A Copt (Coptic) is a native Egyptian Christian. Copts form a major ethno-religious group that has ancient origins. Copts are Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the first centuries after Christ. The word "Coptic" was originally used to refer to Egyptians in general (see etymology section), but it has undergone a semantic shift over the centuries to mean more specifically Egyptian Christian. This semantic shift dates back to the time when Christians became an Egyptian minority, after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century.
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Egypt’s Coptic Church is one of Christianity’s earliest, brought here by Mark, writer of the oldest New Testament gospel. The liturgy closely resembles those seen in other Eastern Orthodox churches, though the Copts’ leader, or pope, has always been based in Egypt. This church was actually built in the 1990s, a tribute to its ancient heritage, modern engineering, and the affluence of some in Egypt’s Coptic minority. But that wealth is in small pockets of Egypt’s upper class and a Copt diaspora in rich countries.
The Egyptian language in Byzantine and Islamic Egypt - Coptic
The Coptic Church developed separately from other Eastern churches. The Coptic Church's clerical hierarchy had evolved by the sixth century. A patriarch, referred to as the pope, heads the church. A synod or council of senior priests (people who have attained the status of bishops) is responsible for electing or removing popes. Members of the Coptic Church worldwide (about 1 million Copts lived outside of Egypt as of 1990) recognize the pope as their spiritual leader. The pope, traditionally based in Alexandria, also serves as the chief administrator of the church. The administrator's functionaries includes hundreds of priests serving urban and rural parishes, friars in monasteries, and nuns in convents.
The main language in the eastern part of the Roman Empire was Greek, also used by the Egyptian Christians (Copts). Some Egyptians had started to write their own language using Greek letters (old Coptic) before the advent of Christianity; Coptic later became the principal script and language of Christian Egypt below the official Greek (then Arabic) level, and it remains alive today in the Coptic Church, for liturgical use. Greek was the state language used for administration and education, until replaced by Arabic at the end of the 7th century. In the first century after the Moslem annexation of Egypt, documents might be produced in three languages, Greek, Coptic and Arabic. Coptic enjoyed a revival under Islam: most of the Coptic books in collections today date to the Islamic Period. Contrary to the common perception that Coptic was only used for liturgy, there are many Coptic texts in medicine, mathematics, and alchemy. From the 11th century onwards, Arabic was used to write Christian material often side by side with Coptic, producing bilingual texts which were instrumental in the process of the European decipherment of Egyptian language by Kircher and successors such as Champollion.
Following Islam's spread through Egypt, Muslims alternately tolerated and persecuted the Copts. Heavy taxation of Christians encouraged mass conversions to Islam, and within two centuries, Copts had become a distinct minority. By the tenth century, Arabic had replaced Coptic as the primary spoken language, and Coptic was relegated to a liturgical language.
The oldest Christian monastery still in existence in the world and houses also the richest collection of icons and precious manuscripts. St Cathrine's basilica is through a massive 12th- century entry door, in the Fatimid style: this door opens directly onto the narthex where, under thick protective glass, is displayed a marvelous collection of icons dating from the 5th to 7th centuries
Founded in 1910, it contains the finest extant collection of Coptic art: the collections belonged to Marcos Smaika Pasha . The Museum consists of two pavilions and a square court: the older one contains ornamental latticework (the "musharabiya") and wooden ceilings from the oldest Coptic palaces, as well as fountains, windows in stucco and mosaics, marble and stone columns . The Museum has thirty rooms containing frescoes, wooden sheathing, worked metals, vases, objects in glass, tapestries, papyrus scrolls, manuscripts, icons and ivory sculpture. There is also a library with seven thousand books and manuscripts, mostly in the Coptic language.
The advent of the Holy Family to Egypt, seeking refuge, is an event of the utmost significance in our dear country's long, long history. The tortuous trails they followed in their passage across Sinai, and their subsequent travels within Egypt After their short, but all-too-felt, stay in Old Cairo, the Holy Family moved in a southerly direction, reaching Cairo suburb of Maadi which, in earliest Pharaonic times was an outlying district of Memphis, the capital of Egypt then they boarded El Sorian Monastery "Wadi El Natroun"In the earliest decades of Christianity, the desert expanses of Wadi el-Natroun became the site of anchoretic settlement and, later, of many monasteries, in spiritual commemoration of the Holy Family's passage through the Valley. Virgen Mary Church "Zeitoun"is one of the Holy Family's remarkable stops along Egypt...... BLESSED BE EGYPT MY PEOPLE"( ISAIAH 19:25)
Built at the close of the Century and beginning of the 5th Century. So called because it was built on the southern tower of the Babylon Castle, headquarters of the Byzantine army in Misr al Qadima (Old Cairo). It is built in the Basilica style.