Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms (49 page)

Matthew Arnold’s words are taken from his poem “Dover Beach.”

Between 2009 and 2011 Gallup discovered that 76 percent of Lebanese adults would not object to someone of a different religion moving in next door to them—more than the percentage in the United Kingdom, which was 57 percent, and Israel, which was 23 percent.

Gibran’s
Garden of the Prophet
is widely available in English, e.g., from UBS Publishers (1996), but I amended the translation to reflect the Arabic better.

“Like ants or frogs around a pond” is a remark made by Socrates in Plato’s
Phaedo
. On Pythagoras and his legacy, I recommend
Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism,
by Walter Burkert (Harvard University Press, 1972); Leonid Zhmud,
Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans
(Oxford University Pres, 2012);
The Fifth Hammer,
by Daniel Heller-Roazen (Zone, 2011), which looks particularly at Pythagorean interest in music; and
Measuring Heaven,
by Christiane Joost-Gaugier (Cornell University Press, 2006), which discusses medieval European (i.e., Christian) interest in Pythagoras.

The Arabic book
Pythagoras
I read in Beirut was written by Hubert Husun (1947) and translated by Shawqi Dawud Tamraz. The autumn 2013 edition of the Beirut-based magazine
Al-Duha
was the issue that contained an article about Pythagoras. Justinian’s edict is quoted from John Malalas’s
Chronicles,
18:46, translated by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, and Roger Scott (Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1986)—which is also what tells us of the sequel. “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” was a rhetorical question asked by the Christian polemicist Tertullian in
De Prescription Hereticorum,
chapter 7.

Ikhwan al-Safa’,
by Godefroid de Callataij (Oneworld, 2005), gives more detail on the mysterious Brethren of Purity. A complete edition of the
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity
was published in 2008 by Oxford University Press, edited by Nader el-Bizri. Ibn Taymiyyah’s fatwa comes as number 35 in the collection of Ibn Taymiyyah’s fatwas edited by Ibn Qasim and Ibn Muhammad (Matabi’ al-Riyad, 1961–67) and can be seen at
http://archive.org/stream/mfsiaitmmfsiaitm/mfsiaitm35#page/n159/mode/2up
. Najla Abu Izzeddin’s book, referred to in this chapter, is
The Druzes
(Brill, 1984)

For an understanding of neo-Platonism, the best insight of all can be gained from Plotinus’s
Enneads,
available in an English translation by Stephen MacKenna (John Dillon, 1991). Books that examine the ways in which early Muslims adopted and adapted neo-Platonism include
The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy
(Cambridge University Press, 2005);
Muslim Neoplatonists,
by Ian Richard Netton (George Allen & Unwin, 1982); and the particularly useful
Greek Thought, Arabic Culture
by Gutas.
A Short History of the Ismailis,
by Farhad Daftary (Edinburgh University Press, 1998), explains more about the Ismaili Muslim context from which the Druze emerged.
Caliph of Cairo,
by Paul E. Walker (American University of Cairo Press, 2010), is a biography of al-Hakim bi Amr Allah.

The US telegram published by Wikileaks can be seen at
https://www .wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIRUT972_a.html
.

Recollections of the Druses of the Lebanon,
by the Earl of Carnarvon (John Murray, 1860), contains his account of visiting Moukhtara and speculations on the Druze religion. “Druses of Syria and Their Relation to Freemasonry,” by Haskett Smith, can be read in the 1891 edition of
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum
. I gathered a broader knowledge of Freemasonry’s history from
Freemasonry: A Celebration of the Craft
, edited by John Hamill and R. A. Gilbert (Angus Books, 1993). Hitti’s observation comes in his
Origins of the Druze People
.

The July 2013 assault was reported in the Lebanese newspaper the
Daily Star,
July 23, 2013. The old lady commenting on George Clooney’s marriage was quoted by Zeina Hariz in an article in Arabic for the Al-Nahar newspaper, April 29, 2014.

Details of Israeli land confiscation came from “The Druze in Israel: Questions of Identity, Citizenship, and Patriotism,” by Mordechai Nisan,
Middle East Journal
64, no. 4 (Autumn 2010). Chapter 10 of “On Loving God” by St. Bernard of Clairvaux can be read at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library website,
www.ccel.org
.

CHAPTER 5: SAMARITANS

I lived in Jerusalem for three years as a British diplomat between 1998 and 2001 and visited the Samaritans twice during that time, but the Passover sacrifice described in this chapter happened in 2012. I would like to thank the Samaritan community and Benny Tsedaka in particular for their cooperation and help, and also their representative in London, Felicity Devonshire.

General books on the Samaritans include
History of the Samaritans,
by Nathan Schur (Peter Lang, 1989) and
The Keepers: An Introduction to the History and Culture of the Samaritans,
by Robert T. Anderson and Terry Giles (Hendrickson, 2002).
A Companion to Samaritan Studies,
by Alan David Crown, Reinhard Pummer, and Abraham Tal (Mohr Siebeck, 1993), is a good reference work.

Jesus’s encounter at Jacob’s well is told in John 4:9. Tudor Parfitt’s
The Lost Tribes of Israel
provided much of the material on the legend of the Ten Tribes and its influence on medieval Europeans, with which the chapter begins. The Book of Kings quote is from verse 17:24. The quote from the Babylonian Talmud is taken from a translation by Professor Mahlon H. Smith at
http://virtualreligion.net/iho/samaria.html
.

The estimate of the Samaritan population in Jesus’s time is taken from Alan David Crown,
The Samaritans
(Mohr, 1989), who estimates their numbers in the Helleno-Roman period on page 201. Jesus’s instructions to avoid Samaritan towns are in Matthew 10:5, and his first visit there himself in Luke 9:51; the accusation that he was a Samaritan comes in John 8:48; and Samaritan converts are mentioned in Acts 8:14.

Antoninus of Piacenza’s observations are taken from John Wilkinson’s
Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades
(Aris and Phillips, 2002).
Maimonides,
by Joel Kramer (Doubleday, 2010) is the source of the sage’s remark on Islam. Schur’s assessment of the initial effects of the Arab conquest is given on page 93 of his
History of the Samaritans.

Joseph Scaliger’s letters are quoted from
An Account of the Samaritans in a Letter to J—— M—— Esq.
(R. Wilkin, ca. 1714). Another quote at the end of the chapter is taken from this book.

Travels and Adventures of the Rev. Joseph Wolff
was republished by Cambridge University Press in 2012.
Memoir of the Rev. Pliny Fisk,
by Alvan Bond, was published by Crocker and Brewster in 1828.
Three Months’ Residence at Nablus,
by John Mills, was published by John Murray in 1864.

The Samaritan high priest commenting on the foundation of Israel is quoted by Douglas V. Duff, a British policeman in Palestine during the 1930s and a prolific writer who recorded his experiences in
Palestine Picture
(Hodder and Stoughton, 1936). H. V. Morton’s observation comes in his book
In the Steps of the Master
(Rich & Cowan, 1934). Schur’s remark about “probably the smallest group” is on page 11 of his
History of the Samaritans
.

The 2010 genetics study is by Gil Atzmon, Li Hao, and others and is published in the
American Journal of Human Genetics
86 (June 11, 2010). The 2004 paper by Peidong Shen, Tal Lavi, and others was published in
Human Mutation
24 (2004) and can be read at
http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Shen2004.pdf
.

Yitzhak Magen’s excavations of the Samaritan temple are described in “Israel’s Other Temple,”
Der Spiegel International,
April 2012.

The two Israeli documentaries made about the Samaritans are
New Samaritans
(Journeyman Pictures, 2007) and
Lone Samaritan
(Heymann Brothers Films, 2010).

Jacob Esh Shalaby’s life is described in
Notices of the Modern Samaritans,
by E. T. Rogers (Sampson Low & Son, 1855).

Lord Rothschild’s envoy’s positive appraisal of Samaritan-Muslim relations is quoted in Schur’s
History of the Samaritans
, page 194.

The Song of the Sea is Exodus 15:1–18.

CHAPTER 6: COPTS

I lived in Egypt for a year from 1997 to 1998, and returned twice for this chapter: once in April 2011, and once in May 2012. It was during this last visit that I spent a week down in Minya.

I am very grateful to Dr. Cornelis Hulsman and his Arab-West Report for their introductions and information. This charity tries to produce objective analysis of violence between Muslims and Christians in Egypt; its website can be visited at
www.arabwestreport.info
. I am also grateful to those quoted in the text: Tariq Al Awadi, George Ishaq, and Yousif Sidhum. Fr. Yoannis of Qufada kindly showed me around his parish on several successive days. Others in the text are unnamed, but not for lack of appreciation of how generous they were with their time and thoughts.

Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs,
by Jill Kamil (Routledge, 2002), and
Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity,
by Otto Meinardus (American University of Cairo Press, 1999), were both useful on the Copts in general. On Copt-Muslim relations, I read
Christians Versus Muslims in Modern Egypt,
by S. S. Hasan (Oxford University Press, 2003)—a book whose authorship somewhat belies its gloomy title, since it was written by a Muslim Egyptian with great though not uncritical sympathy for the Copts;
The Copts of Egypt,
a document issued by Minority Rights International and written by Saad Eddin Ibrahim and others, published in 1996;
Copts and Moslems,
by Kyriakos Mikhail (Smith, Elder, 1911); and
Motherland Lost,
by Samuel Tadros (Hoover Institution Press, 2013).

The travel writer Anthony Sattin also looked at the survival of ancient customs in Egypt, though without much focus on the Copts, for
In the Pharaoh’s Shadow
(Eland, 2012). Max Rodenbeck’s book
Cairo: The City Victorious
(Vintage, 2000) is an excellent history of the city since its medieval Islamic foundation. The Osirites recommended to me
Dawn of Conscience,
by James Breasted (Macmillan, 1976), for evidence of the spiritual sophistication of the early Egyptians. More than one Egyptian directed me to
Fellahin of Upper Egypt,
by Winifred Blackman (Harrap, 1927), for evidence of ancient customs that are still practiced.

The number of Copts in Egypt is a matter of controversy. The official Egyptian census found that Copts were 8.34 percent of the population in 1923, 5.87 percent in 1986, and an estimated 5.50 percent in 2000. Cornelis Hulsman, in
Mélanges de l’Institut Dominicain d’Etudes Orientales à Caire
29 (2012), defends the census findings against skepticism expressed by many Copts, who estimate their own numbers at anything up to 20 percent of the population.

The Egyptians of Disert Ulaidh are mentioned in the Litany of Aengus the Culdee, dated to 799. This is discussed by the
Middle East Journal
’s editor in a 2009 blog:
http://mideasti.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/saint-patricks-day -special-patrick-and.html
.The chanting of the seven vowels is described by Demetrius of Phalerum in his book
On Style
, chapter 71. The number of Coptic Catholics is given by the Roman Catholic agency CNEWA as 162,000 in a February 2013 estimate. Herodotus’s comment on Egyptian religiosity is on page 143 of de Sélincourt’s translation of
The Histories
. Shibley Telhami in “Egypt’s Identity Crisis,” a Brookings Institution paper of August 16, 2013, concluded from ten years of opinion polls in Egypt that “Egyptians see themselves as the most religious people in the world.”

The Gilgamesh quote is from the George translation (see notes to Chapter 1). The twenty-fourth-century
BC
inscription is from Samuel Mercer’s 1952 translation of the Pyramid Texts.

It was the Greek historian Plutarch, in chapter 43 of his
Isis and Osiris,
who tells us that in his time the Egyptians called the spring equinox “Osiris’s coming to the Moon” (translation by Babbitt; Loeb Classical Library, 1936). Akhenaten’s hymn is taken from Cyril Aldred’s book
Akhenaten, King of Egypt
(Thames and Hudson, 1991). Dr. Amin Makram Ebeid has written several books on religion and culture in Egypt including
Egypt at a Crossroads
(El Hadara, 2010). It was he who told me the story of the Copts who sang dirges for a patient while he tried to operate on her.

“Prevalence of Female Genital Cutting Among Egyptian girls,” by Tag-Eldin and others, in the
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
for April 2008 (
www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/4/07-042093/en
) lists some of the surveys by the UN and others showing the remarkably high prevalence of FGM in Egypt. Murgan al Gohary called for the Sphinx and Pyramids to be destroyed on November 10, 2012, during an interview on Egypt’s Dream TV.