International specialists in Coptology examine various aspects of Coptic civilisation in Wadi al-Natrun over the past 1700 years. Their studies centre on aspects of the history and development of monasticism in Wadi al-Natrun, as well as the art, architecture, and archaeology of the four existing and numerous former monastries of the region.

Christianity and monasticism have long flourished in the northern part of Upper Egypt and in the Nile Delta, from Beni Suef to the Mediterranean coast. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization in northern Egypt over the past two millennia. The studies explore Coptic art and archaeology, architecture, language, and literature. The artistic heritage of monastic sites in the region is highlighted, attesting to their important legacies.

Christianity and monasticism have flourished along the Nile Valley in the Aswan region of Upper Egypt and in what was once Nubia, from as early as the fourth century until the present day. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization in Aswan and Nubia over the past centuries. The complexity of Christian identity in Nubia, as distinct from Egypt, is examined in the context of church ritual and architecture. Many of the studies explore Coptic material culture: inscriptions, art, architecture, and archaeology; and language and literature. The archaeological and artistic heritage of monastic sites in Edfu, Aswan, Makuria, and Kom Ombo are highlighted, attesting to their important legacies in the region.

The legacies of the Coptic Christian presence in Alexandria and the Egyptian Deserts from the fourth century to the present day The great city of Alexandria is undoubtedly the cradle of Egyptian Christianity, where the Catechetical School was established in the second century and became a leading center in the study of biblical exegesis and theology. According to tradition St. Mark the Evangelist brought Christianity to Alexandria in the middle of the first century and was martyred in that city, which was to become the residence of Egypt’s Coptic patriarchs for nearly eleven centuries. By the fourth century Egyptian monasticism had begun to flourish in the Egyptian deserts and countryside. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine the various aspects of Coptic civilization in Alexandria and its environs and in the Egyptian deserts over the past two millennia. The contributions explore Coptic art, archaeology, architecture, language, and literature. The impact of Alexandrian theology and its cultural heritage as well as the archaeology of its university are highlighted. Christian epigraphy in the Kharga Oasis, the art and architecture of the Bagawat cemetery, and the archaeological site of Kellis (Ismant al-Kharab) with its Manichaean texts are also discussed. Contributors Elizabeth Agaiby, Fr. Anthony, David Brakke, Jan Ciglenečki , Jean-Daniel Dubois, Bishop Epiphanius, Lois M. Farag, Frank Feder, Cäcilia Fluck, Sherin Sadek El Gendi, Mary Ghattas, Gisèle Hadji-Minaglou, Intisar Hazawi, Karel Innemée, Mary Kupelian, Grzegorz Majcherek, Bishop Martyros, Samuel Moawad, Ashraf Nageh, Adel F. Sadek, Ashraf Alexander Sadek, Ibrahim Saweros, Mark Sheridan, Fr. Bigoul al-Suriany, Hany Takla, Gertrud J.M. van Loon, Jacques van der Vliet, Youhanna Nessim Youssef, Ewa D. Zakrzewska, Nader Alfy Zekry

The Monastery of Apa Thomas at Wadi Sarga: point of departure for a relative chronology / Renate Dekker -- Intellectural life in Middle Egypt: the case of the Monastery of Bawit (sixth-eighth centuries) / Alain Delattre -- Christianity and monasticism in al-Bahnasa according to Arabic sources / Sherin Sadek El Gendi -- Mesokemic or 'middle Egyptian': the Coptic dialect of Oxyrhynchos / Frank Feder -- The Monastery of Apollo at Bala'iza and its literary texts / James E. Goehring -- "Twenty thousand nuns": the domestic virgins of Oxyrhynchos / AnneMarie Luijendijk -- Anba Isaac, Bishop of the Fayoum, al-Bahnasa, and Giza, 1834-81 / Bishop Martyros -- The Monastery of the Holy Virgin Mary at al-Muharraq, Mount Qusqam: history and heritage (reflections of its monks) / Fr. Angelos al-Muharraqi and a group of the monastery's monks -- John of Shmoun and Coptic identity / Samuel Moawad -- Christianity in Asyut in modern history / Adel F. Sadek -- The place of Qusqam in the textual data on the flight into Egypt / Ashraf Alexandre Sadek -- John of Lykopolis / Mark Sheridan -- Discerning the true religion in late fourteenth-century Egypt: pages from the Dayr al-Muharraq edition of al-Hawi by al-Makin Jirjis ibn al-'Amid / Mark Swanson -- Egyptian gnosticism from its cradle in the Alexandrian quarters of the second century to its jar tomb in the upper Egyptian town of Nag' Hammadi / Hany N. Takla -- Notes on the Arabic Life of Ibrahim al-Fami: a Coptic saint of the fourteenth century / Asuka Tsuji -- Snippets from the past: two ancient sites in the Asyut region: Dayr al-Gabrawi and Dayr al-'Izam / Jacques van der Vliet -- Liturgy of the Monastery of al-Muharraq / Youhanna Nessim Youssef -- L* as a secret language: social functions of early Coptic / Ewa D. Zakrzewska -- Bawit in the twenty-first century: bibliography 1997-2014 / Dominique Bénazeth -- Children's burials from Antinoopolis: discoveries from recent excavations / Cäcilia Fluck -- Recent excavations at Bawit / Gisèle Hadji-Minaglou -- Funerary aspects in the paintings from the Apollo Monastery at Bawit / Karel Innemée -- The cave of John of Lykopolis / Jochem Kahl -- Al-Shaykh Sa'id revisited: a reassessment of the spatial layout of a monastic community / Gertrud J.M. van Loon -- Toward the documentation of the Monastery of the Holy Virgin at al-Muharraq, Asyut / Howard Middleton-Jones -- The Monastery of the Holy Virgin Mary at al-Muharraq, Mount Qusqam: reflections of its monks today / Fr. Philoxenos al-Muharraqi and a group of the monastery's monks -- An overview of rock-cut Coptic sites in Asyut / Ashraf Nageh and Mary Kupelian -- Architectural typology of historic Coptic churches from Oxyrhynchos to Dayr al-Ganadla / Sami Sabri Shaker

Christian monasticism began in Egypt over 1600 years ago, in the desert between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, and spread through various Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant traditions. In the deserts of Egypt, sixteen centuries after the Desert Fathers, monasticism still thrives, and it is to these isolated monasteries in one of the world's most inhospitable environments that photographer Michael McClellan turns his lens. McClellan reveals the quiet, spiritual world of today's desert fathers in the Coptic monasteries of the Red Sea Mountains, Wadi al-Natrun, and Upper Egypt, and in the Greek Orthodox monastery of Saint Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai. Illuminating the photographs are extracts from The Paradise of the Fathers, tales of the Desert Fathers collected by Saint Palladius.