On Why Stories Matter

With insights from thinkers in medieval Kashmir, early modern Europe and contemporary cognitive science, Prof. Koul probes the persistent ubiquity of narratives in our lives. Why do we need stories? And why do they affect us so much

Love Across Difference: Mixed Marriage in Lebanon

Lebanon may be the most complicated place in the world to be a "mixed" couple. It has no civil marriage law, fifteen personal status laws, and a political system built on sectarianism. Still, Lebanon has the most interreligious marriages per capita in the Middle East. What constitutes a mixed marriage is in flux as social norms shift, and reactions to mixed marriage reveal underlying social categories of discrimination. Based on her book Love Across Difference, Dr. Deeb will draw on two decades of interviews and research to show how mixed couples in Lebanon confront patriarchy, social difference, and sectarianism

Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia

The Monastery of the Archangel Gabriel (Dayr al-Malāk or DAYR AL-NAQLUN) at Naqlun—referred to in Coptic sources as Nekloni and located in the Fayoum province (see MONASTERIES OF THE FAYYUM)—has been the subject of extensive scholarly investigation since 1986 by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw. The research was initially directed by Włodzimierz Godlewski and, from 2020, by Robert Mahler. As a result of this sustained effort, Naqlun stands today as one of the most comprehensively documented ancient monastic sites in Egypt. This entry provides a bibliographical survey of the ancient and medieval written sources associated with the monastery, offering readers rapid access to the principal publications. The study is divided into two sections. The first examines hagiographical traditions that circulated outside the monastery in Arabic and Ethiopic, while the second focuses on Greek, Coptic, and Arabic texts discovered in situ—some during illicit excavations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but the majority through archaeological work conducted by the Polish mission. For a more comprehensive overview of these findings, readers may consult the annual reports published in Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (from 1990 onward). Earlier discoveries and reports are reviewed in Timm (1984–2007: II, 762–767). Publications produced for local audiences in the past three decades are not considered here. 1. Hagiographical traditions 1.1. Saint Antony and monastic life at Naqlun A monastic rule, described as “rules and prescriptions,” is attributed to SAINT ANTONY and purportedly composed for “his sons, the monks in the monastery of Naqlun” (Graf, GCAL I: 457–458). This rule is extant only in Arabic and unquestionably postdates Antony’s death. Nevertheless, it remains a crucial source for understanding monasticism at Naqlun (Wipszycka 1996). The edition by Mokbel (1966), with corrections provided by Breydy (1996), replaces earlier ones. The association between Saint Antony and Naqlun is further elaborated in a medieval hagiographical text, the Life of Anba Isaac of the Mountain of al-Barambil, attributed to SERAPION OF THMUIS—a source not mentioned by Graf (GCAL). The relevant passages are edited and analyzed in Clara ten Hacken (2019: 293–326). 1.2. The History of Aūr and related traditions The most prominent hagiographical narrative linked to Naqlun is the legendary account of the foundation of the Church of the Archangel Gabriel by a converted magician named Aūr (Graf, GCAL I: 544; II: 507). The History of Aūr is presented in the form of a homily, originally composed in Arabic in or shortly after the eleventh century. This text rapidly gained popularity across medieval Egypt and Ethiopia. The Arabic versions, along with their variants and derivatives, have been extensively examined in a monograph by Clara ten Hacken (2019; see also ten Hacken 2017). The same monograph further discusses various medieval Arabic sources—primarily liturgical in nature—such as SYNAXARION entries that reference Naqlun and its church (ten Hacken 2019: 9–20, 409–423). An appendix catalogs the Ethiopic (Ge‘ez) manuscripts of the Aūr legend (ten Hacken 2019: 425–435; cf. 29–31). A text clearly dependent on the History of Aūr is an anonymous homily on the archangels MICHAEL and GABRIEL, which recounts the origins of monastic life at Naqlun and Qalamun. This text, absent from Graf’s GCAL, is tentatively dated to the fifteenth century and has been partially edited by ten Hacken (2019: 327–371) based on a single Arabic manuscript. The textual coupling of Naqlun and Qalamun may reflect earlier hagiographical traditions concerning SAMUEL OF QALAMUN, in which both Fayoum monasteries feature prominently (Sahidic text, eighth–ninth century: Alcock 1983). 2. Texts found on site 2.1. Inscriptions 2.1.1. The Church of Saint Gabriel Most of the inscriptions within the church pertain to the refurbishment and redecoration of the building during the first half of the eleventh century under the archimandrite Papnoute (Urbaniak-Walczak 1993; Godlewski 2000; van der Vliet 2005: 83–85). These inscriptions form an integral component of a broader program of mural paintings and serve primarily commemorative functions, including prayers for donors and artists, as well as explanatory legends identifying the subjects of the depicted scenes. Among the most prominent inscriptions are two monumental lines of text, strategically placed in the central apse. These inscriptions attribute the church’s refurbishment to the reign of Patriarch Zechariah of Alexandria (1004–1032) and acknowledge the generosity of a civil patron, John of Fayoum. Additional inscriptions, primarily left by visitors, are also present within the church. A dipinto in the central apse documents a meeting between the bishops of Fayoum and Atfih at Naqlun, likely dating to 1033 (Godlewski 2000: 94–95). A particularly rare funerary inscription, written in both Coptic and Arabic, commemorates the death and burial of a Bishop Andrew on 24 April 1183 (Lagaron Khalifa and Vanthieghem 2020: 178–179). Linguistically, most of the inscriptions are couched in a local Fayoumi-Sahidic dialect, while some legends incorporate Greek elements. Arabic inscriptions are also attested (Lagaron Khalifa and Vanthieghem 2020). 2.1.2. Funerary monuments Funerary monuments from Naqlun primarily consist of decorated stelae—limestone slabs inscribed with brief Greek texts—assembled in Godlewski and Łajtar (2006). These monuments conform closely to the textual and iconographic conventions characteristic of the Fayoum region during the sixth to eighth centuries. Additionally, a single wooden funerary cross, dating to the ninth–tenth centuries, bears an inscription in Greek (Łajtar 1989–1993: 265–269). 2.1.3. Textiles The fashion of the originally Muslim tirāz-style of inscriptions on luxury garments, in both Coptic and Arabic, had around the turn of the millennium also spread to Naqlun; see van der Vliet 2000a; Czaja-Szewczak 2004 (Coptic); and Helmeke 2005 (Arabic).   2.2. Literary and liturgical texts 2.2.1. Biblical texts A sixth- to seventh-century dossier of Greek Psalm texts on papyrus, including a list of incipits, was discovered in one of the HERMITAGES, though all texts are fragmentary (P. Naqlun I, 1–6). Another fragmentary Psalms manuscript is preserved as P. Naqlun II 15. Additionally, two ostraca bear Greek quotations from the Gospel of Matthew (P. Naqlun II, 16–17). The most significant Coptic discovery is a nearly intact small CODEX of the Gospel of John in Sahidic, dated to AD 1099–1100. This manuscript is one of only five complete copies of the Gospel extant in Sahidic (Hagen and van der Vliet, forthcoming; ms. no. 19 in Förster et al. 2021). Other Coptic biblical texts from the site survive only in fragmentary form, including a Fayoumic fragment of Matthew 3 (Urbaniak-Walczak 1996), a Sahidic leaf from Colossians (Urbaniak-Walczak 2006: 1000–1003), and a brief portion of Psalm 38 (Saweros 2024: 66–67). The final verses of the Gospel of John in Sahidic are followed by a colophon dated to AM 593 (AD 876–877; Urbaniak-Walczak 2006: 995–1000; ms. no. 65 in Förster et al. 2021). This, alongside a similar colophon in another Gospel manuscript, indicates that the Naqlun biblical manuscripts of the ninth–tenth centuries originated from the Touton (see TUṮUN) scriptorium and share close affinities with manuscripts from the Fayoum Monastery of Saint Michael (see DAYR AL-MALAK MIKHA’IL), most of which are now housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (Saweros and van der Vliet 2022). 2.2.2. Literary texts Greek patristic literature is represented by a sixth- to seventh-century papyrus fragment containing an unidentified text that quotes Saint CYRIL of Alexandria (P. Naqlun II, 19; Hagedorn 2010). The corpus of Coptic literary texts is similarly sparse. Two unidentified fragments, one in Bohairic, are edited in Urbaniak-Walczak (1997). A fragment of the Sahidic Investiture of Michael (Saweros, forthcoming) shares its format and text with the known copy from the Fayoum Monastery of Saint Michael, suggesting a common origin in the Touton scriptorium. A colophon now housed in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, dated to AM 732 (AD 1015–1016), provides evidence that Naqlun maintained its own scriptorium in the early eleventh century (Saweros and van der Vliet 2022: 505–506). This colophon follows the conclusion of an unidentified homily, possibly dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel (Elanskaya 1994: 333–338, no. 10). During the 1991 season of Polish excavations, a finely crafted casket was discovered (Ahmed 2023), containing several books and documents in Arabic (briefly inventoried in Ragheb 1992). Given their exclusively Islamic content, it is likely that these materials were concealed within the monastery under unknown circumstances. Additionally, a stray Latin fragment, possibly from Livy (Bravo and Griffin 1988), was found on site, though it was likely not originally associated with the monastery. 2.2.3. Liturgical texts The most well-known liturgical text from Naqlun is a bilingual parchment leaf containing Bohairic translations of the Greek deacon’s biddings in the liturgy (P. Naqlun II, 20, tenth–eleventh century; cf. Budde 2002). Although preserved within a codex, this leaf was not part of a formal liturgical book, but rather, a scholarly miscellany intended for private use. Two hymns from the Sahidic Antiphonary (see DIFNAR and COPTIC LITURGICAL BOOK OF DIFNAR), transcribed in a late informal hand, have been published in Saweros and van der Vliet (2020). Other notable liturgical texts include a fragment of a Greek creed (P. Naqlun II, 18) and several examples of Coptic hermeneia texts—lists of keywords from the Psalms—edited in Urbaniak-Walczak (2004). 2.2.4. Magical texts Coptic magical texts (see MAGIC) are rarely discovered in their original archaeological contexts, making those from Naqlun of exceptional scholarly interest. A sixth-century curse discovered in one of the hermitages has been edited by van der Vliet (2000b), while a much later charm against fever, dating to the tenth–eleventh century, is published in Kalchenko and van der Vliet (2022). Additionally, one of three unidentified paper fragments edited by Urbaniak-Walczak (1995: 166) appears to be of a magical nature. Of further significance are two hemerologia (calendars of auspicious and inauspicious days) in Bohairic. They belong to a single very fragmentary papyrus codex, possibly dating to the sixth–eighth century, and remain unpublished (cf. Ghica 2016). 2.3. Documentary texts Documentary texts, spanning a wide range of genres, constitute the majority of textual finds from Naqlun. They are categorized here by language, reflecting a gradual linguistic shift over time. 2.3.1. Greek Documents published in P. Naqlun I, 9–12, and P. Naqlun II, 21–34, include various legal and administrative texts, such as loan agreements, lists, and correspondence. Of particular significance are four fragmentary letters associated with a Bishop Nikolaos, who may have been a resident of the monastery in the sixth or seventh century (P. Naqlun I, 12; P. Naqlun II, 32–34). Equally valuable is a possibly seventh-century letter on agricultural affairs, in which the inhabitants of the village of Tebetny address the monks of Naqlun (Derda and Wegner 2016). 2.3.2. Coptic Fifteen Coptic documentary texts, mostly dating to the tenth–eleventh centuries, were found in a single hermitage (no. 25) and have been edited in Urbaniak-Walczak (1999). Among the hundreds of documents unearthed at the monastery site, only a selected few have been published, comprising correspondence and administrative records (van der Vliet 2008; Saweros 2025a; 2025b; 2025c). Most are written in a local variant of Sahidic, with a late letter in Bohairic preserved in the British Library, first published by W. E. Crum (see van der Vliet 2016). The most important Coptic documentary text from Naqlun is the account book British Library Or. 13885, dating to the late 1030s, which remains unpublished. Though known since the mid-twentieth century, its definitive association with Naqlun was confirmed only by the discovery of one of its missing pages by the Polish mission (van der Vliet 2015). The account book records payments made to various individuals and institutions. While primarily written in a local form of Sahidic, it contains numerous Arabic names and titles transcribed in Coptic script. Beyond its linguistic and lexical value, the text provides a vivid insight into the social and economic interactions of the Naqlun monastic community with its surrounding environment. 2.3.3. Arabic The most significant find of Arabic documentary texts at Naqlun was the 1997 discovery of the Banū Bifām archive. Stored in a jar within the monastery, this archive comprises official documents—primarily related to real estate transactions—belonging to a Christian family from a village near Lahun. Dating to the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, it constitutes an invaluable resource for understanding the Fayoum countryside during a period when it remained predominantly Christian. The archive has been fully published and analyzed by Gaubert and Mouton (2014). The Arabic documents related to the monastery’s administration are currently being prepared for publication by Naïm Vanthieghem

Autocracy & Protest Culture in Asia: The “Milk Tea Alliance”

Burma is in a state of civil war. Hong Kong has changed from a place with virtually no political prisoners to one with many in a few years. Thailand is a monarchy with lèse-majesté laws. While the political situations in Burma, Thailand, and Hong Kong are radically different, many young activists and exiles from these regions feel their struggles are connected. How do these activists, each facing unique situations, find common ground and sustain one another? Wasserstrom is a historian who has traveled globally to interview dozens of dissidents who express solidarity with one another online and on the streets, and sometimes refer to themselves as belonging to the “Milk Tea Alliance” — a nod to their shared opposition to nationalistic Beijing loyalists and the fact that their cultures' iconic drinks contain dairy, unlike mainland China’s traditional tea. In this loosely constituted alliance united by democratic values, Wasserstrom finds shared concerns over autocrats and the rising influence of a common adversary, the Chinese Communist Party. Activists that Wasserstrom interviewed include: Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, who protested against compulsory Thai military service; Agnes Chow, co-founder of a political party now banned in Hong Kong; and Ye Myint Win (aka Nickey Diamond) who, fearing reprisal from the junta for his human rights work, fled to Germany from Burma in the early 2020s

Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia

Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia 12 May 2025 © Claremont Graduate University 1 BERENIKE, PORT AT THE RED SEA Gawdat Gabra Keywords: ‘Aidhab, Athanasius, Beja tribes, Berenike, Coptos, Eastern Desert, India, Nabis Bishop of ‘Aidhab, Red Sea, Roman Period, Synaxarion A Coptic-Arabic manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Scala copte 44, identifies Berenike with ‘Aidhab (Munier 1930: 162, no. 44; Khouzam 2006: 135, no. 44). This is understandable, for both ports lay in the same region at the Red Sea. Berenike is located south of the latitude of ASWAN (23º 58" N); ‘Aidhab lies a bit further south (22º 20" N), and both ports served as major regional gateways for commerce. The Arabic SYNAXARION of the Copts commemorates NABIS, the fourth–fifth century bishop of ‘Aidhab, on 22 Kiyahk (Basset 1909: 499–505). As Jacob Muyser has pointed out, this Arabic text on Nabis bears all the indications of being a translation from Coptic (Muyser 1944: 137). The medieval translator of the Coptic text into Arabic rendered the ancient Berenike as ‘Aidhab. However, the latter port was founded in the ninth century and played an important role in Egyptian commerce through the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean from the tenth to the fourteenth century (Gibb 1960; Garcin 1972; Timm 1984: 96– 98; Labib 1978). According to the Synaxarion text, Bishop Nabis resided in a small church at Coptos and used to send, in turn, a priest and a deacon to ‘Aidhab, as this town is far from Coptos: more than thirteen days’ travel in the Eastern Desert. When it was necessary for Nabis to go there himself, men of the BEJA TRIBES carried him and the church objects on their camels, in return for payment for the hire of their beasts. Study of the events and the names of Nabis’ contemporaneous bishops mentioned in his Synaxarion entry has shown that Bishop Nabis must have lived in the late fourth century and early fifth century. The Synaxarion informs us that Nabis died when he was ninety years old and that he had been a bishop for forty years. His episcopal ministry must thus have been in the last decades of the fourth century and the first decades of the fifth (Gabra 1986: 231ff.; Gabra 1991). Bishop Nabis took care of his community in that remote region. He had good relations with merchants and sailors, interceded on behalf of members of his congregation who were in prison, and took care of the sick in his diocese (Gabra 1986: 233; Gabra 1991). Thus, Nabis’ Synaxarion commemoration provides evidence for a Coptic diocese in that region extending in the Eastern Desert between Coptos and Berenike which dates back at least to the fourth and fifth centuries. It was not until 1994 that archaeological fieldwork began and continued for a number of seasons at the site of the port of Berenike (Sidebotham and Wendrich 1995–2000; 2001/2). A fifth-century ecclesiastical complex including a church was discovered there, as well as a number of Christian artifacts such as crosses and lamps. One of the lamps bears the Coptic text: “Jesus: Forgive me!” (Sidebotham and Wendrich 2001/2: 32–35). Concerning the church at Berenike, the excavators say: “The church is substantially larger than any of the other non-Christian religious centers now known from Berenike, which may suggest the relative popularity of various cults in the city in the late Roman period” (Sidebotham and Wendrich 2001/2: 34). About the port at Berenike they say: “Long distance commercial contacts have been recorded between Berenike and the Persian Gulf, southern Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of AXUM, many areas of the Gabra, G.: Berenike, Port at the Red Sea 12 May 2025 Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia 2 Mediterranean basin, central Europe and Near East…The peak periods of Berenike’s long distance trade were in early Roman (first century AD) and late Roman (mid-fourth to fifth centuries) times” (Sidebotham and Wendrich 2001/2: 23). Berenike was abandoned in the first half of the sixth century (Bagnall and Rathbone 2004: 291; Sidebotham and Wendrich 2001/2: 23). Bishop Nabis must not have been the first bishop of this diocese. The Synaxarion tells us that he was worthy of episcopal dignity over the churches of ‘Aidhab (Berenike), and that he inherited such remote places in his diocese. The diocese to which Berenike belonged would have been established by Patriarch ATHANASIUS (328–373), during whose pontificate PHILAE in NUBIA became a residence of a bishop. It was also Athanasius who appointed Bishop Frumentius as the first metropolitan in Ethiopia (Gabra 2010: 48)

Putting His Students First: Professor Ch’en Shou-yi in the Classroom

Professor Ch’en Shou-yi 陳受頤 (1899-1978), one of the leading Chinese scholars of the 20th century, was known to his students at Pomona College as a devoted, inspiring teacher par excellence, who applied the philosophies of Confucius, Zhu Xi, and John Dewey to his role as the pioneering head of Asian Studies at Pomona. As an educator, Dr. Ch'en shaped the lives and careers of countless students during his many years of teaching in China and the United States. Anthony Chambers studied with Dr. Ch’en, often met and corresponded with him after graduation, and kept his class notes, syllabi, supplementary course materials, and letters received from Dr. Ch’en. Drawing on this material and vivid memories of their interactions, Chambers will describe Dr. Ch’en’s philosophy of education and what it was like to be one of his students. This talk also serves as a concluding event celebrating the year-long Exhibit in Honor & Memory of Professor Ch'en Shou-yi, which is on display at the Asian Library through March 31, 2025. Attendees of this event will have the opportunity to join a guided tour of the exhibition either prior to or after the talk

Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia

AL-MAKĪN JIRJIS IBN AL-ʿAMĪD, a major thirteenth-century historian, is the author of a universal chronography from Adam to AD 1260 (AH 658). He is usually known in secondary literature as al-Makīn, and sometimes “al-Makīn the Elder,” to differentiate him from “al-Makīn the Younger” (d. 1322) who was the author of the theological summa al-Ḥāwī. However, since premodern Arabic sources refer to him as Ibn al-ʿAmīd (Diez 2023: 5–6), I shall retain this usage here. In Ethiopia his name was translated as Wäldä ’Amid. Life Born in Cairo on 18 February 1206, Ibn al-ʿAmīd belonged to a family of Coptic notables. His full name was “al-Makīn Jirjis ibn al-ʿAmīd Abī l-Yāsir ibn Abī l-Makārim ibn Abī l-Ṭayyib the Christian scribe, known as Ibn al-ʿAmīd” (Cahen 1955–1957: 127). In a famous page of his chronography (translated in Diez 2023: 1025–1031), Ibn al-ʿAmīd gives a detailed account of his family history, starting from his great-great-great-grandfather, a Syriac Christian merchant from Tikrit in Iraq who settled in Fatimid Egypt at the beginning of the twelfth century. His descendants made their fortunes in agriculture and state administration, and four of them became bishops in the Coptic Church. Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s father worked in the Ayyubid Army Department for 45 years, inheriting the position of his maternal uncle, the well-known Simʿān ibn Kalīl, when the latter entered the monastery of SAINT JOHN COLOBOS (see DAYR YUHANNIS AL-QASIR) in Wādī al-Naṭrūn (SCETIS). Along with the uncle’s post, Ibn al-ʿAmīd also obtained the title of al-Makīn, “the powerful,” which would remain within his family branch from that point on. While Ibn al-ʿAmīd was relatively profuse about his ancestry, he remained very discreet about himself. Our main sources for his life are an entry by the Damascene secretary Ibn al-Ṣuqāʿī (d. 1325) in his biographical dictionary al-Tālī (Sublet 1974, no. 167: 110–111; English translation in Diez 2023: 6–8) and a very polemical pamphlet by the little-known scribe Ghāzī ibn al-Wāṣiṭī (d. 1312; his Radd was edited twice, by Gottheil 1921 and Turkī ibn Fahd Āl Saʿūd 2010). Some additional elements can be gleaned from scattered remarks in Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s chronography: for example, in the last pages of his work, he briefly recalls his precipitous flight from Damascus before the Mongol invaders, on 30 January 1260, and his five-month sojourn in Tyre (Cahen 1955–1957: 172; English translation in Diez 2023: 13–14). Ibn al-ʿAmīd began his career in Egypt but soon moved to Damascus, where he became very influential under the Ayyubid Sultan al-Nāṣir Yūsuf (r. 1236–1260). The capture of the Syrian metropole by the Mongol army of Hülegü in January 1260 marked the beginning of his troubles. While Ibn al-ʿAmīd seems to have kept a low profile in the rapidly evolving political circumstances, his nephew Abū l-Faḍāʾil obtained a decree from Hülegü which stipulated favorable terms for the Christians in Syria. When the Mamluks reconquered Damascus in September that year, Abū l-Faḍāʾil’s closeness to the new rulers backlashed against him and he barely managed to escape to Mosul, still in Mongol territory. Unlike his nephew, Ibn al-ʿAmīd was initially reinstated to his position and, after a brief period of disgrace under Sultan Baybars (r. 1260–1277), he was even promoted to the administration of the entire Mamluk army in Syria and Egypt. Shortly afterward, however, a scribe accused him of corresponding with the Mongols via his nephew. Although it was most likely fabricated, this accusation ruined Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s career. He was imprisoned for 11 or 15 years, according to Ibn al-Wāsiṭī and Ibn al-Ṣuqāʿī, respectively. After his release, he retired to private life in Damascus, where he died around 1293. Concerning this last element, the death year of AH 672 (AD 1273–1274), which is provided by Ibn al-Suqāʿī and is often repeated in secondary literature, is untenable for three reasons. (a) The date, in addition to being inconsistent with Ibn al-Ṣuqāʿī’s own chronology, is belied by internal evidence, because Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s chronography mentions an event that occurred in 1278–1279 (Awad 1999: 23–24); (b) a sidenote to chapter 157 in manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Pococke 312, testifies that Ibn al-ʿAmīd was still alive in 1289–1290 (Diez and Muccini forthcoming); and (c) the colophon of the manuscript Cairo, Mosky, AC 725, mentions an author’s autograph dated 1293 (Diez 2023: 54–55). All things considered, the most probable death year for Ibn al-ʿAmīd is AH 692 AD (1292–1293), and Ibn al-Ṣuqāʿī’s AH 672 could have arisen from the frequent confusion between the words 70 and 90 in Arabic script. This seemingly minor detail is in fact important, insofar as it accounts for prolonged writing activity that resulted in an intricate textual tradition. Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh (“Book of History”) Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s sole work is the most important example of a universal chronography in the Copto-Arabic tradition. Although secondary literature often refers to it as al-Majmūʿ al-mubārak, this syntagma, which occurs only in some manuscripts and always without the definite article (i.e., majmūʿ mubārak, “a blessed collection,” see Diez 2023: 974–975), must be dismissed as a scribal addition. Its correct title is simply Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh (“Book of History”). The work is divided in two portions—a pre-Islamic and an Islamic part—and the latter is sometimes referred to as Taʾrīkh al-muslimīn, although this title again is not supported by the manuscript tradition. The genre of universal chronography arose in late antiquity with Julius Africanus (ca. 160–240) and Eusebius (ca. 265–340). It consists of an account of past events from the creation to the present, arranged in a loose chronological order, with a succession of characters as its building block. The original goal of this genre was synchronizing the Biblical and Graeco-Roman past to combine salvation history with secular history. This genre was appealing to diverse readerships and became very popular in Greek and Syriac. After the Islamic conquests, Melkite authors such as Eutychius (Saʿīd ibn Biṭrīq, Patriarch of Alexandria, d. 940) and Agapius (Maḥbūb ibn Qusṭanṭīn al-Manbijī, d. after 942) also began to produce chronographies in Arabic. With the sole exception of JOHN OF NIKIOU (d. around 700), post-conquest Coptic authors did not show interest in the genre, preferring to concentrate on the ecclesiastical history of Egypt, as the HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS OF ALEXANDRIA testifies. Yet, with the Ayyubid reunification of Syria and Egypt under Saladin and his successors and the completion of the Arabization process, intellectuals such as the circle of the AWLĀD AL-ʿASSĀL began to study Melkite (and Syriac, and Jewish) works in Arabic. This period has been referred to as the “Coptic Renaissance” (see Sidarus 2010). An early fruit of this new attitude, which we would nowadays call “ecumenical,” was the Kitāb al-Tawārīkh by the Egyptian monk ABU SHAKIR IBN AL-RĀHIB (ca. 1210–1290), which contains an elaborate chronology based on multiple Coptic, Melkite, Islamic, Jewish, and Greek sources (see Sidarus 1975 and the edition by Moawad, 2016–2022). Ibn al-ʿAmīd took the next step: he converted Ibn al-Rāhib’s chronological tables into a full-fledged narrative from the creation to his own time. Considering that the issue of Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s dependence on Ibn al-Rāhib has been evoked many times in literature since Budge 1896, it is worth stressing that Ibn al-ʿAmīd, while adopting Ibn al-Rāhib’s chronology, supplemented it with an independent historical account. Indeed, he mainly derived his narrative from the Bible and his Melkite sources, as far as the pre-Islamic part is concerned, and from his Muslim contemporary Ibn al-Wāṣil (1208–1298), the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, and his own observations for the second part. In its turn, Ibn al-Wāṣil’s work is a compendium and a prolongation of al-Ṭabarī’s gigantic universal history. Ibn al-ʿAmīd is therefore not dependent on Ibn al-Rāhib except for chronology and chronological discussions. By his own admission, we know that Ibn al-ʿAmīd began to write his chronography in October 1264, while he was in prison (Diez 2023: 23, 185). I have called this first redaction “the old recension.” After he completed his work, he was asked to produce a compendium, and he took advantage of this occasion to insert new materials and correct a few computational errors. This version of the Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh is by far the most widespread; hence I have proposed the name of “vulgate recension” for it. In his old age, Ibn al-ʿAmīd seems to have started a third version, although he did not complete it. This is the “late vulgate recension,” and differs from the vulgate text in a limited number of passages. After his death, the old recension was abridged and reworked by an anonymous scribe, who gave birth to what I refer to as the “interpolated recension.” A continuation of Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh was produced by Mufaḍḍal ibn Abī l-Faḍāʾil. There are good reasons to believe that he was Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s grandnephew (see Nau 1927–1928 and Diez 2023: 28–29). If this is the case, he represents the last known member of Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s family, whose documented history covers no less than two and a half centuries of Islamic rule. Reception The significance of the Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh can be shown from two angles. In terms of sources, the book preserves substantial quotations from Agapius’s chronography, which complement its direct tradition; several excerpts from a mysterious History of Rūzbihān, in fact a Seljukid mirror for princes fictionally set in pre-Islamic Persia; an elaborate biography of Alexander the Great that includes long quotations from Pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica; and several original contributions by Ibn al-ʿAmīd, mainly in the last section on Ayyubid history, but also in a fascinating list of Thirty World Wonders in chapter 15 of the first part (see Diez 2023: paragraphs 112–149, pages 286–318). Of even greater interest, however, is the reception history of the text. To start with, the Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh was widely read among Arabic-speaking Christians of all denominations, as proven by the large numbers of preserved manuscripts: 30 for the first part (complete or fragments), and at least 15 for the second. There also exist two Ethiopic translations, which seem to go back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (see Hoffmann 2021) and represent “a milestone in Ethiopic historiography” (Kropp 2016: 5). But the book also entered Islamic historiography: Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s style, barely distinguishable from that of his Muslim colleagues (Cahen 1974), certainly helped this appropriation process. Large excerpts of his chronography were copied by Shāfiʿ ibn ʿAlī (1252–1330), Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-ʿUmarī (1301–1349), and al-Qalqashandī (1355–1418), but above all the acclaimed Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406). The Maghrebi historian discovered the Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh in his final years in Egypt and used it extensively to flesh out his presentation of pre-Islamic history (Ferré 2002; Diez 2021). In fact, in the second book of his Kitāb al-ʿIbar, Ibn Khaldūn quotes Ibn al-ʿAmīd more than 70 times. On an equal footing with Orosius, “muʾarrīkh al-Rūm,” “the chronicler/historians of the Romans,” and “Yūsuf ben Gurion” (the Arabic Josippon), Ibn al-ʿAmīd was for Ibn Khaldūn “muʾarrikh al-Naṣārā,” “the chronicler/historian of the Christians” par excellence, an essential resource for Biblical, early Persian, Graeco-Roman, and ecclesiastical history. Ibn Khaldūn’s pupil al-Maqrīzī (1364–1441) also made ample reference to his Coptic predecessor in his works (see Penelas 2021). By a whim of chance, a manuscript containing the second part of Ibn al-ʿAmīd’s work, i.e., the Islamic section, was brought to Europe by the French humanist Guillaume Postel (1510–1581) and, after many vicissitudes, ended up in the hands of Thomas Erpenius (1584–1624). The Dutch Arabist, who was the first titular of the chair of Arabic at Leiden, edited a substantial part of the manuscript and translated it into Latin with the title of Historia Saracenica. Although Erpenius was not fortunate enough to see his book printed, having prematurely died of plague, his edition of Elmacinus—the Latin rendering of al-Makīn—was a breakthrough in seventeenth-century European culture. For the first time, the European Republic of Letters became acquainted with the broad lines of Islamic history. The Historia Saracenica was almost immediately translated into English and French, and Elmacinus became a standard reference. Via Erpenius’s translation, Ibn al-ʿAmīd was still quoted around 60 times by Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With the great scholarly editions of Muslim historians which appeared in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Historia Saracenica became superfluous, and its once-acclaimed author faded into oblivion. In 1955–1957 Cahen edited the last part of the Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh, from 1206 to the end, which he regarded as “intellectually comparable with the works of the major historians of the period, with a particularly sensitive interest in military administration, reflecting the professional career of the author” (Cahen and Coquin 1991: 144). While Cahen’s edition, further refined by Eddé and Micheau in 1994, is critical, Erpenius’s text is obviously outdated. In 2010 the Egyptian scholar ʿAlī Bakr Ḥasan produced a new version of Erpenius’s edition by correcting many errors ad sensum and adding several notes, but unfortunately, he did not have systematic recourse to the manuscript tradition (Diez 2023: 33). The pre-Islamic section of the Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh was obviously less interesting to early modern European Arabists. Still, it caught the attention, among others, of the Swiss Reform theologian Johann Hottinger (1620–1667), the famous Maronite scholar Giuseppe Simone Assemani (1687–1768), and, more recently, Gaston Wiet, Eugène Tisserant, and Martin Plessner. After several failed attempts, it is currently being edited with parallel English translation. A first volume, from the Creation to the end of the Achaemenids, was published in 2023, and a second volume, from Alexander the Great to Heraclius, is in the making

Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia

This Chronological List of New Entries includes new Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia entries added from 2016 to the present. These entries are digital born (new) and were not included in the 1991 print version of the Coptic Encyclopedia. This document is updated periodically as new CCE entries are added

Thinking Critically About AI

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and image synthesis models like DALL-E have come to typify the term "AI" in the public imagination. These software systems are often perceived as inscrutable, omniscient, naive, charming and – above all – very, very strange. This strangeness is accentuated by economic trends in automation of customer service, outreach and professional communications, and accelerated by massive investment in startups and infrastructure specifically built for LLMs. It has also become a dangerous strangeness, eroding trust in college applicants, students' homework submissions and information on the internet at large. Dr. Osborn employs his training in AI to explain and explicate the seemingly ongoing LLM frenzy, from its technical foundations to its economic context

Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia

PSEUDO-ATHANASIUS, ARABIC Ibrahim Saweros Keywords: Athanasius of Alexandria, Copto-Arabic Literature, Patristics, Pseudo-Athanasius, Christian Arabic Literature. Three dozen Arabic texts are falsely attributed to ATHANASIUS of Alexandria (ca. 296/298–2 May 373), the twentieth archbishop of Alexandria (Saweros 2020a: 146–147). The presence of Athanasius’ name in so many texts he did not write attests to the immortal importance of the archbishop, as so many anonymous authors continued to compose religious texts in Arabic or translate them from Coptic under his name. The collection of texts discussed here is a large mixture of all kinds of genres including Biblical commentaries, homilies, encomiums, letters, canons, and dogmatic writings (CPG 2298, 2154, 2302 and 2331; Witte 2011: 394–395; see also CANONS OF PSEUDO-ATHANASIUS). This collection has not received due attention from scholars, and most of it is still unedited. In the fourteenth century, IBN KABAR mentioned that Athanasius wrote answers to 45 questions from the Melkite Antiochus, related to Trinity, Unity, and the Creed (Samir 1971: 292). This well-known encyclopedic work entitled Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem (CPG 2257) was originally composed in Greek in a Syro-Palestinian milieu in the late seventh century. Hundreds of manuscripts contain translations of this text into Arabic, Slavonic, Armenian, Georgian, and Ge’ez, with several recensions in each language. An Arabic version is preserved in the oldest known manuscripts dating to 885/6 AD (Roggema 2020: 21). The original Greek text consists of 137 questions, while the Arabic versions include only 45. This text is of extraordinary importance, since it reflects polemics among Christians, Jews, and Muslims from the early ninth to tenth centuries. Later, it was used by Melkite authors as an apologetic text. The translator of the Arabic version says that the answers to these questions were sent down to Athanasius’s mouth by the Spirit of God (Roggema 2020: 24). The Quaestiones address issues that are still in demand today, such as how to explain the Trinity to Muslims, the creation of angels and the anecdote of Adam refusing to worship angels, the intercession of saints, and the cult of wooden crosses and icons. The name of Athanasius was used to give authority to some liturgical texts. A short addition to Gloria in Excelsis Deo was identified in both Syriac and Arabic in two manuscripts from Mingana’s collection dating to the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Ebied 2017: 68). The text is entitled Praise of the Angels on the Day of the Carnal Birth of Our Lord, which was known earlier in Greek form without an attribution to Athanasius. The same text is also attested in Coptic Museum MS 38, f. 175r–177r dating from the eighteenth century and given Athanasius’ name as author (Macomber 1995: Roll A-3, Item 2). Many Coptic-Arabic manuscripts assure that Athanasius of Alexandria was first to order his clergymen to consecrate the holy Chrism, but do not attribute the composition of the texts directly to him; for example, Coptic Museum Ms. 229, f. 14v, dated to 1706 (Macomber 1995: Roll A-17, Item 2). A prophecy from the prophet Daniel to Athanasius is preserved in two recensions. The longer one starts with Athanasius being accused of murdering Arsenius, the bishop of Hypsele; then, by a miracle, he manages to have himself exonerated. The rest of this text consists of long prophecies concerning the late Roman emperors and early Muslim rulers who would control Egypt. These historical prophecies about this group of rulers were given to Athanasius by Daniel while Athanasius was in exile. The nineteen kings are not mentioned by name but can be identified easily from the historical details provided by the prophecy. Among them, the time of the FATIMID Caliph al-Mustansir (1036–1094) is explained in detail. The shorter recension ignores the miraculous part of the story and starts with the prophecies (van Lent 2011: 291). Presumably the author of the text was a Christian clergyman who lived in the eleventh century and who possessed a wide knowledge of Coptic and Coptic-Arabic historical sources. A well-known apocalypse attributed to Athanasius in both Coptic and Arabic predicts the ARAB CONQUEST OF EGYPT (Martinez 1985: 364–371). The text was composed to address several issues including the feast of THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL, the evil deeds of monks and priests, and to comment on Leviticus 21:9. As in the Prophecy of Daniel mentioned previously, this apocalypse mentions Arsenius as an enemy of the church whom Athanasius overcame, concentrates on the difficult days the Copts will live in after Muslims rule Egypt, and notes that these prophecies were given to Athanasius in the time of his exile as well. In the eleventh century, Mikhail, Bishop of Tinnis, translated the church canons attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria from Coptic into Arabic. The Coptic version is partially preserved and lacks divisions, while the Arabic version is divided into 107 canons. Some scholars believe in the existence of a now-lost Greek original, and that this original text was composed not much later than the death of Athanasius (Hołasek 2020: 281–284). Regardless of its creation date, the text is a treasure for the study of the Coptic Church, its history, and its hierarchy. The Great Letter that Fell Down from Heaven to Pope Athanasius is a widely attested apocryphal text preserved in several languages including Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and Arabic. The Arabic version, which is kept in two separate recensions, narrates that Athanasius was leading the Eucharist in Rome when suddenly the daylight turned into darkness and a letter fell from heaven to him. Its sender was Christ himself; He ordered the earth’s inhabitants to worship him by visiting churches on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. Athanasius states in the text that this letter was not written by the fingers of a human, but by God Himself (Bittner 1906: 210-211). The oldest manuscript of the Great Letter text is in Greek and dated to the fifteenth century; however, there is evidence that the text was known from the seventh century. Its assigned date and place of composition are both problematic, but overall, this was a very popular text (Saweros 2020a: 142). Two homiletic works on Pentecost are falsely circulated under the name of Athanasius. The first short homily (Graf 1944: 314) begins with a short prayer, in which Athanasius asks God to allow the great grace of Pentecost to come upon him so he might preach to his congregation in a proper way. The homily is divided into well-connected parts and its continuity is clearly logical. Athanasius discusses the events of Pentecost and connects symbols from the Old Testament with the events of the New Testament. A long part of this homily consists of polemics against Jews who beheld Christ but were not able to mark him as the savior (Saweros 2018: 235–242). Presumably, this homily was composed in Arabic. In the second long homily, Pentecost is mentioned as its theme in the title, but is not the major subject of its contents. Instead, it largely discusses the nature of the three Hypostases and their relationships with each other. Athanasius explains why the Holy Spirit resembles fire and gives some commentaries on the symbolism of the number seven (Saweros 2020b: 174–182). This homily is marked by long, well-formulated Arabic sentences and a large number of Biblical quotations. Storytelling is missing in both homilies; they are merely paraenetic speeches. Both homilies have no parallels with pseudo-Athanasius’ Coptic sermon On Pentecost (CPG 2191; Saweros 2019: 57–82, 49–74). The Sahidic Coptic sermon discusses many themes, such as poverty and wealth and the Christian household, but not Pentecost itself. Pentecost as a main theme is the subject of the first Arabic sermon; the second one and the Sahidic version name the Pentecost feast in the title in order to fit with the liturgical year. These three sermons were certainly composed in Egypt, but setting a certain date for any of them is difficult. Graf identified many homilies praising the Archangel Michael being attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria (Graf 1944: 310–313); however, a large number of manuscripts containing the same theme were identified after his seminal work. Unlike the pseudo-Athanasian works on Pentecost, these homilies about Saint Michael are mostly narratives. Two miraculous stories are adapted as instruments to praise Saint Michael and entertain the audience. As the protagonist of these narratives, Michael appears as the one who presents endless support to their poor and oppressed human characters. In one narrative, Michael permits a poor boy to marry a rich girl in order that he might inherit her greedy father’s fortune, which was acquired by fraud. In another, Michael helps a lazy man to become rich simply because the man believes in Michael’s intercession (Kratshokovsky 1909: 448–454). These miraculous stories seem to have been composed so rapidly that even basic Christian morals may not be clear in the stories. The remaining homilies on Michael are marked by long glorifications of the archangel as leader of the celestial troops, whose requests on behalf of humans are always accepted before God. Warnings against sin and the description of the horrible end of sinners in Hell are always graphically presented in the Arabic homilies attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria. A Sahidic homily from the Hamuli collection entitled On Michael and Gabriel, the Archangels (CPG 2197; Saweros 2019: 3–16, 13–32) shares some features with the Arabic Michael homilies. It is very interesting that the name of the ARCHANGEL GABRIEL appears suddenly with Michael’s name as one of the main actors in the stories. Although the Arabic homilist focuses on Michael, it seems that Gabriel’s name may have slipped in inadvertently. With some caution, the Pseudo-Athanasian homilies on these angelic figures could be called a corpus. They exist in Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopic, share some features, and some are mere translations from each other (von Lemm 1912: 340–354). Literary works falsely attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria form neither a single corpus nor even a cycle (Saweros 2017: 138–151). The name of Athanasius is the only common feature among them, and even his name is sometimes missing in the most popular works that circulated in many languages and dialects in the Christian East, such as the Testament of Abraham (Guidi 1900: 157–180). Consequently, this false attribution happened mostly intentionally and rarely by mistake during the transmission of these texts. All of the texts have several recensions and are preserved in many manuscripts with different dates and places of composition; additionally, all of them have a long history of editorial process. Thus, every text is a good case study and at the same time contributes to understanding the personality of Athanasius of Alexandria in the Christian East and how he was received—or more accurately how his reception evolved—centuries after his death. This collection, connected only to the name of the saint who was daring enough to canonize the books of the Holy Bible (Brakke 2010: 61), needs a large scientific project to enable several enthusiastic scholars to edit and study the collection and shed more light on the history of Christian literature in the East