How Do We Tell the Story of Medieval Copts? Inspirations from Burton Mack
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Abstract
This paper experiments with Burton Mack’s invitation to rethink how scholars frame the past by examining two discourses in Copto-Arabic studies. First, I present the scholarly discourses of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries about the medieval Coptic past, and second, I examine how the traditional past is perceived in two medieval Copto-Arabic legal collections. I claim that closely reading these collections reveals the ways that their authors theorized and negotiated the authority of the past. There are marked differences between the two collections – differences that defined their intellectual contributions and their place in the tradition. More broadly, I demonstrate that Mack’s invitation to rethink and redescribe our subjects’ narratives about themselves can enrich Copto-Arabic scholarship by opening hitherto untapped areas, especially in the sociolegal realm.
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How Do We Tell the Story of Medieval Copts? Inspirations from Burton Mack
In: Method & Theory in the Study of ReligionSearch for other papers by Monica Mitri in
Current site
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PubMed
Abstract
This paper experiments with Burton Mack’s invitation to rethink how scholars frame the past by examining two discourses in Copto-Arabic studies. First, I present the scholarly discourses of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries about the medieval Coptic past, and second, I examine how the traditional past is perceived in two medieval Copto-Arabic legal collections. I claim that closely reading these collections reveals the ways that their authors theorized and negotiated the authority of the past. There are marked differences between the two collections – differences that defined their intellectual contributions and their place in the tradition. More broadly, I demonstrate that Mack’s invitation to rethink and redescribe our subjects’ narratives about themselves can enrich Copto-Arabic scholarship by opening hitherto untapped areas, especially in the sociolegal realm.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 95 | 95 | 11 |
| Full Text Views | 123 | 123 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 220 | 220 | 5 |