IFAO

This article deals with three variations of a panegyric dedicated to Saint Theodore the Oriental, a saint venerated by the Egyptian orthodox Coptic Christians, especially in Upper Egypt: A manuscript version preserved in the late Ottoman period, a printed version from the inter-war period and a contemporary record. We will shed light upon the Middle Arabic used in the manuscript version, and discussed the genesis of the text, we will focus on the editorial process as a reinvention and a bifurcation inside the textual tradition. With respect to orality, it will manifest itself in the recitation as a unique performance, as well as in the weft of the texts as a fantasized model and a trace of the older performances.

The emergence of a hagiographic tradition relating the life, the spiritual qualities and the execution of the neo‑martyr Anbā Wannas al‑Aqṣurī expresses as much a problematic concerning the identity issues of the Christian community of Luxor at the beginning of the 20th century, as a means used by the guide of this community, Bishop Anbā Marquṣ, to legitimize the foundation of a holy place. This new sacred topography (the space) and the tradition that serves as its foundation (the myth) are respectively considered in the light of two approaches : the « hagiotopography » and what Lambros Couloubaritsis calls « the practice of myth ». The first aims to identify the historical and sociological reasons why, at the end of a process of dechristianization of the urban space (Sossie Andézian speaks about « rupture »), there is a need to create a new holy figure and to establish a new topos (S. Andézian speaks about « distinction »). The second allows us to analyze in depth the myth (the hagiographic tradition), to identify the cognitive mechanisms that make up its architectonic, and finally the reasons that explain its emergence.

The miracle tale of the Moving Muqaṭṭam mountain has been circulating among the Coptic community for a thousand years. Nowadays, members of the Coptic Church still refers to it as an example of victory of the Christian faith over Islam. This narrative, even if it bears some fixed structural features, went through numerous variations throughout times. On the basis of its first attestation in the Coptic‑Arabic text of the History of the Patriachs of Alexandria, it was later further developped, mainly under an apologetic angle. Finally, it included the episode of the Caliph al‑Muʿizz—founder of Cairo in the 10th century—converting to christianity. In the 20th century, this was subject to considerable debate in the press. From the 1970’s onwards, a young preacher revigorated the famous narrative by founding a huge place of worship at the Muqaṭṭam, commemorating the miracle. This paper, which is the result of a collective work by a historian and two philologists, intends to offer a collaborative approach, where the history of texts is combined with the analysis of contemporary practices. This research shows that, even if numerous traditions have very old roots, they are always reinveted, depending on successive contexts in which they take place.

After a brief presentation of Egyptian Catholic journals and newspapers of the twentieth century that can serve as sources, this article presents the most remarkable and most original of them: Ḥaqlunā (1949‑1970). It was initiated by the lawyer Pierre Cassab (Buṭrus Kassāb, 1913‑1986) to serve the Association of Catholic Youth of Egypt, founded in 1947. Giving news of the Catholic Church in the world, Ḥaqlunā was heralding the necessary role of the laity in the associations and in the Church. Valuable source for the reception of the Second Vatican Council (1962‑1965) in Egypt, the review was first animated by “Syrians of Egypt” of Greek-Catholic rite, like Pierre Cassab, or Maronite, like Michel Farah (Mīšīl Faraḥ). It is particularly attentive to the life of the Eastern Churches and the affirmation of Coptic Catholics as the National Church of Egypt. Towards the Coptic Orthodox, Ḥaqlunā, in an ecumenical spirit, supports the Renewal begun under Cyril VI. As for Islam, while faithfully supporting the conciliar orientations manifested in Nostra Aetate, Ḥaqlunā alludes to the concerns of Egyptian Catholics in the face of the Islamization of the Nasserian state. The feminine question finally, initially almost absent, becomes important in the 1960s.

Dans une société égyptienne ottomane très cosmopolite, un individu est défini par son statut social et son métier, puis par ses convictions religieuses. L’élite copte du xviiie siècle, suivant un usage aussi bien chrétien que musulman, met à profit l’essor économique de la province pour redistribuer une partie des fortunes acquises au profit de l’Église et de leurs coreligionnaires.

In a very cosmopolitan Egyptian Ottoman society, an individual is defined by his social status and profession, and then by his religious beliefs. The Coptic elite of the 18th century, following both Christian and Muslim usage, takes advantage of the province’s important economic development to redistribute the acquired wealth for the benefit of the Church and their coreligionists.

This article is an attempt to place the history of the Copts into a broader context, that of Ottoman history and shows that Coptic history is closely linked to Egyptian history. Based on two sharia court cases, we can explain not only the period of transformation in Coptic history but also the history of Egypt at the end of the 16th century, which completed at the middle of 17th century. On the other hand, the article shows how the sources of the courts can be supplemented with Coptic sources, and that to better understand the 17th century, it would be necessary to use both of these sources. The two court cases studied here are only comprehensible when Coptic sources are taken into consideration.

This article is inscribed in the field of graffitology and it presents the study of a corpus which still largely unknown. Collected by the Japanese mission in Sinai (Dir. M. Kawatoko) between 2001 and 2005, the Christian Arab graffiti present in large numbers in the south of the peninsula, had never delivered their contents. The study of these sources, from the point of view of forms, onomastics and paleography, as well as historical and epigraphic contextualization, shed a light on the history of Eastern Christianity in the region. The exploitation of the data makes it possible to outline the profile of these Christian pilgrims converging on Mount Sinai and informs about the frequentation of the roads at the Abbasid and Fatimid times.

Cet article présente un dossier inédit de documents concernant les chrétiens de Damas à la fin du ixe siècle. Conservés au moyen de leur copie dans deux manuscrits tous deux datables approximativement du xe-xie siècle, ces neuf documents rédigés en arabe ont été produits à l’occasion d’un conflit au sein de l’Église melkite de Syrie en 277/890‑891. Il ressort de l’analyse que David, évêque métropolitain de Damas, a lui-même réuni ces documents à charge contre son adversaire Siméon, patriarche d’Antioche. La plainte de David de Damas aux deux autres patriarches, Élie de Jérusalem et Michel ­d’Alexandrie, contre Siméon d’Antioche, est éditée et traduite en français en annexe de l’article.

This paper presents an unpublished dossier of documents related to the Christians of Damascus in the late 9th century. Preserved through their copy in two manuscripts ­datable to the 10th or 11th century, these nine documents written in Arabic were issued on the ­occasion of a conflict that happened among the Melkite Church in Syria in 277/890‑891. The ­documents prove to have been gathered by David the metropolitan bishop of Damascus, against his adversary Simeon the patriarch of Antioch. The complaint of David of Damascus against Simeon of Antioch, addressed to the two other patriarchs, Elias of Jerusalem and Michael of Alexandria, is edited and translated into French as an appendix to this article.

When Western Syriac literature designates the Christian Arabs (ṭayyōyē krisṭyōnē), it is ­often through a ternary expression, the « Tanūkōyē, ʿAqūlōyē and Ṭūʿōyē », in variable order. These people (ʿammē) played a very significant role during the second civil war (60‑72/680-692) within the Syriac Orthodox Church, as it is starting to consider the Muslim alterity. At this ­specific time, a homonym bishopric is attested, especially under Georges’ authority (d. 105/724), one of the main intellectuals of this time. These populations seem to have lived in « the Occident » (then forming the ǧund of Qinnasrīn) and in the post-Roman Upper Mesopotamia (the Ǧazīra) during the Umayyad period. The Tanūḫ (Tanūkōyē) are defined as an Iraqi community partially settled in northern Syria, but the period of this migration, traditionally dated to the proto-Byzantine era, is still indeterminate. The two other words are less clear: the ʿAqūlōyē are related to the people of al‑Kūfa (the expression is almost certainly post‑Hiǧra) while the Ṭūʿōyē would correspond to ancient groups from the same area. Our hypothesis is that the moving of these Iraqi ʿammē, designated by this ternary standardized ethnonym (they are not tribes in the sense of arabic nasab) to the Syrian space results from a transfer policy under Muʿāwiya (d. 60/680). It is most likely in this context that they might have been affiliated to the episcopal miaphysit nomenclature, at a time where it was possible to participate in the Believers’ movement while including one’s self in the Antiochene Church.