Copto-Arabic literature is the literature of the
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 ...
written in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
. It is distinct from
Coptic literature, which is literature written in the
Coptic language
Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: , ) is a language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third-century AD in Roman Egypt. Copti ...
.
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
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
, a language much close to Arabic. Palestinian Christian writing in Arabic precedes Egyptian by two centuries. There is little evidence of Copto-Arabic writing prior to the 10th century.
Origins
The first Copto-Arabic authors are the
Melkite patriarch
The Melkite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch is the only actual residential Patriarchate of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church (Eastern Catholic, Byzantine Rite). It was formed in 1724 when a portion of the Orthodox Church of Antioch went into com ...
Eutychius Eutychius or Eutychios ( el, Εὐτύχιος, "fortunate") may refer to:
* Eutychius Proclus, 2nd-century grammarian
* Eutychius (exarch) (died 752), last Byzantine exarch of Ravenna
* Saint Eutychius, an early Christian martyr and companion of ...
(d. 940) and the
Coptic Orthodox
The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي ...
bishop
Sāwīrus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. 987). Eutychius wrote a
universal history
A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...
down to the caliphate of
al-Rāḍī (934–940). This work was later continued by
Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī. Eutychius also wrote an apologetic treatise defending the Melkite faith against both Coptic Orthodoxy and Islam, entitled ''Kitāb al-jadal bayn al-mukhālif wa-l-Naṣrānī''.
Sāwīrus wrote a refutation of Eutychius treaty from an Orthodox perspective. He wrote at least 38 identifiable works in Arabic, mostly on Christian matters but also on psychology, medicine and Arabic proverbs. He is the most important early figure in Copto-Arabic literature. Sāwīrus's friend and contemporary,
Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ, a convert from Islam, wrote in Arabic a critique of his old faith, the ''
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 Fāṭ ...
'', that was later translated into
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and had a major influence in the West.
Golden age
By the late 11th century, Arabic was beginning to supersede Coptic and there was a clear decline in the knowledge of Coptic among Egyptian Christians. The ''
Confession of the Fathers
A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...
'' was compiled around 1078 in Arabic from Coptic sources. A Copto-Arabic translation movement flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries under the
Fatimids
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...
.
Under the
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 h ...
in the early 13th century, Copto-Arabic experienced a renaissance. This was spearheaded by four prominent brothers, the
Awlād al-ʿAssāl. One of the products of this period was a new
translation of the New Testament into Arabic based on the original Greek,
Coptic translations and
Syriac translations. The brothers al-ʿAssāl also wrote in defence of the literary merit of the New Testament and produced a bilingual Coptic–Arabic dictionary and a Coptic grammar in Arabic. They developed their own "Asʿadī" style of handwriting.
Copto-Arabic historiography also experienced a rebirth under the late Ayyubids. The major work was begun by
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 E ...
and continued in the
Mamluk
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
period by
al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Abi ʾl-Faḍāʾil. The "peak of the golden age" was reached in the writings of
Ibn Kabar Ibn Kabar (''Shams al-Riʾāsa Abū al-Barakāt ibn Kabar'', d. 1324) was a Coptic Christian author of an ecclesiastical encyclopedia known as ''Mișbâḥ al-ẓulma''.
He was secretary to the Mamluk minister Baybars al-Manșûrî, presumably e ...
, who died in 1324.
The first Arabic translations of hymns and other liturgical texts from Coptic probably took place in the 13th or 14th century. These were necessitated by the decline in the use of Coptic among the people. Coptic texts, however, remained the norm in the monasteries.
Decline and revival
The encyclopaedic work of
Ibn Sibāʿ () on the offices and traditions of the Coptic church marks the start of a decline of Copto-Arabic writing. The nadir of Copto-Arabic corresponds to that of Egyptian Islamic culture under the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
from 1518 to 1798. It was
Pope Cyril IV (d. 1861) who reformed Copto-Arabic writing by establishing schools.
In the early 20th century, there were two Coptic newspapers, ''al-Waṭan'' and ''Miṣr''. There was a flowering of modern Coptic literature in Arabic following the assassination of the Prime Minister
Boutros Ghali
, image = Boutros Ghali Pasha.jpg
, order = 9th Prime Minister of Egypt
, monarch = Abbas II
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Kiman-al-'Arus, Beni Suef, Ottoman Empire
, death_date =
, death_place = Cairo, Khedivate of ...
in 1910 and the
Congress of Asyūṭ in 1911. This was a period which saw unity of purpose between Coptic and Muslim Egyptians against the
British regime, culminating in the
Egyptian Revolution of 1919
The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 ( ''Thawra 1919'') was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of the rev ...
.
Genres
Apocalyptic
Several Coptic-language apocalypses were later translated into Arabic. These include the ''
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Athanasius'', ''
Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun
The so-called ''Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun'' is a Coptic language, Coptic text of uncertain date and authorship now preserved only in its Arabic language, Arabic translation. It contains the strongest denunciation of the language shift in t ...
'', ''
Letter of Pseudo-Pisentius'' and ''
Visions of Shenute''. There were also apocalyptic texts composed in Arabic. Copto-Arabic apocalyptic was usually
pseudonymous
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
served to allow criticism of Islamic authorities from the safety of (feigned) temporal distance. It incorporated the legend of the
Last Roman Emperor
Last Roman Emperor, also called Last World Emperor or Emperor of the Last Days, is a figure of medieval European legend, which developed as an aspect of Christian eschatology. The legend predicts that in the Eschatology, end times, a last emperor w ...
, but always portrayed the Coptic church was triumphant over the
Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian Christianity is the branch of Christianity that accepts and upholds theological and ecclesiological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the Christolo ...
.
Canon law
Ibn al-Rāhib and
Pope Cyril III (d. 1243) both wrote works on canon law. In addition, at least six Coptic
nomocanon
A nomocanon ( gr, Νομοκανών, ; from the Greek 'law' and 'a rule') is a collection of ecclesiastical law, consisting of the elements from both the civil law and the canon law. Nomocanons form part of the canon law of the Eastern Cathol ...
s were written in Arabic. Only five these are preserved today, one by
Pope Gabriel II (d. 1145) being lost. The 13th-century nomocanon of
al-Ṣafī ibn al-ʿAssāl forms the basis of the
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
n ''
Fetha Nagast
The Fetha Negest ( gez, ፍትሐ ነገሥት, fətḥa nägäśt, Justice of the Kings) is a theocratic legal code compiled around 1240 by the Coptic Egyptian Christian writer Abu'l-Fada'il ibn al-Assal in Arabic. It was later translated into ...
''.
[ (in the PDF).]
Catechesis
There is a sequence of catechetical texts in Arabic from the 10th or 11th century through the 13th. The first is the ''
Kitāb al-īḍāḥ'', written in a straightforward style. Its preface notes how Islamic terminology was becoming better known in Christian circles than traditional Christians terminology. Next in sequence is the anonymous ''
Kitāb al-muʿallim wa-l-tilmīdh'', which is divided into ten questions. It contains a distinct Copto-Arabic version of the
Jesus Prayer
The Jesus Prayer,; syr, ܨܠܘܬܐ ܕܝܫܘܥ, translit=slotho d-yeshu'; syr, label=Amharic, Geez and Tigrinya, እግዚኦ መሐረነ ክርስቶስ, translit=igizi'o meḥarene kirisitosi. "Note: We are still searching the Fathers for t ...
: "My Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. My Lord Jesus, help me. My Lord Jesus, I praise and worship you." Two similarly titled works followed, one in eight questions by
Marqus ibn al-Qunbar and one in twenty-two chapters by the future Cyril III.
Coptic linguistics
The first
Coptic grammars were written in Arabic in the 13th century. There was no prior history of grammatical writing in Coptic or in earlier Egyptian. Copto-Arabic grammatical writing was inspired entirely by the existing Arabic linguistic tradition practised among Muslmis.
Coptic
lexicography
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretica ...
in Arabic originates around the same time as grammar, but it has antecedents in Coptic and Greek going back to
late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
. One 13th-century Copto-Arabic lexicographical treatise, ''al-Sullam al-ḥāwī'' ("The Comprehensive Ladder"), contains as an appendix an
Arabic–Old French glossary
An Arabic–Old French glossary (or phrase book) occupies the final thirteen pages of the 16th-century manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 43, where it functions as an appendix to an Arabic treatise on Coptic lexicography ...
with the French in Coptic script.
Hagiography
Many early Coptic saints' lives were translated into Arabic. Many new Arabic lives were also written.
The ''
Copto-Arabic Synaxarion
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 13 ...
'' is a collection of short biographies of saints, especially martyrs, perhaps first collected in the early 13th century, but attaining a final form only in the 14th. It is a
synaxarion
Synaxarion or Synexarion (plurals Synaxaria, Synexaria; el, Συναξάριον, from συνάγειν, ''synagein'', "to bring together"; cf. etymology of ''synaxis'' and ''synagogue''; Latin: ''Synaxarium'', ''Synexarium''; cop, ⲥⲩⲛⲁ ...
, the biographies intended to be read as part of the service of any given day.
Historiography
The annals of Eutychius are the first work of Arabic Egyptian historiography. The continuation of Yaḥyā may have been started in Egypt, but was finished in 10334 in Syria. Yaḥyā also composed a work of
computus
As a moveable feast, the date of Easter is determined in each year through a calculation known as (). Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (a fixed approxi ...
, known through quotation by Ibn al-Rāhib.
Two early works of Coptic-language historiography were translated into Arabic.
John of Nikiu
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
's chronicle had little influence. Both the Coptic and Arabic versions are lost; only an
Ethiopic version survives. Much more influential was the ''
Taʾrīkh baṭārikat al-Iskandariyya l-Qibṭ'', a series of biographies of the
Coptic Orthodox patriarchs. The Arabic translation was undertaken in the late 11th century by
Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij. It was subsequently continued with original, short biographical notices in Arabic.
In the late 12th century,
Abū al-Makārim began a guidebook on the churches and monasteries of Egypt. It was expanded in the early 13th century with the addition of numerous historical notices into the ''
History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt''. Also from the 13th century is a lost universal history ending in 1217–1218 by a certain Bishop Abrīm. This might be the same work as the ''Tārīkh li-baʿḍ al-Ṣaʿīdiyyīn'' mentioned by Ibn al-Rāhib.
Poetry
Copto-Arabic poetry is known from as early as the 13th century. The early 20th century saw a surge in production, but there are no Coptic poets in Arabic comparable to the best Egyptian Muslim poets.
Theology and philosophy
Copto-Arabic theology prior to the 13th century was primarily didactic, pastoral and apologetico-polemic (directed at either other Christian denominations or Islam). In the 13th century there was a turn towards a more systematic, even encyclopaedic, approach based in logic and philosophy and heavily influenced by Islamic ''
kalām
''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...
''. Theologians of this period produced works very similar in style to the ''
summa
Summa and its diminutive summula (plural ''summae'' and ''summulae'', respectively) was a medieval didactics literary genre written in Latin, born during the 12th century, and popularized in 13th century Europe. In its simplest sense, they might ...
e'' being produced at the same time in the
Latin West
Greek East and Latin West are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world and of Medieval Christendom, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the '' lingua franca'' (Greece, Anatolia, the southern Balkans, t ...
.
[ (in the PDF).]
The most prominent theologians of the Copto-Arabic renaissance were al-Ṣafī ibn al-ʿAssāl,
al-Muʾtaman ibn al-ʿAssāl,
Ibn al-Rāhib,
Ibn Kabar Ibn Kabar (''Shams al-Riʾāsa Abū al-Barakāt ibn Kabar'', d. 1324) was a Coptic Christian author of an ecclesiastical encyclopedia known as ''Mișbâḥ al-ẓulma''.
He was secretary to the Mamluk minister Baybars al-Manșûrî, presumably e ...
,
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 E ...
and
Yūḥannā ibn Sabbāʿ.
[
]
Allography
William Worrell argues that Coptic went through three stages in its contact with Arabic. First, it borrowed the odd Arabic word. Second, while still a living language, some texts were written in Arabic but in Coptic script
The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the Greek alphabet augmented by letters borrowed from the Egyptian Demotic and is the first alphabetic script used for the Egyptian l ...
(a practice known as allography
Allography, from the Greek for "other writing", has several meanings which all relate to how words and sounds are written down.
Authorship
An allograph may be the opposite of an autograph – i.e. a person's words or name (signature) written by so ...
). Finally, after having been completely supplanted as the spoken language by Arabic, Coptic was rendered as needed in Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
.
There is a fragmentary 13th-century manuscript in Arabic in Coptic script containing some of the ''Sayings of the Desert Fathers
The ''Sayings of the Desert Fathers'' ( la, Apophthegmata Patrum Aegyptiorum; el, ἀποφθέγματα τῶν πατέρων, translit=Apophthégmata tōn Patérōn) is the name given to various textual collections consisting of stories and ...
''. It provides valuable information about the vernacular pronunciation of Arabic in Egypt at that time. The same practice in the case of Syriac script
The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with ...
is known as ''Garshuni Garshuni or Karshuni ( Syriac alphabet: , Arabic alphabet: ) are Arabic writings using the Syriac alphabet. The word "Garshuni", derived from the word "grasha" which literally translates as "pulling", was used by George Kiraz to coin the term "gars ...
''. The Copto-Arabic ''Sayings'' was probably created by one who spoke Arabic but was either educated in and more comfortable writing in Coptic or else saw Coptic script as the prestige written form for a religious work.
List of writers
*Eutychius of Alexandria
Eutychius of Alexandria (Arabic: ''Sa'id ibn Batriq'' or ''Bitriq''; 10 September 877 – 12 May 940) was the Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria. He is known for being one of the first Christian Egyptian writers to use the Arabic language. H ...
* Sāwīrus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ
* Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ
* Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij al-Iskandarānī
* Ibn al-Qulzumī
* Mark III of Alexandria
* Abu Ṣāliḥ Yuʾannīs
* Ibn Mammātī
* Abū al-Makārim
* Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Armanī
* Maʿānī Abi ʾl-Makārim ibn Barakāt
* Marqus ibn al-Qunbar
* Cyril III of Alexandria
* al-Asʿad ibn al-ʿAssāl
* al-Muʾtaman ibn al-ʿAssāl
* al-Ṣafī ibn al-ʿAssāl
* al-Makīn Jirjis ibn al-ʿAmīd the Elder
* al-Makīn Jirjis ibn al-ʿAmīd the Younger
* al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Abi ʾl-Faḍāʾil
* Būlus al-Būshī
* Ibn al-Rāhib
*Ibn Kabar Ibn Kabar (''Shams al-Riʾāsa Abū al-Barakāt ibn Kabar'', d. 1324) was a Coptic Christian author of an ecclesiastical encyclopedia known as ''Mișbâḥ al-ẓulma''.
He was secretary to the Mamluk minister Baybars al-Manșûrî, presumably e ...
* Yūḥannā ibn Sabbāʿ
* Ibn Sibāʿ
* Yūsāb of Fuwwa
* Athanasius of Qus
* Cyril IV of Alexandria
* 'Abd al-Masīḥ Ṣalīb al-Masū'dī
* Ḥabīb Jirjis
* Ya'qub Nakhla Rufayla
List of works
Anonymous works
*Arabic–Old French glossary
An Arabic–Old French glossary (or phrase book) occupies the final thirteen pages of the 16th-century manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 43, where it functions as an appendix to an Arabic treatise on Coptic lexicography ...
* Copto-Arabic Sibylline prophecy
*Copto-Arabic synaxarion
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 13 ...
*'' Chronicon orientale''
*'' Kitāb al-īḍāḥ''
*'' Kitāb al-muʿallim wa-l-tilmīdh''
*''Kebra Nagast
The Kebra Nagast, var. Kebra Negast ( gez, ክብረ ነገሥት, ), or The Glory of the Kings, is a 14th-century national epic from Ethiopia, written in Ge'ez by Nebure Id Ishaq of Axum, by the office of Abuna Abba Giyorgis and at the comma ...
''
*'' History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt''
Translations from Coptic
*'' Apocalypse of Pseudo-Athanasius''
*''Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun
The so-called ''Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun'' is a Coptic language, Coptic text of uncertain date and authorship now preserved only in its Arabic language, Arabic translation. It contains the strongest denunciation of the language shift in t ...
''
*''Apocalypse of Shenute
The ''Apocalypse of Shenute'' is a short Coptic apocalyptic text which purports to be a prophecy of Shenute from Christ about the eschaton (last days). The Coptic '' Apocalypse of Elijah'' greatly influenced the text. It is the oldest miaphysit ...
''
*''Arabic Homily of Pseudo-Theophilus of Alexandria
The ''Arabic Homily of Pseudo-Theophilus of Alexandria'' is a pseudonymous prophetic sermon pertaining to eulogies and stories of miracles in Rome about the Apostles in the New Testament, Apostles Paul the Apostle, Paul and Saint Peter, Peter, inc ...
''
Notes
Bibliography
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{{refend
External links
International Copto-Arabic Historiography Project (ICAHP)
Vat. copt. 9
an illuminated Coptic–Arabic gospels
Fatimid literature