The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs

by Martin Mosebach, Alta Price (Translator)

Behind a gruesome ISIS beheading video lies the untold story of the men in orange and the faith community that formed these unlikely modern-day saints and heroes.

In a carefully choreographed propaganda video released in February 2015, ISIS militants behead twenty-one orange-clad Christian men on a Libyan beach.

In the West, daily reports of new atrocities may have displaced the memory of this particularly vile event. But not in the world from which the murdered came. All but one were young Coptic Christian migrant workers from Egypt. Acclaimed literary writer Martin Mosebach traveled to the Egyptian village of El-Aour to meet their families and better understand the faith and culture that shaped such conviction.

He finds himself welcomed into simple concrete homes through which swallows dart. Portraits of Jesus and Mary hang on the walls along with roughhewn shrines to now-famous loved ones. Mosebach is amazed time and again as, surrounded by children and goats, the bereaved replay the cruel propaganda video on an iPad. There is never any talk of revenge, but only the pride of having a martyr in the family, a saint in heaven. "The 21" appear on icons crowned like kings, celebrated even as their community grieves. A skeptical Westerner, Mosebach finds himself a stranger in this world in which everything is the reflection or fulfillment of biblical events, and facing persecution with courage is part of daily life.

In twenty-one symbolic chapters, each preceded by a picture, Mosebach offers a travelogue of his encounter with a foreign culture and a church that has preserved the faith and liturgy of early Christianity - the "Church of the Martyrs." As a religious minority in Muslim Egypt, the Copts find themselves caught in a clash of civilizations. This book, then, is also an account of the spiritual life of an Arab country stretched between extremism and pluralism, between a rich biblical past and the shopping centers of New Cairo.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Christian, Christianity, History, Africa, Islam

272 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2018

About the author

Martin Mosebach has published novels, stories, and collections of poems, written scripts for several films, opera libretti, theatre and radio plays.

The German Academy for Language and Literature praised him for "combining stylistic splendour with original storytelling that demonstrates a humorous awareness of history."

Among his works translated into English is The Heresy of Formlessness, a collection of essays on the liturgy and its recent reform told from the perspective of a literary writer. It has been published in the United States by Ignatius Press.

The book argues for a return to the Tridentine Rite of the Mass, the form of the Roman Rite before the Second Vatican Council, the use of which, in accordance with the Roman Missal of 1962, is authorized, under certain conditions, by the 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.

Other works include The Turkish Woman, "The Tremor," "The Long Night" and "Prince of Mist," in which the author examines the motives behind man's eternal search for a meaning.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rate this book 3.5 stars rounded down. It is the story of the Coptic religion/culture in Egypt and how 20 Coptic Christians were murdered by ISIS on the Libyan coast in Feb. 2015. ISIS filmed the beheading of 20 Coptic men and 1 African Christian and then posted this brutal, chilling video for the world to see. The author went to hometowns of the 20 Coptic martyrs and interviewed their family and friends to learn what motivated them to sacrifice themselves so willingly. I abhor fanaticism and the ISIS fanatics that murdered these 21 men are truly horrible people. The Coptic church has proclaimed the martyrs to be saints in the Coptic church.
The author is evidently a religious man and talks about them being with Jesus. I am not a religious person. although raised as a Roman Catholic. Fervent devotion to religion makes me uncomfortable, since it can lead to fanaticism enabling people to murder in the name of God. I was aware of Muslim persecution of Christians in Syria, Iraq and Egypt and wanted to find out more about the Coptic culture.
Pros: The book was very informative about the Coptic culture and religion. He describes in detail their churches and religious services. He also explains how the common people interact with priests. He interviewed the Coptic bishop in charge of the hometown of the martyrs. He also interviewed the Coptic Pope, who is not under the jurisdiction of the RC pope or the Eastern Orthodox patriarch in Greece. The author explains in clear language how the Coptic church split from those churches in the 4th century AD. If you are interested in the history of these religions, you will enjoy this book. The translation was excellent.
Cons: The book was overly religious for my taste. If you are a devout Christian, you will probably like this book. It took me almost 3 weeks to read this book.
Some quotes: "The faces of the prisoners clearly show that these young peasants could influence neither the American government nor any other, let alone their own. Their patience, their stoic dignity, and their prayers make them seem poor choices for casting as representatives of evil."
"We Copts are the real, true Egyptians. This has been our land for many thousands of years--it was our land long before the pyramids were built."
"The ancient Coptic language developed under Hellenistic rule but was essentially the language of the Pharaohs, and to this day it is used in the liturgy. In other words, the Pharaohs' language lives on in the Coptic liturgy."
Thanks to Plough Publishing House for sending me this paperback through LibraryThing.

[Charles Haywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is, brought to the temporal sphere, Revelation 20:4. “I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Martin Mosebach’s "The 21" is an exploration and explanation of the twenty-one Coptic Christian migrant workers killed by Muslims in 2015 for refusing to to apostatize from their Christian belief, a martyrdom made famous by the slickly produced video through which the killers broadcast their bloody work.

"The 21" also embodies a variation on the question I examined in my review of Sohrab Ahmari’s "From Fire, by Water." There I discussed how, and under what circumstances, Muslims could be allies with Christians in the American wars to come, against a ruling class whose totalitarian doctrines they both oppose, concluding that while many obstacles exist, that was theoretically possible, and certainly desirable. But this book shows that in what Muslims call Dar al-Islam, the House of Islam, those places where Islam has once been supreme, there can be no such cooperation, since there by definition there Islam must rule, and no observant Muslim would disagree, although what that exactly means is interpreted in different ways.

The martyrdom of the Twenty-One was a planned operation. The killers researched the names of the workers, who lived together as they gathered money before returning home. They took them, and held them for two months, before marching them out to a nearby Mediterranean beach and sawing their heads off with knives. They then released the video, titled “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross.” By that nation, they do not mean America, as Americans probably assume (and Mosebach also seems to assume, at least in part), but explicitly “Rome.” That doesn’t mean Pope Francis, either, who is no threat at all to Islam. Rather, it means, in this brand of Islam, Christians collectively, especially as represented by their national powers, since Islam’s main objection is not to Christian belief as such, incorrect as it supposedly is, but to Islam not ruling in the temporal sphere, a pattern of thought that non-Muslims find hard to understand.

Those who murdered the Twenty-One hold a mainstream, though not majority, view of what must be done to achieve and maintain the supremacy of Islam. In their minds, they are responding to the crimes of Christians. Their video begins with footage of Barack Obama apologizing for those supposed crimes, and to them the killings are the blood price, for a simple apology is inadequate. (We can ignore that Obama should, objectively, never have apologized, for there is nothing that any part of Christendom or the West, America or other, has ever done as a collective entity that requires any form of apology to any Muslim, including, especially, the Crusades.) We should not focus on the killers, though; they do not appear except as bit players in this book. Rather, what "The 21" explores extensively is primarily Egypt’s Coptic Christians, strangers to the West, and secondarily their relationship with Egyptian Muslims, who invaded and still occupy their lands.

The author, a German journalist (this book was originally written in German), set out to learn more about the martyrs, traveling to Egypt to talk to the great and the small among the Copts. He learned about their families, their religious and political milieu, and, most importantly, why they acted as they did. Mosebach divides the book into twenty-one chapters, each headed by a picture of one of the martyrs, some taken from the video of their deaths, some from hagiographic iconography made after their deaths. The book packs a tremendous amount of information into relatively few pages—since Americans know almost nothing about Egypt, and even less about the Copts, and both are alien to American sensibilities, the reader learns a lot. True, Mosebach shows cognitive dissonance. He shows empathy, sympathy, and admiration for the martyrs, and offers an informative view of the Coptic Church, but every single time he pulls back to examine the broader world, of Egypt, of Islam, or the entire globe, what he has to say is Merkel-ite nonsense. Fortunately, most of the book is narrowly focused on the Twenty-One, not the globe, so this is a relatively small defect.

The martyrs were mostly young men in their twenties or thirties who had gone to Libya to find work. Sixteen were from the small town of El-Aour, in Upper Egypt; the others came from other Egyptian towns, except for Matthew Ayariga, from Ghana. He was not Coptic; it is not even clear if he was originally Christian, but as with other saints throughout Christian history, he voluntarily joined, receiving, if no other baptism, the baptism of blood. Ayariga is visually central to all depictions of the martyrs; with his black skin, he stood out, and both the killers and the iconographers put him in the center of all group depictions. Mosebach did not talk to his family, and little is known about his background, but as Mosebach notes, he was like Saint Adauctus, whose name means “added man” since his real name was unknown, who volunteered his Christianity when he saw Saint Felix being led to death during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian, and was then also executed.

I’m familiar with the basics of Coptic theology and history, but how those things translate to the modern world I didn’t know. The Copts split from mainstream Christianity when their position, called Miaphytism, that Christ had only one nature, combining human and divine, rather than a separate human and a divine nature (unconfused and indivisible) was rejected at the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451. This division created the Oriental Orthodox, of whom there are about 100 million in the world, and whose liturgy and organization is very similar to the Eastern Orthodox, with whom they are not in communion, although to an outsider, they are nearly indistinguishable.

Mosebach does an exemplary job of trying to understand and get inside the Coptic mind, despite that he appears not be religious himself. Most of all, he correctly identifies the centrality of the Divine Liturgy. “From the very first moment, it is clear that the exclusive intention of the holy devotion is the realization of God’s presence, and everything that happens in this liturgy has to serve this extraordinary purpose. . . . Time and eternity are bound together as one, in a sphere where past, present, and future have always already happened, and at the same time are now happening again.” The Orthodox believe that once a church is consecrated, an angel stands by the altar, forever in and out of time worshiping the Triune God, so that when we enter the church, we are not commencing a worship service, we are joining one already in progress. You cannot understand the Copts, or the Orthodox, without grasping the numinous nature of the Liturgy, where seraphim serve at the altar alongside the priest, uniting Heaven and Earth in an unbroken chain of timeless moments.

What unites all the Copts is steadfastness in faith. Since nobody paid much attention to the Twenty-One when they were alive, they are somewhat one-dimensional. Their families offer similar generalized characteristics: “He was quick to forgive.” “He was calm, obedient, and quick to confess.” “He gave alms even though he was poor.” “He was compassionate and strove to help others.” But their deeds, both their refusal to apostatize and their calm demeanor when being led to execution, with only low cries to Christ as they died, exemplify that steadfastness, and their witness to Christ at the most basic and essential level. It is this steadfastness that seems to unite all the Copts, an eternal cord binding them together. You could transport today’s Copts to the age of Nero, and nothing would be much different, neither daily life nor their resolve in the face of persecution.

Mosebach visits the local Coptic bishop, who embodies this steadfastness in faith and combines it with an untroubled feeling of superiority to Islam, a latecomer as far as he is concerned. Mosebach describes the bishop as “the absolute archetype of a pragmatic, forward-looking reactionary—a kind of leader utterly unknown in the West.” It does not bother them, quite the opposite, that theirs is the Church of the Martyrs. This same attitude permeates all the Copts, including the families of the martyred. While they have the normal human sadness, it is greatly exceeded by their unalterable conviction that their beloved sons and brothers have received the crown of martyrdom, and they offer iconography in that vein. In most of their families’ houses, they also have and show the video of their killing, proud, rather than traumatized. And they ascribe miracles to the Twenty-One, small ones, local ones, but all in the ancient tradition of martyrology. They embody, as one of the fathers says, King David’s behavior in II Samuel, who when his son died, did not mourn anymore, for “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” As Sarah Ruden notes in her excellent book on Biblical translation, "The Face of Water," this verse in the original Hebrew conveys the meaning that the child will never return—but the father will keep moving toward the child. So with the families of the Twenty-One.

Beyond their cohesive religiosity, it is apparent that the Copts are, in the manner of many minorities in Muslim lands, both second-class citizens and more materially successful than the majority population. Mosebach says that Egyptian Muslims see all Copts as rich (while still having contempt for them), and although that’s obviously not true, since many are merely poor farmers like the Twenty-One, it is more true than not. No doubt this is because the Copts are not bound by the inertia and fatalism, along with male laziness, that characterize Muslim societies. Plus corruption—according to Mosebach, even though (like all Muslim countries) Egypt makes it very hard to build new churches, still, new Coptic churches are springing up everywhere, because the Copts bribe the authorities to look the other way. The Copts also run large related institutions, such as hospitals (including “the largest and most modern in Upper Egypt”). That is, the Copts are bound up with the world. Other than monastics (something that has revived in modern times), they do not retreat from, but rather engage, the world.

Can this ancient Coptic way of life can survive modernity? It is not a promising sign that within living memory Coptic villages have changed from their ancient form of order and cleanliness to ugly, trash-filled sprawls of half-finished concrete block buildings. The old roles, where everyone had a place in an extended family, have faded. Atomization has increased, even if it is not anywhere near as bad as in the West. According to Mosebach, these changes are not the result of increased wealth, but flow from some other source, which he does not identify, although he implies the Aswan Dam had something to do with it. My guess is television and increased ability to move from the place of one’s birth, but I don’t know. Most importantly, Mosebach does not address whether the Copts are having children, which is all that really matters. Yes, there seem to be many young Copts, and Mosebach relates how they are enthusiastically religious, like the Twenty-One, but if Egypt ever becomes wealthy, will the Copts fall away, leaving their faith and contracting like other societies around the globe? These seem to me to be the essential questions, and not ones the Copts are asking themselves.

Whatever happens, though, the Copts will still be oppressed by the Muslims. They have been oppressed for fourteen hundred years, ever since Islam conquered Egypt. Like many Middle Eastern Christians, when Islam arrived they unwisely did not perceive Islam as much of a threat, or even welcomed it, tired of taxation from the Roman Empire, then sited in Constantinople, and of being viewed as heretics by most of Christendom (not to mention that Islam itself was initially viewed by many as merely another Christian heresy, not all that different from other brands of Christian belief). As always with Islam, which has no interest in proselytizing, only in the dominance of Islam, the treatment of the Copts varied over time, with the one constant that their subordination was always enforced. Mosebach mentions how all the mighty churches of the Copts were torn down and “the columns and Corinthian capitals of those venerable ruins have been visibly incorporated into Cairo’s most beautiful mosques.” He seems to think that should make the Copts feel better.

For the most part, though, the Muslims and Copts historically managed to co-exist. It is only in the modern world, with a newly militant resurgent Islam and the technology of global communication and new weapons, along with oil money, that the Copts, like all Middle Eastern Christians, are threatened with expulsion or extermination. Mosebach says “violence isn’t an option, probably not even for fanatical Islamists, because there are too many Copts to simply drive them all out or murder them. In other words, the Turkish solution for Armenians and Greeks is no longer on the table.” But he gives no reason why that’s true, and for large numbers of Muslims, though probably far from a majority in Egypt, that solution is very much on the table. And since it only would take one such successful campaign to wipe out the Coptic presence in Egypt (ask the Chaldean Christians—thanks, George W. Bush!), the Copts will always be at risk, whatever wishful thinking Mosebach wants to engage in.

How the Copts are to solve this problem is unclear to me. Fighting isn’t going to work—even if the Copts really are a quarter of the Egyptian population, as they claim, they don’t have the weapons, and aren’t going to. Mass conversion of Muslims to Christianity, transforming the Middle East, sure would be nice, but such a thing has never happened in human history—Islam is a strong religion highly resistant to the lure of conversion. True, as Mosebach quotes Tertullian, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” but there have been a vast number of Christian martyrs in Muslim lands over the past fourteen hundred years, and mass conversions haven’t started yet, though the martyrs doubtless do strengthen the Church. Israel conquering the Middle East and converting all the Muslims to Judaism would be a good alternative, although that’s even less likely. Probably the best approach, if not solution, is to ensure that the Middle East isn’t infected with democracy, something that in Muslim countries leads at best to the unleashing of Muslim hatred against Christians in a stable system, and often to genocide against Christians when the political system collapses, as it always does in these societies for which democracy is not a good fit. Instead, the Copts (and us) should support, or at least not oppose, strongmen such as the Assads, or the current Egyptian military dictatorship, because those men both maintain order, which benefits minorities, and tend to rely on Christians as a counterweight to Muslims who want a theocracy. Thus, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi keeps the Muslim Brotherhood down, which is a service to the world in general and to Christians specifically, if you ever read Seyyid Qutb. Mohammed Morsi would, sooner or later, have turned to exterminating the Copts. And America would have ignored it, since the Left is fine with Christians being exterminated, and the Right, or at least Republicans, are too cowardly and weak to take any action that is seen as benefitting Christians specifically.

Mosebach’s proposed solutions to the “Coptic question,” that is, the oppression of the Egyptian Copts by the Egyptian Muslims, are equally stupid. He sounds like a clueless Eurocrat, peddling old and tired cant. “We shouldn’t resign ourselves to a permanent state of injustice and violence. . . . After all, there are think tanks working hard to solve the world’s problems. These thinkers, of course, would know exactly what questions to ask: Isn’t there any way that the Coptic community and Islamic majority might eventually live in peace and harmony? What kind of international peace conference, United Nations intervention, peace mission, transnational roundtable, or moderated conflict resolution might take care of the ‘Coptic question’?” Blurg. Mosebach’s “solutions” are so obviously dumb and ineffective as to be offensive. No such mechanism has ever solved a single problem in the Middle East, and none ever will.

Mosebach’s Pollyanna attitude toward Coptic survival is just one example of his general geopolitical blindness. Most of this stems from the same source—the author’s desperate desire to assign some share of blame to the United States, and to the West more generally, and to exonerate Islam from blame. Thus, Mosebach early on preaches “One must be careful not to view this massacre as one more chapter of an ongoing religious war—that would be false use of religion.” Instead, Mosebach entertains the idea that the killers were “mercenaries who can be bought to commit all kinds of bloodshed, perhaps to benefit the Americans or the Russians, or maybe the Syrians or the Muslim Brotherhood.” Or maybe they were just “pawns on a board whose actual players and goals are unknown to them.” This is a dumb fantasy; the killers were ISIS militants, part of a much larger group with coherent ideals and many other similar acts to their name, and both their actions and justifications are part of a long and coherent tradition within Islam. One more chapter of an ongoing religious war is exactly what this is. Reaching for tinfoil-hat theories to explain that obvious fact away makes Mosebach seem like a clown.

Such blinkered stupidity is on display more than once. The American prison at Guantanamo Bay, where a few hundred captured Muslim enemies were held (although by any other country, and in any other past war, they simply would have been summarily executed), in conditions of comfort where they are allowed to practice their religion and any disrespect to their religion is punished, is “where the United States has permanently ruined its reputation as nation that respects the rule of law.” No, Saint Joseph was not a “migrant worker.” No, the Neoplatonist philosopher Hypatia was not killed in a religious dispute. And so on.

Beyond the Copts, as to the core geopolitical problem the book details, Muslim mass murder of Christians (on display yesterday in Sri Lanka; tomorrow on display somewhere else), the correct solution is the one Donald Trump implemented and brought to a successful completion recently—kill in battle all Muslims who fight for ISIS or any similar brand of Islam. True, that that would be less necessary if we had not destabilized so much of the Middle East, since the local Muslim rulers would have done it for us, but that’s water under the bridge. But as I say above, these are stopgap measures; in the modern world, there can be no permanent peaceful coexistence on equal terms between Islam and Christianity on at the level of the nation-state, so long as Islam’s adherents actually believe. There never has been such coexistence, and there never will be. Any society with a large number of Muslims will face the problems inherent to and generated by Islam. This is unfortunate, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Certainly, it is equally true that on an individual level Muslims and Christians can get along fine, but to confuse personal relations with the relations of power that must characterize any human society is a basic mistake.

[Review completes as first comment.]

[Hendrik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Die Kopten sind nicht allein in ihrem Stammland Ägypten in der Minderheit. Auch gegenüber der mächtigen römisch-katholischen Kirche und den orthodoxen Kirchen des Ostens, befindet sich ihre christliche Gemeinschaft in einer eher randständigen Position. In den letzten Jahren rückte die Gemeinschaft der koptischen Christen vermehrt in das Blickfeld der Weltöffentlichkeit. Grund dafür waren etliche verheerende Terrorangriffe auf ihre Kirchen, denen sie in der Nach-Mubarak-Ära ausgesetzt waren. Die Lage der Kopten hat sich durch den arabischen Frühling und der Ausbreitung des IS im Nachbarland Libyen unzweifelhaft verschärft. Allerdings waren Bedrohungen und Gewalttaten stete Begleiter ihre langen Historie. So setzt Martin Mosbach mit seinem Bericht zwar ein besonders abscheuliches, an koptischen Christen verübtes Verbrechen in den Mittelpunkt seiner Reportage. Doch reichen seine Betrachtungen weit über das aktuelle Geschehen hinaus. Er zeichnet ein lebendiges Bild althergebrachter koptischer Traditionen und Glaubensvorstellungen, die noch heute selbstverständlicher Teil der gelebten Alltagswelt der Menschen sind.

Der Titel "Die 21" bezeichnet die einundzwanzig Männer, die 2015 an einem Strand in Libyen von IS-Terroristen, in einer grausam inszenierten Choreografie, enthauptet wurden. Die Opfer stammten fast alle aus einem kleinen oberägyptischen Dorf. Zur Arbeitssuche kamen sie nach Libyen, wo sie letztlich in die Hände der IS-Schergen fielen. Ihre Hinrichtung wurde von den Terroristen in einem Video in allen Einzelheiten dokumentiert und als Kampfansage an den Westen im Internet verbreitet. Mosebach analysiert en detail die Zeichensprache dieses Propagandastücks und seine beabsichtigte Wirkung auf uns "ungläubige" Zuschauer. Das Video ist für ihn auch der Ausgangspunkt seiner Reise zu den Familien der Getöteten. Hatten die Terroristen vor allem die Absicht mit ihrer Tat zu schockieren und Schrecken zu verbreiten, so haben sie ihr Ziel bei den am allernächsten Betroffenen weit verfehlt. Denn für die Kopten sind die Getöteten, durch ihre Glaubenstreue im Angesicht des Todes, zu heiligen Märtyrern geworden. In den Nachrichten fällt der Begriff des Märtyrers meist im Zusammenhang mit Selbstmordattentaten. Doch ursprünglich bezeichnet der Begriff im Christentum Menschen, die auch unter Todesdrohung an ihrem Glauben festhalten. In Gesprächen mit den Angehörigen und Vertretern des koptischen Klerus, versucht Martin Mosebach eine Annäherung an diese Interpretation eines, nüchtern betrachtet, brutalen Verbrechens.

Mosebach ist von Haus aus Katholik mit Überzeugung, man könnte ihn auch erzkatholisch nennen. So scheint zwischen den Zeilen immer wieder unverhohlen seine Faszination für das gelebte Christentum der Kopten durch. Im Gegensatz zum bei uns verbreiteten schlaffen Kulturchristentum, besitzt der koptische Glaube noch eine ungebrochene Vitalität. Dieser Wirkung kann sich Mosebach offensichtlich schwer entziehen, was man ihm als fehlende kritische Distanz ankreiden könnte. Gerade wenn es um etwas rational schwer fassbares wie religiöse Wunder geht. Doch ist er sich dessen wohlbewusst und bekennt freimütig an einer Stelle: "Ich bin ein schlechter Reporter. Zu diesem Beruf gehört eine Hemmungslosigkeit, die mir fehlt." Aber er ist unbestreitbar ein ausgezeichneter Erzähler, mit einem profunden Hintergrundwissen. Sein Reisebericht aus Ägypten spannt einen Bogen von den Anfängen des Christentums bis zu den politischen Umbrüchen der heutigen Zeit.

[Meg Hunter-Kilmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a portrait of the Coptic people, it's marred by the author's disdain for his subjects, a disdain so palpable I was truly appalled.

As an attempted depiction of the New Coptic Martyrs, it's a compete failure. Why on earth would you write a book that purports to be about these Saints and make no effort at all to learn anything about them? If you go to their homes (which the author spends MANY pages denigrating) and speak to their "simple-minded" families and can't learn anything about these men, just don't write the book!

I wish I could at least say that I learned about the Copts, but there were enough inaccuracies in his few references to Catholicism that I doubt I can trust the rest of his work.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable and informative book on the 21 men brutally beheaded by ISIS in Libya on February 15th, 2015. The author met with their families in Upper Egypt and got some sense of their personalities and of their piety. There was a long section on the propaganda video put out and each family has a copy. To the families this documents the martyrdom of each young man. The Coptic Church has declared these simple migrant workers saints and miracles have been attributed to their intercession. A long section gave us the history of the Copts and analysis of their liturgy, which is one of the closest to early Christianity. One can have nothing but admiration for these men and their devotion to their faith in the face of such horrendous trials as they endured.

Highly recommended. I thank LibraryThing for my copy of an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, read this book to gain insight from a man seeking Truth about 21 men who showed such devotion to Jesus that they died speaking to Him at the hands of their murderers. Secondly, read this book because you'll learn more about the Coptic religious men and women in Egypt and the potential for terror that their faith steeps in on a daily basis. Thirdly, read this because it will change you from within and make you see that we, too, need to embrace the courage that God calls us to live.

I cannot believe this book was translated from German in to English. That fact, merged with the gorgeous prose of a nonfiction text, earned the five stars.

However, beyond the technical beauty of the book, there is the journey of a man in awe of the faith of other men. The book teaches while also preaching. It is a testament to what we were called to be: firstly: disciples, secondly: prophets, and thirdly: teachers. The author manages to show, not tell, that order of our faith. He does so through his journey researching the example of these men who lived, that.

Highly recommended.

I received this book for free from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An account of the background and faith of the twenty-one men martyred on a Libyan beach by ISIS, profiling their village, family, the Coptic faith, and the challenges of living as a minority religion throughout history.

Twenty-one men in orange jumpsuits walk single file along a Libyan beach, each accompanied by a hooded figure clothed in black. They are forced to their knees with a figure in black behind each, holding their color with one hand, the other hand on a sheathed dagger. Then the speech "The Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross." Then back to the kneeling men, who in the last moments of their lives softly pray, "Ya Rabbi Yassou!" (O My Lord Jesus!). The video resumes, twenty one decapitated bodies, heads laid on their backs.

With this, twenty Coptic migrant workers and a Ghanaian Christian who had joined their company, become martyrs and saints. Icons are printed of each with the martyr's crown. Their remains become sacred relics.

Martin Mosebach traveled to Egypt to explore the families, the village, the land, and the faith associated with these men, a group he refuses to call "victims"  because "they had a strength that granted them a well-protected inner core of independence, and I was convinced their murderers cruelty couldn't penetrate that deep."

He begins with a dialogue on martyrdom with a "doubter" exploring what to many of us is the strange phenomenon of people who accept the consequence of death out of love for Christ. Mosebach then takes us on an exploration of the culture out of which these men came. He interviews the bishop of these men and discusses the history of oppression and martyrdom etched deeply into the Coptic Church. He visits first their pilgrimage church, and then their village El-Aour, in upper village. We meet their families, most in new homes because of assistance by the Egyptian government. We hear of men who were good sons, husbands, and people of integrity and piety, yet ordinary young men. One, after hearing a sermon about martyrdom said, "I'm ready." We meet Fathers Abuna and Timotheus, who had ministered to the migrant workers in Libya until it had become too dangerous. They tell of this group sharing a single room to send more home to their families, their readiness for martyrdom, and Issam, who especially seemed to play a role in strengthening the resolve of the others.

The latter part of the book goes more deeply into the Coptic Church, the liturgy that shaped them, their special connection with the flight of the holy family into Egypt, the church hierarchy that mirrors the heavenly hierarchy of angels and archangels, the cloisters. We also zoom out to the larger context of Egypt and the cave churches of Mokattam next to the garbage mountain, old and New Cairo, and the minority that calls itself "The Church of the Martyrs" in a time of increasingly tenuous relations with the Muslim majority.

Mosebach neither glorifies or denigrates any of this. Rather, he takes these people on their own terms. He brings to life a church most of us know little about, that has preserved the ancient faith from earliest Christianity, has survived and even revived under great pressure, and whose people have lived with martyrdom, not as a theoretical possibility, but a possible reality.

Through Mosebach, the martyrs also bear witness (what the word "martyr" means) to those of us in the West. They bear witness to love for Christ in the face of death. They bear witness to faithfulness as a religious minority when conversion would be easy and safe. We also see working men, some illiterate, trying to support their families, now pictured with martyrs crowns. One thinks about the last being first, the humble exalted. Many who will read this have far more education and other resources. I do, and I find myself wondering, both how I would respond, faced with what they were faced with, and whether many of us will be among the "least of these" honoring these men.

The Coptic Church has been a footnote in my church history. Through this book, I realized that I need to reconsider that outlook. Might they be one of those parts of the body of Christ worthy of greater honor? Might there be gifts they have been entrusted with, as well as an important history, that the rest of the church needs? Above all, if we are entering a post-Christian world, they may have much to teach us of how, then, we might live...and die.

________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

[Monica Mitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book difficult to read and even more difficult to evaluate. For context, I am a Coptic Christian myself, and I have lived this event and many others where Copts were attacked and killed for their faith in Egypt. The author makes a great effort in this book, which I highly commend. To date, this book is the only one written about the 21 Coptic martyrs who were massacred by ISIS on the shores of Libya in 2015. It is also the only one in a European language (German) and translated to English. To my knowledge, there is no comparable study even in Arabic. I do not wish to belittle his effort--indeed it is enough to read the rest of the book's reviews here on Goodreads to realize the impact the book has had.

In this book, Martin Mosebach attempts to get close to the families of the martyrs, to analyze their surroundings, their beliefs, the political, societal and religious structures that shape their lives, and their own opinions. The latter was especially difficult for him, by his own admission. He speaks no Arabic, and the people no English. He was provided with local interpreters whose English was rarely good enough to capture the nuances of the (reserved) family members. And so, on numerous occasions, Martin Mosebach simply supplements these comments with his own observations. A few of these observations are astute and others so totally miss the mark that they sound absolutely ridiculous. It is obvious that Mosebach relied on his observations and intuitions rather than discussing his findings with other Copts or scholars of Coptic history.

A selling point of the book is its presentation of the Coptic church as an otherworldly and atemporal Christian church that somehow preserved the original purity of Christianity, unblemished by all the ravages of modernity. This results in an excessive othering of the Coptic church and its members; they become little-educated, staunchly faithful, otherworldly, submissive to ecclesial hierarchical structures, and floating in swirling clouds of the incense used in their liturgies.

In addition, the book abounds in orientalist tropes. For example, he writes that one of the group, the 24-year-old Issam, was influential on his fellows martyrs, and is credited with keeping them faithful in the face of their wavering doubts. From an image of him, Issam is fair-skinned with an 'aquiline nose and looks as if he could have been of European descent' (p. 129-130). For some reason, Mosebach finds no explanation for Issam's influence except 'the fact that he looked like a foreigner and thus somehow stood apart from the [rest]' (130). This is highly unlikely, seeing as all the martyrs but one came from the same Egyptian village and grew up alongside each other. There would have been no reason to consider Issam foreign ... and thus a question of personal character and charisma is inverted into a not-so-subtle argument for western supremacy.

One of his final chapters titled 'A Coptic Fantasia,' is an example of western supremacy par excellence. Here Mosebach puts forth an imagined past of the Coptic church had there been no Islamic conquest which has left them 'wretched' (p.212) now. There would have, he says, been more opportunity for a 'high Coptic culture' (210) to arise. They would have had a 'renaissance' (211), they might have had 'a Coptic Luther, a Coptic Reformation ... and all the other stages of Western ecclesiastical history" (211-212). This tone of western supremacy, abounding throughout the book but glaringly obvious in this chapter, aggravated me throughout. Civilization, it seems, is only civilization when it follows the western pattern of the last 500 years.

Ultimately, as a Copt, I found this book both rich and exasperating. While Mosebach is certainly to be commended for his research, I would have appreciated more thoughtful analysis, far less imposition of orientalist tropes and unstudied comments. The book presents much about Coptic Christians, but even more about Mosebach's own fantasies.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps you remember the 2015 news stories about the Coptic martyrs. Recently, I finished reading The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs by Martin Mosebach. This book details the author's journey to learn more about the martyred men. He desired to find out what their background story was that made them willing to be martyrs. In doing so, he learned about the men but more specifically learned about the Coptic Christians of Egypt.

Many readers are familiar with Protestant Christians, Catholic Christians, perhaps Orthodox Christians, but many haven't heard of Coptic Christians. Due to this gap in knowledge, Mosebach spends a great deal of time explaining the history and background of Coptic Christianity. This includes not only their beliefs and history, but also how their geographic location influences their spirituality and interaction with the Bible. As such, this book serves as part theological history, part travelogue, and part memoir to the martyred men. What stands out while reading the book is while growing up in their small Egyptian villages, they were no different than any other person in their village. Their bedrock was the church and they lived out their Coptic faith daily. While these men are now considered saints in the Coptic church, their allegiance to Christ is also lived out in their families and villages as a matter of course. This is a great resource to expand your view of world Christianity and highly recommended.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs from Plough via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

[Rebecca Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Be Strong and Courageous For The Lord Is With You...." Joshua 1:9

"The 21" by Martin Mosebach is a heartbreaking story about the Coptic Martyrs who were beheaded by Isis, back in February 0f 2015. But this book goes beyond just the story that you can see. He gives these men their names, their history, and expands on their faith.

Coptic Christians are constantly under threat for their faith. There are dangers on a daily basis but these brave souls have put their faith in God, and trust him through everything. For the 21 brave men who were executed, simply for being Christian, their faith supported them through the end of their lives. They took a stand, and they were killed for their faith. Martin Mosebach is helping their story and courage to live on - and to be shared with many others.

Martin Mosebach does a fabulous job of bringing this story, and the story of the Coptic Christians to light. While reading this book, I went through the gambit of emotions. The stories are heartbreaking, and the photos allow you to see these men as who they were before the video was released.
If you are interested in history, then this book is a MUST read. The struggles, the triumphs, and more are lined out. I gained a better understanding of the Coptic Christians through this book.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Goodreads win review. This book was excellent. I have never even heard of Coptic Christians before. This is why I love to read and anything that has history I love learning about. This tells about this mystic faith of a religious minority in Muslim Egypt. 21 men were of this faith were killed by ISIS in Libya. They were faithful until their death which is why they are called martyrs. This author went and interviewed the families of this gruesome act. His storytelling is spellbinding, I read this in a couple of hours. I am going to donate this to the college library where students of history and religion can learn this also.

[Michael Milad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really recommend this book! An insightful exploration of the resilience of the Coptic Faith that enabled 21 to face their death with praise rather than fear. Despite the oppression the faith has been under, it has remained and flourished.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs. Martin Mosebach, 2019, Plough Publishing House, pp 272.


German author Martin Mosebach has provided a worthy and dignified written legacy of the 20 Coptic Christians and their fellow martyr, Matthew of Ghana who were martyred on a Libyan beach in February 2015.

The book, already a national bestseller in Mosebach’s native Germany and released last year in March 2018, has now been translated into English, published by Plough Publishing House on this the 4 year anniversary of their martyrdom.

Symbolic in its presentation, (there are 21 Chapters that form the book) the reader is taken on a journey by the author into another world. This is a world of deeply held traditions, values, and convictions and yet contradictions; a world that many of us in the West are unfamiliar with – in fact a Christianity that many Christians in the West would find unfamiliar, especially those from within an ‘Evangelical’ tradition!

In this sense, Mosebach a western professional is both actual traveller and also representative of westerners into this strange, foreign, and unknown world. However, Mosebach’s skill as an author results in a book that is thoroughly gripping and chilling, as well as respectful and reverential to the lives of the martyrs and their families. Mosebach has delivered a work that certainly will leave the reader satisfied that they have understood something of the faith and culture that under-girded the lives of the 21 Christian men, something of an insight into the Coptic tradition, and also an insight into the plight of other Christian communities the globe over who do not live in the extremely privileged West.

The book with Mosebach’s warm and engaging style will draw the reader sympathetically into the lives of the martyrs families. Readers will be amazed by the very ordinariness of the faith of the martyrs – they weren’t men who were important by the world’s standards, not academics, not trying to be the next-best-thing, but simple men; men who needed to work abroad to help support their families and who in the simple duties and tasks of life were guided by their faith and understanding of Christianity. Mosebach is certainly not leaving posterity with a mere hagiography and sensationalist bestseller. It is a retelling of the martyrdom of 21 Christian men, their families who live on (albeit with the subsequent veneration of martyrs), and an invitation to explore the world, traditions, and cultures that these Christians find themselves a part of.

Western readers will certainly be challenged. Certainly by the account of the martyrdom – something that seems remote to our comfortable lives, especially for Western Christians. Martyrdom is something one reads of in the annals of Church History, usually in the comfort of abstract discussion groups and comfortable surroundings of coffee bars in Church or the lecture theatre at Seminary. Yet, the dawn of global technology brought the horrors of Diocletian persecution into our living rooms, in fact our very palms as social media delivers the images to our hand held devices.

Whilst many may be crying out for retribution, the book addresses the matter calmly, reflecting the attitude and demeanour of both the hierarchy of the Coptic Church and that of the laity: that of acceptance of martyrdom when it comes; the reality of confessing the name of Christ in a hostile world.

Mosebach is careful to tell readers that the families of the martyrs and the leaders of the Coptic Church in Egypt insist that their loved-ones were martyrs for Jesus Christ, just others in a long line of martyrs down through the ages rather than victims of terrorism. Insights like this help realigns our thoughts, challenges our myopic disposition, and removes the cataracts from our eyes. A number of chapters in the book help readers understand and appreciate that for Coptic Christians – who have been a minority since the Arab invasion in the 7th Century A.D – they have known what it is like to be a Church of Martyrs and who have not really had the same privilege of state support that the Western Church and Eastern Byzantine Churches knew.

The background information into the history and unfolding of the Coptic tradition is extremely helpful, especially to many Western Christians who will read this book. For those Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox (Greek, Romanian, Russian, etc) who read the book, there will at least be a familiarity with elements of the rituals discussed and general rites for example. It is Evangelicals who will perhaps struggle the most, especially in the discussion surrounding devotion to Mary, pilgrimages, and icons etc that form a significant element of the devotional life of Copts. However, the culture is foreign along with the customs and rites, yet Mosebach is skilled at unpacking this and grounding the reader so that they will be prepared to at least to some comprehension understand the demeanour of the martyrs that day they were became martyrs for Christ on a Libyan beach by the cruel hands of those who ended their earthly life.



I obtained a review copy of this book from the Publisher in return for an honest review. I was not obliged to give a positive review. My thanks to the Publisher.

[Vincent Pham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first review of The Catholic Man Review’s 2019 season and for some, upon reading the title of the review with the term martyrs, already, some may think that this is an irrelevant topic to our times. The term martyrs may seem like an outdated term, a term used by people of the early Church. Twenty-centuries have come and gone and still, in the beginning of this 21st century, there are many martyrs, especially in the middle east where there is harsh persecution of Christians.

In a new book published by Plough Publishing, The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs by Martin Mosebach gives one an inside look into the background of the 21 Coptic Martyrs of Egypt who were beheaded by men dressed in black, belonging to ISIS. On a personal level, I was on a news site that reported this gruesome martyrdom of the 21 men. They, along with many, many others around the world in this 21st century are being martyred. Another notable martyr of the 21st century was Father Jacques Hamel of France, who on a day in July 2016, like these coptic martyrs, his throat was slit for the faith.

The names of the 21 martyrs and their images are listed, and are found in between every chapter of the book.

Mosebach offers the outsider an inside look, a background to the lives of these 21 martyrs. I have seen many pictures online of these men of faith walking and kneeling down in calm faces, prayerful mood, ready to receive the crown of martyrdom. However, I never found the courage to watch the actual gruesome footage of the martyrdom. The book dedicates a whole chapter to describing the events of the choreographed martyrdom. Yet, having not watched the video, the Mosebach describes the scene in much detail that I can picture out every move made.

The 21 is not only about a story of the martyrdom, but it recounts the state of Christian persecution in the Middle East in general. Even in the midst of persecution, Christians are still boldly living the faith. Mosebach brings Tertullians’ quote, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of faith,” in 21st century definition. Indeed, it is through the bold witness of faith of the martyrs that there are people who are compelled to follow Jesus Christ. Yes, the Christians of the Middle East suffer much, but their suffering have bore fruit hundredfold.

The 21 gives the reader an inside look into the sanctity of these martyrs in their ordinary lives. Mosebach goes through Egypt, wanting to meet the families of the martyrs to learn about their everyday life. These martyrs were ordinary men who lived simple lives, being witness to the faith in their everyday words and deeds. All of them seemed to have lived a life of prayer up to the end of their lives. Now, venerated as saints among Coptic Christians, their faces on icons, their heads depicted with the crown of martyrdom, surrounded by halos, the martyrs are role model for all who look to them. Mosebach also mentions miracles that have been granted through their intercession.

Looking at The 21 through the lens of history and geography, this serves as a great resource for those wanting to learn more about the geography of Egypt, the history of Egypt and Coptic Christians. It has been an eye-opening read for me in that sense. Mosebach does a good job in describing the physical landscape and surroundings of the different areas in Egypt. He has provided a very good context to the topics that he talks about, even if the reader (like myself) is not familiar with Egypt or the Coptic Church.

★★★★1/2 4/5

Overall, The 21 was perhaps not the most pleasant read due to the nature of the topic of gruesome 21st century martyrdom, but it is, in my opinion, an important read for Christians to understand the state of persecution and devotion to the martyrs in this day and age.

[Daniel Davalos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author purports to write an ethnographic chronicle surrounding the 21 Coptic martyrs beheaded by ISIS in 2015. Instead he uses that event and its protagonists' world as a springboard to offer us a compulsively readable collection of his own musings. I haven't quite figured out what makes me so uncomfortable about this book — perhaps I'm bothered by what seems like a fetishization of these "simple" people and their "simple" faith. I don't know nearly enough about Coptic Christianity to judge the book's portrayal of this ancient faith, but the author's ambivalent view of that tradition, steeped in mysticism and miracles as it is, coupled with his constant reminders of the Copts' squalor and illiteracy, creates a constant pendulum swing between admiration and, perhaps, exploitation. Or maybe I'm just too sensitive.

[Rachel Stansel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the Coptic Church in Egypt from its beginnings to recent times. Including information of the 21 martyrs, this is a religious group and place I was only slightly familiar with and I found the author's descriptions and conclusions interesting and thoughtprovoking. The novella is a quick read but a worth while one.

Full disclosure- I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book suffers from a lack of purpose... Is the book recounting The 21 Martyrs as the title suggests? Is it a Coptic apologetics volume? Or is it the author's travel log? It tries to be all three and suffers as a result. Most of all the story of The 21... I don't think the author was prepared for the lack of information on these ordinary Coptic Christian men who were murdered by extremists and had to figure out what else to write about so there could actually be a book.

[Cristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mosebachs Büchlein verkürzt durch seine poetisch-bildliche Sprache und seine stilistische Eleganz, zuvorderst aber durch seinen unbedingten Verständniswillen, die Entfernung zur geheimnisvollen Epiphanie des koptisch-christlichen Marytrertums geradezu auf Hauchnähe. Meisterhaft.

[Mityl · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads like an opinion piece that has been one-dimensionally presented and somehow skipped the editing process. On the face of it, a sensitive topic has been dealt with quite callously. The dramatization of a terror incident is not what I was expecting.

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

When21 Christian missionaries were beheaded on the beach in Egypt the government did nothing and men were lost it didn’t have to be. Martin Masebach an Alta Price tell the story of how 21 families lost their breadwinners their sons their husbands. We learn more about the men’s cause and why they were there the total belief in God and how they didn’t cower in fear but went to their death knowing a better existence awaited. We also learned about what the Egyptian government did to try and make up for the families loss which in my opinion rang hollow but I guess something is always better than nothing. I thought the narrator did a stellar job and really set the tone for the time place in the men that were taken. Kudos to him and the authors for this great book everyone deserves their story to be told and now they’re story has been and what a great job they did. I received this book from Netgali and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

German novelist and poet Martin Mosebach wanted to discover the stories of "The 21," men who were executed by ISIS militants on a Libyan beach, their beheadings portrayed in a gruesome video released on Feb. 15, 2015. Twenty of the men were Coptic Christians, and most of them came from the village of El-Aour in Egypt.
Although Mosebach traveled to El-Aour and met with the families of the men, he didn't really succeed in giving depth and breadth to the stories of the individual men. But he does give us a fascinating look at the faith and practices of Coptic Christians. (Copts form an ethnic group, he points out; a person can be Coptic and Muslim.)
I was transported by, of all things, Mosebach's account of the Coptic Mass. It sounds exciting. He introduces it like this:
Imagine the congregation answering the priest with decisively spoken words. Sometimes the celebrants' voices grow tempestuous and impassioned, and the words are chanted or even shouted out.
He goes on to provide a transcript:
PRIEST: He has instituted the great mystery and sacrament of his divinity for us, destined as he was to sacrifice himself so that the world may live.
CONGREGATION: We believe!
PRIEST: He took the bread in his holy, immaculate, venerable, and life-giving hands ...
CONGREGATION: We believe this is true! Amen!
...
PRIEST: He blessed it ...
CONGREGATION: Amen!
PRIEST: He sanctified it ...
CONGREGATION: Amen. We believe, we confess, we praise!
...

It goes on like this for two full pages. Although it is a sacred rite, one can imagine it as part of a play, or as the basis for an oratorio. I would love to experience it, even though I wouldn't understand a word of it.
Although he describes himself as an unbeliever, Mosebach is entirely respectful toward the Coptic Christians, and he seems quite comfortable with the Scriptures. At one point, he describes how the martyrdom of the 21 seems to almost match what's foretold in the Book of Revelation, as in this passage: ... and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God and had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received the mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
The families of the slain men are shown not to be vindictive or angry or overcome with grief. Instead, they quietly rejoiced that their loved ones were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.
Mosebach writes:
All these words were spoken not with fanatacism or zeal, but rather with serenity and calm. These were no Spartan mothers celebrating some rigid ideal, but believers whose faith had been forged and strengthened by adversity. Whereas George Buchner's "Danton's Death" features Thomas Paine asserting that pain is the touchstone of atheism, in this case it turns out to be quite the opposite: pain is the touchstone of faith and the revelation of Christ.

[Daniel Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Mosebach shows in this book is the spiritual reality that these 21 men lived, how communal Coptic life is in Egypt, and the story of an ancient faith that has resisted destruction under Islamic rule while separated from the Western church following the schism between Alexandria and Rome. The Copts had every odd against them. They should’ve been destroyed by their Islamic conquerers hundreds of years ago, and yet they have not only maintained their faith, but have kept their entire ancient liturgy in tact.

Mosebach shows not only the resilience of Coptic Egyptians, but shows how they are willing to embrace the hardship of their situation - a religious minority living under an officially Islamic government - for the sake of Christ. The Copts do not complain about their situation, but embrace it totally and are proud to suffer for Christ.

What Mosebach also exposes is the spiritual ghetto and communal poverty the West has created. These men grew up in the same neighborhood, attended the same school, same church, went abroad together for work to support their families, and, ultimately, died together. When Copts discuss these men, they *always* refer to them as a group, and any attempt to overemphasize one martyr over the other is inconceivable - they were one in both life and death.

These men lived poor lives in mud houses in Egypt, lacked any sort of formal education, and yet they seemed to have lived more than almost all Westerners will due to the extremely strong communal bonds their church gave them. Mosebach’s book asks us: Who is really living? Us, or them?

[Kevin W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book to learn more about the backstory of the 21 martyrs beheaded by ISIS. Here’s the problem, as the author notes- there’s not a lot of information we know about them! There aren’t many quotes attributed to them, there are no records of what transpired in their imprisonment before their death, etc. They were just pious peasants from a simple village.
The author thus spends over 3/4 of the book describing Egyptian politics, the history of the Coptic Church, and other information that helps us Westerners grasp the culture that these men were raised in. Though I learned some helpful information and gained some meaningful perspective, I didn’t care for how he seemed to use this event to share his own personal observations and analyses of Western culture and liturgy, as well as dwell on his personal, firsthand experiences of getting to know the ins and outs of Egypt.
It kind of felt like when you first meet a girl you’d like to date- you’re drawn to her, yet there’s much about her that remains a mystery. So you go to her house to learn more about her and instead find yourself stuck at the dining room table listening to her dad rant about politics for two hours straight. You politely listen, and in the process you learn a little bit about the girl, but you also can’t wait for it to be over so you can just spend some one-on-one time directly conversing with the girl.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a practicing Roman Catholic, it helps us all peer into the Coptic Church and its life as a minority people in a Muslim country. Mosebach does report what he learned about these martyrs and about being Coptic today. He does express skepticism about things when he felt it, but also as a believer is sympathetic to the Coptic Christian experience. He makes it very clear that to call these 21 martyrs victims of terror is to misunderstand who they are. They were not passive victims of terror but rather active witnesses to their faith. Worth reading as it might challenge all Christians in America to think about what does our Lord teach us about enemies, persecution, wealth and suffering?

[Evalina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Standing up for what one believes has many consequences—including, at times, death. This book looks at the 21 Coptic Christians who were executed in February of 2015 and examines various aspects of martyrdom. I found this book interesting but disturbing. There comes a time when a person must make decisions or will have decisions made for them that will test the depths of their beliefs. The question is whether a person will face the consequences, whatever they may be, in a valiant way.

I voluntarily provided my own opinion on an Advanced Readers Copy that was supplied by the publisher and NetGalley.

[Josh Hornback · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to start by saying, I enjoyed every part of this book. It was informative and eye opening in many ways.

However, I expected a book about the lives of these 21 brave men that were martyred in front of the entire world. What I got, was a book that merely glossed over them and their lives and was mostly filled with the geography and history of the Coptic church. Most of it read like a travel novel, with the author describing Coptic historical places he visited in Egypt. Very clearly written from a western perspective. It was slightly disappointing and left me with more questions.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for church book club. Generally liked the book: gave me insight into a world that I didn't know much about. However, the author is very negative about western Christianity, perhaps undeservedly. Maybe there is something there with regards to technology and modernity however.

[Byran Smucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Imagine if there was a version of Christianity that was mostly untouched by modernity? This book describes such a community and it left me wanting to know more about how the Coptics think, how they live, and what they believe.

[Mina Samir · Rating 4 out of 5]

The moment in history we find ourselves in is complicated and strange, to say the least. It can be viewed as the end of Christian (both Western and Eastern) civilization – with all its values centered on the dignity of man, made in the image and likeness of the incarnate God – and the beginning of a technocratic, globalist and transhumanist world that cares solely about the maximization of bodily pleasure surged by consumerism. German journalist and novelist Martin Mosebach experiences this strange transition first-hand when he decides to travel to Egypt to write a book about the 21 Coptic martyrs famously slaughtered by ISIS in Libya. To his surprise, he finds huge variances and non-homogeneity in Egyptian society: one part of it is a giant modernistic globalized mall, where the upper class of the country lost all religious values and meaning in life and live only to accumulate material wealth and consume. The other part is fundamentally religious and still holds strongly to inherited ancient value systems, whether Christian or Muslim.

Seen through the eyes of a western man, this struggle between the modernistic and progressive part of a poor country such as Egypt, and the religious and reactionary part of it, made him reflect on his country and on the current state of Western civilization. It also made him reflect on how Western influence might change a land once rooted in 2000 years of Christianity – the land of Coptic martyrs. Questions that haunt the author are quite existential and necessary for all of us to ask: how does the Coptic Orthodox Church not get affected by western high waves of modernity and post-modernity that sweep the world through globalization? Does it get slightly affected, at least? How can the Copts still produce martyrs in the 21st century almost the same way Christians were martyred in the first centuries of the church under agonizing persecutions? How do the Copts manage to balance life in an ever-increasing technologically dependent, consumerist and globalized developing country? How long will the Copts remain faithful and unchanging in their Christian way of life and belief despite all outside worldly influence to merge with the western way of life? What does the martyrdom of the 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians say about the current weak state of western Christianity? Can Christians and Muslims co-exist in one country? What does the Coptic experience of the Islamic rule say about the gap left by the absence of Christendom? The author raises those difficult questions just by noticing the reality of Egyptian daily life, in New Cairo and El Zamalek just as in El Aour in Samalut in Upper Egypt, where the saints are from.

The book is filled with gripping moments, and some of them are frankly emotional. In his travels inside Egypt, Mosebach meets with the families of the 20 Coptic martyrs – one martyr, St. Matthew was Ghanaian but, seeing the courage of the Coptic saints, he professed his faith and received the baptism of blood alongside them, just as ancient stories of Christian last-minute-convert martyrs go – to find out about the daily life of the martyred saints. Since they were the most ordinary men imaginable – some of them didn’t even know how to read and write – he found no big eventful moments in their lives. All their families said almost the same things: highlighting how their sons were kind, compassionate and loved everyone. They gave alms even though they were poor. They never missed their everyday prayers. Those of them who could read, read the Bible daily. And even those who can’t read, own a Bible of their own. They worked hard and tirelessly to provide for their families and try to make a better future for them. Mosebach, surprisingly, found the families of the martyrs in a state of blessedness and joy. Of course, they were humanly sad about the death of their sons, but this sadness was swallowed up in the glory bestowed upon the martyrs. They recognized that their sons are now glorified with the crucified Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years! “4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev 20:4). The families of the martyrs were so proud of their saints, that they often proudly displayed the gruesome video of their beheading to any visitor! The interactions Mosebach had with the families of the martyrs were wholesome and emotional, it’s worth reading the book just for those moments. In one moment, one father of a martyr explains to Mosebach why he needn’t be sad, because he will go to his son and not his son to him, quoting by heart, King David’s justification of why he stopped weeping and ate food after his son died in 2 Samuel 12:22. After the quotation, the father couldn’t hold back his tears and wept.

The author goes on to describe the villages of the martyrs. He analyzes the past, the present and perhaps even the future of those villages and its inhabitants, given the huge civilizational and architectural changes that occurred in the past 60 years or so. Since the High Dam had been built in the sixties, and the flood season has ceased to affect the lands bordering the Nile, the whole Egyptian way of life – both agricultural and urban – had to change. From rich to poor, and from beautiful to ugly, it can be claimed that those lands, villages and villagers were completely wrecked by modernity and the socialism of the modern total state. Nothing to be found here but lamentations. Other encounters the author had with different people on his trip were also very interesting to read about. For instance, he went to meet the martyrs’ metropolitan. A beautiful encounter with a great attitude by the metropolitan who said the following about the martyrdom of the 21 saints: “We find ourselves in the odd position of being grateful to the Islamist killers for the film with which they documented their acts. Now, instead of relying on potentially contradictory testimonies, we can see it all with our own eyes. Had the killers had any idea of the significance this video would have for the Coptic Church, they probably would not have made it. Far from being intimidating, it gives us courage. It shows us the martyrs’ heroic bravery, and the fact that they spent their last moments alive in prayer proves the strength of their faith.” Mosebach couldn’t hide in his book how impressed he was by the Coptic Orthodox metropolitan, writing: “He adjusted the back of his chair and held the cross, which hadn’t left his hand the entire time, toward me so I could give it a kiss. He did so without the kindly, affectionate smile with which the powerful in the West seek the approval of their subjects. Here stood the absolute archetype of a pragmatic, forward-looking reactionary – a kind of leader utterly unknown in the West – in undisputed greatness.”

Another great encounter and conversation Mosebach records in his book was about martyrdom. It was with a young atheist man born to an Arabic family. His parents were communist and distanced themselves from Islam by moving to England, where he grew up. The conversation illustrates the clash of the two opposing worldviews, one built on faith in Christ and the willingness to be horribly killed for His sake, the other entirely dismisses the idea of martyrdom for any belief whatsoever. Mosebach takes the role of the believer, where he cleverly points out that the 21 Coptic martyrs did not die for an ideology or even a value system, rather, they died for their union with the Person of Christ. He explains that the concept of “Truth” in Christianity is unique and different from its counterpart in any other worldview, since in Christianity the “Truth” is a Person, and the denial of a person, even under the threat of murder, is betrayal.

Another brilliant chapter by the author is called “The Martyrs’ Liturgy”. Martin Mosebach tells the story of the Coptic Orthodox 2000 years-old apostolic liturgical life which formed the lives of the martyrs. Mosebach is stunned by the Coptic liturgy since it differs tremendously from the Roman Catholic one: Copts extremely revere the liturgy as an experience of the Divine presence, where they worship alongside Seraphim and Cherubim, they unite with God in the mystery of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ who was slain for the life of the world. The author explains how much the Coptic Orthodox liturgy is a communal and not just priestly work: the clergy and the laymen all participate heavily and whole-heartedly in all chanted prayers and prostrations of the liturgy, from the very beginning to the very end. A two-hour liturgy where time stops for the participants and eternity is experienced. This is the life the Coptic martyrs experienced and lived. This is the air they breathed. They had become Homo Liturgicus and were able to quietly and peacefully offer their lives for the Bridegroom whom they have always known and who first loved them and offered them His own Life.

[Star Gater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Plough Publishing Audiobooks for accepting my request to audibly read and review The 21 Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs.

Translated by Alta L. Price.
Narrated by Michael Elgamal
Published: 02/14/23

I am applying my standard 3 stars for the book. The genre classifications are Christian and Multicultural. It is not possible for me to fact check the author's findings.

I found the story less about 21 Christian men who died in a heinous manner and more about reactions. I question the text translation to American English. I don't think it translated well.

I would leave this to scholars. This is not a stocking stuffer. Best left for the reader to request or pick up themselves.