Coptica 15, 2016

Evolution of Coptic Liturgical Vestments

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century, at the latest, Coptic priests, even those not of monastic rank, were expected to cover their head during the liturgy.

The Order of the Priesthood (13 th c.) A later work, Tartīb al-Kahanūt or The Order of the Priesthood , the 13 th - century work attributed falsely to Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffa c , increases the number of priestly vestments to a total of seven. These are detailed in the section on the ordination of priests:

And after this, he puts on him the complete priestly vestment and it is seven pieces. These are the tunic [ tūnyah ], the girdle [ zinnār ], the two sleeves [ al-akmām ], and he hangs on his neck the epitrachelion [ biṭrashīl ], and the interpretation of epitrachelion is thousand rocks and it is a Greek word. Then he puts on him the ṭaylasān and clothes him with the phelonion [ burnus ] without a hood [ qaṣlah ], and thus the seven pieces that belong to the vestment are completed.

ثم بعد ذلك يلبسه البدله الكهنوتية كامله وهي سبعة قطع وهم التونية

والاكمام الاثنين ويعلق في حلقه البطرشيل وشرح البطرشيل الف صخرة وهي لفظة يونانية ثم

والزنار

يطلسه بالطيلسان ويلبسه برنس من غير قصلة وقد كملت السبع قطع التى للبدلة. 42

This is in fact the first source to describe such vestments as the sleeves [ akmām ] or the girdle [ zinnār ] for any rank. This perception of the late historical development of certain vestments is unfortunately lost when one reads the traditional scholarship on Coptic vestments, which tended to take the form of a comprehensive catalogue of items, rather than trace the historical sources from the earliest to the latest. Besides the common priestly vestments such as the epitrachelion, the girdle, and the sleeves, the description mentions for the first time the ṭaylasān . As Innemée points out, the ṭaylasān was originally a secular head covering of Persian origin. 43 This explains why the word is absent from Standard Arabic dictionaries. Unfortunately, the text does not provide information on the shape or manner of wearing of this vestment. In modern usage, the ṭaylasān is a pointed hat with a strip of cloth hanging 42 Julius Assfalg, Die Ordnung des Priestertums: Ein altes liturgisches Handbuch der koptischen Kirche , Publications du Centre d’Etudes Orientales de la Custodie Franciscaine de Terre-Sainte, Coptica 1 (Cairo, 1955), 32 (Arabic), 107 (German). 43 Innemée, Ecclesiastical Dress , 29. Cf. R.B. Sarjeant, “Material for A History of Islamic Textiles up to the Mongol Conquest,” Ars Islamica 11/12 (1946), 102-106.