Entre mémoire et pouvoir: L'espace syrien sous les derniers Omeyyades et les premiers Abbassides (v. 72–193/692–809)

a smoother transition from the Ottoman period to the present day. Throughout the work Armanios engages with a wide range of scholarly literature on relevant topics, and demonstrates detailed awareness of the state of research into the history of theMiddle East. As pointed out in the introduction, and on various occasions throughout the book, there are very few accessible Coptic primary sources relating to the Ottoman period, and the scantiness of thematerial is amajor challenge to research. The sourcematerial that is used in the book,Coptic-Arabicmanuscripts, closely relates to the topics of the chapters: saints’ lives, chronicles (which describe festivals and pilgrimages), andsermons.Although these are“elite” sources, theymayreflect someof theexperiences of the community at large, as “the masses” would have participated in the festivals, and listened to the saint’s lives and to the sermons. Armanios thus seeks to understand the diverse socio-religious experiences of the Coptic community in Egypt in the Ottoman period at large. In addition, the author also makes use of some other sources, such as European travel accounts, including those of missionaries, and chronicles written by Muslims. In spite of using the sources and quoting excerpts from them, Armanios’ focus is more on socio-religious questions than on a detailed engagement with the sources. The promised “close-reading” (p. 45) of the neo-martyrdom narrative of St Salib (sixteenth century) in chapter two, for example, is not as “close” as some scholars maywish for. Exposition of the hagiographic literaturemight have benefited fromamore detailed analysis of how these stories “work”, and how they might have been narrated. Some more information on the surviving manuscripts would also have been useful. Nevertheless, this is a very valuable book: the first comprehensive assessment of the Coptic community and its diverse religious expressions in the Ottoman period. The intended readership was not indicated explicitly, but the book deserves to be widely read. It should be of interest to social, political, ecclesiological and intellectual historians, especially to those interested in minority cultures and issues of identity formation and maintenance. With its generally clear writing style and logical structure, the book should also be accessible to students and a wider readership, for example within the Coptic community.