Christian Egypt

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History Christianity became a sanctioned religion of the province of Egypt, as throughout the rest of the Roman Empire, following the decree of the Emperor Constantine in 312. The ancient Egyptian religion managed to survive for a further two centuries until in 553 the Emperor Justinian, by evicting the priests from their last bastions in the temples of Philae and Sīwah irrevocably closed the door on paganism in Egypt. The origins of Christianity in Egypt, however, are to be found in the earliest days of the millenium. For the Westerner, for many reasons, the history of early Christianity has tended to emphasise the achievements and personalities of the European Church. While it is true that of the four ancient principal sees, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Ephesus (later Constantinople), Rome always occupied the honoured prime position as inheritor of the apostolic succession from St. Peter himself and suffered the most horrendous physical assaults on the believers, neverthless Alexandria, the second city of the unified church, was much more important in its scholastic dynamism and intellectual vitality. The Egyptian Christians stood foremost among the defenders of the faith against the many challenges, both internal and external, that it had to face. This position they retained virtually unchallenged until the mid 5C when, together with several other Eastern communities, they withdrew from the main body of the church. Copt and Coptic in the modern sense are relatively straight-forward terms, applying specifically to the Egyptian Christians and their culture, in contrast to that of the Muslims. Derived from the Arabic qibtī (itself a derivative), it might therefore be considered only applicable since the Arabic conquest of 641. But the historical problem is not quite so simnple and consideration of the origin of the terms might help to elucidate the situation. The Greeks gave the name Aiguptos to Egypt and Aiguptoi to the inhabitants, both stemming from their rendering of Hut-Ka-Ptah (House of the spirit of Ptah), one of the titles of Memphis, principal cult centre of Ptah and capital of Lower Egypt. These names persisted in Greek and Latin and were eventually bequeathed to Modern European languages in similar form: Egypt, Aegypt, Egitto etc. However, the name the Egyptians gave to their country Kheme and to themselves Niremnkhemi (People of Kheme) continued in their own language throughout the Greek period, during the Christianising Roman era and long after the Arab Conquest. Although the Arabs already had their own name for Egypt—Misr—they adopted the official Greek term for the Christian inhabitants, which by application of Arabic orthography became qibtī (pl. aqbāt). Since the terms are so specific (although stretching a point) it is perhaps permissable to apply Coptic from the earliest stirrings of Christianity in Egypt, thus emphasising the continuity. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in the early 4C, St. Mark arrived in Egypt sometime during the fifth decade after the death of Jesus, founding his community at Baucalis on the coast just

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outside the E walls of Alexandria. In AD 68 Easter was celebrated at the same time as the festival of Serapis, the celebrants of which suddenly turned on the Christians and dragged St. Mark around the city until he died. His body was buried in the chapel at Baucalis remaining there until 828 when it was stolen by two Venetians and reinterred in the cathedral at Venice. The relics were returned to Egypt in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. Early records of Christianity in Egypt are few, the Jews being a much more vocal and obvious community with frequent clashes between them and the Greeks. The monotheistic views of the Jews were well known, and with their seemingly similar attitudes the Christians were probably considered unpatriotic and irreligious eccentrics, but their contempt for the person of the emperor was a perpetual excuse for harassment by the officials. Despite this, throughout the first 200 years, the Christian community grew steadily in numbers with several bishops, the most senior at Alexandria, and a large corps of deacons. But at the very centre of Christian belief lay a seemingly insoluble problem that was to surface repeatedly, and finally shatter the united body of the church. The pivot of dissention was Jesus himself—his body and his nature. First indications of the conflict were seen in the Docetic theory of the mid-lC which promulgated the illusory human form of the divine Jesus. This idea was integral in the development of Gnosticism a much more widespread syncretic fusion of Christianity and earlier pagan theologies which gained many adherents from the 2C onwards. Gnosis (personal knowledge of God) was reserved for an elite and achieved through complex rituals and incantations. The Deity had created numberless spiritual beings (aeons) who in turn produced the Demiurge responsible for the creation of the immoral temporal world. Jesus as logos of the Deity provided the means by which rejection of this world was possible to the chosen. Although Gnostics considered themselves true believers their teachings were condemned by the church and adherents were found in diminishing numbers until the 5C. There is also evidence in Egypt for small groups of Manichaens, adherents to the religion founded by the Iranian Mani in the mid 3C with an even more convoluted theology. They too did not survive the 5C. In the late 2C, probably to combat unorthodoxy, the Catechitical College was founded in Alexandria. Existing alongside the ancient Museion but dealing principally in theology and philosophy it was to produce some of the most distinguished early Christian teachers Pantaenus (c 180), Clement of Alexandria (fl. 190), Origen (fl. 215), Heraclas (231) and Dionysius of Alexandria (c 250) providing great stimulus to theological research. Originally independent it became increasingly subject to the authority of the church. Heraclas who became patriarch in 230, was apparently the first to be termed Papa, several centuries before the patriarch of Rome. The first large scale persecution of Christians was initiated by Septimus Severus (188) who forbade conversions to Christianity or Judaism. However, despite the savagery, at the end of his reign and presumably in response to the need for more- covert organisation the number of Egyptian bishops had risen to 20. Under Decius (249) and Valerian (252) Christian persecutions systematically increased, but Gallenius (252), Valerian's son, issued an edict of religious toleration and the churches reopened. During the following 30 years, the Christians were left in comparative peace due to the chaos in Rome as rival

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contenders fought for the throne—it was the lull before the storm. There had always been Christians who wanted to reject the world and pursue a contemplative life, but the first to make a national impact on the Christian community was the patrician St. Anthony, who c 270 sold his estates and retired to the desert. In an attempt to avoid notoriety he retreated ever further into the fastness, but his asceticism inevitably attracted disciples and he finally settled in the barren wastes bordering the Red Sea where a large community of hermits grew around his cell. On 29 August 284 Diocletian assumed the throne. He began his reign with magnaminity and came to Egypt to defeat a rival. In so doing he reorganised the administration and averted a famine, in gratitude for which a commemorative column (Pompey's Pillar) was raised to him in Alexandria. It soon became apparent that the Christians remained an obstacle to recognition of his absolute divinity. His persecutions began simply enough, at first all soldiers were commanded to sacrifice to the Roman gods but then in 303 churches were closed, Christian literature destroyed, Christian officials dismissed and meetings proscribed. This was but a prologue to an appalling wave of persecution in which Christians were systematically maimed, blinded, tortured and burnt. So horrific was it that the Egyptian Christians chose the day of Diocletian's accession: to initiate their era—The Martyrs' Calendar. Diocletian's successor in the east Maximianus Daia (305) continued in the same manner and perhaps scores of thousands of Egyptians were massacred, among them many of the great saints of the Egyptian church. Constantine was proclaimed emperor in Britain in 306. He had to contend with four rival claimants before he became sole emperor in 323 but during his ascendancy in 312 he issued the Edict of Milan which enforced religious toleration throughout the empire. Although this new freedom was partially offset by his choice, in 330, of Constantinople (and not Alexandria) as his new capital, it did allow the Christians to consolidate and preach freely and the number of converts increased rapidly. However, stability also encouraged the resurgence of the Christological dispute, which was brought to head in Alexandria. At this time Alexander was the patriarch of Alexandria but his character pales beside those of the two principal protagonists in the dispute, his own secretary St. Athanasius and, the presbyter of the Church of St. Mark, Arius. Under the influence of his Antiochan masters Arius contended that Jesus was of like essence with God, but begotten and therefore of unequal nature, while Athanaius proposed that God and Jesus were of one and indivisible essence. Support for Arius came from the Greek community while Athanasius, a native Egyptian had the approval of his countrymen. At a local synod in 320 Arius was condemned and exiled, but he refused to be silenced. Constantine attempted to reconcile the disputants, but in the event was forced to convene the first great occumenical Council of Nicea in 325. Although Arius was condemned and exiled his supporters caused a fair amount of trouble over the following years. Athanasius suceeded Alexander as patriarch, but his intransigence made him so unpopular that he was exiled. His position was not improved by the fact that Constantine's son and successor Constantinus II (337) was himself an Arian and he was exiled a further four times, during which period there were even Arian contenders for the pariachate.

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The community of hermits which had surrounded St. Anthony encouraged others and settlements were founded throughout the Nile Valley by the 'Desert Fathers', including Amoun at Nitrea (325), St. Makarius the Great at Scetis (Wadi Natrūn c 330), Makarius the Alexandrian at Kellia (c 340), and St. Palemon at Fāw. Hermits in these communities would meet once a week to celebrate mass and church festivals. St. Pachomius, one of the disciples of St. Palemon and an ex-soldier, decided that his community could be put to better use and devised rules based on military discipline covering every aspect of life, conduct, food, sleep, travel, and worship. Although very austere, the movement proved extremely popular and by the time of his death (346) there were many such communities throughout Egypt, including some for women. Celibacy, devotion, labour and education were their principal aims, and the hierarchical structure consisted of an abbot in charge of the monastery, several of which were the responsibility of a superior. Before long the monastic life spread beyond the confines of Egypt into W Asia, Europe and Africa. This was also the age of the Egyptian missionaries who travelled extensively through Asia to India, Africa and Europe, probably even reaching Britain and Ireland. In the mid-4C the Ethiopian nobility became Christians under the influence of two Coptic brothers; the Ethiopian church was to remain a daughter province of the Coptic church until 1948 with metropolitan (abuna) being chosen by the patriarch of Alexandria. A set-back to the Christians came with the assumption of the Emperor Julian (360) called the Apostate who had been trained for the priesthood but reviled the faith and turned to the worship of the old Roman gods. He not only persecuted the Christians but also followers of the ancient Egyptian religion. Fortunately, he reigned for only three years and Theodosius I the Great summoned the Council (II) of Constantinople at which Arianism was finally extinguished. Theodosius briefly united the two Roman empires with Christianiy as the official religion but it was irrevocably divided between his sons in 395 with Arcadius receiving the Eastern Empire. St. Shenute succeeded his uncle as abbot of the White Monastery at Atrib (Suhāg) in 383. He transformed the Pachomian rule with even greater austerity resorting at times even to physical violence against the brothers. He was a great administrator and prolific writer in Sahidic Coptic and his tenure saw a rise in the aggressive promulgation of Christianity. A product of this new attitude was the Patriarch Theophilus (385) who encouraged bands of monks to persecute their previous oppressors. Many pagan temples were attacked and in 389 the Temple of Serapis at Canopus was razed and the pagans were subjected to a great deal of oppression. Finally the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria itself was sacked in 411 and the annexe to the Great Library destroyed. The successor of Theophilus was St. Cyril the Great (412) whose attitude was even more intracable. He assembled a large corps of dedicated disciples ready to die in his defence and one of their most disgraceful acts was the stoning to death at the Caesareum of the distinguished pagan philosopher and mathematician Hypatia daughter of Theon in 415. Cyril also played the principal part in the second phase of the dispute over the nature of Jesus. His opponent was Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who rejected the term Theotokos (Mother of God), in reference to the Virgin Mary, preferring the title mother of Christ, but in so doing once more implied

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discrepancy in the natures of Jesus. Cyril, supported by Celesius patriarch of Rome, condemned Nestorius and the resulting highly charged debacle forced the emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian II to convene in 431 the Council (III) of Ephesus. Much acrimony, verbal jostling and the holding of a contra-council by the defendants resulted in the arrest of the leaders of both sides. Cyril eventually triumphed and Nestorius was imprisoned and exiled in Egypt where he died. However, his teachings gave a powerful impetus to the most easterly province known later as the Nestorius Church. Cyrils rigid orthodoxy bolstered by his prodigious literary output made him a paragon to all schools of thought. Despite this, he was directly responsible for the continuing debate which was to resurface after his death, forcing Theodosius to assemble the second Council (IV) of Ephesus in 449 at which the Coptic Patriarch Dioscurus presided. During the proceedings the prime mover Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople, found himself humiliated and deposed. However, he was supported by Pope Leo who called the council a 'highway robbery'. The next emperor, Marcian (450) under the influence of Leo and his wife Pulcheria, sister of the deceased Theodosius, reversed the decision and summoned the Council (V) of Chalcedon in 451 specifically to try Dioscorus who in turn was deposed and exiled. More importantly the council recognised Constantinople as second only to Rome in ecclesiastical matters, a terrible blow to Alexandria and the other provinces. The Egyptians rejected the decisions and withdrew from further debate with the northern church, who contemptuously called them monophysites although they never denied the existence of Christ's two natures but insisted on their mystical unity. Marcius imposed a patriarch Proterius on the Egyptians who responded by appointing their own, Timothy Aelurus, thus initiating two lines of patriarchal succession. The Greek patriarchs (later termed Melkile, ie royalist) always had few communicants and were never accepted by the Copts, they existed independently, often with considerable friction, until the present day, although the Melkite incumbents are much less well documented. Monophytism, which still had a considerable following in the Eastern Empire, remained a problem for succeeding emperors and in 482 Emperor Zeno announced the Henoticon (act of union) devised by the patriarchs of Alexandria and Constantinople to reconcile both factions, which it signally failed to do. An uneasy truce existed until the assumption of the Emperor Justin I (518) and his son Justinian (527) who were reconciled with Rome. In an attempt to rationalise Christianity the latter actively persecuted the Monophysites, who, however, had a secret ally in his wife Theodora. During this period missionary activities of both factions were active in Nubia, where there were a great conversions. Justinian appointed Apollonius Melkite patriarch, with prefectural powers, in 541, and punative measures were pursued against the Egyptian clergy. Christianity was ordained as the sole religion of the Empire and at last the pagan priests were expelled from their last refuges: the Temple of Isis at Philae and the Temple of Amun at Sīwah. Many churches were built throughout the empire, including that at Mount Sinai. Attempting to heal the rift in the Christian communities Justin II in 571 issued the second Henoticon, but it failed as miserably as the first. Heraclius, general of the African armies, deposed the Emperor Phocus in 610 and assumed the throne, but Egypt was lost to the Persians under Khusraw Parwiz in 619. It was

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finally regained in 627, with the despotic Cyrus imposed as Patriarch/Prefect. Cyrus was to promote the theory of Monethelitism announced in 622, which, while carefully ignoring the nature of Christ, promulgated the unity of his human and divine wills, this also was rejected by the Copts, but in 638 belief became compulsory. Benjamin, the Coptic Patriarch, went into retreat in S Egypt while Cyrus pursued a series of merciless persecutions against the Coptic clergy. It is scarcely surprising that the Muslim invasion of 641 was welcomed by the Copts. After the Arab conquest the Copts at first filled important roles as translators, scribes and accountants, but, isolated from the main body of the Chirstian community, they exerted little influence. In 706 Arabic was decreed as the State language and this reduced their importance still further. Their subsequent history is entirely subsidiary to that of the Muslims in Egypt, with their fortunes waxing and waning according to the attitude of the ruler, but always declining in number. Today Copts represent about 10 per cent of the population of Egypt. The title of the Patriarch is Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. Although he has supreme authority, he does not have the burden of infallibility. He is elected from the monastic community, automatically assuming the bishopric of Alexandria, and Cairo. In the mid 11C the seat of the patriarchate was m o v e d from Alexandria to Cairo w h e r e it has remained. The hierarchy consists of archbishops (assigned to foreign sees), bishops for each of the sees in Egypt and each of the monasteries, priests, deacons and readers. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch has the same title as the Coptic Patriarch. There are ten metropolitans, three with sees in Egypt, the rest being appointed to other sees in Africa. T w o bishops are responsible for the bishoprics of Babylon (Cairo) and Mareotis (Alexandria). There is also an important Arab-speaking G r e e k Orthodox community. Probably an even larger community, the Armenian Orthodox Church is subject to the Patriarch of Echmiadzin. H e a d of the church in Egypt is the Metropolitan of Cairo, w h o is elected by councils in Cairo and Alexandria.

The Coptic Language and Script Although attempts had been made in the 2C BC to transliterate the Egyptian language into the Greek script, with little success, it was not until the early 1C AD that a conscious effort was made to express Egyptian in Greek script. This was achieved using the Greek alphabet with the addition of seven characters taken from the late demotic Egyptian for sounds not represented in Greek. This was the origin of the Coptic script which embraced the current Egyptian vernacular, already heavily adulterated with Greek terminology, with perhaps five or more dialects. The most important of these were Bohairic of the Delta and Sahidic from Upper Egypt. The first examples in Coptic are secular ephemera from the early 2C AD, progressing through glosses to Greek texts, translations from the Greek, and finally Gnostic and Christian works composed entirely in Coptic. Flourishing literatures existed in both dialects. Sahidic, purged of all Greek elements after the Council of Chalcedon, was the more prolific, but since most of the senior hierarchy of the church were northerners, in the mid 11C Bohairic was ordained as the official liturgical language. Although now only

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Papyrus codex in Coptic, early 4C Biblical miscellany (Deuteronomy) used in the liturgy, it persisted as a spoken language until the 13C while Sahidic may have survived until the 17C in the South.

Coptic Art Defining the difference between Greco-Roman and early Coptic art is very difficult. The capital of Ptolemaic Egypt was Alexandria, famous throughout the Hellenistic world for its learning, and classical buildings and art, little of which has survived. It was to this imported classical art rather than its native precursor that the Copts turned for inspiration. The reason seems to be that all Pharaonic art and architecture was regarded as pagan, and although many of the ancient temples had been turned into monasteries, they wished to detach themselves as much as possible from the ancient tradition. Probably the finest works of Roman Egypt were the Hawārah mummy paintings. Painted from life in a wax technique, they are the earliest panel portraits to survive. Dating to the first three centuries AD, they represent the Greek population of the Fayyūm, and were hung in the houses of the sitters during life and attached to the coffin -and buried with them after death. Others who could not afford paintings had stucco masks painted and attached to the coffins. Church architecture developed from the domestic buildings first used to avoid detection during the Roman persecutions. It was only after 330 when Christianity became the state religion that churches could officially be built. There should be a transitional type of building between the house-chapel and the basilican church, but this seems missing in Egypt. The earliest churches known from the area seem in all essentials to be of Syrian type and almost certainly were influenced by them in design. The essential framework of the church depended on its liturgical requirements. Nothing that can be related to pre-Christian Egyptian traditions can be said to survive in the ground plan of churches. The difficulty is that there is little uniformity of plan among the early Christian churches. All one can say is that the

www.facebook.com/per.medjat COPTIC ART A N D ARCHITECTURE 73 churches tend to be longitudinal with the main axis E. to W. and the sanctuary at the E. Two of the earliest churches are to be found in the Sūhāg monasteries of Deir al-Abyad and Deir al-Ahmar, built traditionally in the 5C. In its simplest form the sanctuary is a single apse, containing one altar, but many of the Coptic churches have three apses in a trefoil arrangement, built under Syrian influence and deriving ultimately from the throne chamber of Byzantine royalty. This arrangement can be seen in the Sūhāg monasteries mentioned above. The central sanctuary is usually dedicated to the patron saint to whom the church is consecrated and the other two to subsidiary saints. Outbuildings and annexes often change the original plan. A Coptic church usually consists of four distinct sections. At the W. end, just inside the entrance, is the narthex. Beyond this is the nave, E. of which is the apse, called the haykal (sanctuary). Attached to the sanctuary is the baptistry. The narthex is a transverse chamber which crosses the whole width of the church. In the narthex of some of the early churches a hole sunk in the floor was previously used for a service of the Blessing of the Water at the Feast of the Epiphany. Now a portable basin is used for this ceremony. The nave is normally divided into three parts by a double colonnade, the N aisle being reserved for women. Near the E end of the nave is the ambon (pulpit) which is usually set against the colonnade of the N aisle. At the E end of the nave is the choir, formerly separated from it by a screen, extending over the whole breadth of the church, containing seats for the singers, and lecterns from which the lessons are read. One or more steps leads from the chancel to the haykal, which only men may enter, separated from the rest of the church by a solid wooden screen, often beautifully carved and inlaid with ebony, ivory and cedar, in the centre of which is a door covered by a curtain. On either side of the door are two small windows and across the screen is a row of ikons including that of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. In some churches sanctuary lamps hang before the screen, and between them are suspended ostrich eggs. The N. and S. sanctuaries are used when the feasts of their particular saints are being celebrated. Behind the main altar is a tribune with seats for the bishop, and the officiating clergy. In the niche behind a lamp is kept burning, known as the perpetual lamp. The altar which stands in the middle of the haykal is four-sided and made of brick or stone, covered with three layers of cloth, cotton or linen, red silk and white linen overall. Over the altar is a lofty wooden canopy upheld by pillars (rather like the Pharaonic baldachins). On the interior of the dome covering the sanctuary is a painting of Christ as Pantokrator (Lord of the World) surrounded by cherubim and seraphim. In the middle of the altar is the ark, a box with hinged flaps, painted with the Last Supper, the Holy Virgin, an angel and the patron saint, in which the chalice is placed from the beginning of the divine liturgy until the Holy Communion. The baptistry is normally situated at the end of the N. aisle, though not in the early churches. The font is circular and large enough for complete immersion. It is sometimes very difficult to date Coptic material: for instance monastic painting, most of which comes from only two sites, Bawit and Saqqārah and which, except for that from the Wadi Natrun and perhaps St Anthony, are all individual paintings, not grouped in

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schools. Much of the work appears not to have been that of monks but commissioned from itinerant artists. T h e greatest collection of Coptic art in Egypt is in the Coptic Museum founded in 1908 and taken over by the government in 1931, situated in Old Cairo in the Fortress of Babylon. T h e range of subjects displayed can be taken as illustrating the art forms of the Copts. M a n y of the objects here come from the churches and monasteries, some of which are n o w completely destroyed, as at Hermopolis. The museum contains many capitals derived in some cases from earlier non-Christian temples; woodcarving, with a splendid 5C panel showing Christ's entry into the Holy City on Palm Sunday; a large number of ikons, some showing strong Byzantine influence, and others typically Coptic. T h e finest collection is probably that of textiles, which have b e e n preserved by the dry Egyptian air. T h e motifs are mixed—some are adapted Pharaonic, others Greco-Roman. In the lesser art one notes the riot of decoration without form or reason, because the craftsmen w e r e copying earlier designs which w e r e no longer understood. With rare exceptions Christian subjects are not found on objects produced in Egypt before the 5C. O n e of the commonest motifs on textiles are roundels or medallions enclosing floral designs or animals, and these are very frequent in the 5 and 6C. T h e textiles are in many ways the most interesting of the Coptic arts. T h e y feature designs that w e r e also carried out in wood, stone and ivory. It is not until the late 6C that classical designs die out and Christian motifs alone remain. Most of the textiles are on linen backing, some of the clothing is woollen, as is the tapestry w e a v i n g . Cotton is seldom found, and little silk. What is apparent is that Coptic art remained essentially a folk art having something of the same style as modern Egyptian w e a v i n g , without the discipline or accuracy of the works of the Pharaonic period, nor the vitality, produced by patronage, of the Muslim art that was to follow.