The paper discusses the project of the four sons of al-Assal (al-Safi, al-Mu’taman, al-As’ad, and al-Amjad) in the thirteenth century AD in Egypt, shedding light on their pivotal role in establishing an intellectual and cultural renaissance within the Coptic Church amid the political and social challenges of the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras.
The ideas of the research revolve around the following main points:
The historical and familial context: the challenges the Copts faced between the pressures of the state and the suspicions of the Crusaders, and the upbringing of the brothers in a scholarly environment in Cairo that combined the Arabic, Coptic, Greek, and Syriac cultures.
The contributions of the four brothers:
Al-Safi: the codification of canon law (the book al-Majmu’ al-Safawi) and its formulation in precise Arabic.
Al-Mu’taman: concern with the sciences of Holy Scripture, grammar, logic, and the explanation of the rites.
Al-As’ad: the encyclopedic translation of the four Gospels and the composition of the rules of the Coptic language.
Al-Amjad: the administrative and intellectual support for the brothers’ course.
The shared vision and methodology: the blending of the Coptic heritage, the Greek theology, and the Arab-Islamic mentality, and the adoption of a classified, systematized scholarly methodology.
The building of the Coptic-Arab identity: considering the Arabic language a living vessel for transmitting the faith and defending it, which fortified the Church against isolation and established a coherent Christian Arab consciousness.
The historical legacy: the survival of their works as principal references for canon law and Christian thought for long centuries.
Keywords: the sons of al-Assal, the Coptic Arab heritage, canon law, al-Majmu’ al-Safawi, the history of the Copts in the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras, Christian theological thought.
Introduction
The thirteenth century is one of the stages that formed the Coptic society of today in the political and intellectual domains. Despite the pressures imposed by the Ayyubid and then the Mamluk rule, and despite the great problems to which the Church was exposed, this age nevertheless witnessed a broad intellectual renaissance within the Christian Arab circles. And with the decline in the use of the Coptic language, a new challenge appeared: how can the Coptic identity endure in the midst of an Arabic language and culture of increasing presence? And how can Christians manifest their identity within a new language, and baptize it, so that they might evangelize, appear, and defend their faith.
From the midst of this complex scene there emerged four of the greatest scholars of the Church: al-Safi, al-Mu’taman, al-As’ad, and al-Amjad, known as the sons of al-Assal. Together they formed a complete intellectual project that reformulated canon law, Holy Scripture, theology, and the methods of classifying knowledge.
This study aims to analyze this project, to survey its historical context, and to highlight the deep impact it left on the Coptic heritage for long centuries.
The historical and familial background
The Ayyubid and Mamluk periods were distinguished by great political and social changes. The Copts lived under restrictions on public participation, but they remained an essential part of the administrative apparatus of the state[1], which enabled them to retain an important educational and intellectual standing. But the Copts fell into a dilemma between the hammer of Ayyubid rule, with its Islamic suspicions, and the anvil of the Crusader invasions, for the Crusaders saw them as heretics, and the Muslims saw them as colluding with the Crusaders, being of one religion with them. “The Ayyubids accused the dhimmis of treachery and of betraying the covenants, and of being eyes upon the Muslims and upon their brothers in religion.”[2].
The family of al-Assal was one of the learned Coptic families that combined administrative work with church life. The brothers lived in Cairo, the center of the intellectual movement and the meeting point of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholars. There they became acquainted with a vast linguistic heritage comprising Arabic, Coptic, Greek, and Syriac. They received a good intellectual formation, like the sons of the wealthy Coptic families, in the field of general culture and in religious thought, and they learned the two languages, Arabic and Coptic. Some hold that they had knowledge of Greek and Syriac. And the sons of al-Assal had wide cultural relations with the most prominent Coptic thinkers, and perhaps with contemporary Muslim thinkers, and they themselves undertook journeys outside Egypt, especially to Damascus, in search of books and references for their works.[3]
Each of them possessed a rich library and numerous manuscripts, and their house was closer to an intellectual school, and today we can consider the sons of al-Assal the founders of an intellectual school of their own. This diverse environment helped them adopt open visions, and their writing was systematized and precisely classified, even if not everything they set down was precise.
The four brothers: their roles and contributions
A- Al-Safi ibn al-Assal: legislator of canon law
Al-Safi is regarded as the most prominent legal figure in the history of the Coptic Church. The works of al-Safi are distinguished by variety and abundance. He was a legislator and a controversialist, and his works enjoyed more than one edition and translation, and the style of al-Safi is distinguished by ease, fluency, precision, and conciseness. These works can be divided into: dogmatics and apology, homilies and epistles, canon law, compendia, and finally lost writings and others that are doubtful. His book al-Majmu’ al-Safawi is a vast and comprehensive compilation of the church canons, in which he gathered canons from Roman, Byzantine, Syriac, and Coptic sources.
What distinguishes al-Safi is his methodology: for he arranged the canons and formulated them in a fluent and organized Arabic language, which made them easy for practical use in theology and pastoral care.
In his book he covered the subjects of the Trinity and the oneness of God, marriage, inheritance, and the history of the Church and its correspondence with the astronomical sciences. This book remained a principal reference for the Church until the modern age.
And he played a prominent role as the scribe of the synod of the Church of Harat Zuwayla, and it is not excluded that al-Safi participated in that synod as one of the notables of the Copts.
B- Al-Mu’taman ibn al-Assal: scholar of Holy Scripture and language
Al-Mu’taman, after his wife’s death, consecrated his life to asceticism and solitude, then was ordained a priest and then an archpriest, which gave him an abundance of time for research into the biblical texts, such as the book The Clarification of the Explanation of the Economies of the Lord Christ from the Time of His Conception to His Ascension into Heaven, and into language, for he composed the book al-Sullam (The Ladder), which is on Coptic and Arabic vocabulary, among them the words used in prayer, and he arranged them according to the letters of the alphabet by considering the endings of the words. He was a disciple of Anba Butrus al-Habis, and was an assistant to Pope Cyril ibn Laqlaq.
His method was an early scholarly method in textual criticism, and in many of its aspects he preceded the later Western methods.
He also wrote on logic, grammar, and the division of the sciences, which reveals the depth of his influence by Arab-Islamic philosophy, and his works helped enable the Church to present a precise and clear sacred text in Arabic.
C- Al-As’ad ibn al-Assal: the theologian and the encyclopedist
Al-As’ad had a strong relationship with the Ayyubid authorities, and his literary production was distinguished by originality and variety. The most important of his works is the translation of the four Gospels in the year 1252. The translation is based on the Coptic text, with reference to the various readings found in the earlier Arabic translations, from the Syriac and the Greek.
He composed “The Treatise on the Soul” and an introduction to the rules of the Coptic language, and a treatise on the laws of inheritance, and he contributed with Cyril ibn Laqlaq (the patriarch) and Bulus al-Bushi to the composition of the book of confession. And this indicates the great intellectual standing of al-As’ad in the Church.
D- Al-Amjad ibn al-Assal
Al-Amjad was a scribe of the rolls, appointed by Najm al-Din Ayyub, and he played a prominent role in the election of Anba Ghubriyal III, who had previously been his own copyist. He left no works, but he was a supporter of his brothers.
4. The shared methodology and the intellectual vision
Despite their differences, their writings are distinguished by one shared spirit. There is no doubt that they were brothers and grew up within one environment, but they also wrote in shared fields, even if with intellectual diversity.
A- Integration among the heritages
They all wrote on the exegesis of Holy Scripture, the canons, and language, and they relied upon a methodology of work that was based on organization and the pursuit of theological clarity. You see them working and writing to spread theological knowledge and to spread Christian awareness among the people, and their chief concern was raising the intellectual and cultural level of the people in a society that pressed upon them with all its force.
So al-Mu’taman ibn al-Assal says:
“Now then: I often used to stand in the church and see groups of the lay people who have no share in the priesthood, not rendering to God the due of submission and devotion, and ignorant of the order of the Church and the rites of her feasts, and not knowing well how to sign their faces with the complete sign of the cross.”[4]
They combined the ancient Coptic heritage, the Greek theology, the Syriac spirituality, the Roman law, and the Arab-Islamic mentality. This blending created a new intellectual model.
And these are verses from a poem composed by al-Safi:
Thanks be to God, the One in essence glorified be He, threefold in attributes
I praise Him as is His due when the sea of His bounty and grace overflows
The use of these terms – the One in essence, threefold in attributes, and His existence – shows al-Mu’taman’s mastery of Arabic and his grasp of its meanings, not as the use of a speaker of it, but as an Arab in whose thought and self Arabic had taken root, and through this rooting he was able to transmit the Christian faith with sublime clarity.
B- A scholarly and organized methodology
They relied upon classification, arrangement, comparison, and citation of sources. Their writings reveal an intellectual clarity and a boldness in thought.
Thus we see in the book (the Liturgy) of Mu’taman al-Dawla, where he divided his book into six chapters:
The first chapter comprises what is commanded and what is forbidden in the holy church.
The second chapter comprises the prayers that are obligatory to perform, in particular.
The third chapter contains the petitions with which one ought to ask and supplicate.
The fourth chapter comprises the manner of standing at the holy Gospel and listening to it.
The fifth chapter comprises the teaching of the people the manner of their worship of God Most High in the liturgy.
The sixth chapter is on the oblation and the preparation for it and what pertains to it.
And the book al-Majmu’ al-Safawi of the sheikh al-Safi Abu al-Fada’il ibn al-Assal:
The first chapter: the church and what pertains to it of building, lighting, and consecration.
The second chapter: on the divine books commanded to be accepted in the holy church.
The third chapter: on the baptism of those who enter the faith.
C- The building of a Coptic-Arab identity
The sons of al-Assal were able to form an essential pillar in the crystallization of the Coptic-Arab identity in Egypt, in their age, through the formulation of Coptic Christian thought in the Arabic language within a prevailing Islamic framework. And being laymen in general and educated men deeply connected to the Church, they understood that Arabic, which had become the language of administration, culture, and intellectual life, must be dealt with not as a threat to identity but as a means of transmitting the faith and of preserving and transmitting the Coptic heritage. And they all realized that the survival of the Church and its continuity lies in its ability to enter into the society, understanding it and being understood by it, and that the way to that was none other than to baptize Arabic and take it as the new vessel for reaching those who speak it. And through their abundant works in theology, biblical exegesis, canon law, and lexicons, they succeeded in presenting the faith in a precise Arabic language and in a rational methodology harmonious with the scholarly methods of their age. This effort enabled the Coptic Christians to express their faith in the language of the society and to enter into a conscious intellectual dialogue with their surroundings. Their writings also contributed to consolidating a Coptic consciousness that sees in Arabism a cultural and linguistic framework that does not contradict the Christian faith but embraces it. And in this sense the sons of al-Assal contributed to consolidating the existence of the Coptic community as part of the very heart of the Arab society, and they established a coherent Coptic-Arab Christian consciousness capable of facing the transformations.
We can see completely the ability of al-Safi, for example, to speak in Arabic in a language that addresses the Arab in the very depths and makes him understand and grasp our faith, not as a translation but as an Arabic creation. So al-Safi says in his book The Trinity and the Oneness of God:
“And the hypostasis is the sum of the essence together with the particular attribute. For the Father is the divine essence with the attribute of fatherhood, and the Son is the said essence with the attribute of sonship, and the Holy Spirit is this said essence with the attribute of procession. And so the essence here refers to the self of the Creator, which it has been established is one.”[5]
And Mu’taman al-Dawla ibn al-Assal says:
” Glory be to God who favored our kind with the self of the intellect and its nature, and the substance of our minds with His laws and His statutes, and inspired us to carry out His precepts in His church.”[6]
D- The legacy and the subsequent influence
The influence of the sons of al-Assal extended for long centuries. The works of al-Safi became a reference for ecclesiastical judicature, and the Church adopted the texts of al-Mu’taman in its readings and prayers, and the encyclopedias of al-As’ad spread in the Eastern churches, and to them is attributed the Arabic script called al-As’adi.
In the modern age, researchers rely upon their works to understand the development of Christian Arab thought. And here I clarify: their age does not constitute the most important age in Christian history, but it is a link in a complete chain of the development of Christian Arab thought, which passed through many influences. Therefore their books help us to understand the cultural, linguistic, and political framework, and even the challenges that faced the Christians in that age, and what this stage, in which they lived and worked, added to Christian history.
As for their work as a whole, even if they did not intend by it to establish an intellectual project, we may nevertheless call it a project, and it represents an important link in the history of the Christian Arab heritage.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, most studies have not yet given the full right to the contribution of the sons of al-Assal in society, and I do not mean introducing them, but introducing their impact on society and their role in the extended chain that is the history of the Christians in the Arab region.
For the sons of al-Assal presented an ideal model of how to use language to protect the cultural and religious identity, and they proved by their work and their project that the transition of Christians from their ancient languages is not an abandonment of their identity, but an extension of the work of Christ and the Spirit in the world. For when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, He showed us that language, if it remains rigid, kills the spirit. And thus the sons of al-Assal were in a stage between the ancient linguistic rigidity and the transition to a new language, constituting a challenge, which they defeated with a new Pentecost.
For through the collection and organization of the heritage, and through writing theology and law in Arabic, they were able to establish an intellectual renaissance whose influence still extends to this day. To understand their project is to understand a historical moment that reshaped the relationship between the Church and society, and between language and heritage, and between the past and the future.
References
[1] We must realize that the definition of the state at that time differs radically from its definition today.
[2] Christianity Through Its History in the East, p. 589
[3] The Franciscan, Wadih, A Study of al-Mu’taman ibn al-Assal and His Book Majmu’ Usul al-Din and Its Edition (Eastern Christian Studies), (Cairo, the Franciscan Fathers Press), p. 88
[4] Abu Ishaq, Mu’taman al-Dawla. The Priesthood, Book Two, The Principal Works on the Order of the Church, Series of Books on the Buried Treasures (Cairo, the Egyptian National Press), p. 7
[5] Al-Safi Abu al-Fada’il ibn al-Assal, The Manuscript of the Trinity and the Oneness of God (the website of the Coptic Treasures Project), the second folio of the manuscript.
[6] Abu Ishaq, Mu’taman al-Dawla. The Priesthood, Book Two, The Principal Works on the Order of the Church, Series of Books on the Buried Treasures (Cairo, the Egyptian National Press), p. 7