Bemerkungen zu einem „Papyrus aus dem unruhigen Alexandreia am Vorabend der arabischen Eroberung“ (SB XVI 12425)

Abstract

The article presents a new interpretation of a published Byzantine papyrus letter from the Collection of the Austrian National Library. Its first editor argued that it offered a precious testimony to the religious upheavals in Alexandria on the eve of its conquest by the Arabs. This article shows that the papyrus was found in the Fayum and does not necessarily come from Alexandria, and that the text should be dated to the late sixth or early seventh century, not in the 630s or early 640s. It is also proven that it is neither related to the monophysitic controversy nor to a group of monks or the Patriarch of Alexandria, as the first editor had suggested. At the end of the article a reconstruction of the content of the letter is attempted as well as of the facts to which it refers on the basis of the secure data now presented.

Late Byzantine Alexandria; Monophysitism; Ecclesiastical disputes; Patriarch of Alexandria; Arab conquest of Egypt