Magdi Guirguis
Research Interests: Ottoman Egypt & Coptic history
Beyond "Islamic Society": Non-Dhimmi Christians in Ottoman Egypt
This project aims to study the Copts (Christians of Egypt) who were living outside the boundaries of the "Coptic Community", in Ottoman Egypt till mid-nineteenth century. With the community system we could much easily locate 10% percent of Copts under this category, who almost living in cities and towns. those were affiliated to the church and paying jizia and were described as zimmis. So, there was majority of Copts who were neither affiliated by religious institution nor paying jizia. Where could we locate them? I will try to study those Copts in the context of rural society, emphasizing the economic and the social rather than the political or religious. In a wider perspective, the project tries to present a different approach to the study of what is called “Islamic society”, which has usually been studied from the perspective of the city.
Magdi Guirguis currently is a professor at Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt, and the Scientific collaborator of the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale in Cairo (IFAO). He was the Cahir of Coptic studies at the American University in Cairo 2007, and a Fellow of the Alexander-von Humboldt Foundation (2012- 2014). Guirguis has published widely in Arabic in Coptic studies, Ottoman History, and Islamic law. Among his publications in English: An Armenian Artist in Ottoman Egypt: Yuhanna al-Armani and His Coptic Icons, 2008; (co-author with Nelly Van doorn-Harder), The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy, 2011. He also translated many books into Arabic, especially in the Coptic history.