Mythologies of the Coptic Tribe

Copts (Coptic: ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, romanized: niremənkhēmi; Arabic: الْقِبْط, romanized: al-qibṭ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are Coptic Oriental Orthodox Christians. They are the largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as in Sudan and Libya. Copts have historically spoken the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian that was spoken in late antiquity. Originally referring to all Egyptians, the term Copt became synonymous with native Christians in light of Egypt's Islamization and Arabization after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century. Copts in Egypt account for roughly 10–15 percent of the Egyptian population, although the exact percentage is unknown; Copts in Sudan account for 1 percent of the Sudanese population, while Copts in Libya similarly account for 1 percent of the Libyan population.

Copt, a member of Egypt’s indigenous Christian ethno-religious community. The terms Copt and Coptic are variously used to denote either the members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian body in Egypt, or as generic terms for Egyptian Christians; this article focuses primarily on the former definition. Copts constitute up to 10 percent of the population of Egypt. The Copts are descendants of pre-Islamic Egyptians, who spoke a late form of the Egyptian language known as Coptic. Such a descendant was identified in Greek as a Aigyptios (Arabic qibṭ, Westernized as Copt). When Egyptian Muslims later ceased to call themselves by the demonym, the term became the distinctive name of the Christian minority. After Copts began converting to Roman Catholicism (see also Coptic Catholic Church) and Protestant sects, Copts of the Oriental Orthodox communion began to call themselves Coptic Orthodox to distinguish themselves from other Christians of Coptic background.

The Coptic language is the final stage of ancient Egyptian language. Even though it looks very different from texts written in Old Egyptian using hieroglyphs, the two are related. In his article “Coptic—Egypt’s Christian Language” in the November/December 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Leo Depuydt gives a short history of the development of ancient Egyptian language and shows where the Coptic language fits in that timeline, as well as answering the question: Who were the Copts. The Coptic language developed around 300 C.E. in Egypt. It is Egyptian language written using the Greek alphabet, as well as a couple of Demotic signs. This script was much easier to learn than the earlier writing systems used in ancient Egypt: hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic scripts. Coptic was the lingua franca of Egypt when Egypt was predominantly Christian. Many assume that the Coptic language was developed primarily to spread Christianity, but Depuydt disagrees. He supports the great Belgian Coptologist Louis Théophile Lefort’s theory that the Coptic language was created by another group—the Jews.

Copts have a long history as a significant Christian minority in Egypt, in which Muslim adherents form the majority. Coptic Christians lost their majority status in Egypt after the 14th century and the spread of Islam in the entirety of North Africa. The question of Coptic identity was never raised before the rise of pan-Arabism under Nasser in the early 1950s. Copts viewed themselves as only Coptic Christians without any Arabic identity sentiment that gather 22 Arabic speaking countries. With the rise of pan-Arabism and wars in the region, many Egyptians accepted an Arab identity, but this shift in identity was less prevalent among Copts than among Muslims. Thus, the emergence of Pan-Arabism served to exacerbate the ethnic and religious difference between Coptic Christians and Muslims in Egypt. Persecution is pivotal to Copts' sense of identity. Studies have showed the ancient Egyptians to be genetically intermediary between the populations of Southern Europe and Nubia (two frequently-used reference points). A study of Coptic immigrants from Egypt indicated that they have common ancestry with populations in Egypt, as well as also sharing common ancestry with populations of the southern Levant and Saudi Arabia.

Coptic: Name given by the Arabs to all the inhabitants of Egypt at the time of the Muslim conquest of 641. The word was transposed from the Greek aiguptoï, meaning Egyptian, which was itself formed from the Egyptian hieroglyphic Het Ka-Ptah (Castle of the Spirit of Ptah), the nickname of Memphis, the Pharaonic capital. Subsequently this word came to designate only Monophysite Christians of Egypt and later Ethiopia who believe in the union of the divine and the human in Christ. The Copts of Egypt are the descendents of the ancient Egyptian population that converted to Christianity around the first century c.e. and separated from the Catholic Church after the Council of Chalcedon, in 432. The evangelist Mark, who introduced Christianity into Egypt, is considered the father of the Coptic Church. After the Arab-Muslim conquest of 639 to 641, the Copts had the status of dhimmis, and over the following centuries numerous conversions to Islam led to a decrease in their numbers.

Copt is a general term for Christians in Egypt. Some Muslims are also being referred as Coptic. Today, more than 95% of the Copts belong to the Latin community of the Coptic Catholic Church, and other of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. They used the Coptic calendar and speak the Coptic language. Baptism and male Circumcision is commonly practiced. Mark the Evangelist is believed to be the founder of Christianity in Egypt, and is thus regarded as their spiritual predecessor. Tracing its root back to the introduction of Christianity into Alexandria in around 42 AD, according to the Church's tradition, by Saint Mark the Evangelist, Copts is one of the oldest and long lasting Christian communities in Egypt. Because Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great as his capital in Egypt, the city was destined to be a metropolis connecting Egypt with the rest of the Hellenic world. Connecting the Nile River, Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, Alexandria was, as still is, one of the largest port cities in Egypt where local produces such as grains were exported to other parts of the word. Founded in such a well-connected location, Christianity soon got spread into the heartlands of Egypt in the following centuries. Later in the Council of Nicaea organized by Emperor Constantine I in 325 C.E., the Church of Alexandria was elevated to the rank of Patriarchate alongside Rome and Jerusalem.

The Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Yet determining an exact number is extremely difficult. Population counts of the Copts made by the Egyptian government and by the Coptic Church are vastly divergent. In 1975 the Egyptian government placed the number of Copts at 2.3 million, but the Coptic Church suggested a figure of 6.6 million. A United Nations population estimate for Egypt in the year 2000 reckons the total inhabitants at 64,588,000; of this number, 3,128,000 persons are estimated to be Copts who openly acknowledge their faith. However, in addition to active members of the church, many more Copts are registered in church records (baptisms, marriages, deaths, etc.). Thus, a fair estimate of the actual number of all Copts as of 2000 is 9,817,000.

The Copts are an ethno-religious community found in North Africa, Middle East, Egypt, Libya and Sudan. They are the largest ethnic group of Christian denomination in Sudan and originally spoke the Coptic language which has now almost become extinct and replaced with the Arabic language. They constitute about 1% of the Sudan population. In modern day Sudan, they occupy the northern towns of Atbara, Dongola, Khartoum, Omdurman, Wad Medani and Port Sudan.

COPTS, the early native Christians of Egypt and their successors of the Monophysite sect, now racially the purest representatives of the ancient Egyptians. The name is a Europeanized form, dating perhaps from the 14th century, of the Arabic Ķibt (or Ķubt), which, in turn, is derived from the Greek Αἰγύπτιοι, “Egyptians” (the Copts in the Coptic language likewise style themselves ⲣⲉⲙ̀ⲛⲭⲏⲙⲓ, “people of Egypt,” “Egyptians”). The limited application of the name is explained by the circumstances of the time when Mahomet sent forth his challenge to the world and ‛Amr conquered Egypt (A.D. 627–641). At that time the population of Egypt was wholly Christian (except for a sprinkling of Jews, &c.), divided into two fiercely hostile sects, the Monophysites and the Melkites. The division was in great measure racial. The Melkites, adherents of the orthodox or court religion sanctioned by the council of Chalcedon, were mainly of foreign extraction, from the various Hellenistic races which peopled the Eastern Roman empire, while the bulk of the population, the true Egyptians, were Monophysite. Amongst the latter political aspirations, apart from religion, may be said not to have existed. It has generally been held that the Copts invited and aided the Moslems to seize the country in order that at all costs they might be freed from the yoke of the state religion imposed by the Eastern Roman Empire; but Dr A. J. Butler has shown this view to be untenable, while admitting that the religious feuds of the Christians made the task of the Arabs easy. The mysterious Muķauķis, who treacherously handed over Alexandria, impregnable as it was for Arab warriors, and then capitulated, was none other than Cyrus, the Melkite patriarch and governor of Egypt; the native Monophysite party, however, smarting under the persecution of the Emperor Heraclius, seemed to have most to gain by a change of masters. The prophet Mahomet himself had prescribed indulgence to the Copts before his death, and ‛Amr was mercifully disposed to them. Although they offered resistance in some places, after the Roman forces had been destroyed or had abandoned Egypt they generally acquiesced in the inevitable; and when in 646 a Roman fleet and army recaptured Alexandria and harried the Delta, the Copts helped the Moslems to cast out the Christian invaders. Some of the Copts embraced Islam at once, but as yet they formed practically a solid Christian nation under the protection of the conquering Arabs, and the religious and political distinction between the “true believers” and the Christians was so sharp that a native Christian turning Moslem was no longer a Copt, i.e. Egyptian; he practically changed his nationality.

Coptic Christians are an ethnoreligious group indigenous to Northeast Africa who predominantly reside in the region of modern Egypt, where they are the biggest Christian denomination in the nation. Learn about the origin and significance of Coptic traditions in Christianity as well as the worldwide membership of Copts today. Coptics were one of the earliest Christian populations in the Middle East. Although integrated into the larger Egyptian nation-state, Coptics have endured as a distinguished religious community making up roughly 10 to 20 percent of the population. They pride themselves on the apostolicity of the Egyptian Church whose originator was the first in a continuous series of elders. The main Coptic organization has been out of accord with both the Roman Catholic Church and the various Eastern Orthodox churches for the last 16 centuries.

The Copts are indigenous Egyptian Christians, the vast majority belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church. They live throughout Egypt but are concentrated in Alexandria, Cairo and the urban areas of Upper Egypt (southern Egypt). They represent between around 6- 9 per cent of the total population, but their proportion is much higher in the south; some estimates put their true proportion at between 10 and 20 per cent of the national population. Most Copts are working class peasants and labourers, although there is a Coptic business upper class and a middle class of urban professionals and small landowners. Copts are present in most institutions of the state, and there are Coptic members of all registered political parties. Whereas Sharia law recognises Coptic Christians as 'people of the book', no such tolerance exists for the tiny Baha'i community. Baha'i is a religion with roots in Shi'a Islam that emanated from Persia in the 19th century. Because the Baha'i believe that God's word is passed to humans through an ongoing series of revelations, it clashes with Islam's view that the Prophet Mohammed received the final revelations. Its followers face severe discrimination in Egypt.

“The first tribes that inhabited Egypt that is, the Nile Valley between the Syene cataracts and the sea, came from Abyssinia to Sennar. The ancient Egyptians belonged to a race quite similar to the Kennous or Barabras, present inhabitants of Nubia. In the Copts of Egypt we do not find any of the characteristic features of the ancient Egyptian population. The Copts are the result of crossbreeding with all the nations that have successively dominated Egypt . It is wrong to seek in them the principal features of the old race.”

It is claimed from few reports that Mariya the Copt was a slave, she was sent as a gift to Prophet Muhammed by the Byzantine King in Egypt. The incident that has been brought to my attention from Christian missionaries is of Hafsah, Mariyah and Muhammed. The story goes something along the lines of, Muhammed was sleeping with Mariyah in Hafsah’s house (the house is owned by Muhammed). Hafsah comes home to find out that they were intimate. Hafsah questions Prophet Mohammed why he had to sleep with her and pushed Muhammed to say that he will never have any sexual relations with her again. The Prophet responds by saying that he will never sleep with her again. He made something forbidden for himself which was lawful. God Almighty sent down Quranic revelation stating why he (Muhammed) had forbidden something that was lawful? The Prophet cannot make something unlawful which God had made lawful.

The Coptic culture is based on the Coptic church which was circled on the teachings of St. Mark. He introduced Christianity to Egypt around 50 A.D. while the Romans were in power. The followers of the Coptic Church were persecuted by different conquerors, including the Romans and later the Christian Catholic Church. Arabs following the Islamic religion viewed them as enemies during the Crusades and even into modern times. Being centered in Egypt, the Coptic culture over the centuries has been linked with the Arab and Islamic cultures. The Coptic civilization lasted for almost two thousand years and represents an essential segment of the Egyptian cultural heritage. In Coptic genealogy they view themselves as Egyptian and not Arab. Coptic language was developed from ancient languages such as Greek and Egyptian. It was once a very common language in the region, but that has given way to other regional languages like Egyptian, which is used most of the time. The Coptic language is mostly used in the Coptic Church.

Copts, who number somewhere between 5 percent and 23 percent of the Egypt’s 83 million population, are the native Christians of Egypt. Until Islam conquered the country, they — the Copts — were the majority. After that, especially under Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Pan-Arab ambitions, they became second-class citizens. Much like Jews in hostile territories, they were used as scapegoats by leaders and groups vying for control of the region, hated by local populations and viewed as “not really belonging” after centuries of being there. Most recently, the rise of militant Islam has augured for them what many call a “silent genocide.” Think staged beheadings, complete with cinematic scores, of men in orange suits.

Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, timetremǹnkhēmi) is an Egyptian language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic was supplanted by Arabic as the primary spoken language of Egypt following the Muslim conquest of Egypt and was slowly replaced over the centuries. Coptic has no native speakers today, although it remains in daily use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and of the Coptic Catholic Church. Innovations in grammar, phonology, and the influx of Greek loanwords distinguish Coptic from earlier periods of the Egyptian language. It is written with the Coptic alphabet, a modified form of the Greek alphabet with several additional letters borrowed from the Demotic Egyptian script. The major Coptic dialects are Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, and Oxyrhynchite. Sahidic Coptic was spoken between the cities of Asyut and Oxyrhynchus and flourished as a literary language across Egypt in the period c. 325 – c. 800 AD. Bohairic, the language of the Nile Delta, gained prominence in the 9th century and is the dialect used by the Coptic Church. Despite being closely related, Coptic dialects differ from one another in terms of their phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary.