The legacy of Demetrius of Alexandria (189-232 CE) : the form and function of hagiography in late antique and Islamic Egypt

This is the first full-length study of Demetrius of Alexandria (189–232 ce), who generated a neglected, yet remarkable hagiographic program that secured him a positive legacy throughout the Middle Ages and the modern era. Drawing upon Patristic, Coptic, and Arabic sources spanning a millennium, the analysis contextualizes the Demetrian corpus at its various stages of composition and presents the totality of his hagiographic corpus in translation. This volume constitutes a definitive study of Demetrius, but more broadly, it provides a clearly delineated hagiographic program and charts its evolution against a backdrop of political developments and intercommunal interactions. This fascinating study is a useful resource for students of Demetrius and the Church in Egypt in this period, but also for anyone working on Early Christianity and hagiography more generally. Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Preface 10 Abbreviations 12 Part I The genesis and evolution of a hagiographic program 14 1 The bishop and the scholar 16 2 Sources 23 3 Early imprints 35 4 Date and socio-literary setting of the Sahidic Coptic tradition 45 5 The encomium as hagiography 66 6 Hagiography across language and culture 74 7 Arabic recensions, amendments, and omissions: Emergence of the normative hagiography 88 8 Lent and Epact in Alexandria 108 9 Form, function, and meaning 121 Part II Texts: Demetrius’s bio-hagiographic dossier 128 Introduction to the translations 130 Text I Earliest evidence 131 Text II An encomium on Demetrius of Alexandria 136 Text III Sīrat (biography of) Demetrius of Alexandria: Primitive recension 149 Text IV Eutychius’s Naẓm al-jawhar (The string of pearls) 169 Text V Kitāb al-tawārīkh and the Chronicon orientale 172 Text VI The Synaksār: Coptic-Arabic Synaxarium (thirteenth century) 182 Text VII Abū al-Barakāt’s Muṣbāḥ al-ẓulmā (A lamp in the darkness) 189 Text VIII The Difnār (Antiphonarium) 191 Text IX Doxologies and praises: Arabic and Bohairic-Coptic 195 Works cited 198 Index 221 This is the first full-length study of Demetrius of Alexandria (189-232 CE), who generated a neglected, yet remarkable hagiographic program that secured him a positive legacy throughout the Middle Ages and the modern era. Drawing upon Patristic, Coptic, and Arabic sources spanning a millennium, the analysis contextualizes the Demetrian corpus at its various stages of composition and presents the totality of his hagiographic corpus in translation. This volume constitutes a definitive study of Demetrius, but more broadly, it provides a clearly delineated hagiographic program and charts its evolution against a backdrop of political developments and intercommunal interactions. The methodology, source-base, and conclusions of this fascinating study will be a welcomed resource for a wide range of students and specialists of the Church in Egypt and hagiography, as well as early Christian and Arabic Christian studies. Book jacket