Coptic literature
Coptic literature is the body of writings in the
Definition
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Since the term "Coptic" can have, besides a linguistic sense, an ethnic sense (referring to
In a broader sense, "Coptic" may include Greek literature produced in Egypt that circulated in the Coptic community.[5] The literature that the Copts wrote in Arabic is generally treated separately as Copto-Arabic literature.[1][5] "Literature", too, may be taken in a strict sense that excludes documentary and subliterary texts, such as magical and medical texts.[7][8]
Dialects
The standard literary dialect of Coptic was
Manuscripts
Coptic was written on
Most manuscripts have been recovered from abandoned monasteries, the most important being the
Origins
Old Coptic
Efforts to write Coptic in the Greek alphabet probably began in the 1st century BC. The earliest text known is from the 1st century AD. This first phase of written Coptic is called Old Coptic and lasts into the 4th or 5th century.[10] The earliest stage of experimentation with the Egyptian language in the Greek alphabet is often called Pre-Old Coptic or Graeco-Egyptian. Other authors distinguish between early and late Old Coptic.[11]
Old Coptic consists of
Rise of literary Coptic
One traditional theory links the origin of literary Coptic to the Gnostic community in Alexandria.[2] No surviving Coptic manuscript, however, can be linked to Alexandria.[13] Another links it to Christian monasteries and the need to translate Greek teaching into the vernacular. The high proportion of borrowed Greek vocabular in early Coptic texts, however, makes their practical utility as translations questionable. More recently, it has been suggested that the revival of Egyptian as a literary language (in the form of Coptic) was part of an "effort to revive a national Egyptian culture."[2] Paola Buzi refers to it as an "identity operation", an assertion of distinctness.[14] Conversely, since the rise of the Coptic writing system paralleled the rise of Christianity, it may have been stimulated by desire to distance itself from the pagan associations of traditional Egyptian writing.[1]
Literary Coptic first appears in the 3rd century.[4][11] The earliest literary texts are translations of Greek texts, either Christian or Gnostic.[2] The five literary texts dated to the 3rd century are all biblical, either marginal annotations to Greek bibles or bilingual Greek–Coptic biblical texts. There is a single documentary text, a private letter on an ostracon, dated to this century.[15]
Appearance of original compositions
There are several possible candidates for earliest Coptic author. According to the
The first author in literary Coptic whose works survives may be
The earliest certain original author with surviving works is Pachomius the Great (died 346).[2] He wrote rules for a community of monks that was translated into Latin by Jerome.[1][4] Only a few fragments survive of the original Coptic version of the rule, but several of Pachomius' letters in Coptic are preserved. These "represent the oldest original Coptic texts with true literary characteristics."[2]
Translations
Biblical translations
The Bible was translated into Coptic from the Greek Septuagint and New Testament. It may have been the earliest literary text put into Coptic.[1] The history of its translation can be divided into three phases. Between the 2nd and 4th centuries, many individuals were working on translations in many dialects. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Sahidic translation was standardized. Finally, by the 9th century, the Bohairic translation was standardized.[19] By the early 4th century, the Bible in Coptic—or at least the Psalms and New Testament—was in official use in the churches.[2]
The circumstances of the earliest translation work are obscure.[3] The relatively early standardization of the Sahidic text, which remains largely unchanged throughout Coptic history, attests to the high standards of the original translation work.[2]
Gnostic and Manichaean texts
Coptic translations of
Manichaeism was introduced to Egypt around 350. Within a few decades they began translating their texts into Coptic, some from the
Prognostic texts
A variety of prognostic texts are known in Coptic. These include
Fragments of hemerologia and kalandologia in Sahidic are found on papyrus, parchment and paper from the 6th–12th centuries.[24][26] Predictions based on the day of the week and the direction of the wind are often found in the same manuscript.[24] There are also Bohairic papyrus fragments from the 6th–8th centuries.[27]
Biblical apocrypha
Coptic translations are an important source of both
Examples of Old Testament apocrypha in Coptic include
Patristics
The earliest translation of the
From the later period, the Cappadocian Fathers are well represented (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus), as are Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria, Ephrem the Syrian, Epiphanius of Salamis and John Chrysostom.[31] Also translated are the Apostolic Fathers and Hippolytus of Rome.[1] There is a Coptic version of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Notably absent are works by two of the most outstanding early Egyptian Christian writers, Clement of Alexandria and Origen, although the Berlin Coptic Book of anonymous treatises shows traces of Clementine thought.[31] Works were generally treated individually and rarely was a whole body of work translated, although there are corpora of homilies by Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Severus of Antioch.[33]
Some patristic works were translated into both Sahidic and Bohairic, although it is not known if the Bohairic translations were made from the Greek originals or from the Sahidic versions.[31]
Romances
The only non-religious literary texts in Coptic are two romances: the Alexander Romance and the Cambyses Romance.[6][20]
Translated from Greek, the Coptic Alexander attained its definitive form in the 6th century. What survives is a fragmentary text from the White Monastery. The original manuscript had 220 pages and was divided into 37 chapters, each introduced with a verse from the Bible. The surviving fragments concern Alexander among the
The Cambyses Romance is an original work in Coptic. It survives only in a fragmentary manuscript. It is probably a product of Egyptian monasticism also, but its themes are "rooted in a long Egyptian religious tradition that pits the forces of Chaos against those of Order".[35] It can be dated to between the 5th and 9th centuries.[34]
The hagiographical Legend of Hilaria has sometimes been classified as a romance.[36]
Original writings
Pachomius and his milieu
The writings of Pachomius the Great and his milieu form a distinctive body of work that was early translated into Greek. It is preserved on scrolls and rolls of the 4th to 6th centuries, often made with recycled parchment or papyrus.[37][38]
Pachomius' rules for communal monastic living, inspired in part by his
Two later and anonymous texts belong to the Pachomian tradition, the Apocalypse of Kiarur and the Visit of Horsiesi (which may have been originally written in Greek).[37] A biography of Pachomius, originally written in Coptic, survives in a later Bohairic version and in translations in Greek, Latin and Arabic.[38]
Shenoute and his milieu
The monk Shenoute (died 465), head of the White Monastery, was "perhaps the most prolific writer" in the Coptic language.[1] He is its "one truly remarkable individual author",[39] whose writing is by far "its most sophisticated".[4] He raised Coptic to the rank of literary language.[40][41] He was, however, almost unknown outside the Coptic tradition. His works were never translated into Greek. They were gradually brought to the attention of western scholars between about 1750 and 1900.[42]
Shenoute made unprecedented use of features of Coptic grammar not directly translatable into Greek. His writing is highly literary and often difficult.
Shenoute's writings are divided into two collections, the nine-volume Canons, which are addressed to his monastic community and mainly concern discipline, and the eight-volume Discourses, which are addressed to outsiders and mainly concern ethics.[1][4] His letters are a separate collection that may not have been supervised by him.[44] This tripartite classification was apparently made by him. He also prohibited his works from being disseminated outside his monastic federation, limiting their impact.[40] They were, however, highly revered there, since the manuscript tradition reveals very few variants, indicating that they were treated almost on par with the Bible.[41] His influence on Coptic literature may extend beyond his own writings, if his monastery was also the site of many translations of Greek works, as Tito Orlandi has argued.[45]
Shenoute was succeeded as head of the White Monastery by Besa. Several of his letters and sermons, written in Shenoutean style, survive.[44][41] His work is less colourful than his predecessor's although equally refined.[1][46] Besa's writings, unlike Shenoute's, belong mainly to the period after the Council of Chalcedon (451).[46]
Shenoute's biography, the Vita Sinuthii, has been falsely attributed to Besa.[41][40] It is a collection of various stories of independent and anonymous authorship and questionable historical value.[44][40]
Later literature
Coptic writing after 451 is mostly
The next most pivotal moment in Coptic history after Chalcedon was the
Coptic seems to have been in decline as a literary language by the early 9th century, since few original works later than that can be attributed to a named author.[1] For reasons not fully understood, it was moribund as a language of original composition by the 11th century.[3] Much Coptic literature is now lost, as the Copts began to use Arabic. Texts such as the Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun deplore the loss of Coptic, but are themselves now only extant in Arabic.
Coptic in Arabic
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. Finally, after having been completely supplanted as the spoken language by Arabic, Coptic was rendered as needed in Arabic script.[48]
A major movement to translate Coptic works into Arabic began around 1000 or shortly before and lasted into the 13th century. Many bilingual church texts with Bohairic on the left and Arabic on the right are a product of this period. During the period of translation, Coptic was still widely and deeply understood. In the 13th–14th centuries, as knowledge of Coptic declined, grammars of the language, called "prefaces", and word lists, called "ladders", were written in Arabic to help priests read and pronounce Coptic.[49]
Relation to earlier Egyptian literature
Greek had been dominant language of writing in Egypt for centuries before the rise of Coptic and "Greek literature was at the base of Coptic literature."
The Legend of Hilaria has been seen as a reworking of the Tale of Bentresh.[36]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Wilfong 2001.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Orlandi 1991b.
- ^ a b c d MacCoull 1991.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Boud'hors 2018.
- ^ a b c Buzi 2021, p. 1.
- ^ a b c Youssef 2014, p. 123.
- ^ Emmel 2007, p. 83.
- ^ Orlandi 1986 includes such texts, but Orlandi 1991b excludes them.
- ^ Hyvernat 1913.
- ^ a b Orlandi 1986, pp. 52–53.
- ^ a b Fournet 2020, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Orlandi 1986, p. 59.
- ^ Emmel 2007, p. 84.
- ^ Buzi 2021, p. 2.
- ^ Fournet 2020, pp. 7–9.
- ^ a b Orlandi 1986, p. 60.
- ^ a b Orlandi 1986, pp. 63–64.
- ^ Buzi 2021, pp. 8–9.
- ^ Orlandi 1986, pp. 53–55.
- ^ a b c d Emmel 2007, pp. 87–88.
- ^ a b c d Orlandi 1986, pp. 55–56.
- ^ Orlandi 1986, pp. 56–57.
- ^ Ghica 2016, p. 1341.
- ^ a b c d e Orlandi 1991a.
- ^ Ghica 2016, p. 1340.
- ^ Ghica 2016, pp. 1340–1341.
- ^ Ghica 2016, pp. 1343–1345.
- ^ a b c d Buzi 2021, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Orlandi 1986, p. 58.
- ^ a b c Orlandi 1986, pp. 57–59.
- ^ a b c d e f Buzi 2021, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Orlandi 1986, pp. 71–72. Quotations from Buzi 2021, pp. 7–8.
- ^ a b Orlandi 1986, pp. 71–72.
- ^ a b c Müller 1991.
- ^ Buzi 2021, pp. 15–16.
- ^ a b O'Leary 1930, col. 1620.
- ^ a b c d Orlandi 1986, pp. 60–62.
- ^ a b c Buzi 2021, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Emmel 2007, p. 87.
- ^ a b c d e f Buzi 2021, pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b c d e Boud'hors 2012.
- ^ Orlandi 1986, pp. 64–66.
- ^ Orlandi 1986, p. 69.
- ^ a b c d Orlandi 2016.
- ^ Orlandi 1991b and Orlandi 2016. Contra: Boud'hors 2012.
- ^ a b Orlandi 1986, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Palombo 2022, pp. 207–208.
- ^ Worrell 1934, p. 122.
- ^ Depuydt 2010, p. 735.
- ^ Buzi 2021, p. 10.
- ^ Buzi 2021, p. 16.
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- Boud'hors, Anne (2018). "Coptic Literature". In Oliver Nicholson (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press.
- Brakke, David (2018). "Coptic". In Scott McGill; Edward J. Watts (eds.). A Companion to Late Antique Literature. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 61–74. S2CID 240297072.
- Buzi, Paola, ed. (2020). Coptic Literature in Context (4th–13th cent.): Cultural Landscape, Literary Production, and Manuscript Archaeology. Edizioni Quasar.
- Buzi, Paola (2021). "Literature, Coptic: Update". The Coptic Encyclopedia. Claremont Graduate University.
- Depuydt, Leo (2010). "Coptic and Coptic Literature". In Alan B. Lloyd (ed.). A Companion to Ancient Egypt. Blackwell. pp. 732–754. ISBN 9781444320053.
- Emmel, Stephen (2007). "Coptic Literature in the Byzantine and Early Islamic World". In Roger S. Bagnall (ed.). Egypt in the Byzantine World, 300–700. Cambridge University Press. pp. 83–102.
- Fournet, Jean-Luc (2020). The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian versus Greek in Late Antiquity. Princeton University Press.
- Ghica, Victor (2016). "Two Newcomers in the B5 Family: The Naqlūn Kalandologia". In Paola Buzi; Alberto Camplani; Federico Contardi (eds.). Coptic Society, Literature and Religion from Late Antiquity to Modern Times. Peeters Publishers. pp. 1339–1348.
- Hyvernat, Eugène Xavier Louis Henri (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 16.
- MacCoull, Leslie S. B. (1991). "Coptic Language and Literature". In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press.
- Meyer, Marvin; Smith, Richard (1999). Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power. Princeton University Press.
- Müller, Detlef (1991). "Romances". In Aziz Suryal Atiya (ed.). The Coptic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Macmillan Publishers. cols. 2059b–2061a.
- O'Leary, De Lacy (1930). "Litterature Copte". Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie. Vol. 9, Part 2. Paris: Librairie Letouzey et Ané. col. 1599–1635.
- Orlandi, Tito (1986). "Coptic Literature". In Birger A. Pearson; James E. Goehring (eds.). The Roots of Egyptian Christianity. Fortress Press. pp. 51–81.
- Orlandi, Tito (1991a). "Calendologia". In Aziz Suryal Atiya (ed.). The Coptic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Macmillan Publishers. cols. 444b–445a.
- Orlandi, Tito (1991b). "Literature, Coptic". In Aziz Suryal Atiya (ed.). The Coptic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Macmillan Publishers. cols. 1450b–1460a.
- Orlandi, Tito (2013). "A Terminology for the Identification of Coptic Literary Documents". Journal of Coptic Studies. 15: 87–94. .
- Orlandi, Tito (2016). "Coptic". In Daniel L. Selden; Phiroze Vasunia (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Literatures of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press.
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