Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The conference included screening a documentary on the remarkable landmarks of Old Cairo— both Islamic and Coptic.

Dr. Hajājī Ibrāhīm, the conference supervisor, said, “Since Coptic literally means Egyptian, I am therefore a Coptic Muslim. This conference is the most recent of a series that started back in 1976 with one sponsored by Anba Selwanus, the Papal deputy for Old Cairo Churches and Fustat, and was attended by the pioneer archaeologist 'Abd al-Rahmān 'Abd al-Tawāb.

“It is odd,” Dr. Ibrāhīm added, “that only one Egyptian university—Tanta University—includes a department for Coptic antiquities, or that the Supreme Council for Antiquities does not include such a department. It only includes a department for Islamic and Coptic antiquities; the name itself is an aberration since the Coptic historically preceded the Islamic.”

In the heart of the mountain

Dr. Ibrāhīm Ghunīm, deputy dean of Tanta University, talked about the Monastery of Sama‘ān al-Kharāz in Muqattam Mountain east of Cairo. It is not, strictly speaking, a ‘monastery’, but a conglomerate of churches and services situated in the heart of the mountain and serving the local community of garbage collectors. Mājid Fahmī Zakī, the vice manager of the Italian Institute reminded how the local community first started when, in 1969, Cairo governor moved the Cairo garbage collectors to Muqattam where they built makeshift tin houses to live in.

In 1974, they built their church and, in 1976, Pope Shenouda III made a monastery contribution to the community. With financing from the World Bank in 1984 and infrastructure erected by the government, the tin houses were replaced with concrete buildings and the site became what it is today. As for the ‘monastery’, it now includes six rock-hewn churches and some 40 rock artistic reliefs sculpted in the limestone rocks of the mountain.