Coptic identity
[34] The Ptolemies drained the marshes of the Faiyum to create a new province of cultivatable land, where some Greeks as well as some war prisoners from Syria and Palestine were settled.
[35] It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of non native Egyptians during the Hellenistic period because no full population census survives today.
[49] The creation of Coptic as a coherent writing system to express the Egyptian language undoubtedly served to cement the distinction between the native population in Egypt and the ruling Byzantine Greeks.
The process of identity-building for the native Egyptians emerged into view most clearly in the period after the reign of emperor Justinian I in the sixth century AD.
[53] During that period and until the Arab invasion of Egypt in the seventh century, the Byzantine emperors repeatedly deposed and exiled native Egyptian non-Chalcedonian patriarchs of Alexandria, and imposed pro-Chalcedonian ones, most of whom were non-Egyptian.
[54] Over the years, because of what they had construed as persecution of the imperial authorities, the Egyptians hardened their position and rejected all conciliatory efforts that fell short of a full condemnation of the Council of Chalcedon.
For instance, from the year 575 A.D. onward, the bishops appointed by Damian of Alexandria substituted Greek for Coptic to write their theological commentaries, sermons and homilies.
[57] However, the use of the Coptic language in the sixth and seventh centuries was not restricted to religious compositions, but rather expanded to encompass private and secular official communication, such as legal documentary practice.
[59] The acceptability and righteous of doctrine were measured against Cyril's uncontested and non-negotiable definition of the nature of Christ, and the theology of the Alexandrian patriarchs remain until today the yardstick of proper belief for the Copts, whose Coptic Orthodox Church could legitimately claim to be the most authorized interpreter.
[63] According to the Coptic Synaxarium, a young Egyptian man called Eudaimon recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah during the Holy Family's short stay in the country, and was killed for saying so.
[59] Byzantine officials in Middle Egypt were nonetheless accused by the Egyptians of providing assistance to the Muslim army in its invasion of the country.
[70] The Arab invaders treated the native Egyptian Copts harshly, destroying the walls of Alexandria and burning many of its churches with fire.
[75] Under the Arab Muslim rule, the Coptic Orthodox Church was the most successful of all Christian denominations in Egypt in convincing the conquerors of its legitimacy, by arguing for its essentially native, and therefore solely legitimate, nature as opposed to that of the other groups, described as foreign and intrusive.
[82] By the second half of the seventh century, the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Church had a network of bishops that provided the best territorial coverage of the country, and commanded the loyalty of most of the local monasteries.
However, because of the need to be in proximity to the newly founded capital in order to fully participate in the life of the Caliphate's upper social stratum, Pope Cyril II of Alexandria ultimately moved the seat of the patriarchate to the Hanging Church in Cairo in the late eleventh century.
[86] As Muslims, mainly Egyptian converts and less commonly Arabs, slowly started settling in the countryside, they provided an other against whom this identity became better defined.
While they had to adopt Arabic as their main language, they remained fluent in Coptic, thus creating a growing bilingual group among Egyptian Muslims.
Egyptian monasteries not only collected and copid older works, but also continued to produce new literature in Coptic, thus creating a living and ever-evolving communal memory rooted in the country's Christian past.
[90] The prestige of monasteries in Egypt grew over time, and the importance of monastic background proved especially relevant during the Fatimid Caliphate, where ecclesiastical elites were much closer to circles of power.
[91] These monastic elites played a significant role in enhancing the status of monasteries by providing institutional, financial and intellectual support.
[99] The systematic translation of Coptic religious texts into Arabic was carried out between the mid-eleventh and the late thirteenth century, thus transferring into the new language almost the entire textual tradition of the Egyptian church.
[99] Coptic monks did not view the translation movement in a positive light, and criticized the adoption of Arabic as a form of assimilation to the Muslims.
[100] Despite the resistance, Gabriel II's approach was ultimately successful and Arabic eventually became the language of all ecclesiastical institutions, including the monasteries.
[101] It is difficult to assess whether the Church was acting in response to the arabization of the population, or whether it led the way by influencing the language choices of local communities in Egypt.
[103] Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan imprisoned and tortured the Coptic Pope John III until he paid him one hundred pieces of gold.
[105] Studies of the overall distributions of religious groups over the long term show that, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, conversions of Copts from Christianity to Islam occurred mainly among the least prosperous.
[89] It was for the weaker portion of the Christian population of Egypt that conversion to Islam represented a real progression, not only financially but also in terms of independence.
[113] The exiles were part of the larger Egyptian nationalist response to British colonial rule and represented a unified effort across religious lines in Egypt.
They galvanized widespread protests in Egypt that culminated in the famous 1919 revolution, which further emphasized the shared desire for independence among Egyptians of all faiths.
The significance of such character can also inspire the Coptic youth to fight off the many harmful pressures, whether in spirit or in body, that are facing them in this turbulent Society of ours.
