Coptsinmodernity

Copts in Modernity

Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium of Coptic Studies, Melbourne, 13–16 July 2018

Edited by Lisa Agaiby Mark N. Swanson Nelly van Doorn-Harder

leiden | boston

Preface xi List of Figures and Tables xiii Notes on Contributors xvii Notes on Transliteration and Common Abbreviations xxii

Introduction 1 Lisa Agaiby, Mark Swanson and Nelly van Doorn-Harder

part 1 History

1 The Ottoman Tanzimat Edict of 1856 and Its Consequences for the Christians of Egypt: The Rashomon Effect in Coptic History 21 Heather J. Sharkey

2 A Correspondence between Rome and Alexandria in the Middle Ages: An Example from the Eighteenth Century 39 Magdi Awad

3 A New Contribution to Understanding the Pastoral Care of Pope Peter vii (1809–1852) 56 Bigoul El-Suriany

4 Pope Mark viii (1796–1809), the Author of Psalis for St. Mark 81 Youhanna N. Youssef

5 Printing the Medieval Copto-Arabic Heritage: From the ‘Golden Age’ to the Printed Page 106 Mark N. Swanson

6 The Coptic Papacy in the Twentieth Century and beyond: A Study of the Papal Selection Process in the Modern Era 134 Peter H. Cosman

part 2 Education, Leadership, and Service

7 Habib Girgis: Reformer of Religious and Theological Education in the Coptic Orthodox Church 155 Bishop Suriel

8 An Example of Coptic Leadership and Patronage: Lay-Archon Louis Zikri Wissa and Sixty Years Commitment in the Sunday School Movement 179 Myriam Wissa

9 Bishop Samuel’s Ministry of Teaching and Serving: The Formative Years 199 Cherubim Saed and Nelly van Doorn-Harder

10 The Idea of Personal Ascetic Reform in Kyrillos vi (1902–1971) 216 Daniel Fanous

11 “Draughts of Love and Divine Revelations”: Experiential Theology in Matta Al-Miskīn and Fayek M. Ishak 238 Samuel Kaldas

12 A Multidimensional Understanding of Sunday School in the Coptic Orthodox Tradition 257 Michael Salib

13 Mother Irini’s Visions of Leadership: Pachomian Rule and Teaching of the Fathers 270 Nelly van Doorn-Harder

part 3 Identity and Material Culture

14 “Sign of Martyrdom, Heresy and Pride”: The Christian Coptic Tattoo and the Construction of Coptic Identity 295 Nebojsa Tumara

15 The Cenotaph in the Cave Church of St. Paul the Hermit at the Red Sea: A Case Study of a Dream in the Twentieth Century 321 Lisa Agaiby and Shady Nessim

16 Coptic Religious Heritage: Is There a Future for the Past? 357 Karel Innemée

17 The Ideological Dimensions of Coptic Music Theory: Evolution of Musical Theorization as a Cultural Strategy 390 Nicholas Ragheb

Index of Ancient/Medieval Sources 417 Index of Manuscripts 418 Index of Modern Authors 419 Index of Subjects 424

Lisa Agaiby, Mark Swanson and Nelly van Doorn-Harder

To understand human history and human life, it is necessary to understand religion and in the contemporary world one must understand other nations, ideologies and faith in order to grasp the meaning of life, as seen from perspectives often very different from our own.1 ∵

Since first launching its series of symposia in 2002,2 St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Theological College in Melbourne3—a member of the Australian

1 Ninian Smart, The Phenomenon of Christianity (London: Collins, 1979), 312. 2 The first symposium in 2002 was themed ‘St. Athanasius in Christian Tradition’; the second held in 2003 was themed ‘St. Cyril of Alexandria’; the third in 2007 was themed ‘Coptic Monas- ticism’; and the fourth in 2013 was themed ‘St. Severus of Antioch: His Times and Legacy’. 3 Built upon the pioneering efforts of Mr Louis Wahba, who championed the cause to form a center to provide people within the Diocese of Melbourne quality Christian Orthodox theological education and spiritual formation, St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Theological College (sac) was established by Bishop Suriel, the former dean of the College, in 2000. Over the years the College hosted a number of significant symposia and attracted internationally acclaimed guest lecturers. A milestone was reached in 2012 when sac became the eleventh member college of the collegiate University of Divinity, and the first accredited Coptic Ortho- dox Theological College in the world. sac’s primary purpose is to provide theological, liturgical, spiritual, and clergy formation, as well as provide for those in general leadership roles within the parishes and other settings, such as religious educators, youth workers or counsel- lors, advanced theological study and specialized formational ministry to equip them to serve in a relevant, meaningful and engaging way. Furthermore, sac encourages cross-institutional and cross-denominational study, recognizing they are vital for Christian formation and ecumenical understanding, and thereby enabling the wider Australian community to learn about and experience the uniqueness of Coptic Orthodoxy. Since 2016, the College has offered all courses both in face-to-face and online modes, hence expanding sac’s footprint both nation- ally and internationally. Over the years since accreditation, the College successively grew its credentials and today offers specializations in the disciplines of Theology (Systematic, Pastoral, Moral), Biblical Studies and Biblical Languages, Mission and Ministry, Religious Edu- cation, Counselling, Church History, and Coptic Studies. sac offers awards for study from diploma to doctoral levels. For more information go to: www.sac.edu.au/.

© Lisa Agaiby et al., 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004446564_002 For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV 2 agaiby, swanson and van doorn-harder collegiate University of Divinity4—has provided a forum for the interdisci- plinary exchange of knowledge, research and collaboration between scholars, students, and the general public on themes pertaining to Coptic Studies. These symposia have also captured the growing hopes as well as concerns about mod- ernizing the preservation of Coptic religious as well as communal identity. The growth in the interest of Coptic Studies occurred round about the same time as the unprecedented revival that has characterized the Coptic Church from the early twentieth century; a revival that has had significant consequences within the context of modern Egyptian culture and society. The century also witnessed the phenomenon of emigration of many well-to-do Copts that began in the 1950s with Nasser’s nationalization policies, followed by a deteriorating domestic economic situation, in particular following Egypt’s defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and then because of the resurgence of political Islam in Egypt from the early 1970s onwards. Consequently, these emigrant Copts established churches in Europe, North America, Canada, and Australia that have become vibrant diaspora communities. It has been 50 years since the establishment of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Australia,5 and to celebrate the occasion, as well as acknowledge the reli-

4 The University of Divinity was established in 1910 as the Melbourne College of Divinity for the purposes of providing tertiary level theological education to Australians and to be a self- accrediting issuer of degrees. In 2012 the College gained approval to become Australia’s first university of specialization, offering awards in theology, philosophy, counselling, and ministry from diploma to doctoral levels. The University of Divinity is constituted by eleven theological colleges representing eight denominations: Anglican, Baptist, Churches of Christ, Coptic Orthodox, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army, and Uniting Church in Aus- tralia. The University’s vision is to address the issues of the contemporary world through critical engagement with Christian theological traditions. For more information go to: www .divinity.edu.au/. 5 The mid-60s marked the slow migration of Copts into Australia and they settled mostly in the major Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne where employment was expanding. By 1967, there were around 20 to 30 families who constituted the Coptic community in Sydney. In July 1967 they sent a letter to Pope Kyrillos vi (1902–1971) requesting that a Coptic Church be established and a priest be sent to serve the small growing community in Sydney. In Novem- ber 1967 Bishop Samuel (1920–1981), the bishop for Public, Ecumenical and Social Services, responded by letter saying that His Holiness would ordain for them a priest. In 1968 Fr. Mina Nematalla (1927–2000), the nephew of Pope Kyrillos vi, was ordained to be the first priest for Australia. Arriving by ship into the port of Melbourne on January 21, 1969, he prayed the first Coptic liturgy on Australian soil in an Antiochian Orthodox Church, before he set sail to Syd- ney. Once a month Fr. Mina would travel to Melbourne to celebrate the liturgy for the small Coptic community there. By 1969 the number of Coptic families in Melbourne had grown to around 30, and so they likewise wrote to the patriarch requesting a permanent priest to serve the growing community. Consent was given to establish Australia’s second Coptic church in

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV introduction 3 gious renaissance that has taken place within the Coptic Church in contemporary times, St. Athanasius College hosted its fifth international symposium of Coptic Studies themed Copts in Modernity that focused on the history of the Coptic Church and community between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. Held at the College’s new state-of-the-art city campus in Eporo Tower Melbourne Australia from Friday 13 July to Monday 16 July 2018, the symposium was attended by more than 150 participants and brought together 27 local and international scholars from Scotland, London, Geneva, Amsterdam, Cairo, Cal- ifornia, Chicago, North Carolina, Moscow, Tokyo, as well as from Sydney and Melbourne. More than 60 vibrant youth and members of the Coptic community gra- ciously volunteered their time and efforts to organize the logistics and ensure the smooth running of the three and a half intensive days of presentations and discussions. They also generously supported the event financially. The success of the symposium would not have been possible without their generosity and one-heartedness, which are testimony to the vibrancy of this great Coptic community in Melbourne, which this book celebrates. In planning the symposium, the organizers sought to bring together both established and newer scholars to present on their current research as well as identify areas for future collaboration and investigation. No single symposium or collection of articles can embrace the range, diversity, and richness of the scholarship presented on subjects ranging from history, art history, archaeology, anthropology, literature, liturgy, theology, and other areas. The chapters structured in this volume are illustrative of the three broad themes of the symposium. The first theme, history, gathers studies that look back to the nineteenth and even late eighteenth centuries to understand the realities of the twentieth and twenty-first. The second theme, education, leadership and service, explores the role of religious education in the revival of the Coptic Church. Furthermore, several of the chapters in this section analyze how Coptic religious principles influenced the ideas of leadership and service of several important Coptic leaders that resulted

Melbourne and Fr. Victor Raphael (1942–2008) was ordained to serve the community in Mel- bourne, arriving in Melbourne by plane in April 1971. From its humble beginnings in 1969, the Coptic Church in Australia has grown and flourished in a remarkable manner. There are two vibrant dioceses with multiple churches and priests—many of whom are first- and second-generation Australians—in every State of Australia, as well as monasteries, schools, theological colleges, and a nursing home. Today, figures suggest the existence in Australia of over 100,000 Copts who, together with Orthodox of other ethnic origins, constitute the fourth largest Christian body in the Australian continent.

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV 4 agaiby, swanson and van doorn-harder in spiritual renewal of the Church. The chapters of the final theme, identity and material culture, draw upon a broad range of material and visual culture to exemplify the role they play in creating and recreating identi- ties.

1 Part One: History

The essays in this volume are intended as contributions to our understanding of the history of the Coptic Orthodox Church and community ‘in Modernity.’ While many speakers at the Melbourne symposium (and contributors to this volume) chose to focus on twentieth- and twenty-first-century developments, one group of papers took a step further back in time, to seek the roots of issues faced by the last three or four generations in a period roughly a century and a half in length, from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth century. Alternatively, following traditional Coptic Orthodox historiographical practice, we can define the period as that stretching from the patriarchate of John (Yūʾannis) xviii (the 107th patriarch, 1769–1796) to that of Cyril (Kīrillus) v (the 112th patriarch, 1874–1927).6 This result, which emerged organically from the decisions of those who were invited to the symposium, is not without interest. Coptic historiography often takes the year 1798, when the French under Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Egypt, as a convenient break between the pre- modern and the modern.7 We begin earlier, suggesting that important themes of this volume span the period from the late eighteenth century to the twentieth (and beyond), e.g. the role of laity in the Church (from the lay archons who provided leadership and patronage to the Church in the late Ottoman period, to lay leaders in the Sunday School Movement in the twentieth century);8 or the engagement of the Church with foreign Christians (from Catholic attempts to bring the Copts under Roman obedience in the eighteenth century, to Bishop

6 Several papers deal explicitly with particular patriarchs: John xviii (Awad), Mark viii (Youssef), and Peter vii (Bigoul). Swanson mentions Cyril iv, Demetrius ii, and Cyril v in passing, while Sharkey adds more detail on Demetrius ii. 7 See, for example, Magdi Guirguis and Nelly van Doorn-Harder, The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership from the Ottoman Period to the Present, The Popes of Egypt 3 (Cairo and New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2011). There, Part Two on “The Modern Coptic Papacy” covers the period 1798–2011. Note that van Doorn-Harder points to the difficulty of identifying “moments in Coptic history that represent a radical break with the past;”Emergence, 58. 8 See, respectively, the contributions of Youhanna N. Youssef and Myriam Wissa.

Samuel’s active participation in the work of the World Council of Churches in the twentieth).9 Throughout this period (John xviii–Cyril v), the Coptic Orthodox Church faced a number of external challenges. In the first place, it had to find its place against a complex political backdrop. For much of the period Egypt was officially a province of the Ottoman Empire (and thus theoretically, at least, subject to Ottoman policies with regard to the Empire’s diverse religious communities). Under the Ottoman umbrella, however, the dynasty established by Muḥammad ʿAlī had a significant degree of autonomy for much of the nineteenth century, until intervention by the British created a third level of rule.The fact of nested or parallel structures of authority continued even after Egypt’s independence in 1922, with King, parliament, and British occupiers maneu- vering and competing for power until the Revolution and the Suez Crisis of the 1950s. Heather J. Sharkey’s chapter on “The Ottoman Tanzimat Edict of 1856 and its Consequences for the Christians of Egypt” recalls the nineteenth- century realities and investigates assessments of the Ottoman Tanzimat Edict by three twentieth-century thinkers, a Presbyterian missionary, a Coptic historian, and a Muslim civil rights advocate. Their various concerns lead not only to different (and incompatible) assessments of the Edict, but also to different constructions of the place and role of Coptic Orthodox Christians (patriotic nationalists? or an oppressed minority?) in contemporary Egyptian society. At the same time that Copts had to find their way against a background of parallel or nested governmental structures, their community was attracting attention from other Christian communities, some of which saw the Copts as potential converts (or ‘returnees’ to the true fold). Roman Catholic efforts to bring the Copts ‘back’ to Roman obedience had been a prominent feature of the relationship between the churches since the failed union attempt of the Council of Florence in the fifteenth century; such union attempts were renewed in the early modern period, as is shown in Magdi Awad’s “A Corre- spondence between the Church of Rome and the Coptic Church of Alexandria.” Awad publishes the text and translation of the papal delegate Bartholomew’s attempt to dictate to Coptic pope John xviii (the 107th patriarch, 1769–1796) a letter of submission to the Roman pontiff; he then introduces the scathing response of Anbā Yūsab, bishop of Jirjā and Akhmīm (in office 1769–1826), the leading Coptic theologian of the period and a tireless foe of the Catholic mis-

9 See, respectively, Magdi Awad’s contribution, and that of Cherubim Saed and Nelly van- Doorn Harder.

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV 6 agaiby, swanson and van doorn-harder sionaries.10The Copts also attracted the attention of the (Chalcedonian) Ortho- dox Russians, who approached them with offers of protection.11 The complex ecclesiastical situation in the nineteenth century would also include American Presbyterian mission activity; Heather J. Sharkey’s article mentions both the hopes of the Protestant missionaries and the anti-Protestant measures of Pope Demetrius ii (the 111th patriarch, 1862–1870). In addition to these ecclesiastical rivals (Catholic, Chalcedonian Orthodox, and Protestant), relationships with the Ethiopian ‘sister’ Church could also be complex; this is one of the themes of Bigoul el-Suriany’s chapter, “A New Contribution to Understanding the Pastoral Care of Pope Peter vii (1809–1852),” although he shows, by introducing a volume of Treatises, Discourses, and Letters by this patriarch, that the challenges facing the Coptic community of his time were both external and internal in nature. In spite of political upheavals (such as the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798) and epidemics (outbreaks of plague in 1773 and 1838 are mentioned in these pages), the period under consideration here was a critical one for the development of Coptic material culture.Wealthy and influential lay Copts provided patronage (and secured necessary permissions) for the construction and reconstruction of monasteries and churches; the copying and restoration of manuscripts; and the writing of icons.12 The documentation of such activities under Mark viii (the 108th patriarch, 1796–1809) as well as his predeces- sor John xviii, is one feature of Youhanna N. Youssef’s contribution, “Pope Mark viii (1796–1809), the Author of Psalis for St. Mark.” Among other exam- ples, we learn how the great Coptic lay notable al-muʿallim Ibrāhīm al-Jawharī secured permission for the building of a new cathedral: that of St. Mark at al-Azbakiyya in Cairo.Youssef then provides us with the Coptic text and translation of a Psali for St. Mark that Pope Mark himself—so the author convincingly argues—composed for the consecration of the cathedral.

10 The ongoing struggle against the Catholic missionary presence in Egypt is clear also from the contributions of Youhanna N. Youssef and Bigoul el-Suriany. 11 Mentioned in the contribution by Fr. Bigoul el-Suriany. At the Melbourne symposium, Herman Krylov’s paper on “The Perspectives of Unity between the Orthodox and Non- Orthodox Churches” gave special attention to the polymath Russian Orthodox scholar and bishop Porfirius (Uspenskiy, 1804–1885), who visited Egypt twice, met the patriarch, and in 1856 wrote the first Russian-language monograph about the Copts. 12 On this material revival within the Coptic Orthodox community, see Magdi Guirguis and Nelly van Doorn-Harder, Emergence, Chapter 2; William Lyster (ed.), The Cave Church of Paul the Hermit at the Monastery of St. Paul in Egypt (Cairo: The American Research Center in Egypt; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).

Running through the contributions here is a concern for books and educational resources. Many of the patriarchs mentioned here, and their associates, were authors or translators: BishopYūsāb of Jirjā and Akhmīm (Awad,Youssef); Pope Mark viii (Youssef); Pope Peter vii (Bigoul). The popes from John xviii (Youssef) to Peter vii (Bigoul) played a major role in the development of a Patri- archal Library. Peter’s successor, Pope Cyril iv (the 110th patriarch, 1854–1861), is remembered for the welcome he accorded to a printing press. While that press appears to have lain idle during the patriarchate of his successor Pope Demetrius ii (1862–1870), during the interim that followed Demetrius’s death, the Coptic National Press (al-Maṭbaʿah al-Qibṭiyyah al-Ahliyyah) began to pro- duce theological and liturgical books, starting a wave of publication that would, by the end of the century, see books published with a portrait of Pope Cyril v (the 112th patriarch, 1874–1927) following the title page. Mark Swanson’s “Print- ing the Medieval Copto-Arabic Heritage” surveys the medieval Christian Ara- bic texts that were published between 1870 and 1910, providing one particular stream of resources13 for the assertion and renewal of an Orthodox theology in an environment in which Western Catholic and Protestant books were already widely available. All these essays serve to remind us that the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are of considerable importance for understanding the Coptic Ortho- dox Church of today. Peter Cosman’s contribution, “The Coptic Papacy in the Twentieth Century and Beyond,” examines the issue of the selection of the patriarch, in particular, the recent practice of selecting the patriarch from among the bishops14 rather than (as once had been the case) primarily from among the monks. This twentieth-century phenomenon was not without pre- cedent, however. Pope Peter vii had been Metropolitan-at-Large before his elevation to the patriarchate in 1809. Cosman’s essay, which examines the past in order to reflect on the future of leadership in the Coptic Orthodox Church, serves as a bridge to the next section, where this theme of leadership is taken up explicitly.

13 Another stream of resources would be specifically patristic material, first in medieval but eventually in modern Arabic translations. The development of a library of patristic sources in twentieth-century Egypt was presented at the Melbourne symposium on 15 July 2018 in a paper by Girgis el-Antony titled “The Revival of Patristic Literature in the Twen- tieth Century.” 14 With the notable exception of the hermit monk Mina as Pope Cyril vi (the 116th patriarch) in 1959. See Daniel Fanous’s contribution to the present volume.

2 Part Two: Education, Leadership, and Service

The second part of this book deals with the overarching themes of religious and spiritual renewal, and educational developments that started during the nineteenth and matured during the twentieth century. It is hard to identify precisely at what point to begin a history of the Copts ‘in modernity’ and Copts started to benefit from the new educational opportunities that triggered significant soci- etial changes. The question is how to identify moments in Coptic history that have special significance for the creation of ‘modernity.’ For the nineteenth century, we could take the 1820s when Protestant missionaries started to arrive in Egypt and challenged Coptic identity and the teaching of the Coptic Church. We could also choose the year 1854, when Pope Kyrillos iv launched a refor- mation of the Church and community in reaction to the missionary activities. Another break with the past took place in 1856, when the Ottomans who ruled Egypt at the time, lifted the special restrictions for Christians living under Mus- lim law. Moreover, many Copts refer to the year 1874 as the ‘awakening,’ since in that year the Coptic Community Council (al-Majlis al-Milli) was established. The educational level of the Coptic upper class had surpassed that of the clergy, and many had adopted new socio-cultural norms, attitudes, and practices. The Council allowed several of these lay leaders to participate in Church gover- nance. We could say for sure that for the Copts the modern period started between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth when the societal frame of reference in general shifted to their advantage. Egyptian society experienced profound changes that allowed the Coptic community to open its own schools, create printed media, and rediscover its own history and heritage. Some Copts travelled abroad and the ideas they brought back opened new vistas for the community. A signifying year was 1918, when Archdeacon Habib Girgis started a comprehensive project to teach Coptic children and youth about the Bible.15 At the beginning of the twentieth century, as the educational level of many Copts kept rising, church leaders realized that members of the clergy needed to keep up with the flocks in their care. Future clergy started to attend the Coptic Seminary where, especially under the leadership of Archdeacon Habib Girgis (1876–1951), future graduates also started to play crucial roles in creating lessons they could teach Coptic children in the Sunday Schools. In part, they

15 Also see Magdi Guirguis and Nelly van Doorn-Harder, The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy, 57–59.

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV introduction 9 were reacting to the ever-increasing activities of Western Protestant missionaries who opened schools that changed the mindset of an entire nation. Using the Sunday School models brought by the Protestant missions, Habib Girgis created new curricula that catered to Coptic children. Nowadays, it has become widely accepted that the brilliant move to edu- cate the children became the foundation of a revival and renewal of the Coptic Church. Girgis inspired many Coptic lay leaders to become active in what later became the Sunday School Movement. Around the time of his death in 1951, a growing number of former Sunday School volunteers moved into church leadership positions. Some went on to join the ranks of monks, nuns, and priests, while others pursued their lay vocation while working as medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, and teachers. They all worked together in teams and stayed in close contact even after some of them had entered into a monastery. While in the context of this revival, some names of influential leaders are engraved in the mind of every Copt, those of most of the lay people are not as well known. Everybody has heard of Archdeacon Habib Girgis, Pope Kyril- los vi (1959–1971), Pope Shenouda iii (1971–2012), Bishop Samuel, the first Cop- tic Bishop for Public, Ecumenical, and Social Services (1962–1981), Fr. Matta el-Miskin (1919–2006), the prolific writer and superior of the Monastery of St. Macarius, and Mother Irini (1936–2006), the Mother Superior of the Abu Saifein Convent for Women. However, while they have become the represen- tatives and symbols of Coptic growth and renewal, we have little information about the details of the strategies they used when facing their specific tasks.The genius of their work lies not just in the fact that they encouraged the Copts to create new expressions of self-understanding, identity, and belonging, but that their vision opened new vistas of communal imagination. They helped create new models for collective Coptic memories, religious practices, material land- scapes, and soundscapes.16 The memories of these individuals are engraved in Coptic memories and have become part of the contemporary history. Their presence seems to prove the point made by Coptic historian Samuel Moawad that Coptic history “depended more on people than on events.”17 The chapters in this part of the book highlight the growing body of research into the lives and work of these individuals. They provide closer insights into the accom-

16 Nelly van Doorn-Harder, “Introduction: Creating and MaintainingTradition in Modernity,” in Copts in Context: Negotiating Identity, Tradition, and Modernity, ed. Nelly van Doorn- Harder (Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2017), 6. 17 Samuel Moawad, “Coptic Historiography,” in Coptic Civilization: Two Thousand Years of Christianity in Egypt, ed. Gawdat Gabra (Cairo and New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2008), 5.

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV 10 agaiby, swanson and van doorn-harder plishments of these leaders and show how they prepared the way for the next generations of Copts living in and outside Egypt. The first four chapters in this section, by Bishop Suriel, Myriam Wissa, Cherubim Saed with Nelly van Doorn-Harder, and Daniel Fanous, directly or indirectly connect with Habib Girgis’s work. The contributions by Samuel Kaldas and Michael Salib pose questions about how religious education and practice will evolve as the Coptic Church finds new ways to adapt to ever- changing circumstances. The last chapter focuses on the role of women who pursue non-clerical church careers, with Nelly van Doorn-Harder’s analysis of the work of Mother-Superior Ummina Irini. In the first chapter, Bishop Suriel presents details that help us gain a deeper understanding of the philosophies underlying Habib Girgis’s ideas about religious education and community development. Among others, Bishop Suriel describes Girgis’s meticulous approach and careful planning in developing the Sunday School Movement, and in his production of religious materials and providing theological training for the volunteers. Furthermore, we learn that the Rural Diaconate project that Bishop Samuel launched in 1959 had deep roots in Girgis’s vision for the education and guidance of villagers. His efforts not only focused on children, but also included adults, giving high priority to those living in the countryside. Before visiting the villages, Girgis required the volunteers to prepare themselves by fasting and praying, alone and in groups. At the same time, they had to study the local situation and consult maps to know where to find the Coptic families. As we read in the chapter by Cherubim and Van Doorn-Harder, during the time that the future Bishop Samuel served as a young volunteer in St. Mark’s Church in Giza, the circle around him followed the same practice. Girgis instructed the volunteers to engage the entire village population, encourag- ing the inhabitants to discuss what they learned from the Bible studies. Fur- thermore, to provide the volunteers with adequate materials, Girgis created materials for teaching the Coptic liturgy and hymns and had an abundance of religious pictures printed that must have been an attractive visual aid in service. Using primary materials from an unpublished Arabic manuscript by Archon Louis Zikri Wissa (1917–1997), Myriam Wissa’s chapter about this long-serving lay leader shows how influential lay members of the Sunday School Movement were and shows the influential role played by lay people in Girgis’s Sunday School Movement. The chapter also reveals the role the archons played at crucial moments of Coptic history, for example during the election of a new pope. The chapter about Bishop Samuel illustrates the roots of a dedicated Church leader’s religious formation, that was based on strong models in the parental

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV introduction 11 home, theological education, and intensive spiritual guidance.The chapter also provides an example of how Habib Girgis prepared the new generation of Sun- day School leaders by organizing special courses for them at the Theological College. One day a week, Girgis dedicated himself to teaching the small group of students Coptic hymns. It is common knowledge that Pope Kyrillos vi played a pivotal role in the renewal of the Coptic Church, and his reign is now seen as the most formative time in this process. Laying the first stone for the rebuilding of the Monastery of St. Menas in Mareotis (in November 1959) was a watershed moment that indicated the Pope’s desire to retrieve the spiritual heritage of the early desert fathers by rebuilding and reviving monastic life. Daniel Fanous’s chapter explains how Pope Kyrillos vi populated new monasteries. Building on the Sunday School Movement principles of education and discipleship, he added the element of reforming the individual through personal ascetic practices. The students who lived in his boarding house next to the church of St. Menas in Old Cairo were the first cohort to practice this intense dedi- cation to living pure lives. Among them were future leaders who would prepare the Coptic Church for a future in and outside Egypt: Bishop Samuel, Bishop Athanasius of Beni Suef, Pope Shenouda iii, and Fr. Matta al-Miskin. Their prayers, fasting, and intensive study of the Scriptures and the writings of the early fathers, laid the foundation for a revolutionary reform of the Coptic Church.18 In one of his most influential books, Orthodox Prayer Life, Fr. Matta al-Miskin (Matthew the Poor) explained that the writings of the early fathers were not just theoretical, intellectual knowledge, but were grounded in their own deep spiritual experiences.19 Samuel Kaldas explains in his chapter about Matta al- Miskin and Fayek M. Ishak, the importance of this form of experiential theology for the Coptic Church today. Rather than focusing on Coptic ancestry, it encourages a new generation of members to find God for themselves within the Church and its heritage.

18 Although there are no specific chapters devoted to Pope Shenouda iii (the 117th patriarch, 1971–2012) in this volume, he appears frequently in several chapters under his succession of names: Nazir Gayed; Fr. Antonios of the Monastery of the Syrians; Bishop (for Religious Education) Shenouda; and Pope Shenouda iii. The editors’ sense is that it may still be too early for scholarly studies about this towering figure of the generation just past, but no doubt he will be the subject of many studies and doctoral dissertations in the course of this next decade. 19 Matthew the Poor, Orthodox Prayer Life, translated by the Monastery of St. Macarius the Great (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003), 24.

Michael Salib’s chapter also looks at the future as he discusses the real- ity that the Sunday School curriculum constantly needs to be adapted to the demands of the times. According to Salib’s analysis, Habib Girgis did not go as far as developing a theology of Christian education. In his view, historic realities within the Sunday School Movement have contributed to the lack of such a theology. However, a ministry focused on teaching with secondary activities such as Bible camps, excursions, and home visits no longer suffices. A solid Ortho- dox theology of Christian education could open avenues for the creation of new approaches to religious education in the Coptic Church. Nelly van Doorn-Harder analyzes some of the elements underlying Mother Irini’s strategies as a monastic leader. In spite of the fact that she was famous for the many miracles that occurred because of her intercessory prayers, few knew exactly how she taught and managed her community. Shielding herself from the world in order to keep out uninvited forms of fame, Mother Irini’s life mostly played out between the four walls of her convent in Old Cairo. As we shall see, her approach was deeply intertwined with Pope Kyrillos vi’s focus on individual ascetic reform. Foregrounding the application of the monastic rule of St. Pachomius, she insisted that her nuns read the early desert fathers and mothers, and highlighted the spiritual experiences underlying these writings. Focusing on women-oriented Coptic materials and visual culture, she also created spaces for women’s needs and perspectives. As the Church continues to grow and respond to the mounting needs within the community, it actively cultivates the commonalties and connections that are themselves the places where cultural identity is lodged. It is this underlying aspect that is the theme of the final section of this book.

3 Part Three: Identity and Material Culture

The four articles in this section present a variety of ways in which Coptic identity is constructed and understood. Identity may be defined as the self- understanding of a certain group, its sense of belonging, and the commonal- ities and connections between and among its members.20 Identity affects the way people perceive, present and represent themselves, and how they are perceived by others.

20 Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper, “Beyond ‘Identity’,” Theory and Society 29 (2000): 1–47.

It is perhaps not surprising that Copts share many social and cultural simi- larities with the Egyptian Muslim population,21 but at the same time, they rely on their own discursive and symbolic resources to draw the boundary lines that set them apart as a group in its own right.22 These efforts of constructing, re-constructing, and strengthening a uniquely Coptic identity create subtle boundaries in orientation and standards that accumulate into a set of markers that observers of the Coptic Church have identified as “Copticness.”23 In shaping and communicating identity, material and visual cultures play significant roles but they can also become expressive idioms and mediums for the articulation of resistance to structures of domination, typical of minority groups.24 Presenting how ethnically distinctive symbols can be an effective means for subordinated people to use silence to “speak out” and “fight back,”25 Nebojsa Tumara, in his contribution “Sign of Martyrdom, Heresy and Pride: The Christian Coptic Tattoo and the Construction of Coptic Identity,” explores the “most pronounced” mark of Coptic identity—a small tattooed cross—and how the symbol is a powerful declaration of Coptic identity and Christian con- sciousness as well as an expression of resistance to Islamic authority. He offers a fascinating discussion on the origin and meaning behind the Coptic tattoo and how this symbol has been and continues to be a sign of devotional piety, as much as it is a sign of marginalization and resistance to a dominating Islamic society. Quite often, the formation and continuation of cultural identity is deeply rooted in religious ideology,26 and the process by which a group ensures their continuity is by preserving their collective knowledge from one generation to the next. In the case where knowledge is lacking or mysteries pertaining to faith

21 See Paul Sedra, “Class Cleavages and Ethnic Conflict: Coptic Christian Communities in Modern Egyptian Politics,”Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 10.2 (1999): 219–235. 22 Andreas Wimmer, Ethnic Boundary Making: Institutions, Power, Networks (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 63. 23 Elizabeth Iskander, Sectarian Conflict in Egypt: Coptic Media, Identity and Representation (London: Routledge, 2012), 11–17. See also Nelly van Doorn-Harder (ed.), Copts in Context: Negotiating Identity, Tradition, and Modernity (Columbia SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2017), 1–20. 24 M.C. Beaudry, L.J. Cook, and S.A. Mrozowski, “Artifacts and Active Voices: Material Culture as Social Discourse,” in The Archaeology of Inequality, ed. Randall H. McGuire and Robert Paynter (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), 150–191. 25 Jeanette Rodriguez and Ted Fortier, Cultural Memory: Resistance, Faith, and Identity (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009), 1–4. See also Beaudry et al., “Artifacts and Active Voices.” 26 Ibid., 1–4.

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV 14 agaiby, swanson and van doorn-harder and tradition are uncertain, Copts throughout the centuries have turned to dreams for clarity.27 Not infrequently, ideas or messages emerging from dreams have informed certain actions and beliefs. In the essay “The Cenotaph in the Cave Church of St Paul the Hermit: A Case Study of a Dream in the Twentieth Century,” Lisa Agaiby with Shady Nessim present an interesting case study of how a dream experienced by an abbot of a Coptic monastery in 1946 was interpreted as a supernatural revelation that propelled him to act upon the divine instruction. The dream was recorded in an unpublished manuscript housed at the Monastery of St. Paul the Hermit at the Red Sea in Egypt, and here for the first time is transcribed in full and translated into English. The discussion reveals how dreams reflect an individual’s environment and can be storehouses of culture and identity, informing a belief system and affecting the way a person acts. The association between material culture and cultural identity has become increasingly recognized as one of the most critical methodological issues to be negotiated. From an archaeological perspective, artefacts are primary sources for exploring identity and are channels through which a community can ex- press their faith. In his chapter “Coptic Religious Heritage: Is There a Future for the Past?” Karel Innemée presents a very candid discussion on how the conser- vation and preservation of Coptic architectural and archaeological remains in Egypt are in a critical phase and quite often under threat. He explores the “clash of cultures” between East and West when it comes to principles of conserving sacred sites, and questions whether there is any point in trying to align East- ern attitude to Western thought when it comes to preserving Coptic cultural heritage. Considered part of cultural heritage are “immaterial” aspects such as music, which scholars have long considered instrumental in the formation and assertion of cultural identity.28 In his contribution, “The Ideological Dimensions of Coptic Music Theory: Evolution of Musical Theorization as a Cultural Strat- egy,” Nicholas Ragheb examines how musical theorization in the Coptic tradition is perceived and interpreted across different time periods and through various lenses, and establishes how strikingly different interpretations of the same musical tradition can reflect ideological and epistemological orienta- tions. By appreciating musical theorization as part of a larger process of cul-

27 Nelly Van Doorn-Harder and Kari Vogt (eds.), “Introduction,” in Between Desert and City: The Coptic Orthodox Church Today (Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock, 2012), 11–12. 28 See Bernard Sellato, “Material Culture Studies and Ethnocultural Identity,” in Borneo Stud- ies in History, Society and Culture, (eds.) Victor T. King, Zawawi Ibrahim, and Noor Hasha- rina Hassan, Asia in Transition 4 (Singapore: Springer, 2017), 57–78.

figure 0.2 Participants of the “Copts in Modernity” Symposium, Melbourne 2018 photo courtesy of bassem morgan

tural differentiation and identity construction, he offers a sophisticated discussion on how the articulation of musical structures can be influential in constructing the image and identity of the historical as well as the modern Copt.

4 Conclusion

The editors offer this volume in the hope that it will open up new possibilities for understanding how an ancient tradition has—often in surprising ways— come to terms with the modern world, and that in various ways it will stimulate new reflection, research, and writing. In this way it continues and extends the work of the fifth international symposium of Coptic Studies in Melbourne in 2018, inviting others into some of the remarkable conversations that took place there. These words are being written during a period of social isolation because of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, at the beginning of a season when many international conferences and symposia have been cancelled or postponed. If for

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV 16 agaiby, swanson and van doorn-harder some of us conference-going has become too much a routine part of academic life, this current pause is an opportunity to reflect on what a conference can accomplish, in terms of bringing scholars and students together for a burst of intensive work and creative and fruitful interaction. We look back to the Mel- bourne 2018 symposium with gratitude; and we look forward to the day when such conferences can once again take place.

1 June 2020 = 24 Bashans am1736 Commemoration of the Entry of the Holy Family into Egypt

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