This paper examines a series of relatively new and understudied Egyptian films: namely, dramas produced by the Coptic Orthodox Church depicting the stories of its important saints. Perhaps the most striking element of these films is that they portray the revered stories of saints through means usually associated with low-budget Egyptian musalsals (serial dramas or soap operas). In what is arguably a sharp departure from Coptic ecclesiastical tradition, these dramas offer a popular cinematic version of saints' lives, and do so, moreover, in a colloquial form of Arabic that emphasizes the everyday relevance of the stories while conveying a basic knowledge of Coptic history and doctrine. The Coptic Orthodox Church distributes these films, in an inexpensive DVD format, to Coptic churches (for community screenings) and individuals (for private viewings). The films are thus accessible in language, content, and price. In this paper I propose to examine this Coptic hagiographic musalsal genre by focusing on three films from director M jid Tawfiq: al-Qiddisah al-az-imah Anastnasiya ("The Great Saint Anasttasia")(2003); Qis2s0at hQayat al-Qiddis al-Anba Musa al-Aswad ("The Story of the Life of the Saint Musaf the Black") (2005); and al-Anba Ruwis ("Saint Ruwis") (2007). After placing these films within their cultural and historical context vis-h-vis broader developments in Egyptian society, and after situating them relative to the wider field of Egyptian musalsals, I will argue that these Coptic saint dramas are an attempt by the Orthodox Church to co-opt a potent and popular form of media, in order to bolster a contemporary vision of identity and community among Coptic youth. This vision of Coptic community and identity applies not only to Copts in Egypt, but also to growing Coptic diasporas in places like the United States and Australia. I will also contend that these films are responding to a variety of perceived social threats, including concerns about Islamization in Egypt, and concerns about loss of faith and culture among Copts living abroad.

This paper seeks to interrogate the notion that the declining numbers of Arab Christians correlates with the political irrelevance of Christian groups in Arab states. A number of recent reports in popular sources have signaled the coming death of Christianity in the Middle East (Bronner 2009, Belt 2009). Prominent scholar and commentator Philip Jenkins writes the "lost history" of the Church of the East and states that "Middle Eastern Christianity has...all but disappeared as a living force" (Jenkins 2008, 172). A growing academic and intellectual interest in the Christian communities of the Middle East in the past decade might well be portrayed as a sort of fetishism that arises in the wake of the decline of these churches. While the challenges to Middle Eastern Christians are real, this assessment ignores the vitality of organized Christian endeavors in the region and worldwide. A growing number of works have come to profile the revival of Christian civil society groups in Middle Eastern states, such as Hasan (2003), Makari (2007), or O'Mahony (2007). Using both primary and secondary sources, as well as interview research conducted particularly in Egypt and Palestine over the past three years, this paper will explore political activation among Christian civil society networks. These indicate movement away from millet and neo-millet forms of organization toward newer ones based upon more individualistic, voluntaristic, and global forms of civil society. New interest in monasticism, partnerships with coreligionists abroad, and new organizational strength, coupled with renewed interest in the Eastern traditions, have all demonstrated the vitality of Middle Eastern Christian activism in spite of the challenges. All of this must be understood in the context of continued resilience of civil society in the Middle East in spite of the setbacks of persistent state authoritarianism, armed conflict, and the flawed introduction of democratic forms. Sources: Bronner, Ethan (2009). "Mideast's Christians Losing Numbers and Sway", The New York Times, 13 May. Belt, Don (2009). "The Forgotten Faithful", National Geographic June, 78-97. Hasan, S.S. (2003). Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: the century-long struggle for Coptic Equality, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jenkins, Philip (2008). The Lost History of Christianity, New York: Harper Collins. Makari, Peter (2007). Conflict and Cooperation: Christian-Muslim relations in contemporary Egypt, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. O'Mahony, Anthony (2007). "Tradition at the heart of renewal", International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 7(3), 164-178.

The Muslim geographers Ibn Hawqal and Al-Istakhri both mention a Christian monastery in the mountains near Samarkand which has been identified with the town of Urgut, Uzbekistan. A bronze censer unearthed in Urgut in 1916 and Syriac inscriptions and inscribed crosses discovered on a nearby cliff in 1920 supplied solid evidence of a forgotten Christian past in the area. After more than a decade of work, the East Sogdian Archaeological Expedition, led by Alexei Savchenko, has recently uncovered the remains of the monastery reported by the geographers and has discovered additional inscriptions in several caves in the mountains above the monastery location. Having viewed the cliff inscriptions initially in 2003, prior to the excavation of the monastery, the author went back to the area with Alexei Savchenko in September 2009 to re-photograph and transcribe all the cliff and cave inscriptions previously noted by the Archaeological Expedition. In the process, new inscriptions were discovered and readings of some previously documented inscriptions were revised, including some of the few that have been published so far. The author is currently preparing an edition and translation of all the Urgut inscriptions. This paper will give examples of the inscriptions and connect them with archaeological data from the monastery site, the contemporaneous Christian material from the Turfan Collection and information from Syriac, Muslim and other relevant literary sources, in order to build up a tentative profile of the Christian monastic community which inhabited the Urgut site from the 8th/9th century up to the 13th century. What do the data tell us about the character of Christianity in Sogdiana / Mawara'l-nahr during a time when the inhabitants witnessed the arrival of the Muslim Arabs and then the successive rule of the Samanids, Qarakhanids, Seljuks, Qarakhitai, Khwarezmshahs and Mongols? To what extent did the community reflect its roots in the Syriac heartland of Mesopotamia and to what extent was it influenced by the surrounding Perso-Turkic culture? Regretably, due to the subject matter, it will not be possible to draw conclusions relevant to the conference theme of "Gender Roles, Sexual Identity and Family Dynamics." : )

This study examines the role of the legendary Muslim prophet Khidr in the conversion and contestation of sacred sites in the changing frontier zones of the medieval Islamic world. Khidr, the elusive figure of immortality and esoteric knowledge, played a crucial role in the reformulation of medieval Islamic frontier zones, places where diverse populations came into contact with each other. As a figure who was able to travel great distances in short periods of time, Khidr became known for daily prayer circuits that included prayers at major monuments in Mecca, Jerusalem and, depending on the time period, Cairo, Tunis, and Constantinople. Descriptions of Khidr praying at recently converted sites cast these buildings in a new series of associations with each other to create new sacred geographies. His visits to a number of mosques, tombs, and dervish lodges are recorded in local legends and usually marked by inscription or the prominent display of spolia. After the twelfth century, Khidr's name became appended to the names of many fully converted, partially converted, and Christian sites in the Middle East and Anatolia. At the same time, local Muslim and Christian audiences began to identify Khidr with a number of Christian saints, such as St. George, St. Theodore, St. Behnam, and St. Sergius. Although this identification is well known, there have been few studies that take into account the formal and functional qualities of Khidr sites within these converted buildings and Christian structures. This paper examines Khidr sites in three buildings, the Mar Behnam monastery in Mosul, the Aya Sofya in Istanbul, and the Elwan Celebi Zawiya in Corum to address changes in how Khidr was understood. It argues that as paradigms of converted space changed so did the names and attributes associated with Khidr.