DOI article:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology: christian Egypt
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12052#0068
Christian Egypt.
55
Egypt; for the study, recently noticed (v. Report, 1900-01, 72), of the
Mukaukas, was but preliminary to the present work. He found the
subject "a gloomy labyrinth of contradictions," and the work of his
predecessors vitiated by misunderstanding of the authorities, themselves
sufficiently bewildering and obscure. He has certainly succeeded in
bringing light into many dark places, and in exposing several long-
standing errors. The chronicle of John of Nikiu is the authority upon
whom he lays most Aveight; other native documents proved of small value.
But among the Arabs he could use important writers unavailable to Weil,
e.g. Beladhuri. The Copts find in Butler a champion ; he holds that history
has much maligned them. Besides the historical narrative, however, the
book contains a great quantity of information upon the topography, an-
tiquities, and literature of seventh century Egypt, as well as minute investi-
gations of the all-important chronological problems involved. Laudatory
reviews of it by Le Strange,1" Goldzieher,1"" and in the Athenseum 18
contain certain criticisms; the Liter. Centralbl. also offers some.19
W. Biedel has edited,20 from three MSS., the often-cited Arabic
catalogue of the Christian authors known to Abu '1-Barakat and inserted in
his Lamp of Darkness. Starting with the apostolic fathers, it is brought
down to the author's contemporaries in the 14th century, and besides
Monophysites, includes Nestorians and Melkites. The section on Peter of
Melig gives, on his authority, lists of the "innovations " with which the
other sects were charged by the Monophysites. These are made to consist
chiefly in differences of ceremonial usage.*
We are glad to be able to state that Evetts's edition of the Chronicle of
Severus of Eshmunein is already well advanced in print.f It should be ready
for issue during the ensuing year, in Graffin and Nan's Patroloyia Orientalis.
Jacoby has revised the readings of his " Strassburg Gospel Fragment,"
at the same time dealing with various criticisms.'-1 He now inclines
to connect its contents with the apocryphal narrative in Zoega cxiii.
Instead of 1 Cor. xv. 55 being a source of the Fragment, he appears to
regard such texts, or their originals, as the possible source of the "sting
of death " in that Epistle.
A parchment leaf at Strassburg of relatively late date, containing the
beginning of the Dor initio Marine, which bears the name of the apocryphal
" Euhodios," is edited by Si'IEGElberg,20 who remarks on its divergence
from Lagarde's text. It may be noted that, besides the fragment in
* The reference to Butler's edition of Abu Salih should be corrected. The edition
is by Evetts, with some additional notes by Butler,
t Cf. below, p. 71.
55
Egypt; for the study, recently noticed (v. Report, 1900-01, 72), of the
Mukaukas, was but preliminary to the present work. He found the
subject "a gloomy labyrinth of contradictions," and the work of his
predecessors vitiated by misunderstanding of the authorities, themselves
sufficiently bewildering and obscure. He has certainly succeeded in
bringing light into many dark places, and in exposing several long-
standing errors. The chronicle of John of Nikiu is the authority upon
whom he lays most Aveight; other native documents proved of small value.
But among the Arabs he could use important writers unavailable to Weil,
e.g. Beladhuri. The Copts find in Butler a champion ; he holds that history
has much maligned them. Besides the historical narrative, however, the
book contains a great quantity of information upon the topography, an-
tiquities, and literature of seventh century Egypt, as well as minute investi-
gations of the all-important chronological problems involved. Laudatory
reviews of it by Le Strange,1" Goldzieher,1"" and in the Athenseum 18
contain certain criticisms; the Liter. Centralbl. also offers some.19
W. Biedel has edited,20 from three MSS., the often-cited Arabic
catalogue of the Christian authors known to Abu '1-Barakat and inserted in
his Lamp of Darkness. Starting with the apostolic fathers, it is brought
down to the author's contemporaries in the 14th century, and besides
Monophysites, includes Nestorians and Melkites. The section on Peter of
Melig gives, on his authority, lists of the "innovations " with which the
other sects were charged by the Monophysites. These are made to consist
chiefly in differences of ceremonial usage.*
We are glad to be able to state that Evetts's edition of the Chronicle of
Severus of Eshmunein is already well advanced in print.f It should be ready
for issue during the ensuing year, in Graffin and Nan's Patroloyia Orientalis.
Jacoby has revised the readings of his " Strassburg Gospel Fragment,"
at the same time dealing with various criticisms.'-1 He now inclines
to connect its contents with the apocryphal narrative in Zoega cxiii.
Instead of 1 Cor. xv. 55 being a source of the Fragment, he appears to
regard such texts, or their originals, as the possible source of the "sting
of death " in that Epistle.
A parchment leaf at Strassburg of relatively late date, containing the
beginning of the Dor initio Marine, which bears the name of the apocryphal
" Euhodios," is edited by Si'IEGElberg,20 who remarks on its divergence
from Lagarde's text. It may be noted that, besides the fragment in
* The reference to Butler's edition of Abu Salih should be corrected. The edition
is by Evetts, with some additional notes by Butler,
t Cf. below, p. 71.