The legacy of Demetrius of Alexandria (189-232 CE) : the form and function of hagiography in late antique and Islamic Egypt / Maged S. A. Mikhail.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mikhail, Maged S. A., 1974- author.

Series:

Routledge studies in the early Christian world

Language:

Arabic

Coptic

English

Greek, Ancient (to 1453)

Subjects (All):

Demetrius, of Alexandria, -232.

Demetrius.

Hagiography.

Church history.

Physical Description:

xi, 215 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017.

Language Note:

Includes translations from Arabic, Coptic and Greek.

Summary:

This is the first full-length study of Demetrius of Alexandria (189-232 CE), who generated a neglected, yet remarkable hagiographic program that secured him a positive legacy throughout the Middle Ages and the modern era. Drawing upon Patristic, Coptic, and Arabic sources spanning a millennium, the analysis contextualizes the Demetrian corpus at its various stages of composition and presents the totality of his hagiographic corpus in translation. This volume constitutes a definitive study of Demetrius, but more broadly, it provides a clearly delineated hagiographic program and charts its evolution against a backdrop of political developments and intercommunal interactions. The methodology, source-base, and conclusions of this fascinating study will be a welcomed resource for a wide range of students and specialists of the Church in Egypt and hagiography, as well as early Christian and Arabic Christian studies. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I The genesis and evolution of a hagiographic program 1

1 The bishop and the scholar 3

2 Sources 10

3 Early imprints 22

4 Date and socio-literary setting of the Sahidic Coptic tradition 32

5 The encomium as hagiography 53

6 Hagiography across language and culture 61

7 Arabic recensions, amendments, and omissions: Emergence of the normative hagiography 75

8 Lent and Epact in Alexandria 95

9 Form, function, and meaning 108

Part II Texts: Demetrius's bio-hagiographic dossier 115

Introduction to the translations 117

Text I Earliest evidence 118

Text II An encomium on Demetrius of Alexandria 123

Text III Sirat (biography of) Demetrius of Alexandria: Primitive recension 136

Text IV Eutychius's Nazm al-jawhar (The string of pearls) 156

Text V Kitab al-tawarikh and the Chronicon orientate 159

Text VI The Synaksar: Coptic-Arabic Synaxarium (thirteenth century) 169

Text VII Abu al-Barakat's Musbah al-zulma (A lamp in the darkness) 176

Text VIII The Difnar (Antiphonarium) 178

Text IX Doxologies and praises: Arabic and Bohairic-Coptic 182.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781138189324

1138189324

OCLC:

950901584