coptic quill

7/26/2019 Coptic Quill

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The Coptic Quill

Anthony Alcock

This book, which contains a collection of 41 texts in different genres by 12 authors occupying 204 pages,

is in !odern Coptic "#ohairic$% A striking feature of the book is that there is not a single word of Arabic

in it% &y copy has been downloaded fro! http'((www%re!enki!i%co!% The only other language in the

book is )nglish, used to translate the brief address to the intended readers of the book% *o editor or

co!piler is na!ed%

&y own interest is in !uch earlier Coptic texts, and + find it intriguing but not surprising that Coptic is

deeloping into not only a !ediu! of oral co!!unication in )gypt "in Church or at ho!e$ and

probably in Coptic co!!unities in general, but also of written co!!unication%

The Coptic na!e of the collection is mexi nrmnyhmi, which appears in )nglish as Coptic Quill% -n p% 4

the anony!ous co!piler writes' .e hae taken feathers that hae fallen fro! an ibis and written

letters, poe!s etc% in )gyptian% The association is fairly clear' Thoth, often depicted as an ibis/headed

god, is usually associated with writing and learning% -ddly enough, the Coptic text published by )%

Chassinat Un papyrus mdical copte"121$ p% 240 also !entions ibis feathers used for the application

of a bal! for the relief of pain, and it !ay not perhaps be too fanciful to speculate that in this case it is a

!etaphor' bal! for the pain caused by prolonged linguistic alienation%

nlike Ara!aic "yriac$, the other !a3or Christian ernacular language in a predo!inantly Arabic/

speaking region, Coptic was unable to surie as a spoken language% + know al!ost nothing about the

surial of yriac and can follow the language only by using a translation, but there see! to be relatiely

isolated regions such as Tur Abdin ") Turkey$ and &alula "not ery far fro! a!ascus$, where there

!ay hae been no outside interference with the language% )gypt does not really hae isolated areas,

except perhaps the .estern esert -ases, which see! to hae been al!ost entirely &usli! for !any

centuries% -ne thing is fairly clear' een in the 12th and 15th cent% there was an awareness a!ong

)gyptians that their language !ight disappear, and works such as the long poe! known as The Triadon

and the gra!!ar by Athanasius of Qus are eidence of this concern% +n the 1th cent% scholars such as

Claudius 6abib did a good deal of work trying to keep the language alie% +n the 20th cent% .erner7ycichl, in the !id/150s, collected so!e Coptic language !aterial, !ostly fossili8ed phrases, in a

illage near 6uxor called 9eniya "Coptic :isolsel$, published 3ointly with .%;% .orrell in Coptic Texts in


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MichiganUniversity"142$% And !ore recently )!il &aher, who produced a !a!!oth 4/olu!e

work on the phonology of #oharic for his -xford %:hil% thesis, used to hold classes in Coptic in the

Abbassiya Cathedral co!plex in Cairo, this sort of work !ust hae contributed greatly to the reial of

the language%

ince there is now a considerable Coptic diaspora, it is likely that the arious co!!unities around the

globe hae also undoubtedly played and will continue to play their part in reiing Coptic%

The following is an )nglish ersion of the first text in the collection by Abra!,

described as a story "viri$ entitled -


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the wild beasts, for it is clear that we are sure to find food and eat it @5? The father

>adosky replied' ?#y wild beasts + !eant the faithless, for erena knows what they

hae done to us%? >randfather said' ?o not cry, !y daughter% >od the !erciful will

sae us and keep us safe%? ;e opened the ;oly #ook and read out the story of the

flight of the ;oly a!ily to )gypt%

erena gae birth to an angelic child and called her )on% The child grew% ;er life

was hard% he went to school and heard the words of the faithless and told her

grand!other of this, who e!braced her, saying' ?&y darling girl, two thousand

years ago a child was born% This boy saed the entire world% ;e was hanged but rose

fro! the dead because he was the son of >od% ;e is now not loed by the faithless,

but we loe hi! and we !ust loe hi! because he is life%?

The child did not understand the words of her grand!other but she loed this boy

and spoke with hi! while standing before his i!age% At school there were proble!s

between )on and her teacher, who often beca!e angry with her and !ade her cry

with her constant abusie conte!pt of the boy


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Their parents found out and set off for the school% .hen they arried, they heard

the oices of the angels% ;er !other erena wept and they asked her' ?.hy are you

weeping @? he replied' ?+ a! weeping because + a! oer3oyed% Bou re!e!ber the

day when + wept and said' ;ow will our daughter lie in this groe @ -n that day +

beca!e aware that this girl who was in !y wo!b would fill our hearts with 3oy, and

this is what has happened today%?

They took her body and built a s!all shrine in their house in the groe% -n her feast

day the house was filled with the fragrance of perfu!e%

coptic quill

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