The life and riot of Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III (1923-2012)

O.V. Nizamutdinova

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: ok.nizam@yandex.ru

Received April 26, 2018

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Abstract

The scientific biography of Shenouda III, the 117th Patriarch of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, was compiled and described for the first time. Shenouda III was the Church leader for more than 40 years and employed not only religious, but also political authority over his congregation. Managing the Church during the difficult time, the Patriarch became the main fighter for the rights of Copts during the period of Islamization in the 1970s when Anwar Sadat was the President. However, under the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, Shenouda III favored the rooting of Shari‘a rules in the Egyptian legislation.

The paper discloses the reasons for why the Patriarch changed his opinion, which resulted in the revision of the Church policy toward the state. The political image of Shenouda III was reconstructed using the psychological and biographical methods; based on the historical approach, the historical reality of the Patriarch’s times was analyzed. Shenouda III’s interviews, his obituaries, biographies of modern church historians, opinions of his contemporaries, magazine articles, and scientific works were studied to fulfill the aims of this research.

The obtained results confirm that the relations between the Patriarch and the President influenced the religious situation in Egypt. Under the rule of Hosni Mubarak, Islamic groups were highly criticized; the authority promised safe religious worship. Because of the President’s coherent policy, the Church became more loyal to the state course.

Keywords: Shenouda III, ’Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak, Coptic Orthodox Church, interfaith tension, politicization of religion

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For citation: Nizamutdinova O.V. The life and riot of Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III (1923-2012). Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2018, vol. 160, no. 6, pp. 1418–1430. (In Russian)

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