The Legacy of Demetrius of Alexandria 189-232 CE

This is the first full-length study of Demetrius of Alexandria (189-232 CE), who generated a neglected, yet remarkable hagiographic program that secured him a positive legacy throughout the Middle Ages and the modern era. Drawing upon Patristic, Coptic, and Arabic sources spanning a millennium, the analysis contextualizes the Demetrian cor

Maged S. A. Mikhail is Professor of History at California State University at Fullerton, USA.

Preface Abbreviations Part I: The Genesis and Evolution of a Hagiographic Program 1. The Bishop and the Scholar 2. Sources 3. Early Imprints 4. Date and Socio-Literary Setting of the Sahidic Coptic Tradition 5. The Encomium on Demetrius as Hagiography 6. Hagiography across Language and Culture 7. Arabic Recensions, Amendments, and Omissions: Emergence of the Normative Hagiography 8. Lent and Epact in Alexandria 9. Form, Function, and Meaning Part II: Texts - Demetrius's Bio-Hagiographic Dossier I. Earliest Evidence II. An Encomium on Demetrius of Alexandria III. Demetrius's sirah in the History of the Patriarchs' Primitive Recension IV. Eutychius's Nazm al-jawhar (The String of Pearls) V. Kitab al-tawar-kh and the Chronicon orientale VI. The Coptic-Arabic synaksar (Synaxarium) VII. Abu al-Barakat's Musbah al-zulma (A Lamp in the Darkness) VIII. The Difnar (Antiphonarium) IX. Doxologies and Praises Works Cited Index