Writing Christian History in Islamic Egypt: The Case of the Medieval Arabic Text of the "History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria"

NOTICE: Admission to the ISAW Lecture Hall closes 10 minutes after the scheduled start time.

During the Fatimid period (11th c.), a major enterprise of translation of earlier historical Coptic sources into Arabic took place in Egypt, on the initiative of the Coptic Church. It resulted in the composition of the famous text of the “History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria,” which is considered a major source for the history of Egypt and the Middle East in general. Indeed, in a biographical framework, it offers rich and rare narratives of historical events (from the 1st c. CE onwards), presented from a Coptic point of view. In her lecture, ISAW Visiting Research Scholar Perrine Pilette will present the results of her ongoing research on this corpus, highlighting its multi-linguistic issues as well as its key-position between Christian and Islamic literary heritages.

--Reception to follow

Perrine Pilette earned an MA (2009) and a PhD (2014) in Oriental Languages and Literatures at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium). She specializes in Arabic and Coptic, with an emphasis on Coptic-Arabic historiography. Her PhD dissertation aimed to shed new light on the textual transmission of the Arabic text of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and to realize a new critical edition of its section concerning the 4th and 5th centuries. Moreover, her scholarly interests include the History of Late Antique and Medieval Egypt, Manuscript Studies, Middle Arabic and Christian Arabic Literature.

There will be a reception folowing the event.

This is a public event.

To RSVP, please email isaw@nyu.edu.