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Copto-Arabic
Copto-Arabic literature is the literature of the Copts written in Arabic. It is distinct from Coptic literature, which is literature written in the Coptic language. Copto-Arabic literature begins in the 10th century, has its golden age in the 13th and declines in the late medieval and early modern period before experiencing a revival in the 19th century. History Arabic was introduced to Egypt after the Arab conquest in 641. Coptic was used alongside Arabic in the administration of the country and some bilingual documents were produced in the 7th century. In 705, however, Arabic became the sole official language for administrative purposes. It gradually replaced Coptic as both the spoken and literary language of the Copts in a process that took several centuries. This process was much slower in Egypt than in Syria and Palestine, where the populace was spoke Aramaic, a language much close to Arabic. Palestinian Christian writing in Arabic precedes Egyptian by two centuries. There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kitāb Al-wāḍiḥ Bi-l-ḥaqq
The ''Kitāb al-wāḍiḥ bi-l-ḥaqq'' (), known in Latin as the ''Liber denudationis'' (), is a Copto-Arabic apologetic treatise against Islam. It was written by a Muslim convert to Christianity, Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ, around 1010 in Fāṭimid Egypt. Its purpose is to provide a refutation of Islam on the basis of the Qurʾān and the ''ḥadīth'' (tradition). It was translated into Latin in the 13th century, probably in Toledo. It had much greater influence in translation than in its original language. Title The ''Kitāb al-wāḍiḥ bi-l-ḥaqq'' has a complicated title. The Arabic title is difficult to translate and has been translated many ways. The word ''kitāb'' means "book" and ''al-Wāḍiḥ'' was the author's nickname, meaning "one who exposes", "one who clarifies", "the exposer", "the clarifier" or "the unveiler". The phrase ''bi-l-ḥaqq'' recalls certain passages in the Qurʾān that refer to the ''kitāb bi-l-ḥaqq''. This may be translated as "book r scr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Būluṣ Ibn Rajāʾ
Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ (born 950s, died after 1009), nicknamed al-Wāḍiḥ ('the Exposer' or 'Clarifier'), was a Coptic Orthodox Church, Coptic Christian monk, priest and apologist under the Fatimid Caliphate, Fāṭimid Caliphate. He was a Apostasy in Islam, convert from Islam who wrote in Arabic. Life Ibn Rajāʾ was born probably in the 950s. His given name at birth was Yūsuf. His full name appears in the sources as al-Wāḍiḥ Yūsuf ibn Rajāʾ, al-Wāḍiḥ ibn Rajāʾ or Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ. He was born in Cairo, where his father, Rajāʾ al-Shahīd, was a Sunnī Faqīh, jurist at the Shia Fāṭimid court. The name of his mother is unknown. She may have been a Christian, but she was probably not a Copt, since her son grew up ignorant of the Coptic language. Ibn Rajāʾ studied the Qurʾān, ''tafsīr'' (Qurʾānic interpretation), ''ḥadīth'' (tradition) and Islamic law. During the reign of the Caliph al-Muʿizz (973–975), he witnessed the execution of a Muslim conv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copts
Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are Coptic Oriental Orthodox Christians. They are the largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as in Sudan and Libya. Copts have historically spoken the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian that was spoken in late antiquity. Originally referring to all Egyptians at first, the term ''Copt'' became synonymous with native Christians in light of Egypt's Islamization and Arabization after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century. Copts in Egypt account for roughly 5–20 percent of the Egyptian population, although the exact percentage is unknown; Copts in Sudan account for 1 percent of the Sudanese population while Copts in Libya similarly account for 1 percent of the Libyan populat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coptic Literature
Coptic literature is the body of writings in the Coptic language of Egypt, the last stage of the indigenous Egyptian language. It is written in the Coptic alphabet. The study of the Coptic language and literature is called Coptology. Definition Since the term "Coptic" can have, besides a linguistic sense, an ethnic sense (referring to Copts) and a religious sense (Coptic Christianity), there is the propensity for ambiguity in the term "Coptic literature". Coptic literature is usually defined as that in the Coptic language. It is not usually limited to original compositions, but includes also translations into Coptic (mainly from Greek). It also includes texts believed to have been composed in Coptic, but which are preserved only in translation (mainly in Arabic and Ethiopic). In a broader sense, "Coptic" may include Greek literature produced in Egypt that circulated in the Coptic community. The literature that the Copts wrote in Arabic is generally treated separately as Copt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bible Translations Into Syriac
Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. Portions of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic and there are Aramaic phrases in the New Testament. Syriac translations of the New Testament were among the first and date from the 2nd century. The whole Bible was translated by the 5th century. Besides Syriac, there are Bible translations into other Aramaic dialects. Syria played an important or even predominant role in the beginning of Christianity. Here is where the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke, the Didache, Ignatiana, and the Gospel of Thomas are believed to have been written. Syria was the country in which the Greek language intersected with the Syriac, which was closely related to the Aramaic dialect used by Jesus and the Apostles. That is why Syriac versions are highly esteemed by textual critics. Scholars have distinguished five or six different Syriac versions of all or part of the New Testament. It is possible that some translations have been lost. The manuscripts originate in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bible Translations Into Arabic
Translations of the Bible into Arabic are known from the early Christian churches in Syria, Egypt, Malta and Spain. Some of these translations are from Syriac (the Peshitta), Coptic or Latin. There are many New Testament translations or portions into regional colloquial forms of Arabic e.g. Egyptian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic, Palestinian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic and Chadian Arabic etc. Old translations Part of what appears to be the oldest Arabic Bible or New Testament in existence was discovered in the 19th century at Saint Catherine's Monastery. The manuscript called Mt. Sinai Arabic Codex 151, was created in AD 867 in Damascus by someone named Bishr Ibn Al Sirri. Although it is a large, bound book, it only contains the Book of Acts and the Epistles, translated from Aramaic (Syriac). It includes the biblical text, marginal comments, lectionary notes, and glosses. The Codex Arabicus from Saint Catherine's Monastery is a palimpsest containing (among other texts) John 9:16-38 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bible Translations Into Coptic
There have been many Coptic versions of the Bible, including some of the earliest translations into any language. Several different versions were made in the ancient world, with different editions of the Old Testament, Old and New Testament in five of the dialects of Coptic language, Coptic: Bohairic (northern), Fayyumic, Sahidic (southern), Akhmimic and Mesokemic (middle). Biblical books were translated from the Alexandrian Greek version. The Sahidic was the leading dialect in the pre-Islamic period, after the 11th century Bohairic became dominant and the only used dialect of the Coptic language. Partial copies of a number of Coptic Bibles survive. A considerable number of apocryphal texts also survive in Coptic, most notably the Gnostic Nag Hammadi library. Coptic remains the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Coptic Church and Coptic editions of the Bible are central to that faith. Old Testament Translators of books of the Old Testament into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Makīn Jirjis Ibn Al-ʿAmīd
Jirjis al-Makīn ( ar, جرجس امكين ; 1205–1273), known by his ''nisba'' Ibn al-ʿAmīd ( ar, بن العميد), was a Coptic Christian historian who wrote in Arabic. His name is sometimes anglicised as George Elmacin ( la, Georgius Elmacinus). Life The details of his life come from passages at the end of his own history. He was born in Cairo in Ayyubid Egypt in 1205. His full name in Arabic was Ğirğis (George) ibn Abī ūl-Yāsir ibn Abī ūl-Mukārīm ibn Abī ūṭ-Ṭayyib al-ʿAmīd al-Makīn ("the Powerful One"). His great grandfather was a merchant from Tikrit in Iraq who settled in Egypt. He was a Coptic Christian, and held high office in the military ('' dīwān al-ğayš'') in Cairo. Such a position carried risks. He was twice imprisoned, possibly because of links to the contemporary unrest in Syria at the time of the Mongol invasion; in one case for over a decade.Gawdat Gabra, ''Historical Dictionary of the Coptic Church'', Scarecrow Press (2008), . pp. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayyubids
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin had originally served Nur ad-Din of Syria, leading Nur ad-Din's army in battle against the Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt, where he was made Vizier. Following Nur ad-Din's death, Saladin was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt, and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond the frontiers of Egypt to encompass most of the Levant (including the former territories of Nur ad-Din), in addition to Hijaz, Yemen, northern Nubia, Tarabulus, Cyrenaica, southern Anatolia, and northern Iraq, the homeland of his Kurdish family. By virtue of his sultanate including Hijaz, the location of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, he was the first ruler to be hailed as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, a title that would be held by all subsequent S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
