The Legend of Saint Aūr and the Monastery of Naqlūn: The Copto-Arabic Texts
Clara ten Hacken defended her thesis on 16 December 2015
- Clara ten Hacken
- 16 December 2015
- Leiden University Repository
The legend of St. Aūr contained in the Naqlūn homily deals with the foundation history of the church of the archangel Gabriel at the monastery of Naqlūn in the province of Fayyum in Egypt. The origins of this still existing monastery date back to the fifth century. After its composition in the eleventh century, the text remained in use till the present and spread all over Egypt and Ethiopia. Apart from the central date, 26 Ba’ūna, the text contains a number of other dates which reflect the liturgical calendar in use at Naqlūn. Moreover, four other homiletic texts and a hymn were identified, each related to the monastery of Naqlūn in a different way, forming evidence of the rich literary tradition that developed at this site from the eleventh century onwards. The texts recall into memory the great saints from earlier periods, such as St. Antony, the father of monasticism, and Samuel of Qalamūn, and link Naqlūn with several other monastic sites in the neighbourhood, giving Naqlūn a place in the history of Egyptian monasticism. The Middle Arabic language of all five texts, its style and its contents, are characteristic of Copto-Arabic hagiographic literature of the Middle Ages.
Promotores: J. F. Borghouts, J. van der Vliet, M. Woidich, Co-Promotor: J. den Heijer