The following two postcards date back to the pre-1952 Nasser’s coup d’état: they show a Coptic church in Port Said, the top Suez Canal city. There are at least three Coptic churches in Port Said today by the names of St. Mark’s, St. George’s and St. Mary’s; and as I have not visited Port Said I can’t say what church is represented in the postcards. The old church may have even undergone further structural developments that changed its original architecture. It is noticeable that the church in the postcards has unusually one spire and one dome, which is pointed. Both cards are not dated, but possibly c. 1910.

The first postcard was produced by Lichtenstern & Harari, Cairo (Series No: N. 172) and simply titled Port Said – Coptic church. The second was produced by L. & B. Isaac Behar, Port-Said (Series No: N.42) and is titled Port-Said, Church Eglise Copte et Village Arabe. Both are 9x14cm in dimension.

Figure 1: Port Said – Coptic church by Lichtenstern & Harari, Cairo (Series No: N. 172).

Figure 2: Back of “Port Said – Coptic church “.

Figure 3: “Port Said – Coptic church” in colour.

Figure 4: Port-Said, Church Eglise Copte et Village Arabe by by L. & B. Isaac Behar, Port-Said (Series No: N.42).

Figure 1: The stereoscopic card titled “Coptic pilgrims from Egypt, bathing in the Holy Waters of the Jordan, Palestine”, c.1900.

The tradition of pilgrimage by the Copts to the Holy Land to visit the Judeo-Christian sacred sites is old and goes back to the Classical Period; i.e., prior to the Arab occupation in AD 640; and it continued to our present day albeit with rude interruptions by Muslim rulers or politico-social instability, or sometimes with self-imposed restrictions for political convenience and expediency. We shall talk about the Coptic pilgrimage to the Holy Land in a series of articles, and we shall cover several aspects of it.

Today, however, as a matter of an opening, I simply reproduce for the reader a photograph that was published in Washington, U.S., c. 1900[1] as a stereoscopic card[2] titled “Coptic pilgrims from Egypt, bathing in the Holy Waters of the Jordan, Palestine”.[3] It is 20.3cm x 30.5cm in dimension, and was produced by the famous American photographic publisher, John F. Jarvis (b. 1850). The photographer was probably E. Totherick, but that is not certain. The stereoscopic technique, by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye, is supposed to create a 3D image, increasing the illusion of depth.

In 1900, Egypt was under British rule, and the Copts regained their religious rights without hinderance.

Figure 1: A lovely Coptic dolphin, 4^th or 5^th century (tapestry-woven panel in the V&A Museum, London, Museum no. 1302-1888).

The Mysteries of Saint John the Apostle and Holy Virgin is one of the manuscripts of the Edfû Codices (Brit. Mus. MS. Oriental, No. 7026). Wallis Budge published its Sahidic Coptic text with an English translation in his Coptic Apocrypha. The document is curious and interesting, and makes a great leap of imagination but it contains material which tell us what the Copts of the Classic Period[1] thought or had in mind about life, death and afterlife. The Mysteries of Saint John opens with the following passage:

And it came to pass that when the Saviour had risen from the dead, He came on to the Mount of Olives, and sat down. And He made a cloud to envelop all the countries wherein were the Apostles, and it gathered them together into the presence of the Saviour upon the Mount of Olives. And John answered and said unto the Saviour, ‘My Lord, behold Thou didst say unto me: Thou art My beloved one, and thou hast found grace before Me. Now therefore, my Lord, I wish Thee to take me into heaven, and shew me all [the mysteries] so that I may know them. And the Saviour made answer and said unto him, ‘John, enquire thou of Me fully, and I on My part will hide nothing from thee. Rise up, and let us pray to My Father, Who is blessed, and He shall hear us.’ Then the Saviour and the Apostle [John] rose up, and He prayed a long, blessed prayer. And when He had said the Amen, the heavens moved away upon this side and on that, and they opened out one beyond the other even to the seventh heaven. And behold, a great Cherubim came out from heaven, and the whole place shone with bright light, and the whole of his body was full of eyes, and flashes of lightning shot out from him.[2]

Christ then addresses the Cherubim,[3] “I tell thee to take My beloved John into heaven. And thou shalt explain unto him every question which he shall ask thee.”[4] The Cherubim immediately lifts up John upon his wing of light, bearing him up unto heaven. There John receives a tour round, and he asks the Cherubim many fascinating questions about, interalia, the stars, the waters, the wheat plant, the dew, angle of famine (angel of wrath), the tree of knowledge from which Adam ate, Adam’s condition before and after the fall, etc.; and the Cherubim patiently explains to him. One of the intriguing questions is related to animals, and whether they possess souls and if their souls are like men’s souls immortal and accountable after death for what they have done on earth:

And I [John] said unto the Cherubim, ‘Is the matter of which man is fashioned more excellent than that of the beasts?’ The Cheubim said unto me, ‘Yes. Now when men die, each one of them is taken to the place of which he is worthy, but so far as beasts as concerned, whether they die, or whether they live, their place is the earth.’

And I said unto the Cherubim, ‘Are there souls in them?’ He said unto me, ‘Every created thing hath a soul in it. Now, therefore, the soul of every created thing is its blood.’ And I said unto the Cherubim, ‘Will they then be punished, or will rest be given unto them?’ He said unto me, ‘Let it not be that rest be not given unto them, and let them suffer not; but man is a being who can suffer, and can enjoy rest.’[5]

Animals, as the Cherubim explains to Saint John, have souls but they don’t have afterlife after they die. Only man is immortal and can enjoy everlasting rest after death or suffer pain, everyone according to his acts on earth. The Cherubim does not give a direct answer to John if man’s matter from which he is fashioned is more excellent or less than that of the beasts. This is irrelevant: animals have souls and one can surmise from this they have life and feelings. They are worthy but they are not accountable because one can say they do not have knowledge of good and evil. They will live on earth and die and that’s the end of it – they have no afterlife. As for man, the “extinguished candle” fate does not await him: his soul survives death, and he must give account of his deeds. As in another translation of the text by Budge himself, “Let oblivion be theirs [the beasts’], and let them suffer not; but a man is a being who can both suffer pain and enjoy rest.”[6]

It is interesting that the Cherubim says the soul of every created thing is its blood. This is a reflection of Leviticus 17:14, “the blood of it is for the life thereof”.[7]

Figure 1: Christ the Pantocrator, Coptic wall painting from Saint Antony’s Monastery at the Red Sea, 13th century art.

The “predestination doctrine”[1] is part of the Pauline theology. The Apostle St. Paul speaks about those “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”[2] That the doctrine is Biblical is accepted universally,[3] but what people differ in is its exact meaning. Roughly, predestination has been defined as “the Divine the divine foreordaining or foreknowledge of all that will happen; with regard to the salvation of some and not others.”[4] This reflects the two different concepts of predestination:

• The first, the “foreordaining predestination”, which is only believed by the Calvinists, teaches that God has determined from eternity whom he will save and whom he will damn, regardless of their merit or lack thereof.[5] Eternal life and eternal damnation are determined by God who is sovereign over all things; and man has no free will to determine his eternal destiny.
• The second, the “foreknowledge predestination”, which is believed by all other Christian Churches, teaches that God predestined to salvation those whose future faith and merits he foreknew.[6] According to this view, man’s free will is maintained and works through prevenient grace.

So what did the Copts of the old times thought on this matter? Not much has been passed on to us it seems from early Church of Alexandria on predestination apart from the beautiful passages in Greek by Clement of Alexandria (153 – 217 AD)[7] and Origen (185 – 255 AD)[8], but this little, it seems, has established in the Coptic mind a strong belief in the free will (the power of choice and avoidance of evil or good); that evil is not involuntary; that God is not the author of evil; that punishments on the sinful are rightly inflicted.  It is a delight to find a manuscript in Coptic Sahidic in the Edfû Codices that echoes this belief: The Mysteries of Saint John the Apostle and Holy Virgin,[9] which we have come across in a previous article, includes a beautiful passage in which John, as he is having a free heavenly tour on the Cherubim’s wing of light on the command of Christ, asks the Cherubim[10]:

‘My Lord, is it God Who ordaineth the life of a man from the time when he was in his mother’s womb, or not? And the Cherubim said unto me, ‘Know thou that [one] man is wont to perform very many superfluous works, [and another] very many acts of goodness, from the time when he is born to the end of his life. God, however, setteth a sign on the righteous man before He fashioneth him, for it is impossible to cause anything to happen without God. But sin is an alien thing (or, stranger) to God, for He Who created man was without sin. It is man who himself committeth sin, according to his wish, and according to the desire of the Devil.’

And I said unto the Cherubim, ‘Man hath been born to suffering, according to what Job said, “My mother brought me forth for suffering.”’ And the Cherubim said unto me, ‘God is a compassionate Being, and He doth not forsake man utterly, but He sheweth mercy upon him, for he is His own form, and His own image, and is the work of His own hands. And now, O John, He will not forsake him that doeth the will of God, and he who doeth good things shall receive them doubled many times over in the House of God.’

And I said unto the Cherubim, ‘My Lord, at the moment when God is about to create man, doth He give him the name ”righteous” or “sinner”, or not?’ And the Cherubim said unto me, ‘Hearken, and I will shew thee. At the moment when God is about to create a man, before He placeth him in the womb of his mother, He calleth all the angels, and they come and stand round about. If the Father blesseth the soul, the angels make answer “Amen “. If there come from His mouth the words, “This soul shall give Me rest,” the angels make answer “Amen”. If the Father saith, “This soul shall commit iniquity,” the angels make answer “Amen”. Whatsoever cometh forth from the mouth of the Father, that cometh to pass.’[11]

This is “foreknowledge predestination” which respects man’s free will and recognises grace. In Coptic thinking God does not randomly and arbitrarily decide whom He will save and whom He will condemn.  “It is man who himself committeth sin, according to his wish, and according to the desire of the Devil.” This is a refreshing finding: Ephnuti (God)[12] of the Copts is not an oppressive god, who does as he wishes, playing with his creatures’ destinies, but, as the Cherubim stresses, a compassionate Being.  God, being omniscient, knows what the future holds both for individuals and for nations but sin is alien to Him – sin is not ordained by Him.

Figure 1: Thomas Whittemore’s expedition, before leaving the Monastery of Saint Anthony, Egypt, 1930-1931

Figure 2: Thomas Whittemore and the Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Paul, Egypt, 1930-1931

I have pleasure in putting up links to these beautiful black and white photographs of the two Coptic Red Sea monasteries, Monastery of Saint Anthony (Antony) and Monastery of Saint Paul, which were taken in 1930-1931 by the expedition led by the American archaeologist, Thomas Whittemore (1871–1950). To preserve Byzantine art and architecture, he founded in 1931 the Byzantine Institute of America, which is now located in the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in Washington, DC. He is known for his preservation of the Hagia Sophia mosaics in Turkey, but not too many people know that he was also interested in studying Coptic sites. In 1930-1931 Whittemore “made a trip to the monastery [of St. Anthony] in Ford automobiles. They [the expedition by the Byzantine Institute of America] carried out a survey of the monastery, including all of its buildings, took photographs, made a short silent film, and copied some of the inscriptions and paintings. The scholarly credentials of the expedition were impressive.”[1] It seems that rather than one expedition, there were two in the winters of 1930 and 1931; and they were both “composed of Professor Thomas Wittemore, the architect Oliver Barker, the artist Netchetailor, the photographer Kazazian and Professor Piankoff. In addition to identifying and photographing the wall-paintings in the Church of St. Antony, Professor Wittemore photographed the famous fourteenth-century Difnâr in the monastery library.”[2]

Although the concentration of Coptologists has been on the visits to the Monastery of St. Anthony, Whittemore visted at the same time the other Red Sea Monastery of St Paul. I wish I have access to the “short silent film”, the copies of “the inscriptions and paintings”, and the photographs of “the famous fourteenth-century Difnâr” to present them to my readers. Here below, however, are the links to some of the rare photos of the two monasteries which were most probably taken by the Armenian photographer Kazazian, and which are made public by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Readers must know that the two ancient Coptic monasteries were renovated in 2002 by the American Research Center in Egypt, which revealed the beauty of the art and architecture of these two monasteries. The following pictures will help the reader to realise the great work done by the Americans, which we have spoken about elsewhere.

THE MONASTERY OF SAINT ANTHONY, EGYPT

The monastery’s general view and old entrance:

Old entrance to the Monastery of Saint Anthony

General view of the Monastery of Saint Anthony

View of the Monastery of Saint Anthony from the East

The Church of St. Antony:

Door of the Church of Saint Anthony, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Interior of Church of Saint Anthony, looking East, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Khurus, North wall, Saint George, Church of Saint Anthony, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Nave, East wall, Virgin Mary and Christ Child, Church of Saint Anthony, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Door of the Haikal, Church of Saint Anthony, Monastery of Saint Anthony

The Church of St. Mark:

General view of the Church of Saint Mark, Monastery of Saint Anthony

The New Church:

View of New Church, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Some Coptic monks at the Monastery of Saint Anthony:

Abu-Mine, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Abbot, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Abu Kosmas, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Life and various activities at the Monastery of Saint Anthony:

Refectory, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Oil mill, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Monk roasting coffee, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Monks baking the Holy Bread, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Monk stamping the Holy Bread, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Monks sorting dried grapes, Monastery of Saint Anthony

Bread for the Arabs, Monastery of Saint Anthony

THE MONASTERY OF SAINT PAUL, EGYPT

The monastery’s general view and gate:

Gate of Monastery of Saint Paul

View of the Monastery of Saint Paul taken from the Keep, looking Southwest

View toward the sea from the Monastery of Saint Paul

The churches and tomb of Saint Paul at the Monastery of Saint Paul:

St. Paul’s Tomb, Monastery of Saint Paul

Interior of the Church of St. Mark, Monastery of Saint Paul

Cupola over entrance stairwell, Cave Church of Saint Paul, Monastery of Saint Paul

Some Coptic monks at the Monastery:

Group portrait of monks, Monastery of Saint Paul

Life and various activities at the Monastery of Saint Paul:

Divine service, Monastery of Saint Paul

Baking the Holy Bread (Kurban), Monastery of Saint Paul

The Abbot in the library, Monastery of Saint Paul

Some manuscripts from the library of the Monastery of Saint Paul:

Coptic manuscript from the library, Monastery of Saint Paul

Another Coptic manuscript from the library, Monastery of Saint Paul

In 2012, Exaltavit produced a documentary, “La lumière du désert”, on the great Coptic Monastery of saint Macarius, Egypt. The company gives this introduction:

In the region of el Waddi Natrun in Egypt, one of the oldest monasteries in the world was founded by St Macarius the Great in AD 360. Since then, the monastic presence in this place has never been interrupted. In 1969, a hermit, Father Matta El Maskin, accompanied by a group of twelve monks who lived for 10 years the way of the early Fathers of the Desert in the desert of Waddi El Ryyan, went into the monastery with a mission to rebuild and revive the eremitic and monastic life, and to “make the desert bloom.” In five years the monastery of St. Macarius will be completely rebuilt and its surface area multiplied by six. It currently has 130 monks and hermits living nearby plantations and farms; and it now extends over 1200 hectares. These Coptic Orthodox monks who know a true revival is part of the prestigious line of the Desert Fathers, the origin of Western monasticism.[1]

I have the pleasure of putting it up for my readers.

Documentary on Coptic Orthodox Parishes in Jerusalem (The Church in Jerusalem)

There are around one thousand Copts in the Holy Land, and they could have been more had it not been for the self-restriction imposed by Pope Shenouda III (1971 – 2012) on Coptic Christians to visit Jerusalem in consequence of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the fear of the Copts being targeted by Arabists and Islamists for visiting Israel. This is some of what Fr. Antonius al-Ourshalimi, Secretary of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, had to say or as I understood it to be. This we learn from the excellent documentary The Coptic Church in Jerusalem, which was produced sometime between 2005 and 2011 by the Association for the Promotion of the Extraordinary Prayer Initiative of all Churches for Reconciliation, Unity and Pease, beginning in and proceeding from Jerusalem (APEPI) (V. Nebel, Geneva/Melida, Switzerland), in cooperation with the Franciscan Media Center, Jerusalem (Israel) and Cancao Nova (Brazil).

The documentary is 25 minutes long, and it emphasises the strong connection between Ancient Egyptian culture and Coptic Christianity, and talks about the Copts and their Church in the Holy Land. We have seen the current membership size of the Church, and we are told that Copts have always been in Jerusalem since early Christianity. There are four monasteries in the Holy Land, all named after Saint Antony, in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Jericho and Jaffa; and there is a nunnery in Jerusalem (named after Saint George). Coptia (i.e., the Coptic Community) in the Holy Land also has many churches and it is in possession of the Cistern of Saint Helena.

Though in Israel, the Coptic community retained strong connection with the Coptic Church in Egypt. It feels the suffering of the Copts in Egypt; and in the documentary one can feel the pain and tears in the eyes of Fr. Antonius as he talks about the persecution of the Copts in Egypt. All we want, he says, is to have peace and freedom and to feel happy in Egypt. Archbishop Dr. Anb Ibraham, Metropolitan and Vicar of Jerusalem for the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Near East, have a message of hope: We will remain in Egypt despite the persecution. Christ will defeat the world; He will never abandon us. We are his little flock; how can He leave us?

P.S. This hopefully will form a fist article in a series about Coptic Christianity in the Holy Land.

Figure 1: This beautiful watercolour (47.4 cm X 35.9 cm covers), titled “Dayr- El Bukhur – or ‘of the Pulley’ Coptic Convent on Gebel-e-Tayr. Upper Egypt”, is kept in the V&A Museum, London, is by the artist General George de Sausmarez (1814 – 1890) in an album of 45 watercolour views in Egypt and Nubia made during or after a journey on the Nile, upstream then downstream, in 1855. Inscribed with title and signed and dated 18.2.55 G de S.[1]

The Convent (or Monastery) of the Pulley or the Monastery of the Virgin Mary (Deir el Adra,[2] in Arabic) is a famous monastery by which Western travellers in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries were extremely fascinated in their writings, particularly in regards to its association with what they described as the “naked monks” or “begging monks”.[3] The monastery is encountered by these tourists as they sailed up or down the Nile in a dahabiya[4] or felucca[5] at a location on a cliff on the eastern bank of the Nile called Gabal al-Tayr (or Gebel el-Teir), opposite Samalut (125 miles from Cairo) in the governorate of Minya, Upper Egypt. Gabal al-Tayr is Arabic for Mountain of the Birds, and is known so because of migratory birds that rest on its top; and it is also known as Gabal al-Adra (Mountain of the Virgin) and Gabal al-Kaff (Mountain of the Palm [of the hand]). This place is sacred for the Copts, and believed by them to have been one of the sites visited by the Holy Family in their flight to Egypt. As the Family crossed the Nile from Samalut and was approaching this cliff, believed to have contained a Pharaonic temple, the pagan idols collapsed,[6] infuriating the priests. A piece of the cliff was falling onto their boat, and the infant Jesus reached up and stopped the descent of the rock, leaving his handprint on the rock. [7]

After the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (306 – 337) converted to Christianity, his mother Empress Helena (d. c. 330), who is canonised as Saint Helena, built a church in AD 328 on the place the Holy Family landed on the Gabal al-Tayr. The place also became a monastery. It now houses also several Coptic families, who have built houses around the monastery. The monastery can be reached from the Nile now by some 160 stairs;[8]however, in the past, people were hauled up into it by a winch, and hence the name “Monastery of the Pulley”. The imprint of little Christ’s hand, which was incorporated into the church, history tells us, was cut out and taken by King Amalric I (Amaury or Aimery) of Jerusalem (1163 – 1174) in his 1160s campaigns in Egypt.[9] Since then it has been lost and no one knows its whereabouts now.

The Church of the Holy Virgin in the Monastery of the Pulley is the destination of a huge annual Coptic pilgrimage (mulid), estimated in the tens of thousands of pilgrims from Minya, Asyut, and as far as Cairo, all for the feast of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin on the 16^th of Misra (22 August).[10]

Figure 1: Tschibel Ell Deir or Gabal al-Tayr, where the Coptic Convent of the Pulley is, from Norden’s Voyage d’Egypte et de Nubie.

Al-Mu’taman Abu al-Makarim Sa’d Allah Jirjis ibn Mas’ud (known simply as Abu al-Makarim), who was a Coptic priest and historian from the 12^th/13^th centuries wrote the important work entitled “تاريخ الكنائس والأديرة”, and was translated by B. T. A. Evetts as The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring countries in 1895.[1] Evetts says the work is attributed to an Armenian by the name of Abu Salih, but that is wrong. Abu al-Makarim talks in his book about the places in Egypt visited by the Holy Family; and the first location he mentions is “بيعة جبل الكف على إسم السيدة العذرى الطاهرة مرتمريم”, that is “The church of Jabal al-Kaff, named after the Lady, the Pure Virgin Mary”:

The places which our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory! visited with the Lady, the Pure Virgin, and with the righteous old man, Joseph the carpenter, in Upper Egypt.

The church of Jabal al-Kaff, named after the Lady, the Pure Virgin Mary. This church is hewn out of the mountain-side, and in the rock is the mark of the palm of the hand of the Lord Christ, to whom be glory! which was made when he touched the mountain, when it bowed in adoration before him, after he had gone down thither from Syria. He grasped the mountain, when it worshipped before him, and restored it to its place with his hand; so that the mark of his palm remains impressed upon that mountain to the present day. In the impression of the hand there is a fine perforation, large enough to admit a collyrium-needle, into which the needle is inserted, and, when it is pulled out, brings up a black collyrium which makes an indelible mark.

Above this church there is a church built of stone, and named after the Lady, the Pure Virgin Mary. Festival is kept here on the 21st of Tûbah, which is the day of her death, when a large congregation assembles. This mountain [of Jabal al-Kaff] is opposite to the district called Al-Bihû, [but is] on the eastern side of the river. It is also said to be near the city of Al-Ushmûnain; and it is also called the Jabal at-Tair. On this mountain there are two stone crosses, of a red colour; one of them is a large stone and the other a small stone.[2]

Evetts adds the following notes to explain some of the text, which I will use to add some notes of mine:

1. About “Jabal al-Kaff”, he says it is the ‘Mount of the Palm of the Hand,’ and adds, “Our author, at the beginning of fol. 76 a, identifies this mountain with the Jabal at-Tair, which rises opposite to Samallût and Bihû, and to the north of Munyah Bani Khasib.”
2.  About the Death of the Blessed Virgin, he says it “is commemorated by the Copts on Tûbah 21=Jan. 16, and her Assumption on Misri 16= Aug. 9.” The Copts celebrate the Dormition of the Theotokos on the 21^st of Tuba, which corresponds to the 16^th of January on the Julian calendar and the 29^th of January on the Gregorian calendar. Misri 16 (when Copts celebrate the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary), of course, corresponds to the 9^th of August on the Julian calendar, but on the Gregorian calendar it falls on the 22^nd of August. Abu al-Makarim says that the pilgrimage occurred in January each year at the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos; but, as we see, he did not visit the area, and his knowledge was second hand – the truth is that the pilgrimage was held, as it is today, in August, at the feast of the Assumption.
3. About “Al-Bihû/ البيهوا”, he says, “This village still exists on the west bank, opposite to the Jabal at-Tair, and is included in the district of Kalûsanâ, in the province of Minyah. In 1885 it had a population of 1,252. See Ibn Dukmâk, v. p. 4; Rec, de l’Égypte, ii. p. 73.”
4. Commenting on Abu al-Makarim’s statement that Jabal al-Kaff “is also said to be near the city of Al-Ushmûnain”, he observes, “Al-Ushmûnain is in reality about thirty miles to the south of the Jabal at-Tair.”
5. About “Jabal at-Tair/ جبل الطير”, Evetts gives the following note: “See Norden’s Plate LXXI, where the ‘Tshibel ell Deiir’ as he spells it, is to be seen at the northernmost point of the Nile, on the eastern bank. On Plate LXXV Norden gives a view of the monastery on the Jabal at-Tair, which is called Dair al-‘Adhrdâ, i.e. ‘Monastery of the Virgin,’ or, more popularly, Dair al-Bakarah, or ‘Monastery of the Pulley.’ The latter name is common to several monasteries, which use a pulley to hoist up both provisions and visitors; and one so named is shown on Jabal Abû Faidâ in Norden’s Plate LXXX, a few miles to the north of Manfalût. The Dair al-‘Adhrâ on Jabal al-Tair seems to be the one described by Curzon in his Monasteries of the Levant, ch. ix (p. 111). (A. J. B.).”

Norden, who Evetts mentions, is of course Frederic Louis Norden, or for short F. L. Norden (1708 – 1742),[3] a Danish naval captain and traveller, who visited Egypt and Sudan in 1737–1738 and wrote an excellent book about his travel, Voyage d’Egypte et de Nubie, which was published in Copenhagen in 1755.[4] His book includes many drawings, which Evetts points to. The New York Public Library (NYPL)[5] has digitalised the drawings of Norden’s book; and from it I reproduce Plate LXXI.

The plate is titled “Vue de Tschibel Ell Deir”, which translates into “View of Tschibel Ell Deir”. I think by “Tschibel Ell Deir”, Norden either meant Gabal al-Tayr (جبل الطير /Mountain of the Birds) or Gabal al-Dair (جبل الدير /Mountain of the Convent). He gives a key to details in the picture, but it is hard to see that. The details are: “a. Couvent Cophte de Notre Dame, b. Village ruiné, c. Escaliers pratiqués dans le rocher, d. Espece d’un aqueduc antique, e. Embouchure d’où on a oté les pierres pour batir, f. Sortie des escaliers, g. Carrieres et grottes.”[6]

The interesting drawing by Norden has been engraved by the engraver Marcus Tuscher (1705 – 1751), and its dimensions on the plate are 27 x 45 cm.

Figure 1: Monastery of the Pulley- or Coptic Convent of Deir el Adra, January 14, 1923, by John Nicholas Brown II.

Figure 2: Close up of the photograph above.

John Nicholas Brown II (1900 – 1979) was a member of one of the richest and major families in American life, and worked as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) in the post-WWII years (1946 – 1949). When he was young, only 23 years, he visited Egypt in 1923, and sailed down the Nile in a dahabiya, taking on the way some of the most beautiful photographs of its monuments and scenes.

Figure 3: John Nicholas Brown II, and his companions in the journey to Egypt, 1923. He is the highest figure in the photo, the man with the hat on.

One of the interesting photographs he took was the “Monastery of the Pulley- or Coptic Convent of Deir el Adra: January 14, 1923”. It was taken from the Nile position, and shows a felucca and behind it the steep cliff of Gabal al-Tayer or Gabal al-Kaff, and on top of it some buildings, including the monastery (right hand side) and some houses (left hand side).  There are two women villagers carrying pots (gullas) on their heads. One can see the modern stairway that leads to the convent. In the past, visitors used to be winched up the cliff using a pulley, hence the name Convent of the Pulley (in Arabic, دير البكارة).

This view is what Western travellers saw and wrote about and about the monks of the monastery, whom they could not avoid coming across in any Nile tour, and with whom they were immensely fascinated.

Figure 1: Gustave Flaubert around the age of 30 years. He went to Egypt in 1849 when he was 29 years.

In the next articles on the subject of “The Convent of the Pulley”, I would like to present to my reader the various encounters and accounts of Western travellers to Egypt with the Coptic monks of Gabal al-Tayr, as they sailed up and down the Nile. I find these accounts fascinating, but I read them with some sadness and anger: sadness, because the Coptic situation in the 19^th century was so bad so as to reduce the Coptic monks of Gabal al-Tayr to degrading poverty and expose them to such humiliation; and, angry, for the same reason, but also because the way Muslim sailors, and some Western tourists, treated them.  But as the reader will see for himself, not all Western travellers are the same: some saw in these monks more than what the unsympathetic eye would meet: they saw in them fine figures of a fine people which descended from a fine race that has been reduced by oppression to a pitiful state – and they lamented that.

But let us start that by the encounter of the French writer and great novelist, Gustave Flaubert (1821 – 1880), which one can find in his travel notes and letters.[1] Flaubert was not unfamiliar with the Copts: even before he travelled to Egypt in 1849-1850, he had written La Tentation de Saint Antoine (The Temptations of Saint Antony), and when he was in Cairo he visited the Coptic Patriarch Peter VII (1809 – 1852) who impressed him immensely.[2] But Flaubert was not a man of religion or human sympathies, and as his diaries in Egypt testify, he was more interested in pursuing his pleasures than anything else. His account of the Coptic monks of Gabal al-Tayr is lively and vivid, and though I deplore the words he used, I find it very interesting. I reproduce it below for my reader (the notes are mine):

… at a place called Gebel el-Teir we had an amusing sight. On the top of a hill overlooking the Nile there is a Coptic monastery, whose monks have the habit, as soon as they see a boatload of tourists, of running down, throwing themselves in the water, and swimming out to ask for alms. Everyone who passes is assailed by them. You see these fellows, totally naked, rushing down their perpendicular cliffs and swimming towards you as fast as they can, shouting: ‘Baksheesh, baksheesh, cawadja[3] christiani!’ And since there are many caves in the cliff at this particular spot, echo repeats ‘Cawadja, cawadja!’ loud as a cannon. Vultures and eagles were flying overhead, the boat was darting through the water, its two great sails very full. At that moment one of our sailors, the clown of the crew,[4] began to dance a naked, lascivious dance that consisted of an attempt to bugger himself. To drive off the Christians he showed them his prick and his arse pretending to piss and shit on their heads (they were clinging to the sides of the cange[5]). The other sailors shouted insults at them, repeating the names of Allah and Mohammed. Some hit them with sticks, others with ropes; Joseph[6] rapped their knuckles with his kitchen tongs. It was a tutti[7] of cudgelings[8], pricks, bare arses, yells and laughter. As soon as they were given money they put it in their mouths and returned home via the route they had come. If they weren’t greeted with a good beating, the boats would be assailed by such hordes of them that there would be danger of capsizing.[9]

Autour du monde : aquarelles souvenirs des voyages[1] was published in Paris in the 1880s, and was edited by L. Boulanger. One of the photochrom prints[2] (Planche CCX) is labelled “Famille Copte”. I simply reproduce it here for my readers: it shows an elderly man with three female members of the family and a little child; in the background are the three pyramids and a canal. We have seen in previous articles that some figures in European art were labelled as Coptic, although the physiognomy, the dress and the insignia do not support that. I don’t know why but it is possible that a Coptic figure sold more. In any rate, it is possible that this “Famille Copte”, again, could represent an Arab sheikh with his family and not a Coptic family. However, the dark turban and robe of the man and the unveiled women may indicate the family’s Coptic identity. Here I reproduce the photochrom print:

Figure 1: Famille Copte, from Autour du monde : aquarelles souvenirs des voyages, 1880s (edited by L Boulanger).

Figure 1: A detail of the wall at the private tomb of Menna on the West Bank of Luxor. Menna was a royal scribe in the 18th Dynasty. The detail shows harvesting and gathering of wheat. Heavy loads are often depicted in Pharonic art being suspended from a stick and supported by two on their shoulders. The heavy load could be wheat, fish, gazelle, hyena, etc.[1]

The Apophthegmata Patrum (The sayings of the Fathers) is a collection of the words and anecdotes, mainly, of the Egyptian desert fathers and mothers in the 4^th and 5^th centuries, and represents their spiritual practices and wisdom.[2] One of the celebrated Coptic saints who figure in this seminal book is Pambo, or Panbo,[3] or Bambou. In Arabo-Coptic texts he is called بموا or بيموا (Bemwa/Bemwah). Saint Pambo, who lived in the 4^th century and died in AD 393, was contemporaneous with Saint Antony the Great (c. 251 – 356) and Saint Athanasius the Great (296 – 373), and was known for his holiness all over the Scetis.[4]

One of the cute stories told about him, which I find very funny, is his encounter with equally funny demons, if I may say. Now, Coptic asceticism was full of joy; and Coptic desert fathers were gentle and kind and, like St. Antony, always seen smiling, but they warned against laughter. Some, however, took the business of their salvation too seriously, and, though mild and nice, were never seen smiling. Saint Pambo was one of these ascetics. We have the story in a Coptic book, published in 1999 in Arabic, and titled تاريخ بلاديوس اللوساسى (اللوزاكى) (The Lausiac History of Palladius). The book was published by the late Anba Samuel, Bishop of Shebeen El-Kanater, and although he gives it this title, it seems to me that it is rather a version of the Apophthegmata Patrum; and we don’t know the original manuscript or document from which Bishop Samuel took his book. Anyway, the exciting and unique story, which is given in a very vivid, Egyptian language, runs as follows:

من المتواتر عن الأنبا بيموا أن أحدا لم يره قط باسما، أو يسمعه ضاحكا، فحدث أن أرادت الشياطين أن تجعله يضحك، فعلقوا ريشة طائر صغيرة على قطعة من الخشب، ثم راحوا يحملونها فى تثاقل شديد، كما لو كانوا يزحزحون جبلا، وهم يصيحون قائلين: “هيلاهوب، هيلاهوب!” فلما رآهم الأنبا بيموا على هذه الصورة ضحك، فراحت الشياطين تقفز وترقص وتتصايح قائلة: “وى! وى! لقد ضحك الأنبا بيموا!” فزجرهم القديس وهو يقول: “لم أضحك بدافع من المسرة بل سخرية من ضعفكم وما تعملون، فطغمة منكم هذا عددها تحتشد لرفع ريشة بغية إضحاكى لدليل على تفاهتكم وتفاهة ما تفعلون!”[5]

Since I can’t find a translation to this particular version of the story, I hope to carry it myself:[6]

It is told of Anba Bemwa that no one has ever seen him smiling or heard him laughing. And demons wanted to make him laugh; so, they suspended a feather of a tiny bird from a plank of timber, and went lifting it in agony as if they were moving a mountain, shouting: “Haila houb, haila houb!” When Anba Bemwa saw them in such an act, he laughed, and the demons went berserk jumping up and down and dancing, shouting: “Wa’ii! Wa’ii! Anba Bemwa has laughed!” The saint rebuffed them, saying, “I have not laughed out of joy but of sarcasm because of your feebleness and what you are doing; for so a large multitude of you gathers to lift up a feather to make me laugh is a prove of your triviality and the frivolousness of what you do!”

All over Egypt one can see the Fellaheen (peasants) and labourers shouting, as they work in groups, to lift or push or pull or move heavy objects: “Haila houb! Haila houb!” Many do not know the exact meaning of these words but know it invokes hard work; something like “heave-ho” in English. The truth is that these words are Coptic and stayed in the Egyptians tongue even after Arabisation; hob or houb being work in Coptic, and ella, hella being cries invoking hard work.[7] “Wa’ii! Wa’ii!”, on the other hand, are Arabic words, meaning marvel, marvel! Here we have a multitude of demons trying to make Saint Pambo laugh, to make him break his sombre composure,  and choosing in the process a funny trick: they carry a light feather suspended from a plank of timber, not very differently from what Egyptians were familiar to do where heavy objects are carried on the shoulders of two men with ease, but this time instead of two, several demons participated in the effort, and as they did, they pretended to be working hard at carrying the feather as if it were extremely heavy, panting and heaving all the time. This made the holy saint laugh but not exactly because he thought the demons were funny but because he saw their silliness and detected their weakness; or as he told them: “A large multitude of you gathers to lift up a feather to make me laugh is [but] a prove of your triviality and the frivolousness of what you do!” It is a story of a Coptic saint making fun of funny demons!

Doug Duffey is a contemporary American artist from Louisiana, U.S., whose biography on his website describes him as “Best known as a singer/songwriter, pianist, and international recording and concert artist [inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Fame -and the National Blues Hall of Fame] he is also a serious multi genre visual artist. ‘Analog’ mediums include collage [as in paper & glue], drawing, painting, photography, mixed media; digital mediums: digital drawings, digital collage [photo montage/combine] digital scans [photographs] and video.”[1] On digital drawings, he says: “In my drawings, I am heavily influenced by my Louisiana culture, heritage, traditions, every day life and scenery; especially New Orleans, the French Quarter, Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street, Halloween, the Day of the Dead, festivals, religious and voodoo imagery, southern funkiness, etc. Having also lived in Europe for 20 years, I am also influenced by the street scenes, bar, cabaret, and cafe scenes, as well as landscapes and their carnivals and different cultures. Almost all digital drawings are done with a mouse, on my laptop, in Photoshop. Some are done on my cell phone or g-pad, using either my finger or stylus, uploaded to my laptop and edited in Photoshop.”[2]

I found this digital photography by him, which is titled “Coptic Nativity”, which he produced in 2010:

I can’t make my mind about it. It does not strike one as Coptic, and seems to be influenced more by black Louisiana culture than Coptic art. But it is nonetheless very interesting and beautiful. I am sure an explanatory note by the artist on the circumstances that led him to do this fascinating work will add to its beauty.

Update 27 March 2013:

I emailed the American artist Doug Duffey and asked him about his connection with the Copts and what inspired him to do this beautiful piece of art “Coptic Nativity”, and he kindly responded by these explanatory words:

I have always been fascinated by the Copts, since discovering them decades ago. I’ve been a lover of ancient Egyptian art since my youth. I’ve also studied old religions and religious art. The Copts religious art, their liturgical dress, their rituals [and the possibility of them being the keepers of 'the ark of the covenant'] makes them very intriguing to me; as is that they were the first Egyptian Christians

as for the inspirations behind my Coptic pieces- they are more imaginary- as I have never been into a Coptic church- although I have been in Egypt. Icons play a role in the imagination as well, having looked at many online.

Doug Duffey has even sent me an image of another excellent piece of art by him, “Coptic Christus”, which I will put up on this blog in a separate article.

Figure 1: The Coptic Archbishop of the See of Jerusalem, Yacobos II, in a visit to the Coptic Church in Jaffa, 1947, accompanied by the British District Commissioner in Jerusalem, William Ryder McGeagh.

The above photograph credited to Universal Images Group, shows in its site caption “Priests at the Coptic Convent in Jaffa. Several Coptic priests take part in a ceremony at the Coptic Convent in Jaffa, wearing black floor-length robes and heavy, ornate crosses. Behind them, at the bottom of the steps, is William Ryder McGeagh, District Commissioner in Jerusalem. Jaffa, British Mandate of Palestine (Israel), April 1947. Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel, Middle East, Asia.”

Interesting picture. Copts, of course, have been present in the Holy Land since the early Christian era. In Jaffa, their modern presence goes back to the time when Ibrahim Pasha, the eldest son of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805 – 1848), invaded the Holy Land, Lebanon and Syria (1831 – 1841), which were occupied by the Ottoman Empire at the time. In Jaffa they founded a church and monastery, named after Saint Antony the Great.[1]

Although the caption attached to the image talks about Coptic priests, the man with the square hat is most probably Syrian priest; furthermore the man in the centre with a staff in his left hand is a bishop. This must be the Yacobos II, archbishop of the Coptic See of Jerusalem (1946 – 1956), who was consecrated by Patriarch Yusab II (1946 – 1956).[2] This perhaps was his first visit to Jaffa’s Coptic community after his ordination in his new position, and it most probably happened around Easter of the year 1947.

1947 was of course a year before the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948, the day before the British Mandate was due to expire. In the picture is William Ryder McGeagh, British District Commissioner in Jerusalem (the man with the cross just above his head), who accompanied the Coptic archbishop on his visit.

 Figure 1: Coptic Christus, by the contemporary American artist, Doug Duffey.

The American artist Doug Duffey has sent me an image of his artwork, “Coptic Christus”. Duffey has been interested in spirituality in general, and Christianity and the Copts are part of that. In a previous article in which I attached his other beautiful work, “Coptic Nativity“, the reader will find more about Duffey’s inspiration.

Update (28 March 2013):

I have come across different versions of Coptic Christus by Doug Duffey, which I reproduce here:

These pictures were taken recently by some Russian young photographers who climbed the pyramids at risk of being punished to get us these wonderful pictures (see: English Russia 22 March 2013). Anything related to Ancient Egypt is strongly Coptic – the Ancient Egyptians are the forefathers of the present Copts, and their blood still run in our veins. We never look at such beautiful monuments without much pain and regret.

The Precious Jewel in Ecclesiastical Sciences (الجوهرة النفيسة فى علوم الكنيسة Al-Jawharah al-Nafisah fi ‘Ulum al-Kanisah), or simply The Precious Jewel,[1] is a great book in Coptic literature; its importance, in my opinion, has not yet been fully appreciated by both Copts and Coptologists. It was written in Arabic by the Coptic theologian Yuhanna ibn abi Zakariyya, known as Ibn Siba’ (يوحنا بن ابى زكريا المعروف بابن سِبَاعْ),[2] who lived in the 13^th century,[3] the century that witnessed the blooming of Arabo-Coptic literature[4] and at the same time the development of Coptic grammars and dictionaries in an attempt to resist Arabisation[5].

Ibn Siba‘’s comprehensive work on the organisation, beliefs and traditions of the Coptic Church is described as “theological-liturgical ‘encyclopedia’ because of the range of topics covered in…it” as Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History tells us.[6] Aziz S. Atiya describes its content in The Coptic Encyclopedia:

“First are several chapters on the Old Testament, which review the period of the creation to the period of Jesus Christ. The next section deals with the rise and spread of Christianity. But the bulk of the material concentrates on Coptic church organization and traditions, as well as on a meticulous review of its liturgies. The Coptic mass is analyzed and Coptic fasts and feasts enumerated, with special attention devoted to major feasts such as those of Holy Week and Easter.

Accurate details are presented on the church hierarchy from deacon to priest, hegumenos (archpriest) to bishop and the patriarch. One chapter discusses the patriarchal duty to assemble the entire priesthood every week in order to instruct them on their moral duties. The patriarch is requested to care for his flock in general, as well. Another special chapter treats the burial offices and the offerings for the souls of the departed.

The final chapter explains the significance of the ringing of church bells during the celebration of church offices.”[7]

But there is more to it than that. The book describes how the Coptic Church and society should be: it talks, inter alia, about education of Coptic children and how their teachers should be selected, the importance of Coptic language teaching, Coptic endowments, housing for the poor and guest houses for travellers, legal cases and the importance of regular sittings to judge them, selection of credible witnesses (quasi-jurors), financial auditing of churches and monasteries, and the importance of keeping detailed census of the Coptic population. Ibn Siba’ lived in a crucial period in Coptic history, a period riddled with divisions and theological arguments that centred mainly on the practice of confession. He advocated in his book auricular confession, which divided the Coptic Church and society in the 12^th and 13^th centuries into two camps; and on this matter he was one with Patriarch Cyril III (1235 – 1243)[8] and Awlad al-‘Assal[9] and opposed to Patriarch John VI (1189 – 1216)[10] and Ibn Kabar[11] who supported confession over the censer.

But to study The Precious Jewel one has to be very careful. The modern publications of this book can be categorised into three:

1.  Arabic text alone: these were published in Egypt by Copts. There are three of them, which I call “the Coptic publications”:[12]

a. The first appeared in 1902 and was published by the Coptic Patriarchate under the title كتاب الجوهرة النفيسة فى علوم الكنيسة تأليف القبطي الأرثذوكسي العلّامة يوحنا ابن زكريا المعروف بابن سباع فى الجيل الثالث عشر للميلاد. تقابل وطبع على ادارة مجلة عين شمس القبطية ومطبعتها ببطريكخانة الاقباط الارثوذوكس بمصر في شهر برمهات سنة ١٦١٨ للشهداء الاطهار

b.  The second was a reprint of the 1920s by Murqus Guirguis.

c. The third was published in 2001, and was edited by Mikhail Maksi Iskander. It was based on the 1902 edition.

Figure 1: The Precious Jewel; ed., Mikhail Maksi Iskander (Arabic text; Cairo, 2001).

 2.  Arabic text with French translation: this, which I call “the French publication”, was published in Paris in 1922 in the Patrologia Orientalis, t. 16, fasc. 4, under the title La perle précieuse traitant des sciences ecclésustiques (chapitres I-LVI) par Jean, fils d’Abou-Zakariyâ , surnommé ibn Sabâ’. The work was edited and translated by Jean Périer, and, as the title explains, is only partial publication and translation, covering only the first 56 chapters of the book.[13]

Figure 2: The Precious Jewel; ed., Jean Périer (Arabic text and French translation; Paris, 1922).

[Click on the text above for an access]

3.  Arabic text with Latin translation: this, which I call “the Franciscan publication”, was published in Cairo in 1966 by the Franciscan Center for Christian Oriental Studies (Edizioni del Centro Francescano di Studi Orientali Cristiani) as part of its Studies of the Egyptian Christians of the East (Studia Orientalia Christiana Aegyptiaca) under the title, “Pretiosa margarita de scientiis ecclesiasticis”, by Yūḥannā ibn Abī Zakarīyā Ibn Sabbāʻ; edited and translated into Latin by Vīktūr Manṣūr Mustarīḥ.

Figure 3: The Precious Jewel; ed., Vīktūr Manṣūr Mustarīḥ (Arabic text and Latin translation; Cairo, 1966).

[الجوهرة النفيسة في علوم الكنيسة - يوحنا زكريا ابن سباع Click the link to access the work]

As one surveys these modern publications one finds a great deal of differences in the number of chapters, the content of chapters and the meaning assigned to words in them. Aziz S. Atiya says The Precious Jewel is composed of 113 chapters,[14] and Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History adds that it was ‘originally’ 113 chapters, without giving a further explanation.[15] But we have in the Coptic publications 115 chapters; and while the Franciscan publication gives us 113 chapters, the French publication covers only the first 56 chapters without telling us about the total number of the book’s chapters. Further, there are many differences in the content of the publications’ chapters; for example, Chapter 108 (concerning the Cross, its finding, and the consecration of churches after it)[16] in the Franciscan publication contains a lengthy and peculiar story which is not available in the corresponding chapter in the Coptic publication[17]: a story about a hundred virgins who were appointed by Emperor Constantine on the request of his mother, Helena, to serve the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and who, on their way to the Holy Land by sea, landed in Cyprus where they were raped by, as the Arabic text says, “’afarit عفاريت”, Muslim entities that are not considered part of Christian imagination of the spiritual world.[18] It is difficult to readily know whether the odd story existed or not in the original manuscript and which one of the manuscripts on which the two Coptic and Franciscan publications depended was at fault by either interpolation or omission. Furthermore, the Coptic publications have been heavily edited as to ignore certain parts or change them. Mikhail Maksi Iskander admits this in his preface: “As this book contains some strange matters and folkloric rituals that were existent at the times of the author, some of them have been eliminated, since they don’t have connection to true Coptic rituals, and so as to avoid confusion in matters of rite.”[19] Both Jean Périer and Vīktūr Manṣūr Mustarīḥ, who were more faithful to the manuscripts from which they published their books, have recognised the shortcomings of the 1902 Coptic publication (reprinted in 1920s) and spoke about them in their introductions.[20]

But the difficulty one finds with The Precious Jewel arises more from the differences in its various manuscripts than from those created by modern publications. These differences must have arisen from heavy editing by various copyists. We have twenty one manuscripts known and available to researchers in various collections across the world, 14 in Egypt and 7 outside Egypt, and they vary in their dates from the 14^th to the 20^th centuries.[21] We do not know on which manuscripts the Coptic publications were based. The French publication depended on two manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris, Arabe 207 (which dates from the end of the 14^th century) and Arabe 208 (date 1638), and one manuscript in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV) in the Vatican City, Ar. 130 (which dates from 1701). The Franciscan publication depended mainly on a manuscript in Dar al-Kutub[22] in Cairo, Thiol. 221, which is dated 1751.[23] It appears that the oldest manuscript of the lot is MS Paris BnF Arabe 207. The second oldest (dating from the 15^th century), however, is the most important: Canon Law 1 (Zanetti 262), which is kept at the Monastery of St. Macarius (Deir Abu Magar) in Wadi al-Natrun in Egypt.[24] This manuscript is probably the most faithful to the original but sadly it has not yet been studied or published.

The writer of this article certainly hopes that researchers will pay this book more attention; and that somebody will soon study the reliable manuscript of The Precious Jewel at the Monastery of St. Macarius and another will complete the editing and translation of the Paris manuscript, Arabe 207. The study of other manuscripts may then show later changes by omission or commission and put them in their historical prospect. It is noticeable that up to this day there has been no English language contribution to the editing of The Precious Jewel manuscripts. Much work awaits the Coptologists.

 Figure 1: The Joyful Coptic Madonna and the Child by Andrzej Goszcz.

Andrzej Goszcz is a Polish artist from Crakow. He describes himself as a “freelance artist, photographer, digital fine art artist, dreamer and the dream maker, advocate beauty of life, empathy, love, culture and dialogue.”[1]

I was drawn to his painting, titled “The Joyful Coptic Madonna and the Child”, with the comments attached to it, “Hippie style. Be sure to wear flowers in your hair. God bless artists. Amen”! I have always been fascinated by the genre of artists and musicians who are in love with labelling their work as Coptic when their work does not bear any resemblance to what Coptic art or music is. Is it the mysticism in everything Coptic that some feel which makes them fall in love with the adjective? I really don’t know. But it is good to have artists and musicians using the label anyway. It helps to alert the world to the presence of the Copts and their culture.

Anyway, Coptic or not, these works have beauty of themselves, and do raise interesting questions.

P.S. For a definitely Coptic work, which we labelled “The Joyful Coptic Madonna and the Child” in a previous article – a wall painting from the Church of St. Antony in his Monastery in the eastern desert of Egypt, and which was executed in the 13^th century – click here.

Figure 1: “Une Beauté Copte”(Coptic Beauty) by the Armenian photographer Georges Legrain.

In 1914, an interesting book was published, “Louqsor sans les Pharaons: légendes et chansons populaires de la Haute Égypte”[1] (Luxor without the Pharaohs: Legends and Folk Songs of Upper Egypt) by Georges Legrain. The book contained 100 photographs of excellent quality. Georges Legrain (1865 – 1917[2]) was a French Egyptologist and writer.[3] He spent long years excavating in Luxor, particularly in the Temple of Karanak, and died in Luxor.

 Figure 2: “Louqsor sans les Pharaons: légendes et chansons populaires de la Haute Égypte” by the French archaeologist Georges Legrain (1914).

One of the photographs Georges Legrain included in his book is that of a Coptic girl, which he titled “Une Beauté Copte”(Coptic Beauty). This photograph, as the rest in his book, was taken by the distinguished[4] Armenian photographer, Gabriel Lekegian, who set up his studio in Cairo in 1887 (near the Shepherds Hotel), and was frequented by the rich and influential.