Review of Cromwell, Recording Village Life: A Coptic Scribe in Early Islamic Egypt

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Jennifer A. Cromwell, Recording Village Life: A Coptic Scribe in Early Islamic Egypt. New texts from ancient cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017. Pp. xxiv, 287. ISBN 9780472130481. $90.00. ISBN 9780472123117. ebook. Reviewed by Alain Delattre, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)​ (Alain.Delattre@ulb.ac.be).

This is the revised version of Jennifer Cromwell’s PhD dissertation (Liverpool 2008). The author originally aimed at studying and reediting the corpus of Djeme papyri (P.KRU). The enormity of the task led her to focus on the texts drawn up by a specific scribe, Aristophanes, son of John, who lived in Western Thebes during the first half of the 8th century.1 Not only did the author explore Aristophanes’ scribal practices, but she also considered people and procedures involved in the documents. This original perspective allows her to draw an interesting portrait of the society of a village in the early Islamic period and to offer a stimulating study on a scribe’s life and practices.

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Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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