I'm on vacation. As I have done each year, I have prepared a number of posts on historical and cultural subjects unlikely to be overtaken by events, with at least one appearing daily.
Alfred Joshua Butler (1850-1936) seems, at first glance, a typical donnish sort of 19th century Englishman. He certainly looked the part (photo at left) and his Who's Who entry (below) seems stereotypical: son of an Anglican clergyman, "the late Rev. A.S Butler, Rector of Markfield, Leicestershire"; married "1882, Constance Mary, d[aughter] of Col. Heywood, of Ocle Court, Herefordshire"; Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford; Fellow of the wonderfully-named Brasenose College at Oxford, Visitor of the Ashmolean museum, winner of poetry and other prizes, and of course, "Recreations: shooting, fishing, boating, whist, chess. Club: Royal Societies." Just your typical late Victorian and Edwardian donnish dilettante scholar, at first glance.
And then you notice, "Tutor to the Khedive of Egypt, 1879-81," and the string of publications that followed. For in fact, Butler was a pioneering Orientalist in the study of Egypt, with two main and overlapping specializations: the Coptic Church, its history and its ancient churches and monasteries, and the period of the Arab Conquest of Egypt. More than a century after the publication of most of his major works, they are still of value, and none can be said to have been completely superseded despite a century of subsequent research.
His works on the Copts earned him his own entry in The Coptic Encyclopedia.
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