Arabic Beyond the Arabs
The Copts: when Arabic became the language of Egypt and its Church
القبط: حين صارت العربيّة لسان مصر وكنيستها
After the conquest Arabic spread among the Copts of Egypt until even the monks learned it. Shawqi Dayf holds that Egypt, with its Copts, monks and patriarchs, had become Arabic, or nearly so, by the third century AH, and cites a Coptic bishop, Severus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, who complained how rare Coptic and Greek had become in Egypt. Coptic itself withdrew to the distant monasteries of the desert and Upper Egypt.
- In brief
- A Coptic bishop complains how few still know Coptic
- Outside Arabic
- Coptic
«مصر بقبطها ورهبانها وبطاركتها تعربت أو كادت في القرن الثالث الهجري، يدل على ذلك أننا نجد ساويرس ابن المقفع أسقف الأشمونين … يشكو شكوى مرّة من ندرة اللسانين القبطي واليوناني في مصر.»
We have not read Severus himself; the statement is Shawqi Dayf's and the card says so. Modern scholarship holds that the History of the Patriarchs attributed to Severus was compiled in Arabic by Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrij in the eleventh century.
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Sources
- شوقي ضيف، تاريخ الأدب العربيّ، عصر الدول والإمارات – مصر، ط ١، ١٤٢٨هـ، مطبعة ستارة، ٧/١٦٥
- المقريزي، المواعظ والاعتبار، تحقيق أيمن فؤاد سيد، ٥/٨٢ (كتب ساويرس العربيّة)
- Wikipedia: Severus ibn al-Muqaffa
- Wikipedia: History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria
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