Coptica 15, 2016

88 Mark N. Swanson philosophical letter of farewell. Here, Alexander’s exploits provide occasions for the display of wisdom, but he is less directly involved in its articulation. (3) And finally, it is possible to find a thoroughly negative evaluation of Alexander—in al-Jawharah al-nafīsah , one who conquers

through Satanic power. 31 In Lieu of a Conclusion

Can we say anything about how our authors came by these materials? I suggest that, in the first place, we need to look to circles of elite Copts of the scribal or bureaucratic class (which would include some of the authors I have mentioned). For members of such circles, and their Muslim counterparts, books such as the pseudo-Aristotelian guide to statecraft, al- Siyāsah fī tadbīr al-riʾāsah , appear to have been regularly read and copied; and it was among them that universal histories were prized and composed. But I think that Alexander materials may have been read more widely than in just these elite circles. From about the 11 th century on, it was important for Copts in any position of leadership, whether in the civil administration or in the church , to obtain competence in Arabic. A church canon issued in the 1130s directs priests to teach their children the books of the Church, in Coptic, “at the beginning of each day before (the lessons in) Arabic .” 32 This is striking both for the emphasis it places on preserving competence in Coptic and also for its simple assumption that there are lessons in Arabic. But, in those Arabic lessons, were books used? And if so, which ones? At this point in the 12 th century, the Arabic-language library of the Coptic Orthodox Church was quite limited. And presumably, Coptic priests were not teaching their children specifically Islamic religious books, such as the Qur’an or collections of hadith. What I would like very tentatively to suggest is that Arabic-language instruction among the Copts, also within the Church, required a body of edifying texts that were not specifically Islamic in character. Collections of wise sayings and anecdotes may well have fit the bill—and here al- Mubashshir ibn Fātik’s collection Mukhtār al-ḥikam , with its section on Alexander, leaps to mind; we know of copies of the work by Copts going back to the 15 th century (e.g., in MS Paris, BnF ar. 309). Can we imagine young Copts studying Arabic, and, in the course of reading carefully selected works of edification, picking up anecdotes about Alexander the Great? 31 At the Coptic Congress in Claremont, Karel Innemée presented a newly discovered wall painting from Dayr al-Suryān in which one Alexandros is being speared by an equestrian saint along with Diocletian (Karel Innemée, “Church of the Virgin Mary in Deir al-Surian, Recent Discoveries,” 11 th International Congress of Coptic Studies, Claremont, CA, July 27, 2016). Here a very negative evaluation of one Alexander is portrayed vividly—but it is not yet clear (to me) whether this can be identified with Alexander the Great. 32 O.H.E. Burmester, “The Canons of Gabriel ibn Turak, LXX Patriarch of Alexandria (First Series),” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 1 (1935): 4-45, here pp. 26-29.