User:Ldingley/copt people

The Copts (Coptic: rem`nkymi; Greek Αἰγύπτιος; Arabic qubṭi قبطي) are the direct descendants of the Ancient Egyptians who adhere today to the Christian religion. Copts are therefore pre-Arab and pre-Islamic Egyptians. Copts are identified as a native and unique ethno-religious group of Egypt.

The word Copt was first used by the Arab invaders of Egypt in the 7th century to denote all Egyptians. With time, as most Egyptians converted to Islam, the religion brought by the Arabs, the term Copt became exclusive to those Egyptians who remained Christian and did not intermarry with the Arabs. Thus, Copts are not Arabs; neither are the Egyptians who changed only their religion but not their ethnic and cultural identity, as once before they changed their religion to Christianity without ceasing to be "the direct descendants of the Ancient Egyptians" who certainly were not Christian.

Most Copts (more than 95%) are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, an Oriental Orthodox church that traces its foundation back to Saint Mark the Evangelist in the first century AD. Other Copts belong to the Coptic Catholic Church or to various Coptic Protestant denominations. Other Christian minorities in Egypt, such as members of the Melkite Greek Orthodox Church or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church are mostly descendants of recent immigrants rather than native Egyptians. Thus, the term Copt cannot be used to refer to them.

The number of Copts in Egypt has been subject to some controversy. Coptic sources put forward figures ranging from 14% to 20% (between 10 and 15 million), but the Egyptian government insists that the Copts represent about 6% (4 million) of the Egyptian population. Part of the controversy could be attributed to the increasing number of Copts born outside Egypt and who do not carry Egyptian passports. The number of Copts within Egypt may be very slowly declining due to higher immigration rates caused by harassment and discrimination at the hands of Islamist militants and the Egyptian government, as well as lower birth rates compared to Muslims. The 2006 World Factbook estimates that 7.6 million or 10% of Egyptians are Christian. Regardless of their exact number, Copts represent the largest indigenous Christian community in the Middle East.

Egyptian Copts have occasionally been on the receiving end of violent acts from Islamic extremist groups. Copts have leveled the accusation that the Egyptian government has sometimes been complicit or uncaring in the face of such incidents.

The term Copt has been historically used as to include Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians. This is however is misnomer caused by the fact that the churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea are daughter churches of the Egyptian Church. Nevertheless, the term Copt should be only used to refer to the Egyptian Christians.

Historical Background and Origins


Copts are considered as direct descendents of Ancient Egyptians, whose earliest recorded history dates back to 3050 B.C. Egyptian society and culture thrived for thousands of years, surviving several Pharaonic dynasties and numerous foreign occupations and rules. Ancient Egyptians converted from polytheism to Christianity in the first century A.D. through the evangelism of Saint Mark.

The Egyptian Church is the oldest church in Africa and one of the earliest churches in the world. By the 3rd century A.D., Christians constituted the majority of Egypt’s population, and the Church of Alexandria was recognized as one of Christendom's leading churches. The Egyptian Church played a leading role in the first three ecumenical councils, as well as in the development of early Christian theology, monasticism, and evangelism. Following the schism between the Church of Alexandria and most of the other churches after the Council of Chalcedon, the importance of Egypt's native church within the Christian worl began to decrease.

In 641 A.D., Muslim Arabs invaded Egypt and began a centuries-long process of ethnic and cultural assimilation, converting, intermarrying with, and absorbing large segments of the Egyptian population into the Arab-Islamic culture. Successive Arab and Ottoman Islamic dynasties levied a punitive tax (jizia) against the Egyptians who wished to maintain their Christian heritage through endogamous marriage. Several of these regimes instituted policies to eradicate the Egyptian culture and language and initiated violence against the indigenous, non-Arabized population. Arab and Turkish ruling dynasties referred to these Egyptian "hold-outs" against Arab cultural dominance as aqbat or “Copts,” the Arabic version of the earlier Greek term ("aigyptos") for Egypt. Although in contemporary usage, the word “Copt” is synonymous with Egyptian Christians, the words Copt and Egyptian are identical in meaning.

Under the leadership of Pope Shenouda III, the 117th successor of Saint Mark, the Coptic Orthodox Church members today constitute the majority of the Coptic population. Mainly through emigration and partly through European, American, and other missionary work and conversions, the Egyptian Christian community now also includes other Christian denominations such as Protestants (known in Arabic as Evangelicals), Catholic and Eastern Rite Catholics, and other Orthodox congregations. The term Coptic remains exclusive however to the Egyptian natives, as opposed to the Christians of non-Egyptian origins. Some Protestant churches for instance are called "Coptic Evangelical Church", thus helping differentiate their native Egyptian congregations from churches attended by non-Egyptian immigrant communities such as Europeans or Americans.

Coptic Religion
The Coptic Orthodox Church is the oldest form of Christianity in Africa and one of the earliest forms of Christianity in the world. Christianity was introduced to the Copts by Saint Mark (accompanied by his uncle St. Barnabas) in Alexandria shortly after the ascension of Christ. The legacy that St. Mark left in Egypt was a Christian community made up primarily of converted hellenized Jews. Christianity remained eclipsed by the powerful Jewish community in Alexandria at the time. After the Jewish Revolt in the first quarter of the second century AD. and subsequent annihilation of the Jews in Alexandria, the Christians of Egypt became visible to the world. By the 3rd century A.D., Christians constituted the majority of Egypt’s population, and the Church of Alexandria was recognized as one of Christendom’s lead churches. Under the leadership of Pope Shenouda III, the 117th successor of Saint Mark, Coptic Orthodox Church members today constitute the majority of the Coptic population.

Through European, American, and other missionary work and conversions, the ethnic Coptic population of Egypt now also includes large numbers of other Christian denominations such as Protestants (known in Arabic as Evangelicals), Roman and Eastern Rite Catholics, and other Orthodox congregations. Some Protestant churches are titled "optic Evanglical Church, thus helping differentiate their native Egyptian congregations from churches attended by non-Egyptian immigrant communities such as Europeans or Americans. Copts of all denominations face the same human and civil rights abuses by the Egyptian government and extremist groups.

Language and Culture
Coptic language ( Bohairic: tiaspi enremenkimi; Sahidic: temet enremenkimi, "the language of the people of Egypt"), is the descendent of the ancient Egyptian language.

Definition:
 * The Coptic Language is the name used to refer to the last stage of the written Egyptian language. Coptic should more correctly be used to refer to the script rather than the language itself. Even though this script was introduced as far back as the 2nd century BC., it is usually applied to the writing of the Egyptian language from the first century AD. to the present day.

The Coptic Language is the fourth and last step of evolution of the Ancient Egyptian language, after Hieroglyphs, Heratic and Demotic. All four are identical and differ only in their system of writing. Coptic, just as Ancient Egyptian, is a Hamito-semitic language, similar to many North African languages and with few similarities to semitic languages. Its alphabet is derived from the Greek alphabet, with seven extra unique letters that represent sounds peculiar to the Egyptian language and non-existent in Greek.

Coptic remained as the language of native ancient Egyptians until the Arab invasion of Egypt in 641 AD. After the Arab invasion, Copts were harassed and forced to abandon their native language for Arabic. For a number of centuries Copts remained bilingual but by the thirteenth century, they gradually became mainly Arabic speakers. Coptic remained however the liturgical language of the Coptic Church. Today, Copts have demands to teach the native language of their country in public schools, but due to the strong Islamic orientation of the Arab-Egyptian society prevents any alteration to the educational systems. Few families in Egypt and many in the diaspora all over the world have recently adopted Coptic as their native language, and many Coptic schools and universities have been lately inaugurated in North America, Australia and Europe. Coptic Language is also taught worldwide in many prestigious institutions, but in Egypt it is only confined to Coptic schools and to the American University in Cairo.

Dialects of Coptic language:
 * Sahidic: can be either Thebban or upper Egyptian from 4th BC and also concered as Classic Coptic.
 * Bohairic: The dialect of the Nile delta and of the Coptic Church.
 * Akhmimic
 * Lycopolitan(also known as Subakhmimic)
 * Fayyumic

Etymology
The English word Copt is from New Latin Coptus, which is derived from Arabic qubṭi قبطي (pl: qubṭ قبط and aqbāṭ أقباط), an Arabisation of the Coptic  word kubti (Bohairic) and/or kuptaion (Sahidic). The Coptic itself is derived from the Greek word Αἰγύπτιος, aiguptios: "Egyptian", from Αἰγύπτος, aiguptos: "Egypt".

The Greek term for "Egypt" has a long history. It goes back to the Mycenaean language (an early form of Greek) where the word a3-ku-pi-ti-jo (lit. "Egyptian"; used here as a man's name) was written in Linear B. This Mycenaean form is likely from Egyptian ḥwt-k3-ptḥ ("Hut-ka-Ptah"), literally "Estate (or 'House') of Ptah" (cf. Akkadian āluḫi-ku-up-ta-aḫ), the name of the temple complex of the god Ptah at Memphis. As the chief temple precinct of the capital of Egypt, the name was applied to the entire city of Memphis and ultimately to the country as a whole.

A similar situation is observed in the name Memphis [Greek Μέμφις], which comes from the Egyptian name of the pyramid complex of king Pepi II, mn nfr ppy (lit. "Established in Perfection or 'Beauty' is Pepy") at Saqqara but which was applied to the nearby capital city. Interestingly, this usage survived in Sahidic as Gupton and Kupton, meaning "Memphis". In modern Egyptian Arabic, the local name of the capital Cairo is Masr (Egyptian Arabic مَصر), which is also the name of Egypt as a whole.

There is another theory which states that the Arabic word qibṭ "Copt" was an Arabisation of the Greek name of the town of Κόπτος Coptos (modern قفط Qifṭ; Coptic Kebt and Keft), but is generally no longer accepted. References to Copts in the Coptic language are both Greek and Coptic in origin. The words kuptaion (Sahidic) and kubti (Bohairic) are attested, but are used in the surviving texts to refer to the language, rather than the people; these both derive from Greek Αἴγύπτιος aiguptios "Egyptian". The "native" Coptic term referring to Copts was rem en kēme (Sahidic), lem en kēmi (Fayyumic), rem en khēmi (Bohairic), etc., literally "people of Egypt"; cf. Egyptian rmṯ n kmt, Demotic rmt n kmỉ.

Usage
Coptic has become a contemporary reference pertaining to Egyptian Christianity (particularly the Orthodox branch), its culture, and its followers, who previously included Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians before the separation of their churches. It also refers to the last phase of the Egyptian language and its written alphabet which are still employed by the Coptic Church. The etymological meaning of the word, however, pertains to all people of Egyptian origins, not only those who profess Coptic (Egyptian) Christian Orthodoxy. Medieval writers until the Mamluk period often used the words Copts (Arabic: قبط) and Egyptians (Arabic: مصريون) interchangeably to describe all the people of Egypt whether Christian or Muslim. After the bulk of the Egyptian population converted to Islam, the word Copt came to be associated more commonly with Egyptians who remained Christian. In the 20th century, some Egyptian nationalists and intellectuals began using the term Copts in the historical sense. For example, Markos Pasha Semeika, founder of the Coptic Museum, addressed a group of Egyptian students in these words: "All of you are Copts. Some of you are Muslim Copts, others are Christian Copts, but all of you are descended from the ancient Egyptians." (qtd. in M. Hussein. el Ittigahat el Wataneyya fil Adab el Muʻaṣir [National Trends in Modern Literature]. Vol. 2. Cairo. 1954). However, most Egyptian Muslims today are more likely to identify simply as Egyptian.

Coptic Calendar
The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and as the official calendar of Ethiopia. This calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar. To avoid the calendar creep of the latter, a reform of the ancient Egyptian calendar was introduced at the time of Ptolemy III (Decree of Canopus, in 238 BC) which consisted of the intercalation of a sixth epagomenal day every fourth year. However, this reform was opposed by the Egyptian priests, and the idea was not adopted until 25 BC, when the Roman Emperor Augustus formally reformed the calendar of Egypt, keeping it forever synchronized with the newly introduced Julian calendar. To distinguish it from the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which remained in use by some astronomers until medieval times, this reformed calendar is known as the Coptic calendar. Its years and months coincide with those of the Ethiopian calendar but have different numbers and names.

Coptic year
The Coptic year is the extension of the ancient Egyptian civil year, retaining its subdivision into the three seasons, four months each. The three seasons are commemorated by special prayers in the Coptic Liturgy. This calendar is still in use all over Egypt by farmers to keep track of the various agricultural seasons. The Coptic calendar has 13 months, 12 of 30 days each and an intercalary month at the end of the year of 5 or 6 days, depending whether the year is a leap year or not. The year starts on 29 August in the Julian Calendar or on the 30th in the year before (Julian) Leap Years. The Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules as the Julian Calendar so that the extra month always has six days in the year before a Julian Leap Year.

The Feast of Neyrouz marks the first day of the Coptic year. Its celebration falls on the 1st day of the month of Thout, the first month of the Coptic year, which for AD 1901 to 2098 usually coincides with 11 September, except before a Gregorian leap year when it's September 12. Coptic years are counted from AD 284, the year Diocletian became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians, especially in Egypt. Hence, the Coptic year is identified by the abbreviation A.M. (for Anno Martyrum or "Year of the Martyrs"). The A.M. abbreviation is also used for the unrelated Jewish year (Anno Mundi).

Every fourth Coptic year is a leap year without exception, as in the Julian calendar, so the above mentioned new year dates apply only between AD 1900 and 2099 inclusive in the Gregorian Calendar. In the Julian Calendar, the new year is always 29 August, except before a Julian leap year when it's August 30. Easter is reckoned by the Julian Calendar in the Old Calendarist way.

To obtain the Coptic year number, subtract from the Julian year number either 283 (before the Julian new year) or 284 (after it).

See also: Computus

Coptic months

 * Thout
 * Paopi
 * Hathor
 * Koiak
 * Tobi
 * Meshir
 * Paremhat
 * Paremoude
 * Pashons
 * Paoni
 * Epip
 * Mesori
 * Pi Kogi Enavot

Allegations of Human and Civil Rights Abuses
Following the 1952 revolution, the ideologies of Arab nationalism and Islamism began gaining popularity with the Egyptian population. By the 1970s, Islamic extremist groups such as al Gamaa al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group) and al Akhwan al-Muslimeen (the Muslim Brotherhood) regularly engaged in Coptic-targeted violence, including church arson, vandalism, kidnapping, physical assault, and murder. Although President Mubarak’s administration claims to discourage Islamist activity, increasing numbers of government ministers, police and state security officers, and other officials openly or covertly subscribe to Islamist ideologies threatening to Coptic human and civil rights. Despite the censure of the U.S. State Department, United Nations, NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, and bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress, the Egyptian government continues to enforce discriminatory legislation disenfranchising Egyptian Christians.

Since the rise of militant Islamism in the late 20th century, millions of Copts have immigrated to Western countries in Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific. International Coptic activists continue to call for substantial Egyptian reform, including: constitutional reforms removing the emphasis on religion in government, laws denouncing as unconstitutional the Hamayouni decree limiting construction and maintenance of churches and other places of worship, personal identification cards omitting reference to individuals’ creed, and school curriculum reforms emphasizing the equal human and civil rights of Egyptians of all ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Related words

 * From the Greek word Αίγυπτος "Aiguptos" or "Aigyptos", the name for Egypt in many European languages was derived.
 * The word qabāṭī قباطي, a kind of textile import from Egypt and which was used to cover the Kaaba since before Islam, is derived from Arabic قبط qubṭ.
 * The English word gypsy is derived from the Middle English egypcien meaning "Egyptian". Likewise, the Spanish word  gitano, also meaning gypsy, derives from a common Latin  source. This is due to the mistaken belief that  gypsies were of Egyptian origin.  Gypsy and the (probably) related term, gyp ("to swindle or cheat") are generally viewed as being pejorative; see the article Roma (people).
 * In modern Egyptian Arabic, the word koftes (pl. kafatsa), used colloquially to refer to Christians, is perhaps an Egyptianised form  of the Latin Coptus, under phonetic and linguistic factors  different from those which existed when qubṭ was derived from  Greek aiguptios. This, however, seems unlikely.
 * Medieval sources mention one of the sons of Mitzrayim, who in turn descended from the Biblical Noah, as a possible source for the word 'Copt'.