Volume 2 of 2. The aim of this book is to make a systematic beginning upon a great subject: the Christian antiquities of Egypt. No doubt the attention of mere travelers has been bewitched and fascinated by the colossal remains of pagan times, by the temples and pyramids which still glow in eternal sunshine, while the Christian churches lie buried in the gloom of fortress walls, or encircled and masked by almost impassable deserts. Yet the Copts of to-day, whose very name is an echo of the word Egypt, trace back their lineage to the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids, and the ancient tongue is spoken at every Coptic mass: the Copts were among the first to welcome the tidings of the gospel, to make a rule of life and worship, and to erect religious buildings: they have upheld the cross unwaveringly through ages of desperate persecution: and their ritual now is less changed than that of any other community in Christendom. Recommended to churchman, historian, or antiquarian.

This two-volume work is the result of a seven-month field work in Egypt, during which Alfred Butler was a private tutor to Prince Tawfik from 1880 to 1881. Butler visited most of the old churches and monasteries in and around Cairo and traveled to the Wadi al-Natrun, the monasteries of the Red Sea and a number of churches in Upper Egypt. His descriptions are invaluable and sometimes are the only record of what we know about a certain object or church "It is an important document for its time and an early and influential example of unprejudiced scholarly interest for the culture of the Coptic Church." - Karel Innemee, Leiden University Introduction to this reprint Alfred Joshua Butler was born at Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1850. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford, and then was elected fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. After being assistant master at Winchester from 1874 to 1879, was private tutor to Prince Tawfik in 1880-81. He has kept an interest for Egypt till the end of his life. He also wrote The Arab Conquest of Egypt (1902), and Court Life in Egypt (London, 1887), partly based on his own experiences. Together with B.T.A. Evetts he published The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring Countries attributed to Abu Salih, the Armenian (1895, Gorgias Press reprint 2001)."