Barsauma the naked

Barsauma the Naked ( Arabic Barsaumâ al-ʿUryan ; † August 28, 1317 in Dayr Šahrān ) was an Egyptian ascetic who is venerated as a saint in the Coptic Church .

Life

Barsauma came from a high-ranking family. Around 1250 he is said to have worked as the secretary of the sultana Schadschar ad-Durr , but gave up this activity and lived as an ascetic for about 20 years in an underground room of the Merkurioskirche ( Abū Sayfayn ) in old Cairo , then for more than fifteen years on the terrace this church, naked except for a loincloth , day and night. During the discrimination against Christians in 1293, who at that time had to wear turbans in special colors, he was expelled from there and imprisoned. Around 1300 he retired to the Dayr Šahrān monastery south of Cairo. There he died on August 28, 1317 and was soon venerated as a saint by the faithful.

literature

Mark N. Swanson: The Life and the Miracles of Barsawma al-ʿUryan. In: David Thomas et al. (Ed.): Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Vol. 5: 1350-1500 . Brill, Leiden 2013, pp. 114-118.
Walter E. Crum: Barsaumâ The Naked. In: Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology 29 (1907) 135-149. 187-206.

Remarks

↑ The name is reproduced differently in the surviving manuscripts, but it usually ends with Alif after a Mīm fatah. See Asuka Tsuji: The Depiction of Muslims in the Miracles of Anba Barsauma al-ʿUryan. In: Mariam F. Ayad (Ed.): Studies in Coptic Culture. Transmission and Interaction. Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 73 Note 8.
^ Jean-Charles Ducène: Les monastères égyptiens dans les sources arabes médiévales . In: Études coptes 13 (Cahiers de la bibliothèque copte 20). Paris 2015, 137–152, here 139. 142.
↑ Asuka Tsuji: The Depiction of Muslims in the Miracles of Anba Barsauma al-ʿUryan. In: Mariam F. Ayad (Ed.): Studies in Coptic Culture. Transmission and Interaction. Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 66.

personal data
SURNAME	Barsauma the naked
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Coptic ascetic
DATE OF BIRTH	13th Century
DATE OF DEATH	August 28, 1317
Place of death	Dayr Šahrān

[1] The name is reproduced differently in the surviving manuscripts, but it usually ends with Alif after a Mīm fatah. See Asuka Tsuji: The Depiction of Muslims in the Miracles of Anba Barsauma al-ʿUryan. In: Mariam F. Ayad (Ed.): Studies in Coptic Culture. Transmission and Interaction. Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 73 Note 8.

[2] Jean-Charles Ducène: Les monastères égyptiens dans les sources arabes médiévales . In: Études coptes 13 (Cahiers de la bibliothèque copte 20). Paris 2015, 137–152, here 139. 142.

[3] Asuka Tsuji: The Depiction of Muslims in the Miracles of Anba Barsauma al-ʿUryan. In: Mariam F. Ayad (Ed.): Studies in Coptic Culture. Transmission and Interaction. Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 66.