ABSTRACT
From as early as the thirteenth century, the Coptic Orthodox community has fascinated explorers, missionaries, and scholars traveling to Egypt in search of ancient Egyptian ruins. 1 Besides the many murals, excavations, and other tangible artifacts they encountered, these scholars also stumbled upon an intangible living heritage: Coptic alḥān or the liturgical hymnody that the community performed in their church services. Drawing on both Jewish and Greek musical influences prevalent in Egypt in the first century ad, Coptic Orthodox alḥān also incorporated elements of Egyptian folk music as well as other musical survivals from their ancient Egyptian predecessors. Alḥān were performed in Coptic, the colloquial language of the people derived from the last stage of demotic, a simplified script of hieroglyphs dating back to 650 bc. Though Coptic Christians now speak the Arabic language, they continue to perform this Coptic genre in overflowing churches all over Egypt and in growing communities of the Coptic diaspora all around the world.
