By Mursi Saad El-Din Tourists who come to Egypt and those who have come under her spell always seem to associate the country with the Pyramids, the Sphinx and the Nile. They may throw in a couple of hours to see some of Cairo's famous mosques, but in general most visitors tend to associate the country with its Pharaonic past. However, this is not the case for the British writer Pamela Rowley, about whom I am writing this week's column. While Rowley seems to be interested in Pharaonic matters, she is more interested in Coptic art, a form of art, she says, that has been almost "swamped" between the eras of the Pharaohs and of Islam. In the British Museum, for example, Coptic art occupies only a small corridor between two large exhibition halls. Yet, in their heyday the Copts achieved renown for their weaving, fine carvings and skilled work in glass, ivory and metal. This is what Rowley writes about, with deep knowledge, love and enthusiasm. In a main book of hers she starts by giving the history of Christianity in Egypt. Christianity appeared in Egypt during the lifetime of Christ, and is believed to have been brought to Alexandria by St Mark. The Coptic Church was founded in 284 CE, and it had a profound influence on early Christian dogma. Egypt became famous for "the Athletes of God," the original monastic orders upon which western monasteries were modelled. Having given this historical background, Rowley goes on to describe Coptic art. In its early period, she says, from the 2nd to the middle of the 5th centuries CE, Coptic art was strongly influenced by the graceful Hellenistic style that dominated the sophisticated city of Alexandria. In aristocratic Alexandria art attained a high level of skill, a degree of Greek elegance and harmony, and the use of expensive marble, ivory and silk that persisted at least until the 6th century. The most characteristic style of Coptic art, however, flourished in the period from the late 5th to the early 8th centuries. Largely the work of peasant monks from monasteries in the countryside, it drew on local Egyptian and later Syrian elements. The monks developed an abstract style that, although rather heavy and crude, forcefully expressed their religious devotion. The emergence of this distinctive Coptic style was associated and influenced by Egyptian isolation from the Orthodox Christian world as a result of the monophysite Copts' refusal to accept the Orthodox view of the nature of Christ as stated by the council of Chalcedon in 451. After the arrival of the Arabs in the middle of the 7th century, late Coptic art became more decorative and geometric under Islamic influence and gradually degenerated into a local peasant style. Sculpture, says Rowley, was more important than architecture for the Copts. They worked in high relief, some figures stiffly stylised in frontal positions, with the emphasis on the head and deeply set eyes. Some figures, however, are almost Indian in their exuberance. After the arrival of the Arabs, Egyptian stone masons and sculptors worked under the direction of Muslim architects, but their style was slow to change. Rowley goes on to describe Coptic painting and textiles. Coptic paintings, she says, may be seen in frescoes, as in the monastery of Deir Abu Hennis, and on wooden panels or icons. Favourite subjects in addition to mythological characters were Christ enthroned, reflecting the monophysite emphasis on his divinity, scenes from the Bible, and soldier saints. The flat figures are generally brightly coloured and strongly outlined and, like the sculpture, are shown frontally. Coptic style is also represented in manuscript illumination and textiles. Ancient Coptic textiles have survived in great quantities, but they rarely represent Biblical or Christian themes, drawing heavily instead on Greek mythology. The writer assumes that most of them come from burial grounds in Egypt, and many are the actual clothes or shrouds in which people were buried. The main Coptic garment was a tunic with a decorated border and roundels. Weaving was the national occupation of Egypt at the time, and it became a national art form. Drawing on the expertise of antiquity, the craftsmen of Coptic Egypt attained wide renown. The Coptic script, Rowley says, was invented in the 1st century CE and was originally used to record spells. It was written in Greek letters, together with some additional signs to represent sounds not found in Greek. By the early 4th century both the Old and New Testaments had been translated into Coptic. The calligraphy presents a massive type of writing made using a frayed reed as a kind of primitive brush or pen. The Coptic language survives today only in the Coptic liturgy, today's Coptic chants being the liturgical music of the descendants of the ancient Egyptians who converted to Christianity prior to the Islamic conquest.
