This paper focuses on historiography in the Coptic milieus at the beginning of the Mamluk period and, more specifically, on the major transformations it underwent at this key moment in medieval Egyptian history. Indeed, on the one hand, the famous History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria – the official history of the Coptic Church in Arabic, composed in the Fatimid period – was completely rewritten. On the other hand, a brand-new text, the Coptic-Arabic Synaxarion, emerged at the same time, embodying a different approach to history. Thus, the paper hypothesises that both phenomena are somehow related and need to be understood in the light of the major transformations taking place in the larger cultural, ecclesiastical and socio-political contexts at the onset of the Mamluk era in Egypt.