A Short History of the Copts and of Their Church, Tr. by S.C. Malan (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HISTORY OF THE COPTS OF THEIE CHUECH. I.?An account of the Qibt of Misr [Copts of Egypt]; of their ancient religions; of how they became Christians, and then, afterwards, subjects of the Moslem [Mussulmans], with the events relating thereto Know that all people who follow the divine laws of the prophets, on whom be peace ! such as Mussulmans, Jews, and Christians, are all agreed that Nuht [Noah], on whom be peace ! is the second father of mankind, and successor of Adam, on whom be peace ! So that in Noah are centered, and from him God most High has brought out, all the children of Adam; neither is there. one from among the children of Adam, who is not of those of Noah. The Nabatheans, the magi, and the people of Hind and of Sin [China], do not believe in him, and deny the flood. J Some of them, indeed, hold that the flood hap- Translated from the Arabic of Taqi ed-din el-Maqrlzi, ed. Wustenfeld, 1845. t Noah is very frequently mentioned in the Qoran, as in Sur, xrrvii. v. 74 sq. " Consider then, what has been the end of devoted men, besides sincere servants of God. When Noah cried unto us-?and well be it to those who bow down themselves ?we delivered him and his family from the great anguish; and we made his descendants the remnant [on earth]." also Sur. xxxvi. v. 104, sq.; Ixxi, v. 1, sq.; xiv. 26, etc. J This is not the place to enter into details; but El-Maqrizi is not quite right. The Nabatheans, who were the first inhabitants of Babylonia, before the conquest of it by the Chasdim or Chaldeans, did believe in Noah; judging not only from the pened only in the region of Babel, and in the countries Assyrian records lately read, but also from one of their books on agriculture, written by Sagrit, translated into Arabic in the 9th cent, by Ibn-Wahshiyah, ...