ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2549 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2549 ************************************ 16 Jul 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our help choosing a name appropriate for a 13th or 14th century Coptic Christian man during the middle Mamluk period. You specifically asked about the saint's names and and asked whether it would be appropriate to use a standard Arabic naming pattern. We apologize for the time it has taken to complete our answer to your questions; here is what we have found. We don't know a great deal about Coptic naming customs, but we think we have found enough information to answer your question. General information we found about the history of the Copts and their language suggests that a Copt of your period would likely have spoken Arabic as well as Coptic, and would likely have been identified by an Arabic-style name at least in that language [1]. You can find discussions of Arabic naming patterns in these two articles: Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/andalusia/ Arabic Naming Practices and Names List http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/daud/arabic-naming/ A study of medieval Coptic names shows that in addition to native Egyptian names, they used Old and New Testament names, as well as names adopted from Arabic, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin [5]. Unfortunately, we only found one volume of this work, not including the part that covers names beginning with . However, a sample of the names listed is useful. The numbers are the centuries in which the name was recorded: Names of Hebrew and origin Aaron 6-9 Abeia 7-8 Abel 6-7 Abener 6/7 Abraham 6-13 Abisalom 8 Gabriel 13 Names of Greek origin Abianos? 4 Agathon ? Agathonikos 4-6 Agathos 8-9 Athanasios 13 Anthinos 12 Arsenios 12 Georgi 13 Georgios 13 Names of Arabic origin Abbalmine 13 Abdella 8-9 Abderahman 8 Aboulam 8 Aboupilal 8 Abros 11? Abou Saal ? Aboussoror 9-11 Apoulioumen 12 Gorgis 13 Other origin or origin not known Abbi 10 Abibo ? Abedda ? (Aramaic?) Ablarion 2 Abion 6 Abenati 8 Abesemon ? Abast 8/9 Abixer 8/9 Agau ? Agabos ? Ammonios 12 (Egyptian) Biktor 12 (Latin, "Victor") We have found references, in modern spellings, to an 11th century Coptic bishop and a 12th century Copt of the same name [6, 7]. We do not know how the name was spelled, but we are confident that some form of the name was in use among the Copts close to your period. The citation above of in 13th century Coptic makes it easy to believe that remained in use in your period. We have also found modern references to 7th to 10th century Copts named [7, 8, 9], which appears to be the Coptic or Arabic form of the Greek name [10]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Adelaide de Beaumont, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Ursula Georges, Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, Teceangl Bach, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 16 Jul 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Bi-lingual Coptic-Arabic liturgical manuscripts first appear in the second half of the 11th century, and the first Egyptian Christian texts entirely in Arabic were written in the 13th century. However, Coptic remained in use in everyday life until the 15th century throughout Egypt and the late 16th century in the south [2, 3, 4]. [2] "The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church Of Egypt" (WWW: The Coptic Network, accessed 18 Jun 2002). http://www.coptic.net/EncyclopediaCoptica/ [3] Hany N. Takla, "The History of the Coptic Language" (WWW: privately published, 1996). The source gives names in the Coptic alphabet; we have transliterated them to the Roman alphabet as best we could. http://www.stshenouda.com/coptlang/copthist.htm#Coptic11 [4] George Khoury, "The Arabic Christian Literature" (WWW: Al-Bushra, accessed 18 Jun 2002). The discussion mentions the 10th century , bishop of al-Ushmunain (Upper Egypt) and 11th century , deacon of Alexandria, as well as other medieval Coptic Christian prelates with Arabic-style names. This suggests that at least some Copts were using Arabic name forms even this early. This page also mentions an 11th century Michael, bishop of Tinnis. http://www.al-bushra.org/arbhrtg/arbxtn01.htm [5] Gustav Heuser, Die Kopten (Heidelberg : F. Bilabel, 1938). Covers the 3rd to 16th centuries, but the vast majority of citations are from roughly the 7th to 9th centuries. Only given names are listed, not full name structures. [6] Gustav Heuser, Die Personennamen der Kopten (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1929) (also listed as Die koptischen Personennamen agyptischen Ursprungs). The author seems to be primarily interested in linguistically Coptic names; he deals only briefly with names adopted from other sources. However, he does seem to discuss name structures. [7] Departure of St. Mina, Bishop of Tamai, in the Coptic Synexarion (book of saints) (WWW: icopts.com, accessed 16 Jul 2002). This bishop lived at the time of the 46th Pope of Alexandria, i.e. in the 8th century. http://www.icopts.com/syncx/syncx_details.php?m=Hatour&d=7 [8] Martyrdom of St.Mina the Monk. in the Coptic Synexarion (book of saints) (WWW: icopts.com, accessed 16 Jul 2002). The text places this man at the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt, in the 6th century. http://www.icopts.com/syncx/syncx_details.php?m=Amshir&d=17 [9] The Seat of St. Mark (WWW: St. Peter & St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church, accessed 16 Jul 2002). In section 3, it mentioned Pope Mina II who was enthroned in 956 AD. [10] Fraser, P.M., and E. Matthews, "The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" (WWW: Oxford University, 1998). The database includes a fair number of examples of , where represents the Greek letter eta. http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/