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This article presents Mas'ad's previously-unpublished letter for the first time in an English translation.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