Overview

Marcus Pasha Simaika (1864-1944) was born to a prominent Coptic family on the eve of the inauguration of the Suez Canal and the British occupation of Egypt. From a young age, he developed a passion for Coptic heritage and devoted his life to shedding light on centuries of Christian Egyptian history that had been neglected by ignorance or otherwise belittled and despised. He was not a professional archaeologist, an excavator, or a specialist scholar of Coptic language and literature. Rather, his achievement lies in his role as a visionary administrator who used his status to pursue relentlessly his dream of founding a Coptic Museum and preserving endangered monuments. During his lengthy career, first as a civil servant, then as a legislator and member of the Coptic community council, he maneuvered endlessly between the patriarch and the church hierarchy, the Coptic community council, the British authorities, and the government to bring them together in his fight to save Coptic heritage. This fascinating biography draws upon Simaika's unpublished memoirs as well as on other documents and photographs from the Simaika family archive to deepen our understanding of several important themes of modern Egyptian history: the development of Coptic archaeology and heritage studies, Egyptian-British interactions during the colonial and semi-colonial eras, shifting balances in the interaction of clergymen and the lay Coptic community, and the ever-sensitive evolution of relations between Copts and their Muslim countrymen.

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Dr. Samir Mahfouz Simaika, Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, is the grandson of Marcus Pasha Simaika. Since his retirement, Dr. Simaika has devoted himself to researching and documenting his family history. He lives in Cairo with his wife Yolande.Nevine Henein is a freelance copy-editor and writer with a passion for history and heritage. She obtained her BSc in mechanical engineering from the American University in Cairo in 1994 and worked in development for ten years before switching careers. She lives in Cairo with her husband and two sons.

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