Tawfiq Iskaros (1871 – 1942)
Volume 1 of Tawfiq Iskaros’ celebrated book on Coptic history in the 19th century
Tawfiq Iskaros (1871 – 1942) was a great Coptic historian and activist. He is known for his book, نوابغ الأقباط ومشاهيرهم في القرن التاسع عشر (The Coptic Geniuses and Famous in the Nineteenth Century), which he published in two volumes (Volume 1 in 1910 and Volume 2 in 1913). This a great book that gives lots of details about Coptic history and its great men in the 19th century which one doesn’t find in other history books: Vol. 1 covering the period of Patriarchs Mark VIII (1796 – 1809) and Peter VIII (1809 – 1852) and Vol. 2 covering the period of the Patriarchs Cyril IV (1853 – 1862), Demetrius II (1862 – 1870), and Cyril V (1874 – 1927). Great events, both internally and externally happened in Egypt in the 19th century which affected the Copts enormously, including the French advent in Egypt, the rise of Muhammad Ali, the emergence of the modern Coptic renaissance at the hands of Patriarch Cyril IV and revival of the Coptic society, the ‘Arabi uprising, the British occupation, and the Mahdist revolt in Sudan. Iskaros has also published other books and written several articles. In addition, he was heavily involved in reviving the Coptic society and language.
Apart from a short biography collected by the contemporary Coptic historian, Majid Kamel, I cannot find anything mentioned about him in The Coptic Encyclopedia (ed. by Aziz Suryal Atiya, 1991) or the Egyptian Christian Biographical Dictionary (published by the Society of Mari Mina in Alexandria, 1995). This is strange. Further, only Volume 1 of his famous book, نوابغ الأقباط ومشاهيرهم في القرن التاسع عشر, is available online. The reader can access it here. It was published on line by The Coptic Treasures Project.
Why is volume 2 of نوابغ الأقباط ومشاهيرهم في القرن التاسع عشر not available online? It covers an exceedingly important period of Coptic history? Is it suppressed because of what is in it? I don’t know as I have never come across it, but when lesser historical books on the Copts are made readily available on- and offline, one suspects that Iskaros’ writing did not fall well on the Egyptian authorities or may be the ecclesiastical authorities.
It would be great to have it scanned and uploaded online soon!