Clik here to view.
COPTIC CEMETERY BY THE AMERICAN ARTIST ANNA HELD AUDETTE
Anna Held Audette (1938 – 2013) was a famous American artist who was fascinated by industrial ruins, and relics in general, and used her art to express her vision of that past. She has a few charcoal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A FASCINATING SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ‘THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT’ PAINTING
The above painting is from the Coptic manuscript, The Four Gospels in Coptic and Arabic, dated to 1663 AD, and kept at the British Library, London (Or. 1316 f.5v). It shows The Flight into Egypt – the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE BEAUTY OF COPTIC POTTERY JARS
The beauty of Coptic pottery never ends. Above are two Coptic painted pottery jars from the 4th to 7th century made of terracotta and 12” (30.5cm) high each.[1] [1] Vendor is (or was) Barakat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE VERDICT OF JEAN-FRANÇOIS CHAMPOLLION: COPTIC IS THE MOST PERFECT AND THE...
Jean-François Champollion (1790 – 1832) deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822, and made it possible for modern Egyptology to emerge. He perhaps would not have been able to do that at all had he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
TELL ABU MINA – THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF THE OLD HOLY CITY OF SAINT MENAS
The above is a watercolour painting by Henri-Joseph Redouté dated June 1799. It depicts Tell Abu-Mina, the archaeological site of the old Coptic Christian town of Saint Mina, which was built in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PRAETOR URBANUS: JAMES GILLRAY AND HIS CARICATURING OF THE COPTS
In 2009, I visited the National Portrait Gallery in London to have a look at the above hand-coloured etching, titled “‘Praetor-Urbanus:’ – inauguration of the Coptic Mayor of Cairo, preceded by the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE VIRGIN’S CHURCH OF THE FERRY IN MAADI, CAIRO
The above vintage photographs (photographer unknown to me) date from the first half of the 20th century. They show a view from the River Nile of the Coptic Church of the Virgin Mary in Maadi, Cairo,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE COPTIC CATHEDRAL OF SAINT MARK IN AZBAKIYA, CAIRO
This vintage photograph, of unknown photographer, from the first half of the 20th century is of Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Azbakeya,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
RAGHEB MOFTAH, THE GREAT COPTIC MUSICOLOGIST
I have written about Ragheb Moftah (1898–2001) before, here and here. I now share with you a photograph of the great Coptic musicologist and scholar of Coptic music heritage. It was donated by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE BRILLIANCE OF THE COPTIC ART FROM BAWIT (MONASTERY OF SAINT APOLLO)
The colourful paintings, below, are from Le monastère et la nécropole de Baouit saison de fouilles avril-mai 1903 (The monastery and Necropolis of Bawit, excavated in the season April-May 1903), which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PROGRAMME FOR THE MODERNISATION AND REVIVAL OF THE COPTIC LANGUAGE
Modernisation and revival of Coptic must go hand in hand – there is no point in modernising Coptic if we do not aim at its revival; and there can be no hope of revival of Coptic without modernising it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE FATE OF ANIMALS: LET OBLIVION BE THEIRS, AND LET THEM SUFFER NOT
Fate of the animals by the German painter, Franz Marc (1880 – 1916), 1913 In the Coptic Mysteries of St. John the Divine,[1] it is told that after the Saviour had risen from the dead, He came to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
COPTIC NATIONALISM IS CULTURAL NON-TERRITORIAL NATIONALISM
Sociologists, philosophers and politicians, of times old and new, have tired themselves writing about the typology of nationalism. One finds different types of nationalism cited: hegemony,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SOLOMON CESAR MALAN AND HIS ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS OF THE COPTIC CHURCH
Solomon Caesar Malan (1812 – 1894) Solomon Caesar Malan (1812 – 1894) was French by family, Swiss by birth, and British by naturalisation. He was a cleric and Orientalist who knew many languages,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
HAVE THE COPTS OF THE 7/8TH CENTURIES COME FACE TO FACE WITH ALIENS?!
I think the above Coptic tapestry fragment is particularly cute and funny. It is kept at the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo (Inv. No. 1708). We don’t know where it comes from in Egypt but it is dated to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A COPTIC PAINTING OF SAINT THEODORE THE ORIENTAL FROM ~ THE 9TH CENTURY
The above painting on vellum is from a Coptic manuscript is Fol. 001v, Theodore Tyro which forms part of Manuscript M.613, titled “Martyrdom of SS. Theodore the Anatolian (the Oriental), Leontius the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A NATION CANNOT LIVE IN CULTURAL VACUUM
A nation cannot live in cultural vacuum (black circle): you either occupy your national space with your own culture (blue circle) or it will be filled in by a foreign culture (red circle), often that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE COPTIC LIFE AND PASSION OF ST. THEODORE OF SHWTP (THE GENERAL)
Coptic icon from the 18th century by Ibrahim al-Nasikh depicting St. Theodore of Shwtp saving the widow of Euchaita and her two sons from the dragon Saint Theodore of Shwtp (or Saint Theodore the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SAINT THEODORE THE EASTERN (ANATOLIAN, ORIENTAL) AND ASSOCIATES IN THE...
The Copto-Arabic Synaxarium[1] that was published with a French translation was taken from two manuscripts; the earlier was from the late 14th century,[2] which is close to the time the Synaxarium was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE MASS SUICIDE OF THE NUNS OF ASYUT IN THE 12TH CENTURY: PART 1
In the Coptic Synaxarium published by Réne Basset (1848-1924), Synaxaire Arabe-Jacobite,[1] we find a very interesting story of a group of forty Coptic nuns from the Mountain of Asyut who in Muslim...
View Article