The Coptic museum: A silent jewel

Al Ahram Weekly by Nadja Tomoum

The Coptic Museum,situated in the heart of Old Cairo,was built in 1910 by Marcus Simaika Pasha who devoted his life to the preservation and promotion of the Coptic heritage. With the support of the Coptic church, Simaika Pasha established the Coptic Museum at a historically significant location, among some of Cairo's oldest and most important churches. According to a Biblical narration, the holy family rested in this area on their flight from the Jewish King Herod. The journey of Joseph, Mary and the infant Christ to Egypt has greatly influenced the early spread of Christianity throughout the country.

The Coptic heritage is a rather silent treasure in comparison with the splendid artefacts from the time of the great Pharaohs, and yet it is not less important and interesting. Masses of tourists are guided daily through the Egyptian museum -- Egypt's first National Museum --, whereas the Coptic museum attracts the attention of the individual tourist who enjoys the medieval flair of Old Cairo and the unique charm of the Coptic museum.

See the above page for more.If anyone is interested, I plonked a few photographs of the very beautiful Coptic monasteries of St Anthony and St Paul (Eastern Desert of Egypt) at

http://www.coptic.cd2.com/

Coptic Language's last survivors

Daily Star

Considered an extinct language, the Coptic language is believed to exist only in the liturgical language of the Coptic Church in Egypt. The ancient language that lost in prominence thanks largely to the Arab incursion into Egypt over 1300 years ago remains the spoken language of the church and only two families in Egypt.Coptic is a combination of the ancient Egyptian languages Demotic, Hieroglyphic and Hieratic, and was the language used by the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt following the spread of Greek culture throughout much of the Near East. In essence, it is the language of the ancient Egyptians themselves. . . .Coptic is the language of the first Christian church in history, and when the members of the two families that speak the colloquial form of Coptic die, it will be the first language of the early Christian churches to become extinct.

Coptic Easter in Cairo, past and present

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6510

"Easter is the time to commemorate the rich history of Christianity in Egypt. 'This area is called Tagamua’ Al Adyan,' a shop owner proudly boasts, using the Arabic term for 'The Gathering of Religions' to describe Old Cairo (Masr Al Qadima). Within the area of one square mile as many as twenty churches were built — though only five remain today.A few steps away one of the earliest mosques ever built in Cairo, Amr Ibn El As, stands tall. And, following the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the influx of Jews into the area is marked by the country’s oldest synagogue — Ben Ezra.

This small area is a fascinating reminder of Cairo’s history. If you want a real Easter treat this weekend, explore the evolution of Christianity in Egypt by visiting this small corner of the city.

The narrow road is dotted with signposts pointing to a number of landmarks. Walk through the walls of the Roman-Byzantine fortress and visit the vault where Jesus and the Virgin Mary hid from Roman soldiers.Wander through the Coptic churches and soak up their rich history and traditions. Tourists overrun the area in the mornings; and on weekends and national holidays, Egyptians join the crowds. This only creates a sense of camaraderie as cultural and religious differences are set aside to share in a common appreciation for Old Cairo’s treasures."

See the above page for the full story.

St Antony's Monastery

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5885

"In the barren expanse of the Eastern Desert, under the clarity of a seamless blue sky, lies a historic and often overlooked monastery.

Although the monastery ranks amongst travel book highlights, its distance from better-recognized monuments has protected it. A gentle pulse in a desolate landscape, St. Anthony’s is the picture of serenity. Secluded, majestic — although it’s a mere two-hour drive from Cairo’s city center — this subtle gem is a day trip away for culture lovers.St. Anthony moved to the Red Sea Mountains in the 3rd century from the age of 18 until his death at 105. His legacy of rejecting the material and solitary reflection, has is the foundation of the oldest operational monastery to date.

The monastery is the only structure in sight for kilometers. Under gleaming rays of unobstructed desert sun, its thick, whitewashed walls radiate light. Seen from the one-way highway leading to it, it almost shines in the distance. The compound is cradled by the base of Mount Qalah’s sandstone crests and surrounded by the harshest of desert plains. Its environment is beautiful, yet bleak, and its vastness is at once liberating and threatening."

Bode Museum reopens next week

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Refurbished_museum_to_display_Berli_10122006.html

"One of Berlin's great museums from the age of the kaisers, full of Byzantine, medieval and renaissance sculptures, is to reopen next week after eight years of closure and millions of euros of refurbishment. The Bode Museum is one of five monumental treasure-houses on the German capital's Island of Museums." Bode museum houses one of world's top collections of late Coptic art.

Book Review: Cairo illustrated

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6963

"With too much text to be called a pictorial guide, too much history to be a guide book and too much of the modern to be an illustrated history, Michael Haag’s Cairo Illustrated is in a category of its own. The book begins with an outline of the events and people that have shaped Cairo since around 3000 BC. By the end of the book, just over 90 pages later, the reader has been whisked through more than 5,000 years of the city’s history. The author leapfrogs around the city and its history, starting his first chapter in Coptic Cairo and winding a circuitous route to the Great Pyramids of Giza."

Coptic era discoveries

http://tinyurl.com/rpza7 (sis.gov.eg)

"While carrying out a survey on the archaeological valleys and hills on Luxor's West Bank, in an attempt to locate sites used by the Copts, an archaeological mission of the French Institute for Oriental Studies has unearthed a significant number of clay sherds dating back to the Coptic era (451 - 641 AD). . . . In Haggag Valley Aspaniya, the team succeeded in locating six Coptic archaeological sites, one of which includes a cave with bent corridors covered with gypsum and bearing Coptic inscriptions."

See the above page for the full story.

Coptic treasures get the home they deserve

Al Ahram Weekly by Nevine El-Aref

Mogamaa Al-Adian, Old Cairo's religious compound, is finally free of the roar of trucks and lorries that have blocked the entrance to the Coptic Museum for three years now. And the museum itself, with its limestone façade loosely based on the Al-Aqmar Mosque, has finally opened its doors to visitors in an area the attractions of which include the Mosque of Amr Ibn Al-Aas, the Hanging Church and the Synagogue of Beni-Ezra.

On Monday President Hosni Mubarak formally opened the museum during a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and scores of Egyptian ministers and senior government officials. The president was guided through the museum's 26 galleries, containing 13,000 items, by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and Supreme Council of Antiquities' Secretary-General Zahi Hawass. They also watched a 15-minute documentary film on the restoration of the museum.

"The restoration of the Coptic Museum was an ambitious project," says Hosni. "It is one of Cairo's oldest museums and its restoration is an illustration of the government's commitment to preserving the nation's Coptic, as well as its Pharaonic and Islamic, heritage."

See the above page for the full story.

Mubarak inaugurates refurbished Coptic Museum

http://www.gom.com.eg/gazette/home/detail_2_22.shtml

"In his address during the opening ceremony, Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said the Coptic Museum is one of Egypt's most important museums as it houses a huge collection of artefacts dating to the Coptic era.

President Mubarak watched a documentary on the restoration of the museum and the methods of display of 1,300 items in 26 halls. Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawass said during a tour of the museum by the President that the restoration project included the addition of a new hall devoted to the history of churches in Old Cairo. A hall for temporary exhibitions has also been built, Hawass added. The restoration project, which was carried out by a group of Egyptian experts, began in 2003, Hawass said.. . . . President Mubarak heard a presentation by Ezzat Naguib, director general for restoration works on the Coptic Museum on manuscripts in the museum. The manuscripts, of which some date back to the 4th century AD, including 13 bibles and several exhibits obtained from monasteries in Egypt. . . . Head of the icons section Mervat Megalli briefed President Mubarak on the icon exhibits that range between 300 and 600 years old. Most of the icons are of the Virgin Mary, Christ and a number of saints."

See the above page for full details - please note that the page will be changing shortly.

A tapestry of Coptic history

Al Ahram Weekly by Jill Kamil

An attractive publication with a somewhat formidable title draws Jill Kamil 's attention to a worthy source on textiles, one of the finest of all Coptic arts.

The Coptic Tapestry Albums and the Archaeologist of Antino‘, Albert Gayet, is the lengthy title of a new book by Nancy Arthur Hoskins, who has researched Coptic collections in more than 50 museums around the world and who has produced a book that is a delight to handle and read. Here, at last, is a publication on Coptic textiles that is well-researched and illustrated with photographs in vibrant colour, along with detailed line drawings of weaving techniques and ancient weavers at the loom.

Thanks to Egypt's dry climate and sandy soil, textiles have survived in vast numbers and in an unrivalled state of preservation. Tens of thousands of coloured fragments found their way into the museums of the world, especially after 1889 when the French archaeologist Albert Gayet published a catalogue of Coptic art and, in the Bulaq Museum, staged the first exhibition of Coptic monuments.

"The first time I saw a Coptic tapestry portrait with its soul-searching gaze I was completely captivated," Hoskins writes in her introduction. "I felt I had connected -- through craft -- with someone from that far distant time and place. The dancers were enchanting, the angels ephemeral, the flowers ever festive, the weaving free-spirited."

Her enthusiasm subsequently inspired Hoskins, a former college weaving instructor who has published the results of her research in more than 50 professional journals, to examine Coptic collections in museums in the United States as well as the Coptic Museum in Cairo, which has the largest collection of Coptic textiles in the world. Thus began a research project that has led her to review museum collections in England, France, Portugal and Canada.

See the above page for more.

Coptic manuscript discovery

http://www.forbes.com/2002/05/29/0529conn.html

"A cache of manuscripts up to 1,500 years old has been discovered in a Coptic monastery in the Western Desert of Egypt. The find was made at Deir al-Surian, the Monastery of the Syrians, which already has one of the richest ancient libraries in Christendom. Set in the desert sands and virtually cut off from the outside world until recently, Deir al-Surian traces its roots back to the earliest period of Christian monasticism. Established in the 6th century, it was soon occupied by monks from Syria and Mesopotamia and is currently home to 200 Egyptian Copts."

See the full story on the above web page.

Third Symposium on Coptic Studies

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/783/heritage.htm

There's a good summary on the Al Ahram website of the recent coptic conference in at the White Monastery of St Shenoude near Sohag:

" The symposium at the White Monastery, which concentrated on a single Upper Egyptian monk who became abbot of two monasteries, played an important part in the history of Christendom, and reputedly lived to the ripe age 118 (an age that Emmel considers entirely possible), drew together scholars from as far afield as Australia and Canada. It caused a stir among the population of Sohag that will long be remembered. Already other bishoprics in Middle and Upper Egypt have expressed a desire to host the next symposium in two years' time, and it seems that Nagada, between Qena and Luxor, is high on the list of possibilities."

Coptic trove from Al-Gurna

Al Ahram Weekly by Nevine El-Aref

In Al-Gurna where several excavation missions are probing for more Ancient Egyptian treasures under the sand, a team from the Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology has stumbled on a major Coptic trove buried under the remains of a sixth-century monastery located in front of a Middle Kingdom tomb.

Excavators unearthed two papyri books with Coptic text along with a set of parchments placed between two wooden labels as well as Coptic ostraca, pottery fragments and textiles.

The head of the team, Tomaz Gorecki, said the books were well preserved except for the papyri papers which were exceptionally dry.

The first book has a hard plain cover embellished with Roman text from the inside while the second includes no less than 50 papers coated with a partly deteriorated leather cover bearing geometrical drawings. In the middle, a squared cross 32cm long and 26cm wide is found.

As for the set of parchments, Gorecki said it included 60 papers with a damaged leather cover and an embellished wooden locker.

See the above page for the full story.

A museum of Coptic identity

Al Ahram Weekly By Jill Kamill

With photos (click the small image to see the bigger photographs)

The Coptic Museum is approaching the last stage of structural restoration prior to its official re-opening this year as a state-of-the-art museum. Jill Kamil looks into what's going on

It was no easy matter to gain access to a building that was being restored -- or transformed, rather -- and even more difficult to find someone able, or willing, to talk about progress, plans and deadlines. The Coptic Museum has been off-limits to visitors for a long while now, and with rumour circulating that some galleries would re-open this year, Al-Ahram Weekly sent a team to investigate.

The reason for our interest was that no attempt had ever been made to sort out this huge jumble of Coptic antiquities of more than 16,000 objects according to historical sequence. This was understandable a century ago, when Morcos Samaika founded the museum, because provenance details for the bulk of the objects were not available. They had been collected haphazardly from abandoned burial grounds, derelict monasteries and ancient temple sites. Because Christian monuments were of little concern to early archaeologists, objects were trodden into the earth, covered by sandstorms, or used for garden decorations. In a word, neglected.

When in 1910 Samaika assembled the wide array of objects which revealed different ethnic influences, it presented him with a dilemma: how to put them into some semblance of order? He opted for the easy way out. He grouped the objects into media -- stonework, metalwork, tapestries, manuscripts, woodwork, pottery, glassware, etc. A few galleries were devoted to objects from a single source, like those
from the fifth-century monasteries of St Jeremais at Saqqara and St Apollo at Bawit, but there were also galleries of "miscellaneous objects".

See the above page for more.

Coptic art steals the show

Al Ahram Weekly by Jill Kamil and Nevine El-Aref

Who are the Copts? What is their history? Who founded the famous monasteries on the Red Sea coast? With Coptic Egypt significantly overshadowed in the West by an unquenchable thirst for all things Pharaonic, these questions fail to figure on any considerable scale in foreign exhibitions of Egyptian antiquities.

Which is what makes the exhibition on Coptic art at the Arab World Institute (Institut du Monde Arabe) in Paris so exciting. Celebrating 2,000 years of Christianity in Egypt, it is the first exhibition of Coptic art in France for 36 years. An earlier exhibit, at the Petit Palais in Paris in 1964, was on a much smaller scale and did not include any objects from Egyptian collections.

The current exhibition, which will run at the Arab World Institute until September, features more than 350 unique objects, 105 of which are from the Coptic and Islamic museums in Cairo. In France, objects have been chosen from the Louvre, in Paris, and the Textile Museum in Lyon. Other objects hail from Italy's Turin Museum, the British Museum, the Egyptological Institute of Heidelberg, the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, Russia's Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

"This is the first time ever that Coptic objects from Egypt have been selected for exhibition abroad," said Gaballa Ali Gaballa, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The bulk of Egyptian objects are from Cairo's Coptic Museum.

The exhibition is in the central hall of the institute, one of the most splendid and prestigious locations covering an area of 1,200 square metres. The objects are divided into numerous sections that cover the gamut of Coptic history -- from icons to children's toys to funerary objects. Displays range from textiles and manuscripts to cosmetics, jewellery, ceramics, wall paintings, metalwork and stone and wooden statues. Visitors will also see Coptic literature, on papyrus and parchment, as well as stone fragments inscribed with texts (known as ostraca).

See the above page for more details, with photographs.