History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria

What it is

The History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria is a major historical work of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, and the only continuous narrative of the Non-Chalcedonian Alexandrian Patriarchate. Its early parts draw on Eusebius and Coptic tradition, and later biographies often seem to rest on documents written by eyewitnesses. The catalogue record gives the date 1222. Tradition credits the work to Severus ibn al-Muqaffa, but modern scholarship credits Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrij of Alexandria (c. 1025-1100), whose name appears on the cover of the edition shown here. Sources disagree on the language: one describes it as written in Coptic, while the record and the cover treat it as Arabic.

Why it matters

The book shows how Christians in Egypt recorded their own history under Muslim rule. It covers the Muslim conquest of Egypt and the overthrow of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II. The curator links it to al-Mansur because it records how the change of dynasty and Abbasid fiscal rule affected Egyptian Christians. That link comes from the curator's note and is not stated in the book facts quoted here.

Look closer

• Whose history is this, and which events does it treat as important?
• Why do you think the author relied on eyewitness documents for the later periods?
• What might a Coptic author leave out when writing about rulers from a different faith?