Author:	A J Butler
Title:	The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt
Subtitle:	With a New Introduction by Keral Innemee
Series:
Publisher:	Gorgias Press LLC
Publication Date:	5/12/2004 10:27:41 AM
Availability:	In Print
ISBN:	1-59333-251-3
Language:
Format:	Hardback 6 x 9, 2 volume(s), xx+379, xii+411 pages, 66 illustrations

This two-volume work is the result of seven months of 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 InnemTe, Leiden University, from the 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, he was the private tutor to Prince Tawfik in 1880-81. He 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).

Table of Contents

• New Introduction by Karel Innemée
• Preface
• On the Structure of Coptic Churches in General [Vol I]
• The Church of Dair Mâri Mîna at Old Cairo [Vol I]
• Dair Abu-'s-Sifrain at Old Cairo - The Church of Abu-'s-Sifrain [Vol I]
• The Ancient Roman Fortress of Babylon and the Churches within It [Vol I]
• The Minor Churches of Old Cairo [Vol I]
• The Churches in Cairo [Vol I]
• The Monasteries of the Natrun Valley in the Libyan Desert [Vol I]
• The Churches of Upper Egypt [Vol I]
• The Coptic Altar [Vol II]
• Eucharistic Vessels and Altar Furniture [Vol II]
• The Furniture and Ornaments of the Sacred Building [Vol II]
• The Ecclesiastical Vestments of the Coptic Clergy [Vol II]
• Ecclesiastical Vestments (Continued) [Vol II]
• Books, Language, and Literature [Vol II]
• The Seven Sacraments [Vol II]
• The Seven Sacraments (Continued) [Vol II]
• Various Rites and Ceremonies of the Church [Vol II]