Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CaMMEgy (Christians among Muslims in Medieval Egypt)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2018-10-01 al 2020-09-30
The “Christians among Muslims in Medieval Egypt” (CaMMEgy) projects aimed at studying the adaptation processes of a minority in the making – the Coptic Christians – during the Medieval period in Egypt (7th – 13th centuries) under an innovative angle. It indeed focused on the analysis of discourse strategies set up by members of the Coptic community in order to claim and reinforce a favourable position in a social and territorial context that was gradually reorganized by Muslim rulers. Indeed, after the Arab conquest of Egypt (642 AD), the Copts started to be transformed into a minority: first socially – in political and confessional terms –, after the establishment of a new Islamic rule and government (7th century), and later numerically, after a great number of individual or collective conversions to Islam had occurred.
From this perspective, the overall objective was to make an integrated and comparative analysis of data extracted from two corpuses – largely understudied so far – in order to highlight and understand these discourse strategies, from the 7th century onwards. These corpuses are Arabic historiographical sources, i.e. mainly the History of the Patriarch of Alexandria (HPA, 11th century) and the History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt (HCME, 13th century), and the so-called papyrological sources.
The analysis combined tools and methods from various disciplines, such as history, textual criticism, (socio-)linguistics (language level choice) and literary analysis.
As for its societal importance, the CaMMEgy project is considered a crucial step towards a much-needed holistic and diachronic understanding of the larger Christian-Muslim relationship(s), usually studied from a unique perspective, either Christian or Muslim.
From this perspective, the overall objective was to make an integrated and comparative analysis of data extracted from two corpuses – largely understudied so far – in order to highlight and understand these discourse strategies, from the 7th century onwards. These corpuses are Arabic historiographical sources, i.e. mainly the History of the Patriarch of Alexandria (HPA, 11th century) and the History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt (HCME, 13th century), and the so-called papyrological sources.
The analysis combined tools and methods from various disciplines, such as history, textual criticism, (socio-)linguistics (language level choice) and literary analysis.
As for its societal importance, the CaMMEgy project is considered a crucial step towards a much-needed holistic and diachronic understanding of the larger Christian-Muslim relationship(s), usually studied from a unique perspective, either Christian or Muslim.
In order to reach the abovementioned objective, i.e. the analysis of discourse strategies, the work was divided into two overlapping parts, each one highlighting a context in which Copts claimed a position. The first part focused on the society and was based on a thorough analysis of the History of the Patriarch of Alexandria. As for the second part, dedicated to the territory, it was based on the History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt.
Several methodological steps were distributed into 8 work packages:
WP1: Creating the digital tools; WP2: gathering the sources; WP3 : Feeding the working tool database; WP4: Interpreting the data from the HPA; WP5: Interpreting the data from the HCME; WP6: Training; WP7:Dissemination and exploitation of the results; WP8: Communication.
Numerous results have been achieved, all of them being presented in deliverables that present analyses of specific types of discourse strategies and representations in Coptic-Arabic historiographical literature: 9 of these deliverables are articles, 1 is in academic blog to be fed in the long-term. As for the articles, 3 have been released during the action, 3 are waiting for review and 3 are in preparation and will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals in 2021, as results from the CaMMEgy project.
Also, the PI carried out a large number of dissemination activities, in order to ensure a wide dissemination of the project’s results: organization of workshops and conferences, participations to workshops and conferences and invited lectures. It has to be noted that some activities targeted a large public audience (see hereafter).
Several methodological steps were distributed into 8 work packages:
WP1: Creating the digital tools; WP2: gathering the sources; WP3 : Feeding the working tool database; WP4: Interpreting the data from the HPA; WP5: Interpreting the data from the HCME; WP6: Training; WP7:Dissemination and exploitation of the results; WP8: Communication.
Numerous results have been achieved, all of them being presented in deliverables that present analyses of specific types of discourse strategies and representations in Coptic-Arabic historiographical literature: 9 of these deliverables are articles, 1 is in academic blog to be fed in the long-term. As for the articles, 3 have been released during the action, 3 are waiting for review and 3 are in preparation and will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals in 2021, as results from the CaMMEgy project.
Also, the PI carried out a large number of dissemination activities, in order to ensure a wide dissemination of the project’s results: organization of workshops and conferences, participations to workshops and conferences and invited lectures. It has to be noted that some activities targeted a large public audience (see hereafter).
Progress beyond the state of the art was definitely made: as the sources studied in the framework of the CaMMEgy project (HPA, HCME and papyrological sources) are largely understudied and not accessible throughout scientific editions yet (only manuscripts and documents), they provided brand-new data for the project. Those allowed the PI to make new observations and innovative hypotheses about the larger Christian-Muslim relationship(s) during the medieval period in Egypt, published in peer-reviewed articles.
In addition to these articles, some communications activities intended to disseminate the results of the project among society as well (radio show, public lecture, etc.). Indeed, a clear understanding of the diachronic evolution of coexisting modes and communication ways between communities is crucial. We need it to apprehend social dynamics in the Middle East today and, in particular, its fragile social diversity, currently endangered by geopolitical crises. This understanding is especially important, as a significant portion of these Middle Eastern populations now relocates and becomes an active part of European societies.
In addition to these articles, some communications activities intended to disseminate the results of the project among society as well (radio show, public lecture, etc.). Indeed, a clear understanding of the diachronic evolution of coexisting modes and communication ways between communities is crucial. We need it to apprehend social dynamics in the Middle East today and, in particular, its fragile social diversity, currently endangered by geopolitical crises. This understanding is especially important, as a significant portion of these Middle Eastern populations now relocates and becomes an active part of European societies.