Qift
Qift
قفط | |
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UTC+2 (EST ) |
Qift (
History
Pharaonic Period
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gbtjw[3][4] in hieroglyphs | ||||||||||
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In
Gebtu was the most important religious center in the area. Its principal male deity was Min, a sky-god whose symbol was a thunderbolt.[5] He became a male fertility deity,[6] and also was regarded as the male deity of the desert region to the east.
His cult rose to prominence in the Middle Kingdom. At that time, he became associated with Horus as the deity, Min-Horus. Later, he was fused with Amen in the deity Min-Amen-ka-Mut-ef, as "Min-Amen-bull of his mother" (Hathor-Isis). Isis (Hathor-Isis) and her infant, Horus, were the deities connected with Gebtu, named Coptos during the Greco-Roman period, probably from the reinterpretation of the Two Hawks of the Nome, Harawî, standard as Min and Horus. Gebtu, once politically important, especially under the Eleventh Dynasty, was overshadowed by Thebes.
Greco-Roman and Byzantine Periods
The town was of importance in Hellenistic times, when it was the terminus of a caravan route to Berenice on the Red Sea. It was built up by Augustus, fell to the Blemmyes in the 3rd cent. AD, and was almost destroyed by Diocletian in AD 292.[7]
It recuperated its prominence under the
The epic poet Christodorus was from the city.
Muslim Period
Under the caliphs and the sultans in the Islamic era Qift was a chief city of
Archaeology
Remains of three temple groups surrounded by an enclosure wall were located during the excavations of W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1893-1894, and later, by Raymond Weill and Adolphe Joseph Reinach in 1910–1911. Qift was the focus of an American archaeological project from 1987 to 1992 and an Australian one between 2000 and 2003.
Northern temple
The undecorated northern temple of Min and Isis[9] dates to the Ptolemaic period.[10] Earlier structures on the site date back to the Middle Kingdom, with significant work during the New Kingdom reign of Tuthmosis III. The temple was rebuilt during the Ptolemaic Period.[10][11] The later work has been attributed to an official named Sennuu-shepsi on behalf of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (ruling from 281 BC to 246 BC). This northern temple has some later additions by Ptolemy IV Philopator ruling from 221–205 BC.[12] He was the son of Ptolemy III and Berenice II of Egypt and was the fourth pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Egypt, when the decline of the Ptolemaic kingdom began. More additions were added by Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome, Caligula, and Nero.[9][10] The second pylon still carries the dedication text of Nero, and the cartouche of Caligula appears on the north end of this structure.[11] In the court of the temple a headdress of a statue of
This temple stands on the site of earlier
Middle temple
The middle temple dates back to the time of Thutmose III of the 18th Dynasty. The temple was later rebuilt by Ptolemy II Philadelphus and restored by the Roman emperor Claudius.[11] At the site of the later middle temple built during the Ptolemaic kingdom, blocks of an earlier structure by Senusret I and a gate of Thutmose III, with additions probably made by Osorkon II of the 22nd Dynasty, were found. This later middle temple was built during the Ptolemaic kingdom by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, with minor additions by members of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty of Rome, Caligula, Claudius, and Trajan.[11] The foundations contained objects from the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period. Stelae were found depicting Pepi I and his mother Queen Iput before the god Min, two decrees and fragments of others by Pepi II. A First Intermediate Period decree regarding offerings to a statue of Pepi II was found. The stele mentions the overseer of the prophets named Idi. Three decrees of Neferkauhor, two of which were addressed to a Vizier and are now in the Cairo Museum.[11]
Southern temple
The southern temple was likely dedicated to Geb At the site of the southern temple, are the gates of Nectanebo II of the 30th Dynasty,[11][12] who was the last native king of Egypt. He was placed on the throne by a Spartan king and lost a conflict with the Persians, who then overtook Egypt. Other structures found at the site include a set of
dynasties, with copies of royal decrees from the pharaohs concerning the temple and its personnel. The name by which the stelae are known reflects the much later Greek name for the city, Coptos or Koptos however. A chapel ofTemple of Claudius at El-Qala
Northeast of Qift, at the modern village of El-Qala, the Roman emperor Claudius also built a small temple and dedicated it to Min, Isis, and Horus.[10][11] The Horus name of the Roman emperor Tiberius (emperor 14–37 A.D.) is shown on two columns in the sanctuary. In the same sanctuary Claudius is shown before Isis. In the south chapel the emperor offers to Hathor, while on the exterior he is shown offering to the united emblems of Upper and Lower Egypt.[11]
Ecclesiastical history
This section may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience. |
The Christian city was still important enough to become a bishopric,
It faded under Islamic rule, no later than the Ottoman ruin of the city.
Titular see
The diocese was nominally restored as a Latin Catholic
- Francis Hennemann, Pallottines (S.A.C.) (1913.07.16 – 1951.01.17)
- Luis Alfredo Carvajal Rosales (1955.07.28 – 1967.02.17).
See also
References
- ^ a b "Qifṭ (Markaz, Egypt) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ^ a b c Encyclopedia of Islam, Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography & Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples, vol. 2 E-K, E.J. Brill, p. 1004
- ^ Wallis Budge, E. A. (1920). An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary: with an index of English words, king list and geological list with indexes, list of hieroglyphic characters, coptic and semitic alphabets, etc. Vol II. John Murray. p. 1044.
- ^ M. Vygus. Middle Egyptian dictionary, p. 2366
- ^ "Min". egyptartsite.com.
- ^ "Egypt: Min, God of Fertility, Power and the Eastern Desert". touregypt.net.
- ^ Qift city
- ^ Baedeker, Egypt
- ^ a b c d Spencer, Margaret Murray, Egyptian Temples, Routledge, 2013, retrieved via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 0-500-05100-3
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings, V Upper Egypt: Sites (Volume 5). Griffith Institute. 2004.
- ^ a b c d Margaret Bunson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Infobase Publishing, 2009, pg 207
Bibliography
- Breasted, James Henry, "General Index (geographical) under Coptos", Egypt
- Kiepert, Heinrich (1878), Lehrbuch der alten Geographie, Berlin: Columbia University Press, p. 202
- Abū Ṣāliḥ the Armenian (1895), Evetts, B. T. A. (ed.), "Churches & Monasteries of Egypt", Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series (7), translated by Evetts, Basil Thomas Alfred, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Ya'qūbī, B.G.A., vol. vii, p. 333
- Ibn al-Faqīh, B.G.A., vol. 73
- Mehren (1874), Manuel de la cosmographie de Moyen-āge, Copenhague, pp. 325, 328
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - al-Maqrīzī, Wiet (ed.), "Mawā'iẓ", M. I. F. A. O., xxx
- ibid., vol. xxxiii
- ibid., vol. xlvi
- Ibn Duqmāq (1893), Vollers (ed.), K. al-Intiṣār, vol. ii, Cairo, p. 32
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ibid., p. 33
- Idrīsī, Muhammad, Géographie d'Édrisi, vol. i, translated by Jaubert, Pierre Amédée
- (eds.), Kitāb Takwīm al-Buldān, p. 210
- Yāqūt, Mu'jam al-Buldan, vol. iv, p. 152
- )
- ibid., p. 105
Sources and external links
- Home Page, The Qift Regional Expedition, 31 July 2003, archived from the original on 9 April 2005, retrieved 28 June 2009
- GigaCatholic, with titular incumbent biography links
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Coptos". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.