Cultural Mediation in Early Islamic Egypt: The Role of Coptic

Cromwell, Jennifer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0228-1371 (2024) Cultural Mediation in Early Islamic Egypt: The Role of Coptic. In: Shaping Letters, Shaping Communities: Multilingualism and Linguistic Practice in the Late Antique Near East and Egypt. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (33). Brill, Leiden, pp. 296-321. ISBN 9789004682306 (hardback); 9789004682337 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter explores the use of Coptic as a language of cultural mediation in early Islamic Egypt. Following the Arab conquest of Egypt, 639–642 CE, the linguistic and cultural landscape of Egypt changed, with the new rulers introducing their language, religion, and people to the country. Indications of how this transition was mediated are preserved in the surviving sources, especially textual, from the seventh and eighth centuries. In particular, it is notable how Coptic is used for communication with the new rulers, as well as in other domains, including its first use within the administrative framework of the country, where it existed alongside Arabic and Greek. This study proposes a new framework for understanding how Coptic was used in this period, that of cultural mediation, as one strategy for navigating the new political, social, and linguistic relationships created after the conquest.