Nag Hammâdi

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The town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt

Nag Hammâdi (Arabic نجع حمادي; transliterated: Naj' Hammādi) (26°03′N 32°15′E), is a town in the middle of Egypt, called Chenoboskion (Greek Χηνοβόσκιον) in classical antiquity, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor with some 30,000 citizens. It is mostly a peasant area where goods such as sugar and aluminium are produced.

The town of Nag Hammadi was established by Mahmoud Basha Hammadi, who was a member of a large Egyptian family Hammadi in Sohag. He created this town for the indigenous people who were forced to leave their homeland by the British occupation in Sohag. In return those people gave their new town the name of Hammadi. Mahmoud Basha Hammadi was known for his strong positions against the British occupation. He owned most of the agriculture land in Sohag.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The Nag Hammadi Library

Main article: Nag Hammadi library

Nag Hammadi texts

Nag Hammadi is best known for being the site where, in December 1945 thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by local peasants. The writings in these codices comprised 52 mostly Gnostic tractates (treatises), believed to be a library hidden by monks from the nearby monastery of St Pachomius when the possession of such banned writings, denounced as heresy, was made an offence.

The contents of the codices were written in Coptic, though the works were probably all translations from Greek. Most famous of these works must be the Gospel of Thomas, of which the Nag Hammadi codices contain the only complete copy.