Severus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ or Severus of El Ashmunein (in Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 ساويرس الأشمونين) (died 987) was a Coptic Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

, author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. In Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, his name is spelled Sawires ساويرس. Severus is sometimes confused with Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa

Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa

Abū-Muhammad Abd-Allāh Rūzbeh ibn Dādūya/Dādōē , known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ , Ibn Muqaffa/Ebn-e Moghaffa , or Rūzbeh pūr-e Dādūya , was a Persian thinker and a Zoroastrian convert to Islam.-Biography:...

.

He was bishop of Hermopolis Magna (Ashmunein), in Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...

, around the end of the tenth century. In this period, Egypt was ruled by the Fatimid

Fatimid

The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...

 dynasty, an Isma'ili Shi'ite family, which had taken Egypt from the Abbasids in 969 CE. Fatimid rule slowly but surely changed Coptic Christian culture, especially in the realm of language. Complaining that the Coptic Christians of Egypt no longer knew the Coptic language (related to late Egyptian), Severus composed a theological text in Arabic -- the first Coptic text written in that language.

He is best known as the traditional author of the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria.

Works

• Lamp of the Intellect (in Arabic مصباح الفكر)
• History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria (in Arabic تاريخ بطاركة كنيسة الإسكندرية القبطية). This is a compilation begun by Severus Ibn al-Mukaffa and based on earlier biographical sources. It was continued by others including Michael, bishop of Tinnis (11th century, writing in Coptic, covering 880 to 1046), Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrig, deacon of Alexandria., and Pope Mark III of Alexandria
  Pope Mark III of Alexandria
  Pope Mark III of Alexandria was the Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark . He was the son of Zura.Before becoming Patriarch, Mark wrote the entries of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria that cover the years between 1131 and 1167....
  
  (for 1131 to 1167).

• Affliction's physic and the cure of sorrow (In Arabic طبّ الغمّ وشفاء الحزن)