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The Legacy of Demetrius of Alexandria 189-232 CE: The Form and Function of Hagiography in Late Antique and Islamic Egypt book cover

1st Edition

The Legacy of Demetrius of Alexandria 189-232 CE The Form and Function of Hagiography in Late Antique and Islamic Egypt

By Maged Mikhail Copyright 2017
228 Pages
by Routledge

228 Pages
by Routledge

228 Pages
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
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... Read more

Preface



Abbreviations



Part I: The Genesis and Evolution of a Hagiographic Program



1. The Bishop and the Scholar



2. Sources



3. Early Imprints



4. Date and Socio-Literary Setting of the Sahidic Coptic Tradition



5. The Encomium on Demetrius as Hagiography



6. Hagiography across Language and Culture



7. Arabic Recensions, Amendments, and Omissions: Emergence of the Normative Hagiography



8. Lent and Epact in Alexandria



9. Form, Function, and Meaning



Part II: Texts – Demetrius’s Bio-Hagiographic Dossier



I. Earliest Evidence



II. An Encomium on Demetrius of Alexandria



III. Demetrius’s sirah in the History of the Patriarchs’ Primitive Recension



IV. Eutychius’s Nazm al-jawhar (The String of Pearls)



V. Kitab al-tawarīkh and the Chronicon orientale



VI. The Coptic-Arabic synaksar (Synaxarium)



VII. Abu al-Barakat’s Musbah al-zulma (A Lamp in the Darkness)



VIII. The Difnar (Antiphonarium)



IX. Doxologies and Praises



Works Cited



Index



Biography

Maged S. A. Mikhail is Professor of History at California State University at Fullerton, USA.

"The Legacy of Demetrius is a multi-faceted jewel of historical investigation. Mikhail first gathers together and contextualizes virtually all that we know of Demetrius himself, and then draws out for us the process through which Demetrius the legend evolved. Through this complex investigation new windows are also opened onto the distinctive shape of Christianity in late antique and Islamic Egypt. Rarely does a study so well combine these different style of exploration."

- Lewis Ayres, Durham University, UK

 

"Due to [his] innovative approach and a sovereign handling of the sources, Mikhail's book is considered very successful. His deconstruction of hagiographic legends and motifs, coupled with his analysis of various editorial levels, would have to set a new standard for the study of hagiographic texts."

- Daniel Vaucher, Universität Bern, Germany, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017

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