Sometime around November 14th, 2017, I bought a book called From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt on a whim. I would like to say that it was one of those unexplained nudges in life, but who really knows? The point is, as soon as I started reading this book, I realized how little I knew of Coptic history and my own people’s struggles and heritage.
You see, like many who are reading this, I grew up in the church, listened to countless sermons, did pre-servants and even taught Sunday school. Yet, I was utterly clueless on the very basic foundations of my people’s history. I thought I knew, since you know, somewhere along the line I got a Sunday school lesson about St. Athanasius and every week I heard the story of a martyr from the synaxarium. But, the reality was, as I read more from that book, that façade of happy ignorance turned into a million questions. Why had no one ever taught me this stuff?
By January 2018, I was determined to do something about it. To give the Copts the opportunity to learn their own history as our own ancestors lived it. Not the—“it was dark, then Islam came and the sun rose” version widely taught in Egypt. Or the—“St. Severus prayed and waved a magic wand, so the bad emperor died and all the problems were solved the next day” version. No—our history as a people, as a nation.
The idea eventually crystallized to a podcast. It would be much more accessible than books, quicker to get off the ground, and an excellent medium for the narration of a history. By March 2018, the History of the Copts podcast was out to a very rough start. I probably reached out to 20 strangers or so to gauge interest or get help in getting the word out. One person asked if I had taken permission from the Church to do the podcast, the rest ignored me (To their credit, Marianne, the founder of Coptic Voice, gave me a platform when Coptic Voice was still on Medium—and Michael, from the Coptic Canadian History Project, also did). I couldn’t blame those who didn’t give me a shot. I was truly learning on the fly, for the whole world to see. So, the first drafts were very rough.
Nonetheless, week after week, the quality of the podcast improved and more people listened. Strangers reached out to me for questions or help. Random, unprompted words of encouragement started showing up on social media. People paid money to listen to exclusive episodes!!
And here we are, almost three years later with more than 100 episodes and a thousand or so years of history. It is the end of that chapter and the start of a new one. The podcast will end at 1250 AD. Why? Well, I have a couple of reasons.
First, and that comes with a lot of nuance—the Copts sort of stopped writing their own history at this point until modernity. The nuance here is that they stopped writing it regularly, but not completely. Also, plenty of other people wrote about the Copts. European travelers and Muslim historians, and so on.
It is not really the story of the Copts, though, rather the political circumstances and the court of the Mamluks, who fought who—that kind of stuff. So, any kind of narrative after this point will consist of a lot of asinine political feuds, interrupted every 100 years or so by a Coptic story or a hint of the affairs of the Copts. And, when that story or hint comes, it will be from somewhat unreliable sources—someone who is looking with disinterest from the outside. So, building a narrative where the Copts are at the center of the story is an incredibly difficult task. Can a narrative be built? Sure – It would include very little about the Copts, though, and a lot about the Mamluks, which is a cool intellectual exercise, but one that I didn’t set out to do.
The second and more important reason is that I started this podcast with a mission. To keep, preserve, and extend the Coptic heritage in the diaspora—mainly for my kids as they grow up. And so, following that logic, it would be far better for this mission if I extend the audio material into other formats to make it even more accessible. There is so much work to be done where more people will be introduced to and learn about the Copts, and the Copts themselves will get to know their heritage better. The impact of my time spent there will far outshine what little extra insights that can be gleaned from the upcoming period.
Which brings us to our next chapter: gradually extending the material of the podcast into other formats. The plans are fluid and will probably change, but here is what is built already. First, the podcast has a new home, HistoryoftheCopts.com—a web application that is built in a way to extend the material as far as it can go.
There, not only you can listen to the podcast, but you can explore the sources that each episode was built from, get a curated list of recommended reading, read the full episodes scripts, comment, ask questions and point out errors—if any exist. Further, there is a Projects section where I will be continuously extending the podcast material.
First thing I will work on is an e-book of all the minor canons of the Coptic Church. Specifically, the canons of Christodoulous, Cyril, and Gabriel. It’s incredibly difficult to access them now—even if you are involved in elite academia with the resources of an Ivy League college. Yet, for those who are part of the Coptic Church, they explain so much of what we do: Why do men and women sit on different sides, banning greetings in the latter part of the holy week, and so on!
After that, I have a few things in mind. Similar projects to rescue valuable sources from obscurity. As part of the magic of the web application, you will get to vote about what project I should tackle first!
Like I said, it’s a super fun toy that I am really proud of. The podcast is still part of Coptic Voice—and as an organization, we are still pursuing the larger picture of building a Coptic identity in the West. Those future plans are part of that effort.
A few logistical pieces to end with: I will be ending the exclusive Patreon support of the podcast and releasing all the exclusive episodes. It made sense to have Patreon as hosting podcasts was expensive when I started out. Now, it’s free. So, no reason to have it. It will be around, if you feel compelled to support Coptic Voice as an organization, but it will have no extra benefits.
Thanks so much to the few generous individuals who supported the podcast and Coptic Voice to this point. Trust me, it went a long way in affirming that this work needs to be done and makes a difference. If you are a listener of the podcast, thank you for listening. It has been an incredibly fulfilling journey for me and I hope it was for you as well. If you are not listening, give it a shot and let me know what you think. If you are the reading type, well, stick around. We will get there!
Jonathan Adly