Severus Ibn al-Muqaffa

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Severus ibn al-Muqaffa or Severus of El Ashmunein ^[1] (died 987) was a Coptic Bishop, author and historian. In Arabic, his name is spelled Sawirus ساويرس. Severus is sometimes confused with Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa.

He was bishop of Hermopolis Magna (Ashmunein), in Upper Egypt, around the end of the tenth century.

He is best known as the traditional author of the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria.

[edit] Works

• Lamp of the Intellect
• History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria. This is a compilation said to have been begun by Severus Ibn al-Mukaffa^[2] and based on earlier biographical sources. It was continued by others including Michael, bishop of Tinnis (11th century, writing in Coptic, covering 880 to 1046), Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrig, deacon of Alexandria., and Pope Mark III of Alexandria (for 1131 to 1167).

• Affliction's physic and the cure of sorrow (طبّ الغمّ وشفاء الحزن)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ [1]; known as Severus of Al-Ushmunain, Severus, Bishop of Al-Ushmunain, Severus of Al'Ashmunein, Severus of Ashmunein, Severus of El-Eschmounein, Severus Ben al-Moqaffa, Severus Aschmoniensis, Sawiros Ibn Al-Muqafah, Sawirus etc.
2. ^ Now contested by some scholars, cf. Johannes den Heijer, Coptic historiography in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and early Mamluk Periods, Medieval Encounters 2 (1996), pp. 67-98, this is the traditional attribution.