ASKINAH (more rarely iskinah)

The normal designation in older texts for sanctuary and used almost exclusively, for example, in the HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS of SAWIRUS IBN AL-MUQAFFA‘, up to the Fatimid period. After this period, in the process of a conscious reversion within Coptic Christianity to its religious origins in Judaism, the term was gradually superseded by the expression haykal (sanctuary), which derives from the Hebrew hekal (Holy of Holies).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Graf, G. Verzeichnis arabischer kirchlicher Termini, CSCO 147, P. 9, item 15. Louvain, 1954.
• Muyser, J. “Des vases eucharistiques en verre.” Bulletin de la société d’archéologie copte 3 (1937):9-28.

PETER GROSSMANN