Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt


Product Description
In this book, Febe Armanios explores Coptic religious life in Ottoman Egypt (1517-1798), focusing closely on manuscripts housed in Coptic archives. Ottoman Copts frequently turned to religious discourses, practices, and rituals as they dealt with various transformations in the first centuries of Ottoman rule. These included the establishment of a new political regime, changes within communal leadership structures (favoring lay leaders over clergy), the economic ascent of the archons (lay elites), and developments in the Copts' relationship with other religious communities, particularly with Catholics.Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt highlights how Copts, as a minority living in a dominant Islamic culture, identified and distinguished themselves from other groups by turning to an impressive array of religious traditions, such as the visitation of saints' shrines, the relocation of major festivals to remote destinations, the development of new pilgrimage practices, as well as the writing of sermons that articulated a Coptic religious ethos in reaction to Catholic missionary discourses. Within this discussion of religious life, the Copts' relationship to local political rulers, military elites, the Muslim religious establishment, and to other non-Muslim communities are also elucidated. In all, the book aims to document the Coptic experience within the Ottoman Egyptian context while focusing on new documentary sources and on an historical era that has been long neglected.
Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt Review
Dr. Febe Armanios' insightful and much-needed volume fills a gap in existing scholarship. By examining the experiences of Coptic Christians in Ottoman Egypt (1517-1798), the author provides information about and analysis of the experiences and self-understandings of a minority religious group in an Muslim-dominated country, which of course has relevance in modern Egypt where Copts are confronted by many of the same socio-political-religious realities.In just five chapters, Dr. Armanios manages to deftly and successfully introduce Coptic/Ottoman history, explore the shape and role of influential martyrologies (namely Dimyana and Salib), examine Jerusalem pilgrimage narratives, and contexualize sermons from missionary Catholics who came to Egypt with a proselytizing agenda for the Copts. In turn, the latter helped forge Coptic identity, and today serves as a counterpoint to more productive ecumenical relations between the Coptic Orthodox Church and other Christian communities, in Egypt and worldwide.
In addition to impeccable scholarship, the author deserves praise for relying on a diversity of primary sources, many of which have never been academically studied before, including manuscripts from the St. Macarius Monastery Library, the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Dayr Al-Suryan Library, Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies, St. Mina Monastery Library, the Patriarchal Library in Cairo, and the Library of St. Shenouda Center for Coptic Studies in Los Angeles. This volume should be included in any serious library of both Coptic, Islamic, Ottoman, and Middle Eastern Studies.
S. Michael Saad; Managing Editor, Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia (...)
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