Arabized Christians in Egypt: The Copts

The history of the Egyptian Orthodox Coptic Church is nearly as old as the history of Christianity. It has existed for about two thousand years in and out of Egypt. Egypt has been influenced by different religions, languages, and cultures throughout history. The Egyptian Copts had their share from those backgrounds. In the last two thousand years, Egypt first converted from paganism to Christianity, then Christianity to Islam. Meanwhile, the language of Egypt changed from Coptic to Greek and then from Greek to Arabic accordingly. The Coptic Church is one of the three churches known as apostolic in the Arab world. The Egyptian Coptic Church remained constant in the forefront of the early ecumenical councils in the history of Christianity, but later on, it became almost forgotten. After the conquest of Egypt by Muslims, Egypt's population continued as the Muslim majority and the Christian minority. However, Egyptians anthropologically are one nation that has the same head measures, cultures, civilization, language, and dialect. Therefore, the Egyptians embraced Arabic as their language and Islam as the religion of the majority. Copts were affected negatively by the Crusades, missionary activities, and the actions of the West in the area. The Coptic Church is often mentioned in political-social and religious events that take place in Egypt. Today, it continues its existence in Africa, Asia, Europe, America, and Australia, with its headquarters in Cairo. Keywords: Egypt, Orthodox, Coptic, Christian, Arabic, Islam, Apostolic, Council, the West