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Document Details :

Title: Idwār al-Kharrāt
Subtitle: Een koptische jeugd in Alexandrië
Author(s): DE MOOR, E.
Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies
Volume: 51    Issue: 3-4   Date: 1999   
Pages: 241-262
DOI: 10.2143/JECS.51.3.2003029

Abstract :
Idwār al-Kharrāt: A Coptic youth in Alexandria
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, modern Arab authors of Christian denomination and educated in the West tended to deny, neglect and even attack Church and religion as out-dated phenomena of the past. Nevertheless, recent autobiographical writings of Christian authors show a growing interest in community life and its religious meaning. This article presents autobiographical novels of the Coptic writer Idwār al-Kharrāt (b. 1926) as sources for the study of community life. The novels treat the author’s youth and adolescence in the thirties in the great city of Alexandria, at that time an example of a multi-cultural society. The analysis focuses in particular on religious experience and expression in City of Saffron (1985) and tries to evaluate its impact on al-Kharrāt’s life by means of a recent personal testimony of the author.