Ecumenism in 18th Century Egypt: Mas'ad Nashw and the Copts

 

The descendent of an old Coptic family who at some point had settled in Damascus and converted to Chalcedonian Orthodoxy, the priest Masʿad Nashw first came to prominence in the circle of Arabic-speaking intellectuals in the entourage of the Patriarch Sylvester of Antioch. In 1744, he arrived in Egypt where he became oikonomos of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, managing the small church's day-to-day affairs during the frequent absences of the patriarch.

 

The Orthodox of Egypt were subject to the same intense pressures from Latin missionaries as their brethren in Syria, so in order to protect his flock, Masʿad wrote a large number of apologetic treatises and addressed pastoral issues caused by the missionaries in his impressive homiletic corpus. He also worked closely with the Greek theologian Eustratios Argenti, translating some of his works into Arabic, which Sylvester then printed in Wallachia.

 

In contrast to his strident opposition to the missionaries, who posed an acute existential threat to his flock, Mas'ad takes a very nuanced but sympathetic attitude toward the Copts. This is expressed in detail in a letter he wrote to one of his parishioners who asked him to explain the difference between the two communities, which, as he says, "on the one hand isn't anything at all, but on the other hand is very great..."

 

This article presents Mas'ad's previously-unpublished letter for the first time in an English translation.

Read it here. 

New Open-Access Book: The Role of Italian Presses in Early Arabic Printing

 

The Role of Italian Presses in Early Arabic Printing:

Third Volume of Collected Works of the TYPARABIC Project

 

Edited by Octavian Negoiță and Ioana Feodorov

About this book:

This volume contains the proceedings of the fourth TYPARABIC Conference, held in Venice between May 27–29, 2025, together with a selection of additional studies on the religious and intellectual history of Arabic-speaking communities in the Ottoman Levant, that resulted from earlier team conferences. It documents a significant moment of scholarly exchange while offering a varied contribution to the study of Arabic print culture and Church history.

The conference papers concentrate on the Italian connection in the development of Arabic printing in 18^th-century Europe and the Near East. They analyze the technical, commercial, and ecclesiastical networks that linked Italian printing centers – above all Venice – with Levantine and Eastern European presses, emphasizing the circulation of type, texts, and craftsmen. The additional contributions expand the thematic scope of the volume by addressing theological debates and cultural interactions within Arabic-speaking Christianity. Through focused case studies, they place Eastern Christians within the wider Ottoman and Mediterranean contexts, highlighting patterns of exchange, adaptation, and intellectual continuity. Taken together, the essays provide a coherent and methodologically rigorous account of the dialogue between print, theology, and cross-cultural connections in the 18^th-century Ottoman Levant.

 

 

The book can be downloaded for free here.