International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

participants in the economy.
Anne Hedeager Krag
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; 
[e-mail] 
Christian Motifs in Egyptian Textiles
This paper will focus on Christian motifs in Egyptian textiles especially from Danish 
collections. Persecution of Christians in the Middle East has been a major problem in recent years, 
which has drawn particular attention to the Christian minority in Egypt, the Copts who still count 
more than 10 million people. They are descendants of the ancient Egyptians. From the 300s to 
639-40 Egypt was part of Byzantium that strongly influenced the Christian culture in Egypt. Coptic 
art in early Christianity grew out of popular Egyptian art of Roman times. Especially the socalled 
Coptic textiles are famous. Coptic textiles are a term for textiles produced in Egypt in the first 
millennium AD. They fall into several periods – today it is normal to distinguish between a Roman, 

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Byzantine and an Islamic period. Danish museums have a considerable number of such Egyptian 
textiles, at the National Museum, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, David Collection, Willumsen’s Museum 
and in particular at the Design Museum Denmark.
The history of Christianity in Egypt goes long back. According to Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea 
(260 – 340) the Apostle Markus brought Christianity to Egypt in the mid-1
st
century. In 381, 
Christianity became the state religion, and Egypt became a part of Byzantium. Already at that time 
the Egyptian textiles were controversial. Thus the Syrian Asterius, bishop of Amaseia ( d. 410 AD), 
was critical of the Christian Egyptian custom of wearing colorful decorations on costumes:
’’They’ve got a custom where they wear strange shapes of all kinds of suit, and they wear them 
all, they give their women and children multicolored fabrics with thousands of characters. When 
they come out in public dressed in this fashion, they appear as painted walls to those they meet’’. 
There have been found more Egyptian textiles with motifs from the Old Testament than from 
the New Testament. Popular stories are the Fall of Man, Elijah’s ascension, Jonah in the belly of the 
whale and motives from David’s life. Most popular is Joseph from the Old Testament, the second 
youngest of the patriarch Jacob’s twelve sons and Jacob’s favorite son.
Because of jealousy his brothers sold him as a slave to Egypt. These motifs from the Old 
Testament were used by the Coptic Christians to emphasize the events of the New Testament, like 
the early Christians elsewhere in Byzantium. The Christian Egyptians were proud of the fact that 
Joseph and Mary came to Egypt to escape from King Herod with the newborn Jesus Christ, and 
therefore there are many textiles illustrating the Flight to Egypt. From the New Testament motifs 
with Mary and the Child and the Three Holy Men are the most popular. Also subjects from the 
Apocrypha are found, such as the Virgin’s history. After the Arab invasion of Egypt in 641, the 
Coptic art was to some degree influenced by Islamic Art.