Translation process and open tradition : transformation of historical knowledge through the « History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria »
(2015) Intercultural Exchange in Late Antique Historiography — Location: Universiteit Gent (16.September.2015)
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- The Arabic text of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria (HP) is generally regarded as the most important text within Coptic-Arabic historiography, as the main source for Coptic history and, in a larger context, it has also gained recognition as a major literary source for the history of Egypt and the Middle East in general. Rather than a coherent work due to one particular author, the HP is to be considered a corpus that reflects an ongoing tradition of historical writing over the centuries. In various epochs, Coptic authors recorded all the events that shaped the history of their Church and their country, each one of them continuing the work of a predecessor. The early historians in this tradition wrote in Coptic, partly on the basis of Greek sources (notably Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History) translated and adapted. Their continuators, from the 11th century onwards, wrote directly in Arabic. Moreover, the corpus was also proven to have been used, quoted and summarized by later Coptic-Arabic compilers, such as al-Makîn and Ibn al-Râhib. Later, their historical works were equally used and quoted by Muslims historians, such as al-Maqrîzî and Ibn Khaldûn. In this framework, this paper will focus on 3 questions : 1. What was the actual impact of the double translation process occurring in the textual tradition of the HP (i.e. Greek to Coptic and Coptic to Arabic) on the historical data included in this corpus ? 2. How was this content transformed, or rewritten, through the Arabic textual tradition of the HP, recently re-conceptualized as an “open tradition”, i.e. many times reworked to fit a moving cultural context ? 3. How were these data transmitted in the writings of the abovementioned compilers, both Coptic (writing in Arabic) and Muslims ? More precisely, in order to fit the framework of the workshop, these questions will be addressed through the angle of a few case-studies, focusing on specific historical figures, i.e. 4th century emperors.
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Pilette, P. (2015). Translation process and open tradition : transformation of historical knowledge through the « History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria ». Intercultural Exchange in Late Antique Historiography, Universiteit Gent. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/185318