Modern Sons of the Pharaohs

Simon Henry Leeder

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9783849650254
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

This interesting study of the Copts deserves attention. The Copts are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, though many of them show a strain of Syrian or Jewish blood, and the Coptic church preserves in a somewhat debased form the primitive Christianity of the fourth century when it parted from Rome and Constantinople. Through the ages the Copts have preserved their faith and their customs; they form about a tenth of the population of Egypt and play a leading part in commerce. This study of the manners and customs of the Copts is notable for its comprehensive and scholarly handling of the subject, for grace of style and rich, descriptive backgrounds.

Book II

CHAPTER I. The Oriental Christian in his Church

THE traveller who finds himself on a Sunday morning in the Cathedral of St. Mary at Cairo, while the Holy Eucharist is being celebrated, will, if he knows anything at all of the history of Egypt and of the origin of the Coptic people, witness one of the most illuminating historical sights in a country so teeming with historical interest that it can draw both the learned and the curious from all parts of the world.

He will find a great crowd of men and boys, with earnest faces turned towards the great sanctuary screen, within which the Liturgy of St. Basil is being said by the Abunah. Many of these faces he will find are such as might have been copied by the sculptors who decorated the ancient tombs.

At a certain point in the service the choir will pass from the almost hidden sanctuary into the church, where they will make the responses; their appearance in their high scarlet helmets, recalling the head-dress of pre-Christian Egypt, and their white robes with the cross bands, also of scarlet (embroidered with crosses), seems to bring to life again some of the statues of the Pharaohs,

This helmet-like cap is not unlike the high round crown worn by the early kings; and worn by these lads, as the king's crown was, slightly tilted back, it accentuates the regular features and the rather prominent straight nose, with full and finely moulded nostrils, the full lips, and especially the Eastern setting of the eyes. I have seen young men in these birettas who might have been the sons of Rameses 11., the king whose features are advertised to posterity as no others have ever been.

As the men of the congregation first enter the church, most of them make a deep sign of reverence towards the sanctuary—or haikal—and they then go and kiss the curtain hanging over the sanctuary door, or prostrate themselves so as to kiss the haikal threshold. In the old days every man took off his shoes on entering the church, and the Oriental custom still obtains in country places. No one ever in any church enters the haikal with shod feet.

Of this large congregation the spoken language is Arabic, but the liturgy is still spoken in Coptic, the language which grew naturally out of the speech of the Pharaohs and the hieroglyphics of their records.

And as the service goes on, and one notes the significance of many of its observances, and the use of its sacred vessels and appliances, it seems that Coptic Christianity itself might almost be a relic of ancient Egypt. That it still represents the life of the early days, when Egypt had become entirely Christian, there is no doubt at all. The only thing lacking is the spiritual fervour and the living inspiration which marked the days of the first converts to the faith of Christ. For it is certain that nowhere did that faith take root so quickly or so deeply as in what proved to be the congenial soil of Egypt. In this marvellous country, as in no other, the book of history is continuous, and page follows page, in almost perfect order.

We shall understand this service the more easily if we study for a moment the plan on which most of the Coptic churches are built. Roughly they may be termed half Basilican and half Byzantine. The entrance is always in the western end, the altars being in the eastern. Where exceptions existed to this rule they have of recent years been corrected.

On entering the church we first find ourselves in a compartment screened off from the nave; this is of interest, for the narthex, as it is called, was originally used by the heathen converts or catechumens, who might not approach nearer to the altar until they had been taught the rudiments of religion and had been confirmed. At a certain part of the service they had to depart, and the prayer for their withdrawal is still retained. In some churches the women now occupy the narthex, but it is considered too public a place for them; they are generally hidden in the galleries behind mushrabieh screens.

As for the children, there is nothing so curious in the Coptic church as the way the infants run about where they please during the service, as though they were at home in a nursery. Churchgoing has no fears for them, in spite of the length of the services, for they have privileges denied to their parents. They mostly gather about the sanctuary screen, where they sit on the floor, or climb the choir railings, as they please. They even invade the sanctuary itself, and it is a very pretty sight to see the toddling mites tiptoeing at the altar, looking on with wide-open eyes at all the mysterious doings of the priests. I have seen two babes, whose curiosity had tired them out, sitting blissfully asleep in the sanctuary while the Holy Eucharist was going on, no one thinking to disturb them. Our Lord said: “Suffer the little children to come unto Me!” This is how the Copts obey the command.

There will be two aisles and a nave. The men and boys of the congregation gather in the nave. The aisles are generally separated from the nave by pillars, many of them taken from the older temples. Every stage in the history of architecture speaks of new religions adapting the pillars of the older churches: in Egypt too much has been said by English writers in their bias against Islam of the use made by the Moslems, when their time came, of Coptic church pillars, in the building of their mosques.

I have seen an ancient church in the country divided into triforia in the style of the vaulted halls of the temple of Seti 1. of Abydos, and with the two colonnaded halls just as the temple is. These halls were separated from each other by a wooden screen of the open mushrabieh work with doors in it, just as the colonnaded halls of the temple of Abydos were separated by a wall having as many doors as there were vaulted rooms in the sanctuary. Only the most distinguished members of this particular country congregation were admitted to the second hall, the floor being covered with mats. In the outer hall, where the floor was bare, the worshippers of the lower orders were assembled. One could but reflect on the fact that the builders of the mosques had as their aim from the very first, that every man who desired to worship should do so with absolute equality—the Sultan and the serf should stand side by side in prayer.

The sanctuary of the Coptic church is always entirely screened from the congregation in the nave, even the entrance being hung with a curtain, which at certain times in the service of the Holy Eucharist is closely drawn, so that the “mysteries” are completely veiled from the people. The haikal screen is always the most splendid feature of the church; sometimes its inlay of ivory is of the most exquisite and beautiful workmanship; even in the poorer churches the aim of those who built the church was to make this screen a masterpiece. It is always made of solid woodwork, of ebony or cedar, very richly inlaid with intricate geometrical patterns in ivory and mother-of-pearl, with the design of the cross in ivory generally dominating the whole pattern.

There are two lecterns, if we may so call the Eastern reading-desks, one on the north side of the nave and the other on the south. The reader, in using these, faces to the east, with his back to the congregation. Marvellous again is the ivory inlay work which has been lavished on these lecterns; one of the most beautiful is to be found in the Cairo Cathedral, and some excellent specimens are being placed in the new Coptic Museum.

It is a sad reflection on the condition of the country clergy that they part with such treasures very easily; one of them I heard of was only concerned—in letting a fine specimen leave his church—that the cheap modern desk promised to take its place should have a cupboard, as the old one had, in which he could keep the church books. There is little wonder that tourists in the recent past have, by comparatively trivial bribes, been able to take away with them even parts of the church screens.

I wish I could say that the Patriarch himself had anything like a proper appreciation of the treasures still left to his sadly depleted church.

In the richer churches tall candelabra stand near the lecterns, sometimes of great artistic merit. Candles must always burn during the reading of the Scriptures; sometimes they are placed in simple holders fixed to the sides of the lectern.

The pulpit, which is called the ambon, always stands on the north-east side of the nave; the modern pulpits are generally of wood, but the early specimens are of stone, often lavishly decorated, sometimes being a credit to Coptic art, as exhibited in mosaic and marquetry and inlaid panels of mother-of-pearl, some of the supporting pillars also being particularly good.

Of course the pulpit will follow the rule of being exactly opposite from that known to us in the West. For one thing, it will invariably extend lengthwise from east to west and not across the church; this being the more marked because it has a long balcony as well as the preaching end. Occasionally the pulpit is reached by a flight of steps; often it is mounted by means of a portable wooden ladder. I wonder that the preacher always considers himself secure from any temptation on the part of the congregation to leave him stranded in the pulpit, by taking away the ladder, when he has overstrained their patience.

Before the sanctuary there always hangs a series of lamps, which should be of silver, and whose flame should never be allowed to die. In almost every church, ostrich eggs will be found suspended with the lamps; it is an ornament common also to the Greeks and the Moslems. The ancient Egyptians hung ostrich eggs in their temples and sanctuaries. It is difficult to discover the explanation of the custom; even a young Coptic friend, who had himself brought, with great pains, ostrich eggs all the way from Abyssinia to decorate his parish church in Cairo, could not explain to me exactly why he did it. I believe, however, that there is a vague idea that the ostrich egg is a symbol of the unceasing care of God for

His children. This bird is thought to be vigilant above all other creatures; it is generally believed that the eggs may not be left for a single instant, if the process by which the young are brought to life is not to be stopped.

Behind the great screen there are three chapels, each with an altar, the middle one being the haikal, or sanctuary, and containing the high altar. It is a curious requirement of the Coptic Church that the very altar itself must only be used in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist “fasting”; on no one altar may the holy mysteries be celebrated twice in one day, and this applies to all vessels and vestments. Bishops even have been excommunicated for violating this rule.

Fasting for the Holy Eucharist begins from vespers of the preceding day. The great monks said: “You shall not give food to your body until you have given spiritual sustenance to your soul.” Apart from this rule it is forbidden to eat anything before reciting the Psalms appointed for the morning services. The chapels are dedicated to saints, and on the saint's day the Holy Eucharist is always celebrated at their altars.

The haikal is always in the form of an apse, and in the middle wall there is always a decorated niche; beautiful mosaics are used in the adornment of some of the niches, others are painted with the image of our Lord in benediction, or with that of the Virgin and Child.

The evidence is clear that the Arabs adapted the Coptic niche to their use, for there are examples in Cairo mosques of the mihrab, the niche showing the direction of Mecca, which, but for the symbol of the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove, are exactly like many of the niches in the Coptic churches.

Round the end of the haikal wall steps are built leading to seats and to a throne in the centre, This is the ancient tribune, which is such a feature in Coptic churches. The throne is for the Patriarch, or archbishop, who sits surrounded by the twelve presbyters, with their backs to the eastern wall, watching the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. In the niche above the tribune, a lamp, often of beautiful design, is always kept burning. In the best days of Coptic art much exquisite work was done to adorn the chapels, both in mosaics and inlay.

The high altar always stands in the centre of the sanctuary. It must be built of stone, and is not raised on any platform, but stands on the floor. It always has a wooden dome, or baldaquin, supported by four wooden pillars. The under surface of this canopy is always painted with the image of our Lord in benediction, and the four apocryphal beasts at the four corners of it. At one time a still deeper air of mystery attended the celebration of Holy Eucharist, for the baldaquin had curtains which were drawn to entirely hide the priest himself at certain parts of the service. The altar should be covered with rich silk, embroidered in silver and gold.

Every altar has on the left side, level with the floor, a small open doorway showing a large interior cavity. There is little doubt that this cavity has symbolical reference to the Revelation of St. John: “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God.” In the early ages it was usual to bury the bodies of great dignitaries and especially of martyrs beneath the floor of the sanctuary, or even in the altar itself.

The body of St. Mark was laid under the altar of the ancient church at Alexandria; the sacred remains were forcibly removed by the Venetians, and the high altar at St. Mark's in Venice now encloses the remains.

The chief use made of the altar cavity by the Copts to-day is on Good Friday, when a picture of the cross is buried within it in rose leaves, being recovered on Easter morning. (I describe this ceremony in some notes at the end of the volume.)

The altar furnishings are of deep interest and significance. In the centre stands the tabernacl...

Table of contents

• Preface
• BOOK I
• Book II