The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization in Wadi al-Natrun over the past seventeen hundred years. 360pp Hardcover
A Saint Mark Foundation BookWadi al-Natrun, a depression in the Western Desert of Egypt, west of the Nile Delta and 23 meters below sea level, is one of the most important centers for the development and continued thriving of the Coptic monastic tradition. Christianity and monasticism have flourished there from as early as the fourth century until the present day, when four major monasteries still flourish. The studies in this collection center on aspects of the history and development of monasticism in Wadi al-Natrun, as well as the art, architecture, and archaeology of the four existing and numerous former monasteries of the region. 360pp Hardcover (2009)
Contributors: Elizabeth S. Bolman, Karl-Heinz Brune, Peter Grossmann, Johannes den Heijer, Suzana Hodak, Lucy-Anne Hunt, Mat Immerzeel, Martin Krause, Ewa Parandowska, S.G. Richter, Rushdi Said, Zuzana Skalova, Hany H. Takla, Tim Vivian, Jacques van der Vliet, Youhanna Nessim Youssef, Ugo Zanetti.
About the Author(s) Maged S.A. Mikhail is assistant professor of history at California State University, Fullerton, specializing in late antique and early Islamic history, and is the editor of Coptica.
Mark Moussa is completing his doctoral dissertation in Semitic and Egyptian languages and literatures at the Catholic University of America. He has published several articles on Egyptian monasticism.
