unity with God through grace-enabled spiritual struggle. This model will be dissected into three basic tiers based on Gregory of Nyssa’s theory of epektasis and will help make sense of the transformative practices that constitute a contemporary Coptic Christian ethos.
In recent decades global religious freedom movements, allied with diaspora Coptic activists, have leveled a challenge to the existing patterns of church-state relations in Egypt. When the global activist community becomes an important part of the negotiation of Coptic interests, what is the impact on the natural outgrowth of Coptic representation? Both Egyptians and foreign observers have questioned the authenticity of diaspora activists and their demands on the Egyptian state. Amidst the relationships among Egyptian Christians in the Middle East and in the diaspora, their international interlocutors, allies, and related movements, who truly speaks for the Copts? This paper will consider the way in which we understand who is a Copt amid the growth of global interest in religious freedom and the status of Christians in their Egyptian homeland.