Abstract
Keywords
In his recent book A Sword Over the Nile, Adel Guindy, who was the president of Coptic Solidarity as well as a senior editor of renowned Coptic weekly newspaper Watani, successfully gives voice to the discourse of the interfaith narrative in Egypt. From his first-person perspective as a diaspora Copt advocating for Coptic rights, he makes the accusations of maltreatment towards Copts against the people in power and riffraff throughout the Egyptian history. Guindy believes that today still ‘Very little is known of the Copts—even less of their history’ (p.13), and therefore he targets for the audiences of ‘a global readership with broad interests, especially in the West’ (p. 19). Declaring the purpose of this work is not solely academic, Guindy argues that his book can help ‘to discover how the past impacts the present and the future’ in both Egypt and the globe where people are engaging with Muslims (p. 15). Everywhere in the book, the author attempts to utilize the historical evidence in Egypt as a building block to constitute his argument.
In the outset of the book, Guindy discusses the word ‘Copt’ as an identity from linguistic, cultural, religious and populational point of view. In the subsequent chapters, the history from the time before the Arab conquest to the current Egyptian government is examined. Relying heavily on History of The Patriarchs, which was started writing by the first Coptic chronicler in early 10th century and was lastly updated by people in the second decade of the 20th century (p.17 & 293), Guindy wants to preserve the originality of translated texts from History and thus he quotes frequently long passages from it with minimal remarks in those ‘factual’ chapters. His comments have been delayed until the final two lengthy chapters. In the longest chapter named ‘The Copts Under Arab Islamic Rule’, Guindy summarizes his 11 observations in different moments of Egyptian history. Finally, he considers the described history as a big picture that reflects the negative impacts on the Copts caused by different actors in Egypt. In the conclusional chapter, the author further articulates that the Islamocracy in a form of ‘totalitarianism’ is the most suitable explanation of the Copts’ suffering today. In his words, the problematic relation between two groups is ‘a matter of an entire system, including the masses’ (pp. 408–409).
It is fair to say that the book in fact is a ‘commentary’ or ‘summary’ of the History rather than to merely treat it as a primary source. In most of the ‘factual’ chapters, excerpts or discussions of the History occupy most of the spaces. The author purposely chooses and arranges the texts from it as well as other sources, that some of them are translated to English the first time, to demonstrate the difficult situations of Copts. Comparing with the several volumes of the History translated in English, efforts have been made to organize the contents in a more presentable way. Because in History there is no record in the periods between 1400 and 1675, and after 1920 (p. 224 & 293), Guindy also employs other primary or secondary sources to complete the depiction of the whole Egyptian history from the time of the conquest to the current regime.
It is commonplace to find that the official history is always dominant by the perspective of the conqueror’s camp. From the perspective of the vanquished side, this work provides an alternative narrative on solid ground. For instance, it is well-known that whether the conquest of Egypt is by force or by treaty is still an issue under debate. Based on Coptic sources written as early as 7th century and the History, Guindy demonstrates that the country was conquered by sword, by massacres and finally by peace treaties (p. 49). Egyptians did not assist the Arab invaders and in fact most of them attempted to resist them, but it was failure. It was also shown by many Patriarchs in that period being ‘arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and humiliated’ (pp. 89–90). He claims that the Coptic sources are more reliable and authoritative than the other available sources. Another fascinating discovery is the interactions among different political actors. For example, Guindy claims that in the past ‘the allegiance of the Abyssinian (and Nubian) Churches to the Coptic Church was one of the most important factors assuring peace along the southern borders of Egypt’ (p. 161). In the book, he displays multiple examples about power struggles between rulers of Egypt and Abyssinia (e.g. p. 216). In addition, there are plenty of stories in the book to reveal the dynamics between different rulers and Patriarchs, mainly due to the greedy motive of the former.
Throughout the whole book, the reader of the Sword may probably feel the pessimistic atmosphere, if not a light sense of Islamophobia. The author's portrayal of Muslims is just like Raymond Ibrahim stated in the Forward that Egyptians including individuals, mobs, sheikhs, organizations, and even governmental authorities have been, to certain extent, all ‘persecutors’ or at least ‘discriminators’ of the nation’s Christian minority (p. 7). The author deems that Copt has been the primary victim in the long history. Nevertheless, there are always pros and cons to research on Egyptian history depending mainly on the Coptic sources. Given the fact that the sources have their original purpose, the record of history also has its perspective. It is understandable for the Coptic chroniclers that they held hostile attitude towards the Muslim enemy and did not differentiate between good and bad Muslims. Moreover, the motivations of various actors’ behaviors in a historical event were complicated, not to mention the influences of political, economic or other possible factors, but may not be only due to religious identity. Therefore, it is still suspicious that one can draw any generalized conclusion about all ‘Muslims’ from only one side of sources. At least, in the discussion of Mohammed Ali’s grandson, Guindy still appreciates Ismael’s ‘policy of religious tolerance’ (pp. 284–286).
As a whole, this work undoubtedly gives an indispensable perspective to the current debate and can help scholars to uncover a fuller picture of the interfaith history in Egypt. Guindy’s observation of the systematic problem in Egyptian society is also worth considering. It is always a good idea to understand the Egyptian narrative from different angles. I believe that this book provides invaluable insights for scholars to balance their points of view in future research.
