Editors' Introduction
Author's Preface
Technical Notes
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

1. Continuity and Reinvention
Succession and Innovation
Earning the "Crown of Exile"
The Church in a "New World Order"
Relationships with Rulers
A Sacred Geography

2. Patient Sufferers
Coming to the End-Time?
Bearing Trials Patiently
The Account of John the Deacon
Patriarchs and Martyrdom
Patriarchs and Sainthood

3. Crisis of Cohesion
Satan Hinders, but God Prevails
Patriarchs and Political Authority in 'Abbasid Egypt
Trials from Without
Trials from Within
A Crisis of Cohesion?
Hanging On
Embattled Saints

4. Saints and Sinners
Bishop Michael's Account: Warts and All
Before the Fatimids
Simony: "The Word of God Became as a Merchandise"
Contrapuntal Saintliness
Unexpected Saintliness
Saints and Sinners

5. Transitions
Language Shift, Lay Concerns, and Ecclesiastical History
Gabriel II ibn Turayk: An Attempt at Reform
After the Reform Attempt

6. Chaos and Glory
A Strange Period
Chroniclers
The Person at the Center of the Story
1216-1217: Attempts at Making a Pope
The Monk Da'ud Becomes Pope Cyril, Successor of Saint Mark Cyril's Patriarchate
A Failed "Great Man"? Or a Scholar among Scholars?

7. Marginalized Patriarchs
Internal Rivalry, External Interference
Scattered Portrayals, Incidental Mentions
The Patriarch at the Center of the Story

8. A Burst of Holiness
The Patriarch as Saint and Holy Man
An Orchestra of Holiness? The Principals
A Quartet and a Chorus?

9. Humility in Action
After the Fireworks
"Listless" and "Lacking in Blessing"?
Diplomacy and Faithfulness
Quiet Leadership in Difficult Times

Epilogue: Survival

Appendix: The Forty-Nine Martyrs during the Patriarchate
of Matthew I (#87, 1378 -1408)

Works Cited: Primary Sources
Works Cited: Secondary Sources
Notes
Index