Coptica v. 16 2017

Fakhr al-Dawlah ibn al-Muʾtaman

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the passage presented above), “All who knew of his way of life in previous times, and who saw what had become of him later through repentance, were giving glory to God!” Fakhr al-Dawlah’s return to the Christian fold was a big deal. Among those who took notice were the biographers of the Coptic community’s great saints. And while each biographer naturally gives his particular saint a leading role in Fakhr al-Dawlah’s conversion, there is in fact no contradiction between these roles. Anbā Ruways plays his role in the story in Cairo. Marqus al-Anṭūnī plays his at the Monastery of St. Antony. And Patriarch Matthew, if he is to be included here, plays his in Heaven, before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Some Observations

The story of Fakhr al-Dawlah ibn al-Muʾtaman has a number of interesting features, some of which open windows onto realities faced by the Coptic community in the late 14 th century. I have four areas for comment.

The Conversion of Coptic Bureaucrats

In the first place, the account of Fakhr al-Dawlah’s conversion to Islam is illustrative of a common phenomenon in 14 th -century Egypt under the Mamlūks: the conversion of Copts of the secretarial class to Islam, either to maintain or to obtain the highest positions in the financial bureaucracy. The Coptic secretarial class had flourished under Ayyūbid rule (1171-1250), during which period Coptic bureaucrats gained wealth and influence and were able to use it for the benefit of the Coptic community, not least in the patronage of the artists and scholars who made the first half of the 13 th century a culturally rich time for the Copts. (Think of the 13 th -century wall paintings at the principal church at the Monastery of St. Antony, and remember that we often speak of a “golden age” or “Renaissance” of Copto- Arabic literature in that period.) 9 With the advent of Mamlūk rule in the latter half of the 13 th century, however, the situation changed. A series of edicts between 1293 and 1354 insisted that the top civil servants should all be Muslims, which led to many conversions—although some of them were merely nominal. The edict of 1354, however, sought to ensure not only the nominal conversion of Coptic bureaucrats but also their socialization as Muslims. 10 Throughout the Mamlūk period the class of “Muslim Copts” 9 For the art, see Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea , ed. Elizabeth S. Bolman (Cairo: American Research Center in Egypt and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002). On the “golden age” or “Renaissance” of Copto-Arabic literature, see Adel Y. Sidarus, “The Copto-Arabic Renaissance in the Middle Ages: Characteristics and Socio-Political Context,” Coptica 1 (2002): 141-60. 10 The classic study of this is Donald P. Little, “Coptic Conversion to Islam under the Bahri Mamluks, 692-755/1293-1354,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 39 (1976): 552-69.