A New Museum

This chapter discusses Marcus Simaika's role in the establishment of the Coptic Museum. It was in 1908 that Simaika made his first attempt to start a small Coptic museum. While engaged in the repair and restoration of the ancient churches as a member of the Comité, Simaika had collected a large quantity of interesting carved wood and stone fragments. He had asked Patriarch Cyril V for permission to move the objects he had collected, along with any spare icons, manuscripts, and carved wooden screens, into two rooms adjoining the Muʻallaqa Church in Old Cairo. When it was constructed, the Coptic Museum filled a gap in the chronology of Egyptian history and culture, and with its foundation Egypt finally had museums grouping together the antiquities of each of the four main periods of its history.

Keywords: museums, Marcus Simaika, Coptic Museum, Cyril V, Muʻallaqa Church, Egypt

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Samir Simaika and Nevine Henein

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A New Museum

A New Museum

Samir Simaika

Nevine Henein