Links to References in the Episode
Read The Legendary Muhammad Ali” here.
Read the critical analysis of the Nag Hammadi story, "How Reliable is the Story of the Nag Hammadi Discovery?" by Mark Goodacre.
For more about the Nag Hammadi discovery click here, including a list of the texts discovered.
Read the review related to the tales of natives burning ancient texts here.
Timeline and Evolution of the Story
1948 (institutional notices): Early reports emphasize that new Coptic codices have been acquired / secured for study in Cairo—no legends attached. (For a museum overview, see the Coptic Museum’s summary.) coptic-cairo.com
1958/60 — Jean Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics:
First book-length account by a field scholar who saw the material early. He describes a peasant digging for fertilizer, a jar buried near the cliff at Jabal al-Ṭārif, the manuscripts going to Cairo—but no jinn, no blood-feud, no page-burning, and no oversized jar. Sober, minimalist. (English ed. 1960.) Internet Archive
1977 — James M. Robinson (editor), The Nag Hammadi Library in English:
In prefaces and later essays Robinson popularizes a vivid discovery vignette: a ~60 cm jar, the finder hesitating lest a jinn be inside, breaking it in hope of gold, and his mother burning some leaves. This is the version that “sticks” in popular accounts. avalonlibrary.net
1979 — Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels:
Adds dramatic local color: seven men, a blood vendetta with limb-cutting and heart-eating, and a 1-meter jar. This retelling helped propel the story into the cultural mainstream. Squarespace
1981–84 — Further embellishments & pushback:
Some later versions mention eight camel riders, torn codices during division, and a six-foot jar; then leading Coptologists Rodolphe Kasser and Martin Krause publicly question these field tales (1984). SAGE Journals
1987 — Channel 4 (UK) documentary The Gnostics:
On-camera Muhammad ʿAlī al-Sammān (the finder) tells a different sequence: he found and smashed the pot alone, called others after the break, still mentions fear of a jinn and his mother burning leaves—but key details contradict Robinson’s popular version. Variant Readings+2NT Weblog+2
2013–present — Scholarly reassessment:
Mark Goodacre collects contradictions across tellings, notes a lack of field documentation for the 1970s interviews, and urges caution; Brent Nongbri critiques the recurring motif of “locals burning papyri” as a self-serving trope in manuscript trade narratives. markgoodacre.org+2JSTOR+2
