Tag: Anthony Alcock

Anthony Alcock: translation Wansleben’s1671 account of Coptic church

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Anthony Alcock has translated a curiosity for us: an account of the state of the Coptic church in Egypt made by a certain Johann Michael Wansleben, and published in 1671.[1]  Wansleben was a Lutheran traveller who hoped to reach Ethiopia.  His book is an account of Egypt as it then was.

Here is Dr Alcock’s translation of Wansleben’s account:

Such an early account must be of great interest.  Indeed it would be nice to have all of Wansleben in English.  Thank you, Dr. A., for translating this section.

Here’s a taster from the end, which is interesting in its own right for how Coptic books tended to be alienated from their holders, and why so many Coptic churches were in a disgraceful state when the British arrived in the 19th century:

The Turks genuinely allow each person a free conscience, not only in Egypt but in all their countries, provided it does not affect them. Nonetheless they often deprived Christians of their best churches and monasteries. Some years ago the Monastery of the Raven in Manfalut was turned into a mosque.

Similarly the late Pasha Ibrahim, three years ago, built a mosque in the village of Matariya outside Cairo five miles away where the was a small chapel; behind it a porphyry appeared to foreigners, on top of which the Virgin used to stretch out the clothes of the baby Jesus to dry them after washing. Nearby is the spring that miraculously started to dispense water, thanks to the omnipotence of Jesus, when on His arrival in Egypt he was suffering from great thirst. To this day it still dispenses water so sweet that surpasses in goodness all other waters, whether from the fountains of Cairo or the Nile itself. The Pashas themselves, notwithstanding the distance from their castle or being enemies of Christians and their things, used this water in their refectories. Past the chapel the way leads down to a garden with the fig tree behind which, according to an ancient tradition, Our Lord hid during the persecution by Herod. Opening in the trunk by itself, the fig wove spiders’ webs so thick and old in appearance that they concealed Our Lord from his enemies as they went by and did not look for him. Today no Frank is allowed to visit these places since it is now a mosque.

The Turks also took the Church of Anastasius in Alexandria from the Copts and turned it into a mosque. They make no effort to restore churches fallen into ruin as a result of penalties. Indeed, the Christians are not keen on removing the spiders’ webs for fear that Turks find them attractive.

Moreover, the Turks tax the churches and monasteries heavily, as happened with the Abyssinians in Cairo fourteen years ago. The Pasha of that time, out of a certain apprehension he felt towards them, threatened to take away their churches if they did not pay a certain large sum of money. They were forced to sell the property of the church and their manuscript books to pay this tax, These books, about forty of them, had been sent by Father Eleazar, a Capuchin, to Mgr Pierre Seguier the Great Chancellor of France, in whose house I saw them. That is also the reason why I was able to find almost no Ethiopic book in Cairo, except for four in the possession of the Father, which I copied. These taxes gradually began to annoy the Christians so much that they were no longer able to resist. The number of Coptic churches is constantly being reduced, and I have no doubt that the Turks will soon confiscate the remainder. The Franks are in a better situation than the Copts, because the Turks not only allow them to attend church services without harassing them, but they also have more respect for the missionary Capuchins and Franciscans, who both have their chapels behind their place of residence, each wearing the dress suitable to their order.

All of this harassment and discrimination was normal in Egypt, then as now, as we find from accounts in the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandrai.  It was intended as a means to induce the Copts to convert to Islam.  It is remarkable, if we consider that they have suffered thirteen centuries of it, that the Copts have managed to remain in existence.

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  1. [1]J. M. Wansleben, Relazione dell Stato presente dell’Egitto. 1671.  Online here; PDF via here.↩

Archellites – a 10th century Coptic poem, translated by Anthony Alcock

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Anthony Alcock has sent me another translation from Coptic.  There is a collection of 10th century Coptic poems, which were published in Oriens Christianus (the volumes are online at Archive.org).  One of these is about the martyr Archellites.  Here it is:

There is no historical content to this, but it is useful to have this material in English – thank you!

I remember long ago transcribing the English translation of the Legend of Hilaria, a story about a female monk, who supposedly lived in the late 5th century, in the time of the Emperor Zeno.  There is also a Legend of Archellites.  In fact a translation of these two prose narratives, and the Coptic version of the Legend of the Seven Sleepers, was made in 1947 by James Drescher.[1]  A rather clumsy site has the book here.

UPDATE: There is a useful short article on Coptic poetry online here.  It is only two pages long.  It comes from the Coptic Encyclopedia.

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  1. [1]James Drescher, Three Coptic Legends: Hilaria, Archellites, the Seven Sleepers, Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut Francais d’Archeologie Orientale, 1947.  Series:  Supplément aux des Annales du Service des antiquités de l’Égypte, Cahier No. 4.↩

Text and translation of three Coptic stelae – by Anthony Alcock

Posted on by Roger Pearse

We don’t do a lot with inscriptions here.  But I wonder if people realise that there are inscriptions in Coptic?  I certainly never thought about this; but there are.

Anthony Alcock has made a text and English translation of three stone stelae, which have Coptic inscriptions.  These are from
https://niraengineers.com/nolvadex-online various locations around Egypt.

Fascinating!

(I’ve asked Dr A. for the reference for the original publication – will add it later).

UPDATE: The source publication is Claudius Labib, Stèles Coptes Inédites, Cairo: Ain Shams Press, 1909. 32p.  This I found online! – labib-steles-copte-inedited-1909, PDF, from the Coptist blog.

The editor, Claudius Labib, was a Copt who sought to revive Coptic as a spoken language in his country, and with much success.  His publication is in Arabic and French.  The Coptist blog has a bibliography, with links to many of his works.

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The use of Coptic by modern Egyptians – Anthony Alcock translates

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve been sent the attached PDF, which is a curiosity of great interest.  It is translated from a modern book, written entirely in modern Coptic, which Dr Alcock found on the web.

I think many of us would like to know more about how the last version of the Ancient Egyptian language is enjoying a revival in Egypt today!

(I apologise for my silence here recently.  I have been suffering from a dose of food poisoning for nearly two weeks now.  Your prayers would be appreciated.)

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Shenoute, On the invasions of the “Ethiopians” – translated by Anthony Alcock

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An item that Anthony Alcock translated some time ago, but did not reach me, is three texts by the 5th century Coptic abbot Shenoute, which are concerned with invasions by “Ethiopians” – presumably Nubians – at that period.

It will be remembered that the temples at Philae, on the southern Egyptian border, remained open for the use of pagans across the frontier, even after all the pagan temples had otherwise been closed.  Doubtless this was just a security matter; but it must have been a rather odd situation.  How, in an empire in which paganism was illegal, did the temples recruit priests?

But then again the Roman empire was not a modern state with the ability to impose totalitarian control on its people, and no doubt the answer was that matters continued for the most part as they had always done, and the temples were mainly staffed by locals.

Here is Shenoute’s short works on the aftermath of these invasions.

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Coptic “Life” of Maximus and Domitius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Anthony Alcock has continued his invaluable series of translations of Coptic literature.  The new item is a translation of the hagiographic Life of Saints Maximus and Domitius, who were brothers.  He adds a preface – read all about it!

There is an article online in the Coptic Encyclopedia here, from which I learn that the work is probably fifth century.

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The Coptic martyrdom of James the Persian, aka James Intercissus, aka James the Sawn-into-small-bits

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An early Christmas present – Anthony Alcock has translated the Coptic text of the Martyrdom of James the Persian into English for us all.  This is here:

This martyr was put to death by having 28 bits of him cut off with a saw.  I was tempted to head this post “James the Hacked-off”!

So who was he?  Well, luckily, Tito Orlandi did an article in the Coptic Encyclopedia on him, and this is online here.  James was a Persian martyr of the late 4th century.  The account of his martyrdom – which is probably as historically reliable as most such texts, i.e. not at all – seems to exist in a number of versions; this translation is from the Bohairic Coptic text, published in the CSCO from a manuscript of the 10th century. Apparently a discussion of the various texts can be found in P. Devos, “Le dossier hagiographique de S. Jacques l’Intercis.”
Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953):157-210; but this I have not seen.

The end of the text, tho, is more interesting historically.  It contains a description of how the remains of St James the Persian arrived in Egypt. Orlandi describes this as composed in the 5th century.

Many thanks to Dr Alcock for his generosity!

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Al-Maqrizi’s account of Coptic feast days – online in English by Anthony Alcock

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In the Topographical and Historical Description of Egypt by al-Makrizi (or al-Maqrizi), a 13th century Muslim author, there is a section which describes the Feast Days of the Copts.  Anthony Alcock has translated this from the Patrologia Orientalis text into English and made it available for us all online.  It’s here:

The work by al-Makrizi should really exist in English.  However the French translation of 1854 is online and doubtless accessible using Google Translate.[1]

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  1. [1]Al-Maqrizi (1895). Mémoires publiés par les membres de la Mission archéologique Française au Caire: Description topographique et historique de l’Égypte (in French) 17. Translator: Urbain Bouriant. Cairo: Mémoires publiés par les membres de la Mission archéologique. Alternative: Al-Maqrizi (1895). Mémoires publiés par les membres de la Mission archéologique Française au Caire: Description topographique et historique de l’Égypte (in French) 17. Translator: Urbain Bouriant. Cairo: Mémoires publiés par les membres de la Mission archéologique↩

Anthony Alcock – text and translation of the Life of Barsuma the Naked

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Another translation from the Coptic by Anthony Alcock, this time of a medieval saint who emulated Job.  Here it is:

A little after our time-frame, but always good to make literature accessible online!

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