The monastery’s Library became the most important in Coptic Egypt, comparable in significance to that of the great Byzantine Imperial foundation of St Catherine on Sinai.  The earliest and most important manuscripts are in Syriac, a branch of Aramaic, the language of Christ, and date back as far as the fifth century.  They include some of the earliest surviving biblical texts, as well as the works of early church fathers such as St John Chrysostom and Gregory of Nyssa of which the original Greek texts have been lost.

There are also important collections in Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt deriving from that of the Pharaohs, and still used in the liturgy, in Arabic which gradually replaced Coptic after the Arab conquest of 647, and in Ethiopic.

Treasures at Risk: what needs to be done? 

In the nineteenth century some of the manuscripts were taken to Europe and are in several different collections.  The large number of manuscripts and fragments that remain in the monastery represent an inheritance of inestimable scholarly value and an essential part of the heritage of the entire Christian world.

However after 1500 years in the environment of a living community many of the manuscripts are in a parlous state and continuing to deteriorate, putting them at serious risk.

In recent times there has been a revival of the Coptic monasteries in Egypt.  The Deir al-Surian community now numbers over 200, and a new generation of committed and educated monks is determined to preserve their unique inheritance in situ for future generations.