Sohag

SOHAG. - A locality in Middle Egypt, near which there still stand, still fairly well preserved in their essential parts, the two most important monuments of Christian architecture in the Nile valley: they are known by the names of the White Convent (Dair al-Abiad) and the Red Convent (Dair al-Ahmar) from their color, the first being built of limestone blocks, the second predominantly of baked bricks. The first is connected with the great monk Shenoute, for whom it was built, the second with his follower Besa (Bishai).

The White Convent was built at the expense of a certain Count Caesarius, son of Candidianus, therefore a high Byzantine official, a detail that has its value for the historical assessment of the monument: the inscription that has preserved the founder's name bears no date, nor is there any mention of this count in historical documents, except for two fleeting references in letters of Shenoute. From other data, however, it may be held that the foundation of the church took place around 440. The many texts relating to Shenoute and his monastery that are still extant give no historical indication. One must go down to the 12th century to learn, from Armenian and Coptic inscriptions in the frescoes of the central apse of the Sanctuary, that these paintings were executed by an Armenian artist and a Coptic one who both bear the name Theodore. The Coptic one is from 1124, the Armenian ones are from the period between 1076 and 1124. A violent earthquake (probably that of 1200 or that of 1204, known from other documents) made extensive restorations necessary during the first half of the 13th century, between 1235 and 1259, during which a large part of the original wooden roofing was replaced by brick domes that gave the church the appearance more or less preserved to this day. Far less well documented is the situation regarding the Red Convent. It was certainly built by Besa, pupil and successor of Shenoute in the direction of the monastic congregation. Only one dated inscription exists there, and it refers to the paintings executed by a Mercurius, in 1301, an artist who is probably the same one who left his name on a painting of the convent known as that of St. Simeon near Aswan, dated 1318, and in one, undated, of the White Convent.

The two churches must have had a very similar ground plan, but that of the White Convent is described here in detail, inasmuch as the Red Convent, which has suffered more, preserves nothing ancient except the structure of the sanctuary. The outer layout is that of a perfect rectangle, and the outer facing is inclined like that of a pharaonic temple, a resemblance that is further accentuated by the fact that the terminal cornice is in the form of a large Egyptian cavetto and the gargoyles that channel the water outside are identical to Ptolemaic ones: an interesting survival of ancient forms. From a door on the shorter western side one enters a rectangular narthex terminated on the north by an apse on columns and on the east by a staircase leading to the terraces. The narthex with one or two apses is frequent in Egypt in the 5th-6th centuries, but derives from examples of late Eastern Hellenism. From the narthex one enters the body of the church, which is divided into three naves by two rows of columns: the columns also run parallel to the entrance wall, a structure that would last in Egypt until the 12th-13th centuries (Coptic churches in Cairo). From the central nave one enters the sanctuary, which is in the form of a triconch cell, that is, formed by three large apses that radiate from a central square: the structure (which is found not only in the two churches but also in that of Dendera, which is of the same period) derives from models of Syrian Hellenism, and to this source also points the decoration of the inner facing of these apses, consisting of two superimposed orders of columns, separated by a broad cornice and alternating with niches enclosed in pedimented panels most richly carved. The general physiognomy is that of the exedrae in the court of the temple of Baalbek and of the nymphaeum of Gerasa. All this demonstrates that the architects of the two churches belong to a school that profoundly preserves the traditions of late Syrian Hellenism, perpetuates its general conceptions, and has not been affected by the profound transformation that took place throughout the East after the 4th century. The central square of the Sanctuary was originally covered by a pyramidal wooden roof: all the domes that are seen today in both churches are due to restorations or rebuildings of the 12th or 13th century. The Sanctuary is surrounded by secondary rooms, one of which, very long and apsidal (chapter hall?), occupies almost the entire southern side of the church.

The decoration of the two churches is very rich; the capitals continue the type of late Syrian and Byzantine Hellenism, and the pediments in the panels of the niches repeat those of the many sculptures of the 2nd-4th centuries discovered at Ahnas. The paintings are all recent (11th-13th centuries).

Ugo Monneret de Villard