DOI Artikel:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology: christian Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11172#0069
Christian Egypt.
55
centuries. Much interest, therefore, attaches to the discovery by Dr.
Schlifer of a Sa'idic fragment of six leaves in the Berlin Museum showing
a remarkably close relation to the chronicle of John of Nikiu, which has
reached us only in an Ethiopia translation.'11 The text here treats of the
conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. But, just as in John's chronicle, the
conqueror is confounded with Nebuchadnezzar, and his subjects with the
Assyrians; his Egyptian opponent is Apries, one of whose generals plans
a revolt in Syria in the Persians' rear. With these incidents in common,
it is difficult to deny some connection between the two works, though the
nature of that connection is as yet obscure.
The name Edfu, by which the ancient Apollinopolis Magna is to-day
known, is that too by which it is usually designated in Coptic texts.
Prof. W. Max Miiller has called attention to another name by which the
town is mentioned in the Coptic Acts of the Third Council.42 This name,
Shcld, gives the pronunciation of that of the primitive local god.
Amclineau [Geogr. 4(J3) had already remarked and located, but not
explained the name.
The museum at Alexandria generously lent five Coptic legal documents
of the 8th century from Nubia as an exhibit to the recent Congress of
Christian Archaeology at Borne. There Prof. Krall studied them, and the
results of his examination 43 form a sequel to his and the present writers
publications of similar texts (v. this Eeport, 1898-99, p. 60). From one
of the protocols Prof. Krall is able to add another king—the fourth—to
those already known from these and Arabic sources.
C. Pltilological. The invaluable Lingua JRgyptiaca Rettiluta is now
among the rarest of Egyptological books, and M. Loret's previous studies
fit him especially for the re-editing of the vocabularies which give
Kircher's work its value. He prints 44 however but two sections of the
Scula magna, those relating to animals and plants, and these he gives
without comments from a quite modern yet more accurate MS. than
Kircher's—or, at any rate, than Kircher's transcript. The two texts do
not however differ materially. The author of the Scala, Shams er-
Biasah, of whom M. Loret professes to know nothing, could probably be
proved identical with the well-known writer, who bore the same title, but
is better known as Abu '1-Barakat, the secretary of Baibars II* and
author of the much-cited theological encyclopaedia, " The Lamp of
Darkness."
In the Zeittschrift for 1895 Ennan drew attention to the strange name,
* Brit. Mus. Ar.it. Cat. 501 b, infra. I owe this to Mr. A. G. Ellis.
55
centuries. Much interest, therefore, attaches to the discovery by Dr.
Schlifer of a Sa'idic fragment of six leaves in the Berlin Museum showing
a remarkably close relation to the chronicle of John of Nikiu, which has
reached us only in an Ethiopia translation.'11 The text here treats of the
conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. But, just as in John's chronicle, the
conqueror is confounded with Nebuchadnezzar, and his subjects with the
Assyrians; his Egyptian opponent is Apries, one of whose generals plans
a revolt in Syria in the Persians' rear. With these incidents in common,
it is difficult to deny some connection between the two works, though the
nature of that connection is as yet obscure.
The name Edfu, by which the ancient Apollinopolis Magna is to-day
known, is that too by which it is usually designated in Coptic texts.
Prof. W. Max Miiller has called attention to another name by which the
town is mentioned in the Coptic Acts of the Third Council.42 This name,
Shcld, gives the pronunciation of that of the primitive local god.
Amclineau [Geogr. 4(J3) had already remarked and located, but not
explained the name.
The museum at Alexandria generously lent five Coptic legal documents
of the 8th century from Nubia as an exhibit to the recent Congress of
Christian Archaeology at Borne. There Prof. Krall studied them, and the
results of his examination 43 form a sequel to his and the present writers
publications of similar texts (v. this Eeport, 1898-99, p. 60). From one
of the protocols Prof. Krall is able to add another king—the fourth—to
those already known from these and Arabic sources.
C. Pltilological. The invaluable Lingua JRgyptiaca Rettiluta is now
among the rarest of Egyptological books, and M. Loret's previous studies
fit him especially for the re-editing of the vocabularies which give
Kircher's work its value. He prints 44 however but two sections of the
Scula magna, those relating to animals and plants, and these he gives
without comments from a quite modern yet more accurate MS. than
Kircher's—or, at any rate, than Kircher's transcript. The two texts do
not however differ materially. The author of the Scala, Shams er-
Biasah, of whom M. Loret professes to know nothing, could probably be
proved identical with the well-known writer, who bore the same title, but
is better known as Abu '1-Barakat, the secretary of Baibars II* and
author of the much-cited theological encyclopaedia, " The Lamp of
Darkness."
In the Zeittschrift for 1895 Ennan drew attention to the strange name,
* Brit. Mus. Ar.it. Cat. 501 b, infra. I owe this to Mr. A. G. Ellis.