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Michael of Damrū

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Michael of Damrū Michael of Damrū Khāʾīl / Mīkhāʾīl al-Damrāwī, bishop of Tinnīs Date of Birth Shortly after 1000 Place of Birth Damrū, Egypt Date of Death Between 1051 and 1086 Place of Death Perhaps in or near Tinnīs, Egypt Biography The author of the principal source for Lives 56-65 (covering the years 880-1046) in Siyar al-bīʿa al-muqaddasa, ‘Biographies of the holy Church’ (commonly known as The history of the patriarchs of Alexan- dria) was one Khāʾil or Mīkhāʾil al-Damrāwī (Michael of Damrū). In the course of his biographies, Michael shares snippets of information about himself with his readers. For example, he was a child at a time when his father was abused for being a Christian, apparently during the persecution under the Caliph al-Ḥākim (r. 996-1021; difficulties for Christians reached a climax around 1012-13); it was during that dif- ficult time that the young Michael was befriended and taught by the pious layman Buqayra. He was ordained deacon by Zacharias, the 64th patriarch (1004-32), priest by Shenoute II, the 65th patriarch (1032-46), and bishop of Tinnīs by Christodoulos, the 66th patriarch (1046-77). He served Patriarch Shenoute II as scribe (despite his disapproval of that patriarch’s simoniacal practices), and was part of the delegation that in 1048/9 traveled to Malatiyyạ (Melitene) to deliver Patriarch Christodoulos’ synodical letter to his Syrian Orthodox counterpart, Patriarch John of Antioch. Bishop Michael was concerned to preserve and transmit the heritage of the Coptic Orthodox Church. When he could find no biographies of the patriarchs beyond that of Shenoute I, the 55th patriarch (859- 80), he composed – in Coptic – the Lives of the next ten patriarchs, completing the task in 1051. In addition, we know from a colophon of a manuscript of the Canons attributed to Patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria that Bishop Michael not only copied out that text, but did the editorial work of subdividing it into 107 paragraphs. We do not know when Bishop Michael died. No bishop from Tinnīs is recorded as being present at a synod in 1078; a list of Coptic bishops michael of damrū 85 from the year 1086, however, records one Samụ̄ ʾīl (Samuel) as bishop of Tinnīs. One might imagine that Bishop Michael was infirm in 1078 and died soon afterwards – but this is no more than a guess. MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION Primary W. Riedel and W.E. Crum, The canons of Athanasius of Alexandria, London, 1904 (colophon by Bishop Michael at p. 59 [Arabic text], pp. 69-70 [English trans.]; see editors’ comment at p. ix) MS Paris, BNF – Ar. 303 (14th century) (MS of the ‘primitive recension’ of Siyar al-bīʿa al-muqaddasa) A.S. Atiya, Y. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ and O.H.E. Khs.-Burmester (eds), History of the patriarchs of the Egyptian Church, known as the History of the holy Church, by Sawīrus ibn al-Mukaffạ ʿ, bishop of al-Ašmūnīn, ii, pt. ii, Cairo, 1948 (edition of the ‘Vulgate’ recension of Lives 56-65 of The history of the patriarchs of Alexandria, with English trans.; notes of importance to Michael’s biography are found at pp. 69-70, 112, 129- 30, 133-34, 142-47, 155, and 159-61 in the Arabic text, corresponding, respectively, to pp. 102, 168, 196-97, 202-4, 215-23, 235, and 240-44 in the English trans.) A.S. Atiya, Y. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ and O.H.E. Khs.-Burmester (eds), History of the patriarchs of the Egyptian Church, known as the History of the holy Church, by Sawīrus ibn al-Mukaffạ ʿ, bishop of al-Ašmūnīn, ii, pt. iii, Cairo, 1959 (for the list of bishops in AD 1078, see pp. 207-8 [Arabic text], pp. 321-22 [English trans.]; for the list of bishops in AD 1086, see pp. 214-15 [Arabic text], pp. 334-36 [English trans.]) Shams al-Riʾāsa Abū l-Barakāt ibn Kabar, Misbāḥ ̣ al-zulmạ fī īḍāḥ al-khidma, ed. Samīr Khalīl, Cairo, 1971, p. 186 (Bishop Michael’s note in the Can- ons of Athanasius) Secondary J. den Heijer, ‘Réflexions sur la composition de l’Histoire des Patriarches d’Alexandrie. Les auteurs des sources coptes’, in W. Godlewski (ed.), Coptic studies, Warsaw, 1990, 107-13, pp. 112-13 J. den Heijer, Mawhūb ibn Mansūṛ ibn Mufarriğ et l’historiographie copto-arabe. Étude sur la composition de l’Histoire des patriarches d’Alexandrie, Louvain, 1989 (CSCO 513), pp. 9, 149-54 D.W. Johnson, ‘Further remarks on the Arabic history of the patriarchs of Alexandria’, OC 61 (1977) 103-16, p. 110.
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