Christianity and Monasticism in the Fayoum Oasis, Gawdat Gabra, ed., Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005. pp322 This publication includes most, but not all, of the papers presented at the second International Seminar on Coptic Studies in the Fayoum in February 2004, and it provides the first comprehensive and up-to-date studies on Christian growth and development in the fertile depression southwest of Cairo. Here Christianity began in the third century, and its presence has endured to the present day. The first seminar on Coptic studies took place at Wadi Al-Natrun in 2002, a monastic area west of the Delta which was already well known and documented: Hugh Evelyn- White's monumental 1933 study of the area, The History of the Monasteries of the Wadi'n Natrun, was reprinted in 1973 to include additional historical, archaeological, and philological data. The seminar, in other words, took place on familiar territory. It is only to be regretted that the papers given at that seminar, which cast additional light on the growth and development of monastic life in Wadi Al-Natrun in recent years, were not published. However, this deficiency has been set right at the second seminar, held in the Fayoum. Here, there is no single reference work covering Christian growth and development. Indeed, apart from studies of the so-called "Fayoum portraits", the Church of the Archangel Michael, and the hermitages at Naqlun, a comprehensive study of Christianity in this vast fertile depression has been lacking. It was in recognition of the need to publish the rich Coptic heritage of the area that the organising committee of the seminar decided to take all necessary steps to document and publish the proceedings, and thanks to coordinated efforts between the organisers and supporters, contacts with the contributors, and collaboration with the press, the essays in Christianity and Monasticism in the Fayoum Oasis cover Christianity's rich heritage in that area. The symposium took place at the monastery of Deir Al'Aazab (founded in the 12th or 13th century, abandoned in the 18th, and today a restored site that functions as a bishopric), and it succeeded in bringing together a group of professional and gifted individuals who presented some two dozen lectures on the subjects of their expertise. Al-Fayoum has yielded literature in Greek, Coptic and Arabic, archaeological evidence of its monasteries and cemeteries, the influence of the mummy portraits on the production of Coptic icons, and a wide variety of other subjects including mediaeval wall paintings, studies on textiles, metal objects, and basketry. In Marie-Helene Rutschowscaya's paper "The Fayoum Portraits and their Influence on the First Coptic Icons" the author postulates that the adoption, by Greek immigrants from the end of the 3rd century BCE, of local social and religious customs "led naturally to a fusion of artistic style and iconography, which was to develop fully with the Roman conquest". She illustrates this by saying that it was in the funerary context, and, particularly for the art of the portrait, "this fusion of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman tradition ... that produced works as beautiful as any previously created." W. Godlewski, professor of archaeology at Warsaw University and director of the Polish Centre in Cairo, presented papers on his mission's excavations of the ancient Monastery of Naqlun, and the mediaeval Coptic cemetery in the same area. He encouraged younger members of his mission to study diverse material resulting from his excavations, and impressive presentations were given on such subjects as baskets and mats recovered from the dig by Anetta Lyzwa-Piber, whose preliminary investigations dated the artifacts to the late Fatimid-early Mameluk period. A study of the vast assemblage of Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Mamluke textiles enabled Barbara Czaja-Szewczak to observe the fashions of the day, including clothing worn as outer-wear in different designs and as underwear. Each year, as studies advance further, we become better informed about past life in Egyptian monasteries and hermitages. Peter Grossmann points out that apart from the town of Crocodilopolis (later called Arsinoe) no large settlement existed in the Fayoum, and all the sites known to archaeology are either large or small villages. Nevertheless, he says, the churches in the villages demonstrate the development and character of Christian church architecture. Father Samir Khalil Samir's paper in the present volume on the "Christian Arabic Literature of the Copts" comments on what monks in centuries past, and without the benefit of education, read in their leisure time, and, indeed, what they did not read. Another priest and polyglot, Father Ugo Zanetti, talks here about the liturgy of the Coptic Church. This is the first time that all aspects of Coptic life in Al-Fayoum over the past 1800 years have been studied by prominent scholars from around the world, and the resulting publication, Christianity and Monasticism in the Fayoum Oasis is an important contribution to Coptic studies. In conclusion it should be mentioned that while this important book is a worthy research tool, it might make somewhat heavy reading for a wider audience. It is, however, timely because it has appeared just as preparations are being finalised for the third seminar in the series, which is scheduled to take place in Sohag during the first week of February 2006. Reviewed by Jill Kamil
