The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt by Abū al-Makārim: memoir of a disappearing world
Egypt was an early adopter of Christianity under the Romans and it was Egyptian Christians who established the first monasteries. The memories of persecution under Roman emperors, particularly Diocletian, lingered in the soul of the Coptic Church. The Church split in two over the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, with the Copts on one side and the Church of the ruling Romans on the other. The Islamic conquest shifted the balance, and Copts and Melkites jostled for power and influence under the ruling Muslims for centuries. Muslim caliphs and viziers varied in their treatment of Christians, but the default was tolerance and self-management for Christians in return for tax and administrative service, interspersed with bouts of persecution and repression.
Saladin’s conquest brought an initial crackdown on Christians, followed, as often happened, by a renewal of their status and re-employment of Copts in high office. While the numbers of Muslims and Christians are not clear, a shift was happening and the dominant culture was increasingly Muslim. The final major wave of conversions did not come until Mamluk times, which also marked a self-conscious renaissance in Coptic culture even as Copts declined in number.
An early harbinger of this swan song flowering of Coptic culture was Abū al-Makarīm’s Churches and monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring countries, the subject of this thesis. The work conjures a vivid picture of a world entirely covered in Christian churches, monasteries and holy places. Yet there are elements of foreboding that Christians might threaten their own well-being. In the way that wildlife documentaries celebrate the wonders of the natural world just as creatures are fading and dying, so, too, this work celebrates the glories of a Christian world just as its influence is waning. Embedded in the work is a persistent rhythm of destruction, of churches, monasteries or cities, frequently followed by a restoration and renewal.
This thesis examines this work in the hope of sparking an interest not only in the world the writer creates, but also in the way he creates it from his use of sources for his chosen motifs, themes and genre. The text is often used as a source of information on individual churches monasteries or locations, but it also deserves to be read as a creation in its own right. It tells us much about the way the writer saw his place and the place of his group. The flourishing of some members of the subject Jewish and Christian populations of Moorish Spain has been celebrated as a ‘Convivencia’, and yet 12th century Cairo was also a hub of cultural activity within which literature, arts and sciences thrived not only within the ruling Muslim elite but also within the Christian and Jewish subject communities. The groups shared many elements of culture from the Arabic language to literature and joyous religious festivals. This work offers a memorial and monument to the Christian world, but reading it also offers an insight into the complexity of that multicultural society and the place of the Coptic Christians with it. We see how a member of the embedded Christian subculture perceives his world, laying out a vision to be celebrated while also evaluating threats. The story he tells of Christian Egypt seems to be willing resilience for his society by describing a world in which what is destroyed most often rises again.
