SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

The Second St. Shenouda MiniConference of Coptic Studies (April 13, 2002 - Los Angeles California) (by Hany N. Takla)

Introduction: The Society continued its efforts in organizing the smaller one-day Coptic Studies conferences, or Coptic MiniConferences. These quarterly gatherings are designed to give more opportunities to students in the field rather than established scholars. Though the contribution of the latter is welcomed. Each MiniConference includes a small book exhibit and demonstrations of the Society's on-going work. Attendance: About 15 persons were in attendance during the two sessions of this MiniConference. Attendees were primarily members of the Society in the Southern California Area. Schedule: The following was the schedule for the MiniConference: 10:00-10:05 a.m. Welcome Address by Hany N. Takla 10:05-11:00 a.m. Hany N. Takla – Presentation on the Art and Architecture of the St. Shenouda Monastery in Sohag (White Monastery). 11:00-11:10 am Break 11:10-12:00 a.m. Dr. Monica Bontty - Importance of Coptic in the Study of the Egyptian Language 12:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Exhibit tour and Lunch. 1:30-2:30 p.m. Deacon Severus (Maged) S. A. Mikhail, In Defense of the Role Played by Pope Benjamin in the early Years of the Arab Invasion of Egypt. 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Informal discussions and demonstration of the Microfilm Scanned Images project that the Society is working on .

investigation by the author in early February 2002. The presentation was in the form of electronic slides of the area. b. Importance of Coptic in the Study of the Egyptian Language by Dr. Monica Bontty. In this presentation, Dr. Bontty discussed the value of the knowledge of Coptic in the study of the ancient Egyptian Language in its different stages. Stages that spanned over three millennia and they are: Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian, and finally Demotic. The contribution of the sounds, especially of vowels, of Coptic was a great and obvious asset to learning Egyptian. However many of illustrative examples given dealt with grammatical points, especially of the relationship between the verbal conjugation system of the Egyptian and the Coptic. This bolsters the opinion of some scholars of recent times that the study of Coptic should precede that of the Egyptian and not the other way around. An important point made in the presentation was the consistent similarities found between Coptic on the one hand and Late Egyptian and Demotic on the other. c. In Defense of the Role Played by Pope Benjamin in the early Years of the Arab Invasion of Egypt. In this paper, Deacon Severus (Maged) shared with the audience his research about this intriguing period of Coptic history. He dealt with all the primary sources and their diverse claims. He went on to dispute the claims of the Arabic Historian Ibn al-Hakam of Pope Benjamin taking an active role in asking the Copts to accept the Arabic Army. He showed that ibn al-Hakim claims a couple of centuries after the Arab Invasion was not substantiated even by his own timeline. This would make the Pope's stand at best neutral during the invasion time. This in the least would strongly challenge the notion that the Copts were encouraged by their ecclesiastical leadership to accept the Arab army as way to resist the Byzantine rule regardless of the harsh treatment

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter Presentations: There were three presentations delivered during the day, a brief description of each is as follows:

a. Presentation on the Art and Architecture of the St. Shenouda Monastery in Sohag (White Monastery) by Hany N. Takla: This paper was a field report on the present condition of St. Shenouda famed church, on the basis of a site

-3-